Month: May 2008

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Clueless

Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? is director-producer-star Morgan Spurlock’s dreadful follow-up to his 2004 hit Super-Size Me. The film records Spurlock’s travels to Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in search of the world’s most wanted man. The other purpose of Spurlock’s journey is to see what kind of world his unborn child will face. The connection between the nascent Spurlock fetus and al-Qaeda remains unclear, but Spurlock’s own arrested adolescence is painfully obvious when he imagines an encounter with bin Laden as a video-game confrontation that plays out behind the film’s opening titles.

Following the film’s video-game setup, each country on Spurlock’s journey is seen as a different “round” in the game/film. These rounds consist of some travel footage and a few brief interviews with people from each region who tolerate Spurlock’s questions and answer them as best they can — only to be patronized and summarized by Spurlock’s voiceover. Though he is not an overbearing ringmaster like fellow gonzo documentarian Michael Moore, Spurlock cannot and will not let his interview subjects’ words stand alone.

He won’t let any of his images tell his story, either. Footage of the half-destroyed high schools and bombed-out classrooms dotting parts of the Middle East are immediately underlined, and undermined, by Spurlock’s simple-minded “Wow, this is awful” commentary. But it’s not as though he has captured any memorable images in the first place. Most of his scenes are shot with a fish-eyed wide-angle lens like the kind used in MTV Cribs to make rock-star McMansions seem larger than they are. Maybe Spurlock is using this lens as an attempt to show how grossly distorted his own views of the Middle East are, but since he has no feel for images, shot composition, or editing, it’s impossible to believe his poor camerawork was deliberate.

Spurlock is a genial, admittedly clueless narrator, which is partially why his film is so offensive. He doesn’t seem to have any clue about how insulting his superficial, gee-whiz treatment of American foreign policy’s impact on non-Americans really is. He arrives at the same conclusions that anyone with a brain would reach after traveling to a foreign country or even leaving their home state: Golly, people sure are different. Wow, the media only gives space to the most outlandish voices in the national landscape; real people aren’t like that at all. Gosh, people have complicated feelings about America. Sorry, but this should not pass for political or social insight.

Worst of all, Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? is supposed to be funny, a gentle ribbing of humanity’s foibles and misconceptions about one another. Enough of this weak-minded “commentary” already. Smirking at power and shrugging one’s shoulders at the complexity of peoples’ passions is not the same thing as speaking clearly and truthfully to power or presenting those passions with as little bias as possible. But those latter tactics are and have always been more arduous and risky than the glib, easy way out Spurlock prefers. He may have tramped around the Middle East for months, but it’s obvious who Spurlock is really following: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?

Opens Friday, May 2nd

Studio on the Square

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Fey and Poehler score in big-screen reunion.

It’s funny to go up to the movie-theater counter and say, “One for Baby Mama.” And, fortunately, that’s only the beginning of the fun.

At its most basic, Baby Mama is a fine vehicle to reunite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the talented comedians who had great chemistry together on Saturday Night Live a few years back. Fey is Kate Holbrook, a single corporate executive whose biological clock has kicked in. She’s got baby mania, but adoption is going to take years and artificial insemination fails because of a tricky uterus. She opts for having a surrogate mother. In comes Poehler as Angie Ostrowiski, a “white trash” girl who could use the money surrogacy pays.

Fey did not write Baby Mama, and that’s probably a good thing. Though she created and is currently the standout writer and actress on arguably the best show on TV right now, 30 Rock, and though she brought some quality back to SNL while serving as head writer, there is such a thing as too much Tina Fey. Her comedy is a bleach of snark, manic self-doubt, pop-culture aggression, and lily-white squareness, and mixing it with a little water was prudent for a feature-length film.

The “water” in the analogy is Baby Mama writer and first-time director Michael McCullers (Undercover Brother, the two Austin Powers sequels, and SNL). His script is funny and does right by the protagonists, and the film is full of knowing observations about the process of a pregnancy and the fears of the unknown experienced by future parents.

But there’s little doubt Baby Mama was written by a man, and it’s probably no coincidence that the lead character is a woman using a surrogate rather than a woman who’s pregnant herself. When Kate asks Angie what it feels like inside when the baby kicks, Fey’s character at that point isn’t much more than a baby-daddy cliché from any other movie. When Angie answers that it feels like eating a meatball and then the meatball kicks you, it’s a perfectly funny, masculine answer.

It may also be why Baby Mama wanders from the main topics of pregnancy and motherhood so often, showing more interest in how Kate and Angie fit together as characters; why a major subplot delves into the corporate goings-on of the whole-foods company Kate works for; why it wades into the differences between authenticity and well-meaning trendiness; and why it takes the time to observe how class and education are expressed by what culture we consume.

Supporting actors are asked to play just one note each, but it works: Steve Martin as a pony-tailed capitalist hippie; Sigourney Weaver as a woman who’s endlessly fertile even though she’s as old as Sigourney Weaver; Holland Taylor as Kate’s opinionated mother; Maura Tierney as Kate’s serene sister, a mommy herself.

It’s all very good. Heck, even Greg Kinnear comes out looking all right.

Baby Mama

Now playing

Multiple locations

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

I suppose the one saving grace of the human race is that virtually all of our problems are self-inflicted. Theoretically at least, if we are the cause of the problems, we should be able to provide the cure or correction.

Hopefully, the Democratic Party will learn from this experience that it is not a good idea to award delegates on a proportional basis. If the primaries had been winner-take-all, the party would have had its nominee long ago and could be chopping on the Republican tree.

