Month: May 2012

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Lit Chicks

The ad in the Flyer read: “Seeking Female Authors to perform a 10-minute reading of their cool/hip/sexy/sassy/savvy/funny/confident/counterculture literature for an upcoming Memphis ChickLit event.” That was then: February. This is now. Time for “ChickLit: Memphis,” an evening of readings by 10 local writers at Minglewood Hall on Friday, May 4th. Those writers are Tobacco Brown, Anna Esquivel, Valentine Leonard, Addison Odum, Ellen Prewitt, Paulette Regan, Shelonda Richardson, Willonee S., Jaclyn Schaffer, Pam McGaha (your master of ceremonies for the evening), and Eva Morris (the woman behind “ChickLit: Memphis”). For profiles of the writers, go to chicklitperformances.com. But for a thumbnail on Eva Morris:

It was Morris who put the call out by placing that ad in the Flyer. Her goal: to find some local “chicks” (Morris’ term) who can not only write well but hold their own before an audience. (Or as Morris put it: “The women should be able to cha-cha when they get up there.”) The added goal of the evening: to serve as a book-release party for a collection, based on the night’s readings, called Red Hot Chick Lit Review, which will be on sale.

Morris herself has been on the move as the country-crossing “Roadbabe” behind the wheel of her 1964 Mercury Montclair or 1981 Alfa Romeo; as the author of Roadbabe, an auto, erotic free-for-all published by Grove Press founder Barney Rosset; and as an interviewer of Hunter S. Thompson, who late in life championed her writing. Morris champions writers too — especially women writers, the more fearless the better — whether she’s in Memphis, on Long Island, or at her retreat (complete with treehouse and pool) in Hardy, Arkansas. And nobody says it quite like Morris, who admitted that she’d wanted to be a writer growing up. Then, to clarify, she put it more memorably:

“In high school, I did rock-and-roll reviews and stupid stories for a local newspaper. It was the only option except for being a drug slut.”

And she’s done all right by her writing. Right after “ChickLit: Memphis,” Morris is off for a tribute to Rosset, who died this past February. One more reason, then, for “Roadbabe” to high-tail it and hit the (what else?) road.

“ChickLit: Memphis,” Minglewood Hall, Friday, May 4th, 7 p.m. $10. For more information, contact Eva Morris at chickliterature@hotmail.com or go to chicklitevent.net.

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Lucero at Minglewood Hall and the Hi-Tone Cafe

Lucero makes a triumphant hometown return this week after an extremely successful two-month tour in support of the band’s latest album, the

Southern-rock-and-soul tour de force Women & Work. Back in town, the band — which has grown from its core-four up to eight with the addition of keyboards, pedal-steel, and a two-man horn section — will play two big shows this week. The first will be a special Opus One performance with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, in which the current big-band Lucero format will get a lot bigger. Lucero’s roots included a lot of violin and upright bass and their current sound is pretty big already, so here’s betting that this will be a fruitful match. The Lucero Opus One concert is at Minglewood Hall on Thursday, May 3rd. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25; half-price for students.

Then, on Sunday, May 6th, the band will return to the Hi-Tone Café — the venue that helped launch them — for an afternoon cookout and concert that will also feature locals the Dirty Streets and Alabama-based up-and-comers Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires playing outside at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively. Lucero will perform on the indoor stage at 8 p.m. Food from the grill will be free. Tickets are $20. Doors open at 5 p.m.

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Rockin’ On The River

With emerging stars of rap, rock, and blues sharing stages with giants of jazz, blues, and soul, Memphis in May’s Beale Street Music Festival is primed for another stellar year. The festival has become one of the largest music festivals in the country, routinely drawing more than 150,000 fans to the banks of the Big Muddy. This year’s lineup should only help continue the festival’s popularity, bringing roughly 60 acts from a variety of genres and generations for a three-day celebration of the city’s mighty music heritage.

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

On Friday night, American roots meets British art-pop as two cutting-edge artists — England’s Florence + the Machine and Kentucky’s My Morning Jacket — share the Bud Light Stage. Headbangers of different generations can find common ground on the Orion Stage with thrash-metal legends Megadeth and contemporary heavy-rockers Evanescence. And beat junkies can find a party going on at the Horseshoe Casino stage, where Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco will give way to the ecstatic, fun-over-everything DJ style of Pittsburgh’s Girl Talk.

On Saturday, a couple of classic alt-rock bands — the Cult and Jane’s Addiction — bring their exciting reunions to the Bud Light Stage. Down-home soul will have a summit meeting when modern star Anthony Hamilton and Memphis legend Al Green share the Horseshoe Casino Stage. And two of the most interesting young acts in the blues world — Memphis-connected acoustic marvel Valerie June and electric guitar ace Gary Clark Jr. — will both be at the FedEx Blues Tent.

Wrapping up on Sunday, folk and Americana fans will want to camp out at the Horseshoe Casino Stage, where bluegrass siren Alison Krauss headlines a bill that includes emerging folk-rock stars the Civil Wars and the Head and the Heart. Jazz and jam fans can see keyboard legend Herbie Hancock give way to bass-thumping funk-rock stalwarts Primus on the Orion Stage. And two of the blues world’s signature players — harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite and steel-guitar god Robert Randolph — will be in the FedEx Blues Tent.

Regardless of your musical tastes, you can find something — and probably lots of something — amid the kaleidoscope of sounds down on the river this weekend.

