~snipped from Memphis Commercial Appeal 6/15/07~

It's June 2007, and Willie Mitchell is where he's been for most of the past five decades: inside Royal Studio, his longtime South Memphis digs. Little has changed inside these wonderfully funky walls since Mitchell's 1970s heyday -- only now the building is located on a street that bears his name.

Today, like most days, you can glimpse Mitchell in the foyer, where he sits fondling a small keyboard on his desk. Looking impossibly young for his 79 years, he's still sharp, funny, and continues to work the kind of long hours that seem unthinkable for a man his age.

"Well, I've been making music for 60 years," says Mitchell. "That's all I know how to do. If I don't do music, I'll just have to die. And I'm not ready for that yet."

While most of the attention of 2007's city-sponsored 50th anniversary celebration of soul has been devoted to neighboring Stax Records, Mitchell is one of the key architects of the ephemeral product known as "the Memphis sound."

Beyond his work with Hi Records -- siring some of the most famous instrumental hits of the '60s and shepherding the careers of Al Green and Ann Peebles in the '70s -- there are Mitchell's prodigious contributions as producer, arranger and songwriter. Not to mention his career as one of the hottest trumpeters and bandleaders the city's ever seen.

....this is only a portion of the article....the full article is available at:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/music/article/0,1426,MCA_505_5586258,00.html