Instead, it is stuck with an exceedingly close race that apparently can only be settled by the so-called super delegates, who are appointed and not elected (another bad idea). This means that inevitably they will be seen as stealing the nomination from one of the two candidates. This will undoubtedly cause a rift in the party.

I used to make money betting that no matter how unlikely the Republican candidate was, the Democrats would scour the country to find somebody who could lose the race. It worked with Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and Al Gore. In the interim, of course, the Republicans picked up the Democrat habit and nominated Bush the First for a second term and then dragged out the old relic, Bob Dole, so both could be mowed down by Bill Clinton.

Now the Republicans have found another old relic, John McCain, to go up against Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. What a great choice in the minds of many: an African American, a woman, or a geezer. Though they won’t tell it to the pollsters or say it on television, there are still blocs of Americans who will not vote for an African American or a woman. Racist and sexist? Of course. Who told you the American people had become civilized, urbane, and educated?

This was supposed to be a shoo-in year for the Democrats. The Republican president has disapproval ratings of historic proportions, has screwed up the economy, and has gotten us stuck in two wars. It should have been no contest, but the Democratic Party has managed, with its nutty rules, to make it a level playing field.

This means the geezer has a chance, provided he doesn’t topple over during the campaign. He doesn’t seem to be very much in touch with reality, but that will merely carry on the tradition of George W. Bush, who, as the Buddhists say, seems destined to have been born drunk and to die dreaming. They will just have to hire somebody to stay close and whisper in McCain’s ear who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. He seems confused.

Well, the world can’t blame us. We are only 300 million souls, which is a small field to choose from. Nor can we help it that reasonably honest people with reasonably good skills can make more money in the private sector than in public service, so that we are stuck largely with crooks, lazy people, and incompetents.

Another self-inflicted problem is that our whole society, like some wooden house in a swamp, is riddled with lawyers who most resemble termites. There is a truthful old saying that if a town has one lawyer, he will be poor, but if there are two, they will both prosper. That’s because lawyers are hired arguers, and it takes two to have a dispute. Lawyers have almost replaced car salesmen in local television advertising.

There is a lot of talk about the rising costs of health care, but I think that lags far behind the rising cost of legal services. Legal fees seem to run into the millions of dollars in the blink of an eye these days and not because there has been a burst of legal talent. They have their own monopoly and usually charge what the traffic will bear and then some.

But, as I said, most of our problems are self-inflicted. Let’s just hope we can avoid self-destruction.

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 50 years.

Categories
Hot Properties Real Estate

French Quarter Bound

It certainly does not look like a bungalow from the street. Symmetrically placed windows with shutters are set on each side of a recessed entry with single-light French doors. Used brick on the front and engaged columns on the corner complete the facade that is trying so hard to be a Greek Revival cottage in the French Quarter.
A wonderful old iron fence on the left side of the yard adds to the New Orleans flavor. The house sits up on a small hill, pleasantly distanced from the street. Carrying a matching fence across the front of the hill with a wrought-iron gate at the top of the steps would be a logical finishing touch.

The inside has been thoroughly modernized, but the floor plan hints at its 1920s bungalow origin. The living room runs all the way across the front in typical bungalow style. At 20-by-23 feet, the living room is vast, and it appears that the original front porch was enclosed and added to this space in an earlier renovation. It makes for a loft-scaled space with tall windows, all with working interior shutters, a wood-burning fireplace, and heart pine floors.

The dining room also has a working gas fireplace. A bank of three windows is united by a wide sill, a detail also found in Craftsman bungalows. There are two noteworthy crystal chandeliers, one here and the larger one, appropriately, in the living room.

A small rear hall connects dining, den, downstairs bedroom, bath, and kitchen. Originally, it would have been dark, as it is completely interior. However, the ceiling of the hall was removed and a spiral staircase installed to a finished second-floor room in the former attic. Six large skylights above the hall turn it into a delightful transition space in the center of the house.

The finished attic has a second bedroom or maybe a home office and a full bath with lots of built-in storage. Frankly, it seems more appropriate to use the upstairs as a getaway space for the home office or workout room. The current downstairs den might be the better second bedroom, but you would have to add a wall closing it off from the living room. It would work well either way.

One rear corner of the house is the master bedroom, which has a full wall of closets, one of which contains the washer and dryer. This room looks out to the quiet rear yard and gets the soft morning light. The other rear corner is a generous kitchen with breakfast area. It is currently laid out in a galley format even though the room is wide enough to add another ell of cabinets. The breakfast area overlooks the private rear garden through a whole wall of windows.

There is a nicely sealed deck on the rear with built-in seating. It is ever so private, with evergreen trees and shrubs scattered about, inside a wood fence. Paths of brick and gravel lead out to an alley. It feels as secretive as a brick-walled courtyard. Inside, the addition of tall cypress doors and Greek Revival mantels would make this house feel that much closer to New Orleans.


242 Pine Street

Approximately 2,300 square feet

2 bedrooms, 2 baths; $199,500

Realtor: Hobson Co., 761-1622

Agent: Gordon Stack, 488-4050

Categories
Music Music Features

Friday Band Listings

Friday Schedule

Cellular South Stage

Lord t & Eloise 6:05-7:05 p.m.

Flyleaf 7:35-8:45 p.m.

Hellogoodbye 9:15-10:25 p.m.

My Chemical Romance 10:55-12:25 p.m.

Sam’s Town Stage

Amy Lavere 6-6:50 p.m.

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts 7:20-8:30 p.m.

Jonny Lang 9-10:15 p.m.

Sheryl Crow 10:45-12:15 p.m.