Beale Street Music Festival

Friday schedule

Bud Light Stage

North Mississippi Allstars 6:10 – 7:15 p.m.

NeedToBreathe 7:40 – 8:50 p.m.

Florence + The Machine 9:15 – 10:25 p.m.

My Morning Jacket 10:55 p.m. – 12:25 a.m.


Orion Stage »

Volbeat 6:10 – 7:10 p.m.

Three 6 Mafia 7:35 – 8:35 p.m.

Megadeth 9 – 10:20 p.m.

Evanescence 10:50 p.m. – 12:20 a.m.

Horseshoe Casino Stage

Breathe Carolina 6 – 7 p.m.

Sponge Cola 7:25 – 8:30 p.m.

Lupe Fiasco 8:55 – 10 p.m.

Girl Talk 10:30 p.m. – midnight

FedEx Blues Tent

Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition 6:15 – 7:20 p.m.

Will Tucker Band 7:45 – 9 p.m.

Bernard Allison 9:25 – 10:40 p.m.

Johnny Winter 11:10 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.

Friday, May 4th

Band Listings

North Mississippi Allstars

Bud Light Stage • 6:10 p.m.

Ten years after their debut, “Shake Hands With Shorty,” Luther and Cody Dickinson — along with constant companion Chris Chew — honored their late father, producer Jim Dickinson, on their latest album, Keys to the Kingdom, a jaunty, defiant album about mortality and loss. That 2011 album and subsequent touring found the long-running, Memphis-area blues-rock institution in rejuvenated form.

Needtobreathe

Bud Light Stage • 7:40 p.m.

This crossover Christian rock/pop band from South Carolina, fronted by brothers Bo and Bear Rinehart, have been around for half a decade but were exposed to a more massive audience last year as an opening act on Taylor Swift’s Speak Now tour.

Florence + the Machine

Bud Light Stage • 9:15 p.m.

While Adele has become the biggest breakout star in music over the past year, she isn’t the only big voiced, red-haired, British female singer to emerge in a major way. Art-pop siren Florence Welch, who records with a rotating cast of musicians as Florence + the Machine, was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy last year and watched the single “Dog Days Are Over,” from her debut album Lungs, go platinum and score a rendition on Glee.

My Morning Jacket

Bud Light Stage • 10:55 p.m.

Louisville indie/alt-rockers My Morning Jacket is one of a rare breed of bands that has managed to climb its way to the top without the help of a bona-fide hit single. Instead, the band owes its headliner status to a strong grassroots movement cultivated through relentless touring and festival appearances and a consistently engaging body of recorded work. My Morning Jacket’s sixth and most recent album, Circuital, came out in 2011 and might just be the band’s best.

Volbeat

Orion Stage • 6:10 p.m.

If you want to spot a Beale Street Music Fest act playing tourist while in Memphis, Danish heavy-metal band Volbeat might be your best bet. The band’s more traditional rock-and-roll take on metal doesn’t just look back to ’70s and ’80s titans like AC/DC but back to the Memphis origins of rock with nods to Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. (Album title: Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood)

Three 6 Mafia

Orion Stage • 7:35 p.m.

The most successful rap group in Memphis history, Three 6 Mafia duo Juicy J and DJ Paul have juggled reality TV adventures with their music since winning an Oscar for the song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from Memphis filmmaker Craig Brewer’s film Hustle & Flow. The duo’s next album, Laws of Power, has been on hold for a while, but they haven’t stood still, with J and Paul releasing plenty of solo “mixtape” music in the interim. But they’ll be back together on the Music Fest big stage in their hometown.

Megadeth

Orion Stage • 9 p.m.

Original Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine founded the metal powerhouse Megadeth in 1981 after bitterly parting ways with his former, and soon-to-be massive, band. Ever since, Megadeth has dominated the thrash-metal scene, releasing a host of influential albums in the genre, including Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?, Rust in Peace, and Youthanasia.

Evanescence

Orion Stage • 10:50 p.m.

Led by the dynamic voice and presence of singer/pianist Amy Lee, longtime Little Rock modern/alt-rockers Evanescence virtually came out of nowhere on the national scene in 2003, selling 17 million copies of the debut LP Fallen. The group followed that break-out success with the multiplatinum smash The Open Door in 2006 and is currently touring in support of its third, self-titled LP, which was released in October 2011.

Breathe Carolina

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 6 p.m.

This young electronic-rock duo from Colorado built a strong indie fanbase over the past few years, which led to their signing with major-label Columbia Records last December. With a national TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live and a main-stage slot on this summer’s venerable Vans Warped tour, the band is on the rise.

Sponge Cola

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 7:25 p.m.

Representing this year’s Memphis in May honored country, the Philippines, the rock/pop quartet Sponge Cola formed in 1998 among classmates at a Manila high school, first making waves with a cover of Madonna’s “Crazy for You” that became an underground/Internet hit in their home country and has yielded a couple of dozen successful singles since.

Lupe Fiasco

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 8:55 p.m.

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco was introduced to the wider world via his guest spot on the Kanye West single “Touch the Sky,” then he broke through with his own warmly iconoclastic hit single “Kick, Push.” With a style more grounded and less glam than many of his mainstream hip-hop cohorts, the brainy Fiasco returned last spring with this third album, Lasers, which boasted the hit single “The Show Goes On.”

