Making it in Memphis
Brandon Cunning poses with his 1955 Chevy Bel Air, which is a tour vehicle for his company, Rockabilly Rides
Brandon Cunning
Sun City Studios on Union Avenue in Memphis
Blues City Café
Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis
The Blues City Café on Beale Street is an old-school juke joint and eatery that specializes in soul food.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Brandon Cunning might be mistaken for a Jerry Lee Lewis impersonator. Maybe Carl Perkins. He’s tall and slim and has the look down pat with a pompadour, glittery jackets and suits you’d imagine would have come straight from Lansky Brothers – the downtown Memphis, Tenn., store that became clothier to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll himself and Memphis’ favorite son, Elvis Presley.
“In the 1950s, young Elvis Presley would walk down the street and see clothes in Lansky’s,” says Cunning. “He bought his first suit there. He loved the blues music he heard along Beale Street.”
Cunning loves that music, too, and has a fascination with Presley that began as a teenager growing up in Washington. His parents, John and Carole Cunning, still live in the city.
“I started playing music when I was about 13,” he remembers. “In high school, nobody really knew my real name. Everybody just called me Elvis because I always had my hair styled like Elvis. I was a big Elvis fan.”
At 14, he discovered the King’s music thanks to his parents’ record collection from the ’50s and ’60s. He started reading books on Presley and began dreaming of moving to Memphis. That would have to wait, his parents said, until after college. A degree in communications from California University of Pennsylvania followed but music still called to him leading to a job – naturally – as a disc jockey at WJPA in Washington. Still, he had Memphis on his mind.
“One day I woke up and said, ‘I think I’m gonna move to Memphis,'” Cunning recalls. The 1994 McGuffey graduate didn’t have a job waiting or a place to live. He just packed up his van and drove.
“It was kinda crazy,” he admits. “The first night I was here I thought, ‘What am I doing?'”
He didn’t have a plan but he had ambition, talent, passion and enough money to live for three months. That was 10 years ago.
“My first job was actually at The Peabody Hotel,” Cunning says. “I met a guy living in my building who was the gym trainer there and he helped me get a job as a bellman. If I didn’t make it in three months, I had to go back to Washington. I did whatever I could.”
He kept knocking on doors and eventually he got a chance to do drive-time radio at a Memphis oldies station. That led to a gig with Sirius XM Radio hosting the Elvis channel, right on site at the King’s home at Graceland. After a move to a Top-40 station in town, Cunning decided he missed performing and start playing music again on weekends. Eventually, radio played itself out for this performer and he started working for a tour company while playing weekend gigs on Beale Street, the famous home of blues and soul music. Cunning’s passion for the ’50s extends to cars, so he and a co-worker started brainstorming an idea to combine the tourism industry with classic music, cars and – of course – Elvis. That’s how Rockabilly Rides was born.
“I bought this car in Washington and it was not in this shape,” Cunning says as he motors us around Memphis in his restored 1955 Chevy Bel Air. His business partner had a 1959 Ford Skyliner convertible and the two went into business two years ago showing tourists the spots where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins got their start.
“The first tours we wanted to do were just Elvis tours because all of these people come to Memphis to see Elvis. We wanted to give them a chance to learn more about Elvis than just seeing Graceland,” he said.
That expanded to stops at Sun Studio, where owner Sam Phillips gave Presley and the others their shot and turned them into stars. Ike Turner brought his first band to record here. BB King helped U2 lay down tracks for Rattle And Hum in the same room. You can still stand where Elvis recorded and hold the very microphone he used.
“We have a lot of U.K. visitors, a lot of Australians who come and do the tours,” Cunning says during a stop along Memphis’ scenic bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. “That’s our big market right now and they’ll book two or three months in advance.”
The company just bought a 1955 Plymouth Belvedere to expand service and now also offer tours including the history of Memphis, its important role in the Civil Rights movement and the music scene.
The music scene is always key and Cunning keeps his passion for it alive with weekly gigs on famed Beale Street doing covers from that Million Dollar Quartet of Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis. He performs original music, too, and is preparing to record a new album of his own music.
“I like the vibe,” he says as he drives down Union Avenue. “Cities have vibes. I thought it was just me who felt this but tourists tell me they’ve been to Nashville and other places but there’s just something about Memphis. It has a different vibe.”
Cunning is now part of that vibe showing off the city’s history, giving tips on where to indulge in Memphis’ famous barbeque (you won’t have time to try them all) and educating music lovers on his hero – a young, ambitious musician from Memphis who inspired another young, ambitious musician from Washington to follow his dream.