Budweiser Stage

Drive By 6:20-7 p.m.

Project Pat W/ Computer , Yung D, & lil Wyte 7:25-8:45 p.m.

Ben FoldS 9:15-10:30 p.m.

The Roots 10:50-12:20 p.m.

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

Lurrie Bell 6-7:05 p.m.

Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials 7:30-8:45 p.m.

Charlie Musselwhite 9:15-10:30 p.m.

Keb’ Mo’ 11-12:20 p.m.

Soco Blues Shack

Richard Johnston 6, 8, & 10:30 p.m.

Robert “Wolfman” Belfour 7:05 & 8:45 p.m.

Band Listings

Friday, May 2

Lord T & Eloise

Cellular South Stage

6:05 p.m.

With their trademark “aristocrunk” style, this local hip-hop group cum performance-art ensemble take rap music’s conspicuous consumption to its logical, comedic conclusion: a sarcastic celebration of wealth from the perspective of rich, old (“old” as in powdered-wig old) white dudes. Look for an energetic, entertaining set from these Memphis-based pranksters.

Robert Wolfman Belfour

Flyleaf

Cellular South Stage

7:35 p.m.

This Texas-based hard-rock band debuted in 2005 with an eponymous debut that put them on the mainstream/heavy-rock map and led to opening stints with artists such as Saliva, 3 Doors Down, and Staind. An element that sets Flyleaf apart: In a genre drowning in testosterone, they’re the rare female-fronted band, diminutive singer Lacey Mosley leading the way.

Hellogoodbye

Cellular South Stage

9:15 p.m.

This California emo-punk band makes energetic, danceable rock music flavored with video-game-style bleeps and keyboard lines. Named after a phrase used by the character Screech on the tween-fave sitcom Saved By the Bell, Hellogoodbye got their start opening for scene stars such as the All-American Rejects and the Academy Is … before landing a slot on the Warped Tour.

My Chemical Romance

Cellular South Stage

10:55 p.m.

Lord T & Eloise

Absolutely beloved by a segment of young music fans, this New Jersey-based rock band became one of the biggest acts in their corner of the music universe over the past few years, inspiring young fans (if not critics) much as Nirvana did a decade and a half ago. Led by theatrical frontman Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance traffics in aggressive, bold music that also remains melodic pop. In turning nü-metal angst into a more progressive, sugary brand of anthemic teen-friendly rock, the band draws on myriad musical and cultural influences — emo, pop-punk, goth-metal, ’80s alternative like the Cure and the Smiths, ’70s prog rock à la Queen and Pink Floyd — and melds it into something contemporary and distinctive.

Amy LaVere

Sam’s Town Stage

6 p.m.

My Chemical Romance

Once one of the Memphis music scene’s emerging stars, LaVere transcended the local last year with her second album, Anchors & Anvils. LaVere doesn’t have a showy American Idol voice but is a sharp, rich interpretive singer, especially on such sure shots as her own “Killing Him” (one of the best album-openers on any 2007 record) and drummer Paul Taylor’s personal, perceptive “Pointless Drinking.” Smart, sexy, swaggering, funny — this star turn was the highlight of Memphis music in 2007, and, with the expert support of Taylor and guitarist Steve Selvidge, LaVere brings those same qualities to the stage, and then some.

Joan Jett &
the Blackhearts

Sam’s Town Stage

7:20 p.m.

One of the most important female rockers ever, Jett’s classic, thrashy, three-chord rock-and-roll evokes the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and glam rock, but her distinctive, sneering presence and buzzsaw bubblegum sensibility are all her own, making her one of rock’s most enjoyable sounds. Jett got her start as a teenager with the Los Angeles ’70s girl band the Runaways but became a major star in the early ’80s, recording borderline classic albums Bad Reputation and, with the Blackhearts, I Love Rock-n-Roll, the defiant title single off the latter becoming one of the decade’s signature hits.

Jonny Lang

Sam’s Town Stage

9 p.m.

Amy Lavere

An instant sensation when his major-label debut, Lie to Me, came out in 1997, the then-teenage Lang was a fiery blues guitarist from the unlikely hometown of Fargo, North Dakota. More a live showman than a radio hit-maker, Lang has released only three albums since. But, a “kid” no more at age 27, he’s matured into a blues-rock force that can command any stage.

Sheryl Crow

Sam’s Town Stage

10:45 p.m.

Jonny lang

In a pop-music culture so youth-focused, Sheryl Crow has been a consistent hit-maker for 15 years in an old-fashioned but sturdy classic-rock/folk-rock style — a purveyor of straightforward, guitar-driven songs in an early-’70s (Eagles, Bonnie Raitt, etc.) mode. In the years since Crow first broke out with her 1993 debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, the hits have been piling up, an identifiable oeuvre that should make for a satisfying set this weekend: “Strong Enough,” “All I Wanna Do,” “A Change Would Do You Good,” “If It Makes You Happy,” “Everyday Is a Winding Road,” “My Favorite Mistake,” “Soak Up the Sun,” etc.

Drive By

Budweiser Stage

6:20 p.m.

This New York-based emo quartet has been on the road opening for My Chemical Romance and will join them on the Friday night schedule at this year’s Beale Street Music Fest.

Project Pat, with
Computer, Yung D, &
Lil Wyte

Budweiser Stage

7:25 p.m.