Girl Talk

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 10:30 p.m.

Pittsburgh DJ Gregg “Girl Talk” Gillis builds his sample-based, electronic party music on a foundation of pop familiarity, but his “songs” typically comprise elements from 20 or so source tracks, with hardcore rap, “classic” rock, and chart pop among his favorite sources. At a Girl Talk party, metal legends Black Sabbath might back up Southern rapper Ludacris. Eminem might duet with a coffee-house folk singer. Jay-Z might emerge from the sound for a quick interjection. Girl Talk’s albums — 2006’s The Night Ripper, 2008’s Feed the Animals, 2010’s All Day — are a blast, but this one-man “band” does his best work in front of an audience.

Jimbo Mathus & the Tri-State Coalition

FedEx Blues Tent • 6:15 p.m.

Oxford, Mississippi, native and American roots-music disciple James “Jimbo” Mathus has collaborated with everyone from Elvis Costello to Luther Dickinson to Buddy Guy, but he’s perhaps best known as a member of the mid-’90s phenomenon the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Backed by his dynamite new group, the Tri-State Coalition, Mathus released his newest album, Confederate Buddha, on the local independent label Memphis International Records.

Will Tucker Band

FedEx Blues Tent • 7:45 p.m.

Young Memphis-based guitar hotshot Will Tucker honed his blues chops at B.B. King’s Blues Club, where his band plays regular gigs. The up-and-coming six-string hopeful recorded his debut album, Stealin’ the Soul, at Memphis’ venerable Ardent Studios.

Bernard Allison

FedEx Blues Tent • 9:25 p.m.

Bernard Allison is a Chicago-based blues guitarist and singer who got his start performing alongside his legendary father, Luther Allison, as well as the Memphis-born singer Koko Taylor. Allison has released 15 full-length albums since striking out on his own in 1990 and is an internationally renowned live performer.

Johnny Winter

FedEx Blues Tent • 11:10 p.m.

Texas-born singer/guitarist Johnny Winter is nothing short of a modern blues legend. Discovered in the late ’60s by Mike Bloomfield, Winter has gone on to establish himself as one of the premier electric blues guitar players of his generation, releasing over two dozen albums and performing tirelessly around the world.

T-Model Ford

Southern Comfort Blues Shack • 6:30, 7:15, & 8 p.m.

Now into his ninth decade, north Mississippi blues survivor T-Model Ford is still at it, flying his flag for a long-rooted blues style popularized by his late contemporaries Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside.

Bill Abel

Southern Comfort Blues Shack • 9, 9:45, & 10:30 p.m.

Delta blues musician Bill Abel plays country blues on a classic “cigar box” guitar and is known for his one-man-band shows.


Beale Street Music Festival

Saturday schedule

Bud Light Stage

Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors 2:30 – 3:40 p.m.

Son Volt 4:05 – 5:20 p.m.

Childish Gambino 5:45 – 6:50 p.m.

The Cult 7:15 – 8:30 p.m.

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals 8:55 – 10:15 p.m.

Jane’s Addiction 10:50 p.m. – 12:20 a.m.


Orion Stage

John Hiatt & The Combo 2:20 – 3:30 p.m.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd 3:55 – 5:10 p.m.

Buddy Guy 5:35 – 6:50 p.m.

Cold War Kids 7:15 – 8:25 p.m.

Yo Gotti 8:50 – 10:10 p.m.

Pitbull 10:40 p.m. – 12:10 a.m.

Horseshoe Casino Stage

Sponge Cola 2:25 – 3:35 p.m.

Big K.R.I.T. 4 – 5:15 p.m.

Black Lips 5:40 – 6:55 p.m.

Dr. Dog 7:20 – 8:35 p.m.

Al Green 9 – 10:15 p.m.

Anthony Hamilton 10:45 p.m. – 12:15 a.m.

FedEx Blues Tent

Victor Wainwright 2:15 – 3:25 p.m.

Robert “Wolfman” Belfour 3:50 – 5:05 p.m.

Larry McCray 5:30 – 6:45 p.m.

Valerie June 7:10 – 8:30 p.m.

The Bo Keys 8:55 – 10:15 p.m.

Gary Clark Jr. 10:45 p.m. – midnight


Saturday, May 5th

Band Listings

Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors

Bud Light Stage • 2:30 p.m.

Memphis-bred, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb applies his rich baritone to an assured mix of folk, rock, and alt-country. His band’s intimate, earnest sound was most recently captured on the 2011 album Chasing Someday, which landed the magisterial song “Live Forever” as the theme song for a great national ad campaign for the NBA last winter, opening Holcomb up to a broader audience.

Son Volt

Bud Light Stage • 4:05 p.m.

After the break-up of his vastly influential alt-country group Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar formed Son Volt in 1994 and picked up right where he left off. The band has released six critically acclaimed albums to date and is currently at work on a seventh scheduled for release this fall.

Childish Gambino

Bud Light Stage • 5:45 p.m.

Donald Glover first became a star for his role on the cult-fave sitcom Community, but his hip-hop alter-ego, Childish Gambino, has caught up quickly. Dropping brash, comical rhymes over both his own homemade beats and pre-existing indie-rock hits, Glover has built a following via a series of highly regarded Childish Gambino mixtapes, before releasing his official debut album, Camp, last year.

The Cult

Bud Light Stage • 7:15 p.m.

