Month: August 2008

Categories
Art Art Feature

What a Trip

CREDIT: Gadsby Creson's installation at the P&H Caf

It’s 8 a.m. Saturday morning. Too early for gallery-hopping? Not if you love to mix java with artwork. We’re at Republic Coffee, and the walls are lined with some of the best paintings and photographs of Eric Swartz’ career.

In Dash, Swartz records the part of a vehicle we see as we slide into the driver’s seat. The rudimentary control panel inside this antique truck or sedan has become a rusted metal hulk. The windshield is clouded with algae and age. At the right edge of the image, a surprisingly intact steering wheel takes us back to mid-century when we were crisscrossing America’s brand-new interstates in the vehicles of our youth. Most of them are junkers now, metaphors for time and memory and a good jumping-off point for our exploration of the accomplished, richly symbolic artwork found in a wide variety of Memphis venues.

Through August 31st at Republic Coffee

Our next stop is Material, the cutting-edge gallery that helped jump-start the now-burgeoning Broad Avenue Arts District. Niki Johnson’s and Melissa Farris’ exhibition “Moral Fiber” fills the small space with artworks charged with irony, intense emotion, and complex meaning. Nothing feels off-limits for these two sassy, savvy young artists who ask us to look into the face of power and sexuality, to question authority, and to challenge sexual taboos and the artificial distinctions between high and low art.

Johnson’s appliquéd portrait of a screaming Donald Trump, titled Old Yeller, asks us to consider whether we value cold corporate power more than the faithful companionship and courage typified by the stray dog in the American movie classic of the same title.

Viewers are encouraged to pull back curtains covering Farris’ shadow boxes. Inside are graceful, peach-and-pink watercolors of same-sex partners making love.

Many of Johnson’s and Farris’ artworks are charged with playful innuendo. Cupcakes, Johnson’s needlepointed studies of women’s breasts framed by fluted cupcake tins, are bite-sized and beautiful. Jonathan’s Quilt, Farris’ appliquéd portrait of a young man on an eight-pointed-star quilt with hand inside his jeans, transforms the “security blanket” into something we can hang onto from cradle to grave.

Through August 29th at Material

Gadsby Creson’s installation at the P&H Caf

Just off Main Street, the walls of Power House Memphis are montaged with iPhone photos that internationally renowned contemporary artist Rob Pruitt took of Memphis. His most evocative work records Graceland’s 1960s décor and fans’ floral tributes to the man who revolutionized music, swiveled his hips, and helped thousands of youngsters come of age in the sexually repressive 1950s.

Pruitt’s images of an empty wheelchair imprinted with the word “Graceland” and a large statute of Christ resurrected on Presley’s gravesite most poignantly tell the story of the love affair between Elvis and his fans.

Through August 9th at Power House Memphis

Several blocks farther north on South Main, we discover Micah Craven’s monotype Simple Food Simple Taste, one of the most powerful artworks currently on view anywhere in Memphis. It’s one of the prints in the group exhibition “Oh Lord, Won’t You Send Me a Sign!” at Memphis College of Art’s On the Street gallery. The show was curated by University of Mississippi chair and associate professor of art, Sheri Fleck Rieth.

Craven’s expressive linework and deep shadows depict a child’s cracked teeth, protruding ribs, emaciated arms, and what could be a belly bloated by starvation or a pregnant girl unable to feed herself or her fetus. An empty fishing pole in the child’s left hand and the work’s title make the figure a powerful poster child. Instead of raping the world for quick profit, Craven suggests that we leave enough natural resources intact to allow humanity to farm, fish, and fend for itself.

Through August 9th at On the Street

This has been a long, rich day, but we’re not done yet. We stop by the P&H Café for one last cup of coffee.

On the wall behind the bandstand, also known as P&H Artspace, is Gadsby Creson’s installation, “The Price Is Even More Right,” one of the smallest, most original shows in town.

Each of Creson’s mixed-media paperworks is mounted on two 4-by-4-inch squares of foam core. Some of the works are glued to the foam core like tiny abstract paintings. In others, the foam-core squares serve as backdrop and stage for minuscule paper sculptures.

Two of Creson’s most dramatic pieces suggest a line of narrative. In the first, a Matisse-like dancer moves with frenzied grace above a dark-red sea. In the second, another ebony figure folds her body onto the floor like a dancer taking her final bow.