Sheryl Crow

Shortly after longtime Three 6 Mafia affiliate Project Pat wrapped up three years in a federal penitentiary on a concealed-weapons charge, he released Crook By Da Book: The Fed Story. Now the MC, creator of memorable tunes such as “Chickenhead” and “Don’t Save Her,” is back at the grind, swiftly releasing a second post-jail-stint album, Walkin’ Bank Roll, in 2007. For this appearance, he’ll be joined by other Three 6 Mafia-connected cohorts, most notably rapper Lil Wyte, a prominent solo artist in his own right.

Ben Folds

Budweiser Stage

9:15 p.m.

Project Pat

North Carolina’s Ben Folds is something of a Gen X answer to Billy Joel or Elton John — a melodically gifted songwriter and piano player but also a snide, smart-alecky songwriter. Folds first made his mark as the frontman for Ben Folds Five, a three-piece band that banged out catchy, clever, piano-driven alt-rock tunes and became something of a sensation riding the final crest of the ’90s alternative boom with the album Whatever and Ever Amen. Folds has more often performed as a solo artist this decade, as heard on albums such as Rockin’ the Suburbs and Songs for Silverman.

The Roots

Budweiser Stage

10:50 p.m.

Ben Folds

The Roots are hip-hop’s unofficial house band. When Jay-Z needed a live band to record an MTV Unplugged concert, he called the Roots. When Dave Chappelle was looking for a band to anchor his Block Party, he called the Roots. But, led by drummer/bandleader Amir “?uestlove” Thompson and rapper Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, the Roots are first and foremost music makers on their own: a band with eight full-length studio albums, each packed with funky, gritty, increasingly experimental grooves and sharp, smart rhymes.

Lurrie Bell

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

6 p.m.

This Chicago bluesman is an explosive guitarist in the mode of Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. He’s recorded for many of the genre’s trademark labels and comes to the Beale Street Music Fest on top of his game, nominated for Best Guitarist and Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year in the upcoming Blues Music Awards.

Lil’ Ed & The Blues
Imperials

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

7:30 p.m.

The Roots

Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials are the preeminent Chicago blues party band, purveyors of house-rockin’ electric blues in the mode of Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor. Led by the fiery, flamboyant slide-guitar playing of leader Lil’ Ed Williams, this band has been converting blues clubs and festivals the world over into sweaty would-be rent parties since the ’80s.

Charlie
Musselwhite

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

9:15 p.m.

Like perhaps no other current blues musician, the trajectory of harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite’s life and career mirrors that of the music itself — Mississippi to Memphis to Chicago to California. Now, at age 64, Musselwhite is a grand old man of the blues, a versatile roots artist who has, over the years, incorporated elements of country, jazz, gospel, and Tex-Mex into his music.

Keb’ Mo’

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

11 p.m.

Born Kevin Monroe, Keb’ Mo’ is a Los Angeles-based acoustic-blues performer who became one of the genre’s great crossover success stories. Partly modeling himself after Robert Johnson, the journeyman musician released eight albums since 1994 and has established himself as one of the rare modern blues artists to consistently cross over to mainstream rock and pop fans.

Richard Johnston

Soco Blues Shack

6 p.m., 8 p.m., and 10:30 p.m.

In recent years, Richard Johnston, a late-blooming street performer, has become one of the rising stars on the independent blues scene, winning the 2001 International Blues Challenge and releasing a best-selling debut album, Foot Hill Stomp, dedicated to — and inspired by — the late north Mississippi hill-country blueswoman Jessie Mae Hemphill. Solo, Johnston is sure to wow audiences with his world-weary howl and his picking ability on the cigar-box LoweBow, a one-stringed cousin of the electric guitar.

Robert “Wolfman” Belfour

Soco Blues Shack

7:05 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

Robert Belfour was born and raised in the north Mississippi hill country but relocated to Memphis more than 40 years ago. His understated acoustic blues style remains largely unnoticed by local blues fans, but his albums (2000’s What’s Wrong With You and Pushin’ My Luck, released three years later) have received rave reviews around the world.

Categories
Music Music Features

Saturday Band Listings

Saturday Schedule

Cellular South Stage

Muck Sticky 2:30-3:20 p.m.

Duman 3:50-4:50 p.m.

Cat Power 5:20-6:35 p.m.

Buddy Guy 7:05-8:30 p.m.

Lou Reed 9-10:15 p.m.

Santana 10:45-12:15 p.m.

Sam’s Town Stage

Oracle and the Mountain 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Saving Abel 4-5:05 p.m.

The Whigs 5:35-6:40 p.m.

Simple Plan 7:10-8:25 p.m.

Seether 8:55-10:10 p.m.

Disturbed 10:40-12:10 p.m.

Budweiser Stage

Al Kapone 2:20-3:30 p.m.

Tegan and Sara 3:50-5 p.m.

Colbie Caillat 5:30-6:35 p.m.

Arrested Development 7:05-8:20 p.m.

John Butler Trio 8:50-10:15 p.m.

Matisyahu 10:45-12:15 p.m.

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

Eli “paperboy” Reed 2-2:45 p.m.

Preston Shannon 3:10-4:15 p.m.

Kenny Neal 4:40-5:50 p.m.

Backdoor Slam 6:15-7:30 p.m.

Watermelon Slim 7:55-9:10 p.m.

Pinetop Perkins & Hubert Sumlin

w/ Billy Gibson 9:35-10:45 p.m.

Bettye Lavette 11:15-12:30 p.m.

Soco Blues Shack

Richard Johnston 2, 3:30, 5:50, 7:30, & 10:45 p.m.

Blind Mississippi Morris 2:45, 4:15, 6:30, & 9:10 p.m.

Band Listings Saturday, May 3

Muck Sticky

Cellular South Stage

2:30 p.m.