After brief turns fronting latter-day “tribute” versions of the Doors and the MC5 in the early 2000s, singer Ian Astbury — and his longtime collaborator, guitarist Billy Duffy — re-formed the British alternative/hard-rock band the Cult in 2006. Ever since, the band, best known for hit singles like “She Sells Sanctuary,” “Fire Woman,” and “Love Removal Machine,” has toured extensively throughout the world. The Cult’s ninth studio album, Choice of Weapon, will be released in May.

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

Bud Light Stage • 8:55 p.m.

Backed by her stellar group the Nocturnals, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Grace Potter first came out on the roots/jam-rock scene in 2005 with the breakout indie-label success Nothing but the Water. Potter & Co. have since signed with the majors and released a string of increasingly successful albums, with Potter becoming a major name in country circles via her smash duet with Nashville megastar Kenny Chesney, “You and Tequila.” A new album, The Lion The Beast The Beat, is due later this year.

Jane’s Addiction

Bud Light Stage • 10:50 p.m.

Led by the enigmatic musical impresario Perry Farrell, the re-re-formed version of the influential hard/alt-rock group Jane’s Addiction features all but one original members — guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins are again along for the ride — and new bassist Chris Chaney has been on board off-and-on since 2002. The band is touring in support of its fourth studio album, The Great Escape Artist, which came out in October 2011.

John Hiatt & The Combo

Orion Stage • 2:20 p.m.

Singer-songwriter John Hiatt has composed hits for other artists (Three Dog Night, Rosanne Cash) and emerged as a major-league artist on his own with ’80s albums like Bring the Family and Slow Turning. Hiatt has lots of Memphis connections — he’s collaborated with the late Jim Dickinson and the North Mississippi Allstars and wrote the song “Memphis in the Meantime” — and hits this year’s festival on the strength of a new album, Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Orion Stage • 3:55 p.m.

Despite his relatively young age, 34-year-old blues-rock guitarist and singer/songwriter Kenny Wayne Shepherd already has more than two decades of success in the music business under his belt. Shepherd’s many career accolades include seven Top 10 singles, five Grammy nominations, and two Blues Music Awards.

Buddy Guy

Orion Stage • 5:35 p.m.

To call Buddy Guy something of an influential figure in the history of the blues would be, well, understating things. The 75-year-old electric guitar icon is a known influence on legends like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. What’s more, Guy is still a consummate showman in his elder years and shows no signs of slowing down his licks or onstage antics.

Cold War Kids

Orion Stage • 7:15 p.m.

Long Beach, California’s Cold War Kids are a four-piece, piano-driven rock band known for their heartfelt, emo-ish songwriting and wildly energetic live shows. The group has released three critically acclaimed full-length albums, including 2011’s Mine Is Yours — the group’s biggest hit to date.

Yo Gotti

Orion Stage • 8:50 p.m.

With a more grounded, regular-guy spin on the hardcore Memphis rap sound, North Memphis’ Yo Gotti has followed Three 6 Mafia out of the Bluff City and onto the national stage, partnering with national stars like Lil Wayne (on “Women Lie, Men Lie”) and Nicki Minaj (on “Five Star Remix”) and scoring entirely solo hits such as “We Can Get It On” and “I Got Dat Sack.” A prolific mixtape artist, Gotti’s most recent major-label album, Live From the Kitchen, came out earlier this year.

Pitbull

Orion Stage • 10:40 p.m.

Cuban-American rapper Pitbull emerged from Miami in the past decade and has recorded and performed in both English and Spanish while updating his hometown’s classic bass-driven rap sound. Pitbull’s most recent album, 2011’s Planet Pit, featured hit collaborations with Jennifer Lopez and T-Pain.

Sponge Cola

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 2:25 p.m.

Representing this year’s Memphis in May honored country, the Philippines, the rock/pop quartet Sponge Cola formed in 1998 among classmates at a Manila high school, first making waves with a cover of Madonna’s “Crazy For You” that became an underground/Internet hit in their home country and has yielded a couple of dozen successful singles since.

Big K.R.I.T.

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 4 p.m.

Meridian, Mississippi’s Big K.R.I.T. is a Southern rap upstart whose sound and content are more grounded than most. With an old-soul flavor that mostly sidesteps crunk and “gangsta,” K.R.I.T.’s sharply rapped, heartfelt stories of making his way from rural Mississippi to the cusp of rap royalty have made him one of the genre’s most interesting new artists. A recent signee to Def Jam Records, Big K.R.I.T. has released a series of well-received mixtapes as he preps his major-label debut.

Black Lips

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 5:40 p.m.

Known for their energetic, at times theatrical live shows, Atlanta garage-punk band the Black Lips have risen to the forefront of the Southern alt-rock scene with a series of hooky, firecracker rock albums for high-profile New York indie Vice Records, most recently 2009’s 200 Million Thousand and 2011’s Arabia Mountain.

Dr. Dog

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 7:20 p.m.

Dr. Dog is a six-piece psychedelic rock group that hails from West Grove, Pennsylvania. The band, complete with charmingly nasal, high-pitched vocals and swirling synthesizers, is easily compared to indie-rock icons the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev but with a rootsier edge. Dr. Dog’s latest album, Be the Void, came out in February, and the band is fresh off of national TV performances on Conan and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon earlier this year.

Al Green

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 9 p.m.