Creson’s dancers are a good way to end our day. I’m headed home to begin writing this column. But stay as long as you like. The P&H crowd of music lovers, literati, and art enthusiasts keeps jamming way past midnight.

An opening reception for “The Price Is Even More Right” is Friday, August 8th, from 8 to 10 p.m.

Through September 8th at the P&H Café

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Northwest Glory

Even though it is one of the youngest growing regions on the market, Washington state has quickly gained worldwide recognition with their wines, garnering high ratings from Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast, as well as spotlights in Food & Wine, Gourmet, and The New York Times. It isn’t just hype — these winemakers can back it up.

One such winemaker happens to be a Memphian. Ron Bunnell, owner and winemaker of Bunnell Family winery and RiverAerie, was born and raised in Memphis, attended Kingsbury, and studied at the University of Memphis. Initially, Bunnell wasn’t too impressed with Washington. “I got my second master’s from the University of California-Davis in viticulture,” he says. “I had friends from UC-Davis who had moved to Washington to pursue their career, so I had knowledge of what was going on up here as far back as 1982 — not much great red wine and lots of Riesling.

“It wasn’t until I was considering taking the job of head red winemaker for Chateau Ste. Michelle in 1999 that I really started to survey the Columbia Valley wines extensively,” Bunnell continues. “I was impressed by the overall wine quality but even more by the pioneering spirit of the winemakers and growers at the time. It reminded of the California wine industry 20 years prior.”

It’s that pioneering spirit that led some of the now-top wineries to create their own industry. Names such as Andrew Will, McCrea, and L’Ecole No. 41 are now among the top producers in the world. But it wasn’t always so.

“Washington was very different back then — less than half the number of wineries as today,” Bunnell says. “Red winemaking was still developing. There was less than 200 acres of Syrah in the state when I got here, very little Sangiovese in production, only one clone of Merlot, and one clone of Cabernet in production, very few secondary red varieties.”

Today, the excitement is not only palpable but palatable.

“What makes Washington unique is the long day length in the middle of the growing season. We just so happen to be on the same latitude as Bordeaux,” Bunnell says. “We have relatively poor soils, which generally make the best wines. There are enough heat units in the growing season to ripen almost any variety. Another factor is water. We enjoy fairly arid conditions, with only about 12 inches of rainfall per year. That means that we have to employ deficit irrigation to control berry size and plant vigor. All of this translates into a high degree of control and naturally favorable factors to produce world-class wines.”

The future of Washington wine can be seen in the impressive Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon-based blends, and especially their Rhône varietals, such as Syrah.

“I believe that Syrah and other Rhône varieties are potentially the most important black grapes in Washington. My wife Susan and I love working with these varieties and love the wines made from them,” Bunnell says. “In the end, it’s all about following your passion.”

Bunnell has had the pleasure of exploring both sides of his passion. His Bunnell Family Winery focuses on Rhône varietals, such as Grenache and Syrah, while his RiverAerie project allows him to explore the potential of other grape varieties.

“We like to say that RiverAerie is everything else we are interested in,” Bunnell says. “As a winemaking consultant, I come across some excellent grapes and wines. We select small lots of outstanding wines for RiverAerie. The philosophy behind RiverAerie is to showcase the fruit from exceptional vineyards and offer a great value to the customer. I’m very excited about Malbec. I’ve seen some great results in the past few years, and I think its potential in Washington is great.”

When asked about his favorite food and wine pairing, Bunnell had this to say: “I like to quote Piero Antinori, with whom I had the pleasure to work. Piero once said to an interviewer who had asked the same question, ‘We really don’t think about it that much … we just eat what we like and drink what we like.'”

Recommended Wines

Bunnell Family Clifton Hill Vineyard Syrah 2005, $45.99

Bunnell Family “A Pic” Rhône Blend 2005, $30.99

L’Ecole No. 41 “Walla Voila” Chenin Blanc 2007, $17.99

L’Ecole No. 41 Merlot 2005, $35.99

Andrew Will Champoux Vineyard 2005, $60.99

Andrew Will Annie Camard Syrah 2003, $61.99

RiverAerie Riesling 2006, $17.99

RiverAerie Malbec 2006, $19.99

RiverAerie Barbera 2006, $22.99

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Beer Flows

CREDIT: by Simone Wilson

Chuck Skypeck, co-founder of Boscos and its master brewer with 18 years in the business, feels strongly that locally made beer should be available in area bars and restaurants. He says he finds it hard to believe that Memphis, a city of more than half a million people, has only two breweries — the small-batch operation inside Boscos’ Overton Square restaurant and Boscos’ main brewery on South Main.