This Memphis-based musical prankster matches a high-pitched, half-rapped drawl with a weed-centric, semi-utopian, NC-17-rated worldview. You may be confused, but you probably won’t be bored.

Duman

Cellular South Stage

3:50 p.m.

Representing this year’s Memphis in May honored country, Turkey, Duman is an Istanbul grunge-rock trio whose lead singer, Kaan Tangöze, first started writing songs while a college student in Seattle, learning the music from the source.

Cat Power

Cellular South Stage

5:20 p.m.

Georgia-bred indie rocker Chan “Cat Power” Marshall has been a cult favorite for more than a decade but has expanded her audience in recent years with a little help from some Memphis friends. The Greatest, which was recorded in Memphis in 2006, was a breakout record for Marshall and featured the work of several Memphis musicians, notably Hi Records guitar legend Teenie Hodges. Her latest album, a collection of mostly covers called Jukebox, continues the Memphis ties with takes on Jessie Mae Hemphill’s “Lord, Help the Poor & Needy” and Dan Penn’s “Woman Left Lonely.”

Buddy Guy

Cellular South Stage

7:05 p.m.

Once the hot young gun of the Chicago blues scene, Buddy Guy is now the elder statesman, towering over that city’s blues scene as Muddy Waters once did. A brilliant guitarist, Guy ventured south for 2001’s Mississippi-recorded Sweet Tea to show he can still excel outside the standard Chicago style. This year he’s on the big screen, stealing the show from the Rolling Stones in their concert film Shine a Light.

Lou Reed

Cellular South Stage

9 p.m.

Matisyahu

As the frontman of the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed served as the catalyst for the punk, glam, and alternative-rock movements to come. Since going solo in the early ’70s, he’s documented subterranean urban culture on the classic “Walk on the Wild Side,” paid respects to the late Andy Warhol on Songs for Drella, and reported on urban decay in his hometown on New York. Though Reed’s catalog of challenging, literate work is immense, he’ll always be best known for the classics he penned for the Velvet Underground in the late ’60s: “Sweet Jane,” “Heroin,” “Sister Ray,” etc.

Santana

Cellular South Stage

10:45 p.m.

Lou Reed

Guitarist Carlos Santana and his eponymous band injected Latin styles into the California rock scene of the ’60s, going on to star at Woodstock and score hits with “Evil Ways” and “Black Magic Woman.” Decades later, Santana made one of the most successful comebacks rock music has ever seen with the 1999 album Supernatural. The album sold more than 10 million copies and landed 11 Grammy nominations, morphing Carlos Santana from a classic-rock legend to a modern superstar.

Oracle and the Mountain

Sam’s Town Stage

2:30 p.m.

This newish local band is a promising rock quartet whose music evokes grunge, alt-country, and contemporary indie rock in equal doses.

Saving Abel

Sam’s Town Stage

4 p.m.

This heavy Southern rock band from Corinth, Mississippi, recently made the leap from unsigned Mid-South hopefuls to major-label up-and-comers, releasing their eponymous debut on Virgin Records this spring.

The Whigs

Sam’s Town Stage

5:35 p.m.

Stefano Giovannini

Cat Power

One of the best and most buzzed-about young rock bands around, this Georgia-based indie power trio evokes such alt-rock icons as the Replacements and even Nirvana. The band’s label-released debut, this year’s Mission Control, is a deceptively simple blast of crunchy riffs, locomotive drumming, and catchy hooks.

Simple Plan

Sam’s Town Stage

7:10 p.m.

The Montreal-based pop-punk quintet Simple Plan have followed cohorts such as Blink-182 and Good Charlotte out of the scene’s underground and onto the pop charts, scoring multiple hits with their 2004 breakthrough album Still Not Getting Any.

Seether

Sam’s Town Stage

8:55 p.m.

Santana

South African alt-metal band Seether has become Music Fest regulars, making appearances over the past few years. The band broke through in America via a slot on the Ozzfest tour in 2002 and hasn’t looked back since.

Disturbed

Sam’s Town Stage

10:40 p.m.

Chicago-based nü-metal band Disturbed reveal elements of alt-rock and even rap like many of their genre contemporaries but also boast an

Seether

old-fashioned sensibility at times, evoking metal heroes such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Pantera.

Al Kapone

Budweiser Stage

2:20 p.m.

M-Town’s own Al Kapone possesses one of the most original voices on the city’s rap scene, but, more often than not, he’s languished in the shadows of the monolithic Three 6 Mafia. More recently, however, this hardcore gangsta rapper has stepped into the light with releases like 2003’s Goin’ All Out and his contributions to the soundtrack of the Memphis-set rap film Hustle & Flow. Lately, Kapone has been working with a live band, the Untouchables, which should make his Dirty South rhymes translate well to the big stage this weekend.

Tegan and Sara

Budweiser Stage

3:50 p.m.

The Whigs

This Canadian duo consisting of twin sisters is one of the biggest indie success stories of the past year. After a decade performing together, Tegan and Sara morphed from conventional folkies into a duo that incorporated punk and alt-rock into their sound on the 2007 breakthrough The Con, which was produced by Chris Walla of the Seattle indie band Death Cab for Cutie.

Colbie Caillat

Budweiser Stage

5:30 p.m.

California folk-pop songwriter Colbie Caillat (think Jewel crossed with Natasha Bedingfield) recorded and posted songs on MySpace a couple of years ago and suddenly became an Internet sensation. Digital word of mouth led to a deal with Universal records, which released Caillat’s debut album, Coco, last summer.

Arrested Development

Budweiser Stage

7:05 p.m.