Arguably Memphis music’s greatest living artist, Green belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of soul vocalists along with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke, his repertoire of flutters, sighs, grunts, repetitions, and other effects transcending mere words even when in the service of a great lyric. Green recorded a string of classic albums in the 1970s — Call Me, I’m Still in Love With You, The Belle Album — before abandoning pop music for the pulpit of his Memphis-based Full Gospel Tabernacle Church. In recent years, however, he’s made a return to secular sounds with a strong series of comeback albums, the best of which is 2008’s Lay It Down.

Anthony Hamilton

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 10:40 p.m.

Soul singer/songwriter/producer Anthony Hamilton came to the national consciousness as a collaborator with artists like D’Angelo, Jadakiss, and Nappy Roots. He broke out on his own in 2003 with his second studio album, Coming From Where I’m From. His newest album, Back to Love, was released in 2011.

Victor Wainwright & the WildRoots

FedEx Blues Tent • 2:15 p.m.

A promising young practitioner of the old-time boogie-woogie piano sound, Memphis’ Victor Wainwright unites Memphis soul and blues with New Orleans R&B, as suggested by the name of his debut album, Beale Street to the Bayou. Wainwright and his band, the WildRoots, returned in fine form with last year’s Lit Up, which helped land Wainwright a nomination for the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year award at next week’s annual Blues Music Awards.

Robert “Wolfman” Belfour

FedEx Blues Tent • 3:50 p.m.

North Mississippi blues singer/guitarist Robert “Wolfman” Belfour is still a more-than-capable performer at the age of 71. His music, steeped in the hill-country blues tradition of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, is beloved by blues fans and critics around the world.

Larry McCray

FedEx Blues Tent • 5:30 p.m.

Arkansas-born and Michigan-raised singer-guitarist Larry McCray plays piercing electric blues in the manner of the three Kings (B.B., Albert, and Freddie).

Valerie June

FedEx Blues Tent • 7:10 p.m.

Long one of Memphis music’s best-kept secrets, Valerie June is finally emerging. Weaving traditional folk, country, blues, and gospel influences into a distinctly modern sound, June’s idiosyncratic vocals and striking appearance have marked her as a potential star, and, lately, the music business seems to be catching up. June’s got a debut album on the way featuring collaborations with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Memphis legend Booker T. Jones. She’s also partnered with fellow Beale Street Music Fest performer Luther Dickinson (of the North Mississippi Allstars) and other Memphis-area roots musicians in the new blues/folk “supergroup” the Wandering.

The Bo Keys

FedEx Blues Tent • 8:55 p.m.

Bluff City musician/producer Scott Bomar’s long-running band the Bo-Keys is a loving and accurate tribute to the classic Memphis-soul sounds of Stax and Hi Records. In addition to the bass-thumping Bomar, the group features an all-star collection of musicians from the era, including drummer Howard Grimes (Al Green, Ann Peebles) and trumpet player Ben Cauley (the Bar-Kays).

Gary Clark Jr.

FedEx Blues Tent • 10:45 p.m.

A longtime Austin, Texas, blues-scene fixture, the still-young Gary Clark Jr., now 27, has emerged over the past year as the blues’ great hope, an artist with the command and charisma to cross over to the mainstream pop-rock world. Hearing was believing on Clark’s startling 2011 release Brights Lights EP, a four-song debut for major-label Warner Bros. that served as a teaser for Clark’s heavily anticipated full-length debut for the label. Clark is emerging as a blues-rock guitar hotshot who can excite non-blues fans and critics in a way that Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, and Buddy Guy once did.

Blind Mississippi Morris

Southern Comfort Blues Shack • 3, 3:45, 4:30, & 5:15 p.m.

Memphis blues-scene favorite Blind Mississippi Morris is a master of the harmonica.

Brad Webb

Southern Comfort Blues Shack • 6:15, 7:15, 8, & 8:45 p.m.

A frequent collaborator with Blind Mississippi Morris, Brad Webb is a local blues mainstay as both performer and organizer — and is the real deal on the guitar.


Beale Street Music Festival

Sunday schedule

Bud Light Stage

Prosevere 2:20 – 3:25 p.m.

Black Stone Cherry 3:50 – 4:55 p.m.

Coheed and Cambria 5:20 – 6:35 p.m.

Bush 7 – 8:20 p.m.

Wiz Khalifa 8:50 – 10:20 p.m.

Orion Stage

Zoogma 2:05 – 3:10 p.m.

the Chris Robinson Brotherhood 3:35 – 4:45 p.m.

Michael Franti & Spearhead 5:10 – 6:30 p.m.

Herbie Hancock 6:55 – 8:10 p.m.

Primus 8:40 – 10:10 p.m.

Horseshoe Casino Stage

Old 97’s 2:15 – 3:25 p.m.

The Head and The Heart 3:50 – 5 p.m.

Little Richard 5:25 – 6:30 p.m.

The Civil Wars 6:55 – 8 p.m.

Alison Krauss & Union Station 8:30 – 10 p.m.

FedEx Blues Tent

Alexis P. Suter Band 2:05 – 3:15 p.m.

Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Muscle Theory 3:40 – 4:50 p.m.

Duke Robillard 5:15 – 6:35 p.m.

Charlie Musselwhite 7 – 8:20 p.m.

Robert Randolph & the family Band 8:50 – 10:15 p.m.

Sunday, May 6th

Band Listings

Prosevere

Bud Light Stage • 2:20 p.m.