That’s why Skypeck started Ghost River Brewing, a subsidiary of Boscos Brewing Company.

The Ghost River beers — Ghost River Golden, Glacial Pale Ale, Brown Ale, as well as seasonal beers, such as a German-style Hefeweizen and a Scottish ale — are draft-only beers and are currently being marketed to local restaurants and bars by Southwestern Distributing.

Ghost River’s beers are brewed with water from the Memphis Sands Aquifer, source for the area’s drinking water.

“Water is the main ingredient in beer,” Skypeck says. “Its quality has a big influence on how the beer tastes, and we have some of the best water available right here.”

The aquifer is a deep segment of saturated sand and gravel, which acts as a natural filter, making the water that trickles through it extremely pure.

“The great thing about Memphis water is its low mineral content,” Skypeck says. “We believe this is ideal water for brewing beer. If you want to change the beer’s character, you can add certain minerals to affect the taste.”

Beers brewed from soft water with a low-mineral content tend to have a milder flavor than those made from hard, mineral-rich water. In Europe, breweries were historically located on sites with consistent water supplies and a characteristic mineral makeup. This explains the many regional beers, and the tradition of adapting the recipes to the shortcomings of the brewing water. Acidic dark malts, for example, were used to neutralize the high alkaline levels of carbonate waters.

Today, the mineral composition of “brewing water” can be controlled scientifically to create a larger variety of beers. Craft breweries, such as Ghost River Brewing, however, treat the brewing water only minimally, if it all.

Ghost River beer is brewed at Boscos’ main brewery downtown. The brewery was inaugurated on New Year’s Eve 2007, when it turned out its first batch of beer, with kegs headed to the Boscos locations that don’t have a brewery on-site.

If you expect bottles rattling past on a conveyor belt, the earthy smell of beer, and foaming brews bubbling in a kettle, you won’t see that here. In fact, the brewery is reminiscent of a milking parlor, minus the cows (although a local farmer does pick up the spent brewer’s grain to use as animal feed). The brewery’s centerpieces are three stainless-steel tanks in which the beer ages for about three weeks. Each tank holds 50 kegs of beer, each a different variety, rotating between the Boscos signature beers and the Ghost River varieties.

“Beer is food, and as the focus shifts more and more to what’s available locally, we are thrilled to contribute a beer that is made in Memphis,” Skypeck says. “Many restaurants and bars that we talked to were excited about the prospect of being able to offer a local beer to their customers, and we hope Memphians will see Ghost River beer on tap at their favorite places soon.”

Although the beer will only be available in restaurant and bars, individual kegs for private parties can be purchased through Southwestern.

And while Skypeck is tapping the aquifer for water, he’s giving back, too. Ghost River Brewing donates a portion of the proceeds of every barrel of beer sold to the Wolf River Conservancy.

ghostriverbrewing.com

Mark your calendar and grab your steins for two upcoming beer events.

The Memphis Zoo is holding its second Zoo Brew on August 29th, from 6 to 9 p.m. Anyone who’s 21 and older can sample beers from around the world on the grounds of the zoo. The event includes appetizers, an exclusive pottery show by Hayden Hall, and live entertainment.

Price for the event is $10 for zoo members and $15 for nonmembers. For more information, visit memphiszoo.org.

Tickets for this year’s Art on Tap at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens will go on sale on August 18th. The event is on September 5th, from 6 to 9 p.m., and advance tickets are $40 for members and $50 for nonmembers.

All guests must be 21 or older to attend. Visit dixon.org. for more information.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Clearing the Road to Excess

he first words of Alex Gibney’s new documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson are spoken by Thompson’s first wife, Sondi Wright: “He’d known for a long time that he was not a really great writer.”

That’s an important, healthy way to begin a film that tackles the artistic legacy of a man whose status as a countercultural icon eventually devoured his credibility as a journalist. But once upon a time, Thompson looked unstoppable. Gonzo correctly focuses on the era of his greatest creativity — a 10-year period between the late-1960s publication of his book Hell’s Angels and the early-to-mid-1970s of Nixon, McGovern, Watergate, and Foreman-Ali. Gibney zeroes in on the relevant years of Thompson’s life so well that it’s almost possible to forgive his taste for hokey images, such as the one of Johnny Depp fondling a pistol while reading Thompson excerpts aloud.