Disturbed

In 1992, West Coast so-called gangster rap was rampant, but an alternative emerged out of left field in the form of Arrested Development: a sprawling, rootsy, Afrocentric crew whose breakthrough hit “Tennessee” was a master stroke they could never repeat. A decade later, rapper Speech got the group back together, releasing the album Since the Last Time in 2007.

The John Butler Trio

Budweiser Stage

8:50 p.m.

Courtesy twovital.com

Arrested Development

From an opening act for the Dave Matthews Band to a platinum-selling headliner, Australian jam band the John Butler Trio mine American roots music and rollicking, bluesy pop. The group’s third studio album, Grand National, runs the gamut of contemporary pop, as Butler tries on hip-hop, reggae, and full-on rock for size.

Matisyahu

Budweiser Stage

10:45 p.m.

David Moore

Richard Johnston

On the surface, Matisyahu seems like a joke act — a Hasidic Jew celebrating his culture and religion via Jamaican reggae. But this high school Deadhead is serious. His second studio album, Youth, even went on to garner a Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album.

Eli “Paperboy” Reed

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

2 p.m.

Raised in the unlikely environs of Brookline, Massachusetts, this blue-eyed soul singer spent time in Clarksdale, Mississippi, after high school to get a real musical education. Reed’s new album, Roll With You, demonstrates an ease with classic ’60s soul that should place him near the top of the soul revival scene.

Preston Shannon

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

3:10 p.m.

Preston Shannon, a longtime Memphis blues/soul singer/guitarist and Beale Street bandleader, will help the Beale Street Music Festival earn its name by bringing some modern Memphis sounds to the Blues Tent.

Kenny Neal

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

4:40 p.m.

Baton Rouge swamp-blues stalwart Kenny Neal has long been one of the top names in contemporary blues. After growing up in a blues family around stars such as Buddy Guy and Slim Harpo, Neal has graduated to their level on his own. He recorded for Alligator Records for most of the past two decades but recently released Let Life Flow, his debut for another venerable blues label, Blind Pig.

BackDoor Slam

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

6:15 p.m.

Hailing from the Isle of Man, Backdoor Slam, featuring Davy Knowles on guitar and mandolin, Adam Jones on bass, and Ross Doyle on drums, will rock the Beale Street Music Fest with a sound that harkens back to earlier British blues-rock exports.

Watermelon Slim

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

7:55 p.m.

Watermelon Slim hardly fits the blues archetype. He’s a Vietnam vet, former trucker, and recipient of a master’s degree. Watermelon Slim also has channeled his creativity into a second career as a blues musician, releasing a protest album called Merry Airbrakes shortly after his stint in the service. Fast-forward three decades, and you’ll find Watermelon Slim and his band riding the wave of their terrific album The Wheel Man.

Pinetop Perkins & Hubert Sumlin with Billy Gibson

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

9:35 p.m.

Memphis harmonica master Billy Gibson must be living right to share the stage this weekend with two certified blues legends: The 94-year-old Pine-top Perkins is a boogie-woogie piano master who once replaced Otis Spann in Muddy Waters’ band. The 76-year-old guitarist Hubert Sumlin is a youngster by comparison and cut his teeth as the great Howlin’ Wolf’s primary guitar foil.

Bettye Lavette

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

11:15 p.m.

One of the better recent comeback stories on the roots-music scene, Bettye Lavette was a cult-fave soul singer in the ’60s but never broke through. An active live performer into the ’90s, Lavette found her way back into a studio this decade and recorded with the rock band the Drive-By Truckers for her deep-soul testament The Scene of the Crime.

Richard Johnston

Soco Blues Shack

2 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 5:50 p.m.,

7:30 p.m., and 10:45 p.m.

Tegan and Sara

Richard Johnston has become one of the rising stars on the independent blues scene, winning the 2001 International Blues Challenge and releasing a best-selling debut album, Foot Hill Stomp, dedicated to — and inspired by — Jessie Mae Hemphill.

Blind Mississippi Morris

Soco Blues Shack

2:45 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m., and 9:10 p.m.

Known as the “Real Deal on Beale,” Blind Mississippi Morris is a longtime staple of the contemporary Memphis blues scene, keeping the modern version of the Memphis sound anchored in its Delta roots.

Categories
Music Music Features

Sunday Band Listings

Sunday Schedule

Cellular South Stage

Carney 2:20-3:25 p.m.

Rue Melo 3:55-4:55 p.m.

Gavin Degraw 5:25-6:35 p.m.

Finger Eleven 7:05-8:15 p.m.

Fergie 8:45-10:15 p.m.

Sam’s Town Stage

Billy Lee Riley 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Duman 4-5 p.m.

Jerry Lee Lewis 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Aretha Franklin 7-8:05 p.m.

Michael McDonald 8:35-10:05 p.m.

Budweiser Stage

Pete Francis 2-3 p.m.

Umphrey’s McGee 3-4:40 p.m.

Michael Franti & Spearhead 5:10-6:20 p.m.

O.A.R. 6:50-8 p.m.

The Black Crowes 8:30-10 p.m.

Tennessee Lottery

Blues Tent

Calvin Cooke 2-3:05 p.m.

SamuEl James 3:30-4:40 p.m.

Nick Moss & the Flip tops 5:05-6:20 p.m.

Magic Slim & the Teardrops 6:45-8 p.m.

Doyle Bramhall 8:30-10 p.m.

Soco Blues Shack

Richard Johnston 2, 4:40, 6:20, & 8 p.m.

Robert “Wolfman” Belfour 3:05, 5:30, & 7:05 p.m.