This young Memphis metal band has risen over the past few years to the top of their scene, led by the soaring vocals of Gary Segars. The band has recently expanded their sound with a late-2011 acoustic EP, Three.

Black Stone Cherry

Bud Light Stage • 3:50 p.m.

Kentucky quartet Black Stone Cherry is a modern hard-rock band that is reminiscent of chart-topping peers such as Nickelback and Daughtry but with a strong Southern-rock tinge. The group has charted eight Top 40 singles since 2006, including the Top 10 smash “In My Blood.”

Coheed & Cambria

Bud Light Stage • 5:20 p.m.

New York rock quartet Coheed & Cambria blends elements of punk/emo, progressive metal, and sci-fi/fantasy to create a sound that is exciting and anything but familiar. The band’s sixth concept album based on singer Claudio Sanchez’s fictional, comic-book saga known as The Armory Wars is due out later this year.

Bush

Bud Light Stage • 7 p.m.

British alt-rockers Bush had a string of big hits in the ’90s, including “Everything Zen,” “Glycerine,” and “Machinehead.” The band, which originally disbanded in 2002, is newly back together and touring behind its first new album in over a decade, The Sea of Memories.

Wiz Khalifa

Bud Light Stage • 8:50 p.m.

The Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa had already released independent and major-label albums, but when his hometown-repping — and much-imitated — late 2010 single “Black and Yellow” became a gargantuan, Internet-driven hit, he seemed like a brand-new artist. Khalifa capitalized on his breakout single with his 2011 album, Rolling Papers, which debuted at number two on the albums charts.

Zoogma

Orion Stage • 2:05 p.m.

Oxford, Mississippi, upstarts Zoogma tap into the growing trends of uniting jam-band rock with dance-party electronica, and they put that combo across with a high-energy, high-tech live show.

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood

Orion Stage • 3:35 p.m.

Chris Robinson is best known as the singer and co-bandleader (along with brother Rich Robinson) of the Black Crowes. But he’s had a successful solo career, releasing three fine albums. His current live band, the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, features Memphian George Sluppick on drums.

Michael Franti & Spearhead

Orion Stage • 5:10 p.m.

Michael Franti emerged a couple decades ago as a hip-hop artist with the group the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy but has worked in elements of reggae, funk, jazz, soul, and rock as an eclectic solo artist fronting the backing band Spearhead. He finally scored his first crossover hit with his sunny but uncompromising 2008 anthem “Say Hey (I Love You).”

Herbie Hancock and His Band

Orion Stage • 6:55 p.m.

One of the true living legends of jazz, keyboardist/composer/bandleader Herbie Hancock helped shape the sound of post-bop jazz as a member of Miles Davis’ band in the ’60s, went on to help mainstream jazz embrace synthesizers and funk while leading his own band in the ’70s, and scored perhaps the last actual instrumental-jazz hit single with his MTV-era staple “Rockit” in the ’80s.

Primus

Orion Stage • 8:40 p.m.

Bass virtuoso Les Claypool has fronted the avant alt-rock trio known as Primus for nearly 30 years now. In that time, he’s seen many members (mostly drummers) come and go, but Claypool has maintained the same weird energy that drove hit singles like “My Name Is Mud.”

Old 97’s

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 2:15 p.m.

Alt-country isn’t a genre exactly known for heartthrobs. But if there is one, it’s Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s. The band has been together almost 20 years and over a dozen recordings — most of which center on Miller’s catchy (and, at times, gut-wrenching) tales of failed love and personal excess.

The Head and the Heart

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 3:50 p.m.

This Seattle folk-rock sextet mixes rollicking pop with rootsy Americana. A self-distributed debut in 2009 got the band signed to their hometown Sub Pop label, which led to opening slots with acts such fellow Beale Street Music Fest acts Dr. Dog and My Morning Jacket. Now a headliner, the band will head into their second Sub Pop album as one of the indie scene’s true bands on the rise.

Little Richard

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 5:25 p.m.

One of the last living legends of the ’50s rock explosion, Little Richard — who will turn 80 this year — brings his spine-tingling squeal and chaotic piano to the birthplace of rock-and-roll. Expect to hear such eternal and once-revolutionary hits as “Tutti Frutti” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.”

The Civil Wars

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 6:55 p.m.

This Nashville duo — Joy Williams and John Paul White — specializes in a folk-rock sound that unites modern-day production sheen with styles rooted deep in the 19th century: modest country laments, fervent gospel harmonies, elegant waltz-time hymns. Thanks to a Grey’s Anatomy placement and an endorsement from Taylor Swift — with whom they’ve since collaborated on a song for The Hunger Games soundtrack — the Civil Wars have become one of the biggest acts in Nashville.

Alison Krauss & Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas

Horseshoe Casino Stage • 8:30 p.m.

Alison Krauss emerged from the margins to become a folk-and-country leading lady even before she crossed over as one of the key figures on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. She’s gone on to duet from artists ranging from Brad Paisley to Robert Plant, all while remaining true to her bluegrass roots. For this Beale Street Music Fest performance, Krauss and her longtime band, Union Station, will be joined by dobro master Jerry Douglas.

Alexis P. Suter Band

FedEx Blues Tent • 2:05 p.m.