Several of Gonzo‘s talking heads, notably 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern, Nixon aide Pat Buchanan, and Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, can’t resist this mythmaking either, and they make dubious claims about Thompson’s importance that only muddle his literary accomplishments. Contrary to media-generated legend, Thompson was not an inventor of “participatory journalism” (which ignores the efforts of everyone from Orwell to Twain to Herodotus), nor was he the first writer to write while high. (Anyone remember Thomas de Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater?) And arguably, at his too-brief peak, he wasn’t the best all-around journalist of his age: Norman Mailer, Michael Herr, and Thompson’s Rolling Stone colleague Timothy Crouse all wrote more substantive, less self-indulgent nonfiction.

To his credit, though, Thompson introduced English illustrator Ralph Steadman to psychedelics in a turn-on that rivals R. Crumb’s dropping acid as a key moment in the development of 20th-century art. And Thompson was a personality of huge dimensions — a gun-toting roustabout seemingly impervious to drugs and alcohol. After running for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, in 1970, he often appeared in public as a shaved-headed Muppet whose voice was as fun to imitate as Cary Grant’s or Peter Lorre’s. The first line of his 1972 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas still works like catnip on people who like drugs and self-expression but prefer the latter to the former. At his best, Thompson could tap into personal reserves of anger, fear, and resentment that the curators of the officially sanctioned “Great American Sixties Story” (so-starring Creedence Clearwater Revival and more Haight-Ashbury hippie bullshit) seldom acknowledge.

Those responsible for the construction and maintenance of the Great American Sixties Story — the same ones, in fact, who are interviewed throughout Gonzo — hate it when their generation is scorned or criticized. But rage and disgust with the duplicity and failures of past generations fueled Hunter Thompson’s most insightful and poetic prose. Ignoring that anger in his work is almost as bad as agreeing with Jimmy Buffett’s false claim that Thompson “could have wielded a pretty effective sword” in today’s journalistic climate. No, he couldn’t have; he was too far gone by then.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Opening Friday, August 8th

Studio on the Square

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Pants, take two: This one’s for the girls.

If you can’t beat The Dark Knight, why not carve a little piece of the pie in the form of some surefire counterprogramming? While The Dark Knight is thrilling teen boys of all ages, this one’s for the girls: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, a sequel to the 2005 hit based on a popular series of teen novels by Ann Brashares.

Just as Sex & the City scored big by providing an alternative to a summer of boycentric popcorn cinema, this reunion of four attractive, relatable TV-identified actresses tries to do the same for a younger and (hopefully) more innocent demographic.

Like in Sex & the City, an opening montage reconnects with old story lines and refamiliarizes the audience with the four principals in this ongoing gal-pal saga. Where the first edition (based on the first volume of the four-book series) was most definitely a high school movie, this one (based on the last book installment) is a college movie set over the summer following freshman year.

Tibby (Joan of Arcadia‘s Amber Tamblyn) is an NYU film student doing makeup work; Bridget (Gossip Girl Blake Lively) is a soccer star at Brown who’s heading to Turkey for an archaeology dig; Lena (Gilmore Girl Alexis Bledel) is sketching through the summer at the Rhode Island School of Design; and Carmen (Ugly Betty‘s America Ferrera) is a drama student at Yale heading to a summer workshop in Vermont.

Things are a little more grown-up this go-around. Romantic entanglements are considerably more complicated, including a pregnancy scare. In the first film, Carmen was dealing with an estranged father; here Bridget reconnects with an estranged grandmother, played by Blythe Danner in a very affecting sequence.

And, yes, those damn pants are still around. The premise of the series is that the group of friends happen upon a pair of jeans that magically fits each of their very different body types and brings good luck. It’s a passable gimmick for high-schoolers, but it seems far sillier now that everyone’s grown up. Here, the pants-specific plotting seems as reluctantly dutiful as the appearance of these contractually obligated actresses. The premise — that the girls mail the jeans back and forth, thus the “traveling” part — also hurts the film by keeping the actresses apart too much.

Clearly, this fidelity to the source material helps connect the film to its built-in audience, but the dumb title and even cornier premise are probably non-starters for anyone outside the core demo.