Band Listings Sunday, May 4

Carney

Cellular South Stage

2:20 p.m.

This Los Angeles quartet led by a couple of brothers (guitarists Reeve and Zane Carney) plays bluesy, classic-style rock and just released their debut record, Nothing Without You, on Interscope Records.

Rue Melo

Cellular South Stage

3:55 p.m.

Named after its Paris-raised lead singer, this California quartet mixes rock, R&B, and hip-hop on singles such as “Check It Out” and “Smooth Brotha.”

Gavin DeGraw

Cellular South Stage

5:25 p.m.

Alice Stevens

Doyle Bramhall

This New York singer-songwriter hit in 2003 with a mainstream rock style that came across as a more sophisticated Matchbox Twenty or a more muscular Maroon 5 (a band with whom DeGraw shared a label). After scoring a huge pop hit with the single “I Don’t Want To Be” from his debut album, Chariot, DeGraw returned this year with an eponymous follow-up album.

Finger Eleven

Cellular South Stage

7:05 p.m.

These Canadians are melodic modern-rockers who met in high school and have been recording under the Finger Eleven moniker for more than a decade, finally breaking through in the U.S. in 2003 with the surging, emotional Top 40 hit “One Thing.”

Fergie

Cellular South Stage

8:45 p.m.

Gavin Degraw

Maybe pop music’s most unlikely current superstar, Fergie was a showbiz kid (with roots in both kiddie television and teen pop) who, at around age 30, joined the Black-Eyed Peas just before the group crossed over from underground hip-hop to mainstream pop. When Fergie went solo with 2006’s The Duchess, few expected her to surpass the popularity of her band, but nearly two years later, the album continues to produce radio and video hits such as “London Bridge,” “Fergalicious,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Glamorous.” Fergie hasn’t always been taken seriously as she’s climbed the entertainment ladder, but she’s taken it to the bank. And her colorful, acrobatic stage presence helps her translate her pop/hip-hop/R&B sound to the stage.

Billy Lee Riley

Sam’s Town Stage

2:30 p.m.

Born across the river in Pocohontas, Arkansas, Billy Lee Riley remains one of the wildest rockers to have ever sprung from Memphis’ own Sun Studio. Although he never hit as big as Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis, Riley’s original tunes like “Flying Saucer Rock’n’Roll” and “Red Hot” are considered landmarks of the rockabilly genre to this day. Riley remains a consummate performer and a perennial crowd pleaser who never fails to delight audiences at the Beale Street Music Festival.

Duman

Sam’s Town Stage

4 p.m.

Representing this year’s Memphis in May honored country, Turkey, Duman is an Istanbul grunge-rock trio whose lead singer, Kaan Tangöze, first started writing songs while a college student in Seattle, learning the music from the source.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Sam’s Town Stage

5:30 p.m.

Way back in 1957, this Bible college dropout from Ferriday, Louisiana, was determined to become Sam Phillips’ next discovery. His first single, the pumping piano tune “Crazy Arms,” did moderately well. Then all hell broke loose when Lewis cut “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” at Memphis’ Sun Studio. Onstage, the Killer fulfilled every parent’s worst nightmare, delivering a solid mule kick to his piano bench and shaking his hips in a frenzy. Lewis reinvented himself as a straight country star in later decades, but a slow-building rock-and-roll comeback (which began with the late-’80s big-screen biopic Great Balls of Fire and includes his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) has rightfully restored Lewis to his position at the forefront of rock royalty.

Aretha Franklin

Sam’s Town Stage

7 p.m.

With Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, and, more recently, Ray Charles and James Brown all departed, the uncontested “Queen of Soul” is far and away America’s greatest living soul and R&B artist. The Memphis-born Franklin unleashed her gospel-trained pipes on a series of records in the late ’60s and early ’70s — albums such as Lady Soul and Spirit in the Dark, classic singles such as “Respect” and “Chain of Fools” — that stands as one of the absolute peaks of recorded pop music. In the decades since, she periodically pops up to remind everyone of her greatness — in the mid-’80s with the modern-soul classic Who’s Zoomin’ Who?, in the late ’90s with the post-hip-hop Master’s course A Rose Is Still a Rose. No fan of travel, Franklin’s live appearances are few these days. Don’t miss it.

Michael McDonald

Sam’s Town Stage

8:35 p.m.

C. Baldwin

Fergie

The voice behind Doobie Brothers hits such as “What a Fool Believes” and “Taking It to the Streets,” McDonald’s buttery baritone was a defining sound for laid-back California rock in the ’70s. And that voice made a swift transition to the adult end of Top 40 in the ’80s (such as “On My Own,” his hit duet with Patti LaBelle) and into adult-contemporary today as his baby-boomer audience ages along with him. McDonald tours regularly today and remains quite popular in the Memphis market.

Pete Francis

Budweiser Stage

2 p.m.

Michael McDonald

Francis was the frontman for the Vermont-based ’90s cult band Dispatch, going solo early this decade as a folkish singer-songwriter who sounds something like a male Joni Mitchell, with rock and reggae elements.

Umphrey’s McGee

Budweiser Stage

3 p.m.

This is not your typical jam band: Expect Midwesterners Umphrey’s McGee to channel Frank Zappa or King Crimson at the Beale Street Music Fest this weekend. Consummate live performers who often play songs by Toto, Snoop Dogg, and Metallica, they cut their first studio album, Local Band Does O.K., in 2002 and have been prolific since with a series of studio albums, live records, and compilations.

Michael Franti &
Spearhead

Budweiser Stage

5:10 p.m.