A nominee for Best Soul-Blues Female Artist at this year’s Blues Music Awards, the Brooklyn-born Suter began wowing audiences as a frequent performer at the late Levon Helm’s famed “Midnight Ramble” concerts and is now emerging as a potential new star on the roots/blues/soul scene.

Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Muscle Theory

FedEx Blues Tent • 3:40 p.m.

The Memphis-based Hart is one of blues and roots-rock’s most versatile talents — a guitar virtuoso equally adept at electric howlers and acoustic shimmies. His voracious musical appetite can erupt in everything from Delta blues to cosmic American country to arena-sized rock to more obscure stylistic byways. Hart will take the stage this weekend with his electric power-trio band, Muscle Theory.

Duke Robillard

FedEx Blues Tent • 5:15 p.m.

Former Roomful of Blues and Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist Michael John “Duke” Robillard has recorded and performed with a host of music legends over the years. A talented and popular solo act/bandleader in his own right, Robillard’s latest album, Low Down and Tore Up, came out last year.

Charlie Musselwhite

FedEx Blues Tent • 7 p.m.

This Memphis-connected blues legend is arguably the genre’s greatest living harmonica player. And despite being a blues-scene fixture for more than 40 years, he’s as vital as ever.

Robert Randolph & the Family Band

FedEx Blues Tent • 8:50 p.m.

Pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph emerged on the national scene as a part of the Word, a collaboration between John Medeski and the North Mississippi Allstars in 2001. Since then, he’s developed into one of the most hard-working soul/gospel musicians on the planet, releasing five full-length albums and touring the globe nearly nonstop with his backing group, the Family Band.

David Evans

Southern Comfort Blues Shack • 2:30, 3:15. & 4 p.m.

University of Memphis musicologist David Evans is both a scholar and practitioner of the region’s various blues and folk styles.

Kenny Brown

Southern Comfort Blues Shack • 5:45, 6:30, & 7:15 p.m.

North Mississippi blues guitarist Kenny Brown’s resume as a side player is unmatched. Over the years, he’s collaborated with nearly every noteworthy blues figure from the area. He’s also a capable frontman in his own right.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Have Food, Will Travel

Are you one of those avid reader, eater, and cyclist types? If so, “Dinner and Bikes,” an event Thursday night at Shelby Farms, is just the kind of thing you’ve been looking for.

Three West Coast travelers — Chef Joshua Ploeg, independent publisher Joe Biel, and cycling enthusiast and author Elly Blue — will be swinging into town to share a vegan feast, show off some books and zines, and talk cycling with Memphians. The event is part of a month-long tour of the Southeastern United States dedicated to sharing vegan food and cycling inspiration.

While we can’t wait to learn more about bicycle transportation in a city that was recently selected by the Bikes Belong Foundation to receive new and improved bike lanes, we’re a little more interested in what will be going on our plates.

Not surprisingly, Chef Ploeg is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-bike kind of guy. Matt Farr of Shelby Farms tells us when he asked Ploeg what ingredients to purchase for the vegan dinner, he responded, “I don’t know. Go crazy.”

And so it seems the element of surprise is as real to us as it is to Chef Ploeg. One thing we do know is that all of the food will be locally sourced and provided by the Farm-to-Fork Fellowship program in the Greenline Gardens at Shelby Farms Park as well as Urban Farms in Binghampton.

The vegan dinner bell rings Thursday, May 3rd, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased on the Memphis Hightailers website (memphishightailers.com) or by calling 767-7275.

Shelby Farms, 500 North Pine Lake (767-7275)

dinnerandbikes.com

Since the food-truck ordinance passed last spring, the health department has certified nearly 45 food trucks for operation. Still, the scatter plot of food trucks on Memphis streets seems less like a food-truck scene than, well, a scatter plot.

Taylor Berger of YoLo fame is working to fix that by bringing local food truckers together as members of the Memphis Food Truck Association.

“When I learned that there were 45 trucks on the road that were certified, I realized I only know about four of them,” Berger says. “I started looking around, and other cities have food-truck associations and a good website that shows where everybody is in real time and a calendar of where everybody is planning to be for the next few weeks.”

Berger hopes the organization will bring as many food trucks into the fold as possible to encourage food trucking in Memphis. He’s already planning a Downtown Lunch Food Truck Rodeo on May 10th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Court Square, and another one on June 2nd at Overton Park for the opening of the dog park.

As for the association’s long-term goals, Berger envisions weekly food-truck rodeos, increased social-media presence, cooperation with city and local property owners to find more places for food trucks to operate, and increased communication between food truckers.

“A lot of folks may be amazing cooks but could use help with social media and promoting themselves. We could all share best practices with each other,” Berger says. “There are so many of us, I feel like if we all came together we could make the food-truck scene awesome.”

An informational meeting is set for Monday, May 7th, at 11 p.m. at a still-to-be-determined location on Broad. For more information, call (561) 704-8196, email jill@yolofroyo.com, or check out the Memphis Food Truckers page on Facebook.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

English Class

The Deep Blue Sea, English filmmaker Terence Davies’ adaptation of English dramatist Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play, is one of the year’s richest films. But when it comes to movie criticism, “rich” is one of those terms, like “moving” or “lush” or “jaw-dropping,” that may sound meaningful but is actually meaningless. In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell once condemned such hollow words by arguing that “the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.”