Which is too bad, because, while The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is as minor and formulaic as the first film, it also gives a group of engaging young actresses (mostly) realistic and respectful situations to negotiate. There’s some fantasy here, for sure, but the fact that the film doesn’t get too worked up about its color-blind casting or complicated families is just the start of its modest realism. In a world of Bratz and Britney, this is laudable stuff, and the lives of girls (or anyone else) should be of interest beyond the target audience.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Now playing

Multiple locations

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

I just found what could be the best website I’ve

ever seen. Well, the second best. My favorite is freedomswatch.org.

It’s one of those ultraconservative sites that constantly posts press releases and blog comments about how the liberals in the United States are all ax murderers and how Barack Obama is trying to

win the presidency so he can bring Iranian governmental practices with him to the White House. I’ve even signed up to receive notices from the site. Of course, I don’t think they realize that the name I gave them — Phil McCrackin — is not my real name. (I guess you do have to read it fairly carefully.) But I love it when they send me notes that begin with “Dear Phil McCrackin.” I always want to reply with “Oh, dear, someone needs to fill your crack in.” But I never do because I don’t want to blow my cover. No, this new site I’ve found is newsbusters.org and it’s pretty great. It’s mainly focusing now on all of the ways the Republicans are trying to lower the price of gas, although there’s never been a mention of taking on the very oil companies that are ripping us off. There’s lots and lots of news on there about Obama trying to bring “race” into the campaign. I may be stupid but, uh, how can race not be an issue when we have a black man running for office for the first time in the country’s history and there are going to be thousands of people not voting for him simply because of his race? Yeah, it’s ugly, but it’s true. The site is currently bound and determined to prove that John Edwards fathered a baby recently with a woman other than his wife. They don’t mention anything about John McCain screwing around with other women while married to his first wife and actually leaving her (once she was injured badly in a car wreck but wouldn’t let anyone let him know while he was a P.O.W. so as not to worry him) for Cindy, the wife to whom he is married now. Why is it that McCain can have a mistress and leave his wife for her and none of the conservatives out there seem to think a thing about it? Or maybe they do and I’m just not paying attention, which I really don’t do that much anymore — to any of this political crap. Hey, you conservative evangelical peeps out there: Do you care that John McCain was cheating on his wife and left her to marry his mistress? I really want to know. Write a letter to the editor and explain that one for me. Address it to Phil McCrackin! But back to newsbusters.org. It’s not just the news on the site that is entertaining. They have perhaps the best political T-shirt selection I have ever seen. They have a T-shirt bearing an image of Ann Coulter with a quote from her about 9/11 and how we should invade all Muslim countries, kill their leaders, and convert them all to Christianity. It’s pretty awesome. Not quite as awesome, however, as the T-shirt reading “I’D RATHER BE WATERBOARDING.” Now, I think it would be very difficult to top that and I might just get one to wear to the next gun show that comes to Memphis. Oh, they have some good gun-themed shirts too. One has an illustration of about 20 different kinds of guns under which are big letters that read “CELEBRATE DIVERSITY.” It’s a real gem. One of my favorites on the site is the “99 PERCENT OF ALL DEMOCRATS GIVE THE REST OF THEM A BAD NAME” T-shirt. They even have T-shirts for babies (“HELP. TED KENNEDY DRIVES ME TO DAYCARE”) and T-shirts for dogs (“I BITE LIBERALS”). I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they have shirts with images of Obama and Paris Hilton saying “WE’RE FAMOUS!” At any rate, I am glad I ran across the site and I hope you will visit it soon. If you’re feeling down, you will always know there is someone else out there who has it worse!

Categories
Hot Properties Real Estate

Contempo Condo

How many residences are there overlooking the Mississippi? “Not enough” is the obvious answer. They don’t come up for sale often, and when they do, they are not cheap. For the price, this residence has a lot of amenities, and the views, both inside and out, are spectacular.

Chickasaw Bluffs is a small, gated, 12-unit condo development. It runs along the South Bluffs overlooking Tom Lee Park, just north of Huling at Tennessee Street. A trolley stop is just outside the entry, making it only a hop and a skip to anywhere downtown.

This is a second-floor unit, with the third bedroom suite on the third level. But don’t despair about the one-story flight of steps. The current owner, in residence for 12 years, has done quite a few major updates, including an elevator. Doesn’t that lift your spirits?

The entry on the main level has a marble floor. The kitchen and dining and living rooms all open to the view in a loft-like space. Kitchen and dining have tall ceilings, but the living room rises to a two-story height with a high arched window above glass doors. The river, half of Arkansas, and sunsets entertain daily right out front.

