There were reasons we were in Memphis, really good reasons. But with my head a little frazzled from the flight - so much so that I couldn't work out whether I had jet lag yet - it was a pleasure to be sitting in an air conditioned, white-walled church. It was even more of a pleasure to see that the man who was preaching to me (in my role as part of the congregation) was Al Green. My guide in Memphis - local writer and Mojo scribe Andria Lisle - had told me that we wouldn't get any of Al's pop repertoire, but I didn't mind, we were in church after all. So it came as a heightening of the pleasure factor when Al suddenly burst into Let's Stay Together a mere 20 yards in front of me. As if this wasn't enough he then called up his 'very special friend from Detroit', Invictus and Chess hitmaker Laura Lee. Now that doesn't happen everyday, not even for someone who lives in a city as full of music as London.

We were in town for the launch of the Stax Museum Of Soul at the rebuilt Stax studio on McLemore, so there was a lot going on and many people in town, but even on the first day we couldn't avoid just running into people - or just the ghosts of music past. On the first day Andria took me on a tour around town that ran to the words "...and Aretha was born there, Sam Cooke lived there, Elvis went to school there, Isaac grew up there, there's Royal Studios, oh and..." So by the time we were all in town, sometime on the Tuesday the whole air of 'here is my hero surrealism' started to take over. The whole Stax event was controlled by the inestimable Deanie Parker, and - to take but one instance - as Roger and I lined up to be photographed with her, she called over a gent who was with his young grandson and insisted that we must meet Mr Eddie Floyd. Just raise your hand if you're up for that sort of thing.

The shows, the main shows that is, were also magnificent. The bill is elsewhere on the page, but when an inspiring reading of Try A Little Tenderness by Solomon Burke with Steve Cropper on guitar is only the second best performance of the show, you really do have a special night going on. No one really knew what to expect from Rance Allen, and as he shuffled onto the stage we weren't quite prepared for what was to follow. To say he stole the show with his That Will Be Good Enough For Me is an understatement. It was so good that even the Black Moses himself was a little worried about following him.

But despite an astounding set by the Temprees on the Thursday "Watt Stax" night, what was the best event to me, was one we almost didn't make. By Friday evening we were absolutely dog tired, and we felt that a meal and bed was all we could manage, but the meal lifted us far enough to wander up to the Museum of Southern Folklore where we just caught the end of a set by the Masqueraders. The place was full of artists and friends we had made during the week. It was a convivial atmosphere and if a performance by Sun Records' vocal group the Climates surprised and entertained us, it also set us up for the main event, a show by the Mad Lads, led by the very great and lovely John Garry Williams. If this wasn't good enough they were backed by the amazing Bo-Keys, led by young gun on the scene Scott Bomar and featuring Skipp Pitts, Willie Hall and Ronnie Williams.

So how's that for a Memphis soul stew?!