Michael Franti first appeared in the early ’90s as the voice behind the leftist, alternative hip-hop duo Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Now fronting the San Francisco-based band Spearhead, Franti’s music is more diverse, adding blues, rock, folk, and reggae to his hip-hop template for a kind of black roots music. His husky, charismatic baritone and fiercely political worldview remain.

O.A.R.

Budweiser Stage

6:50 p.m.

Pete Francis

This gentle, Maryland-based jam band went under the radar to build a massive live following in much the way Phish did. After years of hard touring on the jam and college circuits, O.A.R. can now fill Madison Square Garden, as witnessed on their new double-disc, double-DVD document of a recent sold-out concert at the venerable venue.

The Black Crowes

Budweiser Stage

8:30 p.m.

O.A.R.

These Atlanta rockers hit it big right off the bat with their 1990 debut, Shake Your Money Maker, giving a Southern-fried, neo-classic twist on the authentic hard-rock template Guns N’ Roses had recently taken platinum. Eighteen years later, the band remains active and relevant, perhaps more than ever to Memphis audiences via the presence of the band’s new hotshot guitarist: North Mississippi Allstar Luther Dickinson. Dickinson lends his considerable chops to the Crowes’ latest album, Warpaint, and will be joining them onstage this year at the Beale Street Music Festival.

Calvin Cooke

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

2 p.m.

Sometimes dubbed “the B.B. King of gospel steel guitar,” Cooke is a Detroit-based church musician who has recently brought his gospel blues public with a debut album produced by the like-minded Robert Randolph.

Samuel James

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

3:30 p.m.

A rising star in the world of traditional blues from the unlikely home of Portland, Maine, James is a young African-American blues player whose light acoustic style evokes country blues, jug bands, and ragtime, as heard on his recently released debut album, Songs Famed for Sorrow and Joy.

Nick Moss &

the Flip Tops

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

5:05 p.m.

The Black Crowes

Guitarist Nick Moss spent a decade as a sideman on the Chicago blues scene, including a stint in Jimmy Rogers’ band, before setting out to form his own band earlier this decade. The band, which released the two-disc, 21-song epic Play It ‘Til Tomorrow last year, has been labeled a modern version of the classic Paul Butterfield Blues Band of the ’60s. Moss & Co. are nominated for Album of the Year, Band of the Year, and Best Guitarist in the upcoming Blues Music Awards.

Magic Slim &

the Teardrops

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

6:45 p.m.

A classic Chicago blues band, Magic Slim & the Teardrops have been a staple of the Windy City scene since the mid-’60s and are still going strong, as witnessed by their three nominations at this year’s Blues Music Awards, including Band of the Year.

Doyle Bramhall

Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent

8:30 p.m.

Texas bluesman Doyle Bramhall has been a force on that state’s blues scene for decades, learning from the likes of Jimmy Reed and playing alongside the Vaughan brothers, Jimmie and the late Stevie Ray. After playing in a variety of Texas blues bands for decades, Bramhall finally started recording solo material in the ’90s.

Richard Johnston

Soco Blues Shack

2 p.m., 4:40 p.m., 6:20 p.m., 8 p.m.

Richard Johnston, a late-blooming street performer, has become one of the rising stars on the independent blues scene, winning the 2001 International Blues Challenge and releasing a best-selling debut album, Foot Hill Stomp, dedicated to — and inspired by — the late north Mississippi hill-country blueswoman Jessie Mae Hemphill. Solo, Johnston is sure to wow audiences with his world-weary howl and his picking ability on the cigar-box LoweBow, a one-stringed cousin of the electric guitar.

Robert “Wolfman” Belfour

Soco Blues Shack

3:05 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7:05 p.m.

Belfour was born and raised in the north Mississippi hill country but relocated to Memphis more than 40 years ago. Belfour’s understated acoustic blues style, considered a link between Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside by Fat Possum producer Bruce Watson, remains largely unnoticed by local blues fans, but his albums (2000’s What’s Wrong With You and Pushin’ My Luck, released three years later) have received rave reviews around the world.

Categories
Music Music Features

Jay Reatard Grows Up

CREDIT: Matador Records

Since his 2007 appearance at Austin’s South By Southwest Music Festival, garage-punk savant Jay Reatard (real surname: Lindsey) has become the Memphis musician with the biggest national footprint in terms of press, hype, and relentless touring.

The first album he released under the Jay Reatard moniker, Blood Visions, came out in late 2006 on In the Red records. It was a slow grower, but, eventually, word spread. Lindsey assembled a back-up band with members of local scorchers the Boston Chinks, and live shows left audiences wanting more …

Read the rest of Andrew Earles’ profile of the Memphis rocker.

Categories
Music Music Features

Beale Street Music Fest: The Bands, The Music, The Line-up

The Beale Street Music Fest will divide acts among four stages — with an added “blues shack” this year — in Tom Lee Park, a 33-acre site that sits at the base of historic Beale Street and stretches along the majestic Mississippi River.

Friday night’s lineup features a diverse trio of heavyweight headliners that may force eclectic music fans into a tough decision …

Get all the dope on this weekend’s Memphis in May Music Fest here.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Hillary, Obama, Sex, Beer, and Strippers

I was out of town last week on my annual trout-fishing trek to the deep woods of Pennsylvania. (You know, the place where Obama saw his shadow, and now we have six more weeks of Hillary.) I was off the grid — no Internet, no cell phone — just my gun and my religion and a four-weight fly-rod. And beer …

Read Bruce VanWyngarden’s column from this week’s Flyer.