The master suite, also on the main level, shares the same views, and both it and the living room flow out to a terrace with views of all three bridges. An exterior alcove with two storage closets adds a touch of late-afternoon shade to the interior spaces. A retractable awning covers the terrace in front of the alcove. In addition, a motorized screen can enclose the alcove to keep heat, glare, and flying critters out.

The master bedroom has a well-appointed bath. On the rear of the main floor is the second bedroom suite. The third suite is on an open loft above the dining room, with views across the living room to the river. The elevator goes all the way to the third floor, where a large, floored attic could be finished if additional living space was desired.

The kitchen was recently redone with all new cabinets and appliances. Dark cabinets are offset by shiny granite and new wood floors. A wine cooler and large pantry cabinets allow stocking up for any eventuality. A breakfast bar faces the kitchen from the dining room. A wall of mirrors in the dining area bounces natural light deep into the space.

This downtown residence is well-supplied with amenities. The interior of this contempo condo is the equal even of its spectacular views.

387 Tennessee Street

1,900 square feet

3 bedroom, 3 baths; $715,000

Realtor: Community Realty, 543-5088

Agent: Alicia Willis, 619-0098

Categories
News

Council Hears Overton Park Plea

The Citizens to Preserve Overton Park went before the City Council parks committee Tuesday to ask the council to do four things.

The first was to restore 17 acres of old-growth forest, currently controlled by the Memphis Zoo, to free, public use.

Another was to protect the old-growth forest in Overton Park with an conservation easement or by designating it a state natural area.

To read more, visit In the Bluff.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Obama Denounces Tinker Ads

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has denounced the recent ads run by 9th District congressional candidate Nikki Tinker. The ads, which link Cohen to the KKK and claim he is keeping children from praying in school, have drawn national attention in recent days, and have also been denounced by EMILY’s List, a PAC that is Tinker’s largest campaign contributor.

Obama’s statement: “These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee,” Obama said. “It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country.”

More at Huffington Post.

Categories
News

Rosie Flores Plays Rock and Roll Camp — and the Hi-Tone

“We don’t have to play so loud today. We don’t have to be Z.Z. Top,” said Rosie Flores, Austin’s honky-tonk heroine, as she stalked across the stage of the Hutchison School’s Weiner Theatre, prior to a 12:45 performance today for the Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp.

Flores, who plays the Hi-Tone tonight with hard country harmonizers Those Darlins, had played with all the musicians in the room at some point, just never at the same time. Playing a cherry red Taylor thin-line she rushed through her set’s trickiest parts creating emergency arrangements, singing near the microphone and fretting over whether or not she was getting enough vocals in the monitor.

At 12:30, 60-plus guitar-playing, bass-slinging, drum-pounding female rockers between the ages of 10 and 18 poured excitedly into the theater. Since Monday, the girls have been learning about everything from recording and songwriting to music “herstory,” and how to make a ‘zine.

They’ve been forming bands with fellow campers and learning to play the songs they’ll be performing at Saturday’s showcase at Hutchison.

On Monday and Tuesday, campers took in midday concerts by harder-edged acts like Six Gun Serenade and The Faintly Red Mollies. Flores’ vintage mix of country, rockabilly, and surf represents a radical stylistic departure, but within seconds the stage was lined with teenagers dancing to songs by Buck Owens, Link Wray, and Johnny Cash.

Flores gave a frantic, joyful performance, jumping up on chairs and letting girls in the crowd strum her guitar while she worked the frets. By the time they got around to picking Owens’ “Hot Dog,” the mix was perfect, loud, and the band sounded like they had been playing together for years.

After the show, Flores took questions from the crowd. She talked about being in a vocal group that wore matching dresses and beehives at age 14, and then moving on to straight-up rock and roll with an all-girl band at 16.

Flores also spoke about her world tour with Wanda Jackson, who is generally considered to be the first female rock and roll artist.

There were a lot of women making rock and roll like Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie. But Wanda Jackson was the first to become really popular,” Flores said, introducing a new generation to the woman who scored an unlikely international hit when the atomic-age rocker “Fujiyama Mama” climbed Japanese charts in 1957.

After the Q&A, Flores attended a music “herstory” class to talk about the importance of women in country, blues, and early rock.

The Hi-Tone’s doors open at 9 p.m. There’s a $7 cover charge.

–Chris Davis