West Memphis looks to showcase its musical heritage with blues depot

What do Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and B.B. King all have in common?

In addition to being music legends from the Mid-South, they each owe part of their early success to West Memphis.

They were among the artists who got their first radio exposure on KWEM in West Memphis back in the 1940s and 1950s.

“I was told a saying that the Blues may have started in Memphis, but it got knocked up in West Memphis,” West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon said.

McClendon now wants to share his city’s rich music history with others.

That history would be showcased as part of the West Memphis looks to showcase its musical heritage with blues depot.

It would include space for live entertainment, food trucks and digital billboards that would tell the history of music in West Memphis.

McClendon, who has made revitalizing West Memphis one of his main priorities as mayor, said the music and blues depot would be built on the site of an old train depot on Broadway.

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