Since it’s unwise to cross Orwell, I thought I’d offer two definitions of “richness” in the movies:

A visually rich film frequently provides moviegoers with thoughtfully composed, thought-provoking images. It also gives moviegoers plenty of time to look at and savor them. In the best passages of films like this, the primal pictorial pleasures of the moving image — light, color, bodies in motion — are emphasized. A rich literary film works in similar ways. It frequently provides its characters with thoughtfully composed, thought-provoking lines of dialogue. It also gives the viewer plenty of time to listen to and relish them. In the best passages of films like this, the consciously crafted charms of oral and written language — turns of phrase, tone of voice, the tension between words and feelings — are emphasized.

The Deep Blue Sea‘s sepia-toned color palette conceals a wide range of pictorial effects. Davies’ gauzy photography, drifting camera, and precisely framed imagery transform Rattigan’s melodramatic story about a love triangle between Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz, the best on-screen kisser in the movies), her successful husband Sir William (Simon Russell Beale), and her dashing, damaged lover Freddy (Tom Hiddleston) into a poetic meditation on the disastrous consequences of desire. In sequences like the one when Hester, fresh from a suicide attempt, blows some cigarette smoke that lingers in the window light of her cramped apartment, image, idea, and metaphor explode with the force of a muffled bomb blast.

Davies’ adaptation of Rattigan’s play is both obscure and direct, in keeping with its very 1950s-English stoicism. The key to the whole film slips out during a tense, passive-aggressive dinner Hester and William spend with William’s terrible mother-in-law (Barbara Jefford), who cautions Hester to “beware of passion; it always leads to something ugly.” She urges Hester to embrace “a guarded enthusiasm … it’s safer”; face nearly parallel to her dinner plate, Hester replies, “And much duller.”

I’m sad that I can’t share additional grand moments from the film, but one more example of Davies’ cinematic precision and care should help you decide whether you want to sip this director’s particular cup of tea. The penultimate encounter between Freddie and Hester occurs at dawn. As these two forceful personalities clash, Davies is sensitive enough to slightly change the amount of light in each shot to mimic the sunrise, so at the end of the sequence Hester is bathed in the rays of the new rising sun. Davies is one of the few filmmakers working today attentive to such a mundane miracle. He’s made a great film.

The Deep Blue Sea

Opens Friday, May 4th

Ridgeway Four

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Five-Year Engagement: funny and tender but a real drag.

Relationships: They get messy. They fall apart. They drag on.

To that, add pratfalls, crass humor, and men as overgrown babies and you’ve got another Apatow production.

Which is not to say that The Five-Year Engagement — the latest from director Nick Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek), star Jason Segel, and producer Judd Apatow — isn’t enjoyable, even charming. The film sets out to explore what happens after Tom (Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) are engaged. It’s a dose of reality and a welcome divergence from the typical romantic comedy set-up, and there are moments of real insight, even if punctuated by the predictable man-child humor you’ve come to expect from the producer of The Hangover, Superbad, and Anchorman.

Tom and Violet live in San Francisco — Tom working his way up the ladder in the restaurant business and Violet applying for post-doctorate fellowships for her psychology Ph.D. From the beginning — and from the film’s title, in case you were paying any attention at all — it’s clear this won’t be the kind of one-two engagement-wedding Tom and Violet would prefer.

The first delay comes with the news that Tom’s best friend Alex (Chris Pratt) has impregnated Violet’s sister, Suzie (played by Community‘s Alison Brie), at Violet and Tom’s engagement party, no less. Alex and Suzie are married in one of the most affectionate shotgun weddings you’ve ever seen, complete with Pratt’s comically emotive rendition of “Cucurrucucú Paloma.” That they never over-think their life together provides a smart foil to Violet and Tom, who are soon faced with yet another setback.

Violet is offered a spot in a post-doc program at the University of Michigan. Tom agrees to relocate with her, but as he submits his two-week notice, the head chef reveals that she had planned on putting him in charge of her new restaurant. Tom remains steadfast, choosing a life of slapping sandwiches together and scraping ice off his windshield in Michigan for the chance to stay with Violet.

Unhappy with their new life, Tom’s resentment builds when Violet is offered an indefinite extension of her collegiate work. One night, Violet shares a drunken kiss with her professor, which proves the nail in the coffin for Violet and Tom’s relationship. The two split for good — or so it seems.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a romantic comedy without some more twists and turns. The film does drag a little at times, and there are some moments of boyish silliness (an ejaculating carrot comes to mind), but there are also some very tender, very familiar truths in the chemistry between Segel and Blunt.

One of the couple’s tiffs ends with Tom saying he needs some alone time but also asking Violet to stay in bed with him. “I want to be alone, but with you here,” he says. The fight is one of the funnier and more honest moments in an on-screen relationship. If you didn’t think you could find that in an Apatow film, let The Five-Year Engagement change your mind.

The Five-Year Engagement

Now playing

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Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

CREDIT: Ryan Beiler | Dreamstime

I know it’s not just me, so what are the rest of you doing when you get these invitations to have dinner with President Barack Obama and George Clooney at Clooney’s house? I already donate to the Obama campaign regularly, and so far my real invitation must be lost in the mail. I don’t care so much about Clooney, but I would really love to have dinner with the president and his wife who, I just read, is campaigning in Arizona. (Michelle! Get out of that state, before they pull you over and toss you in jail!)

I would love to advise the president on a number of issues. Take the John Edwards trial: I wish President Obama would use his executive privilege and bring it to a screeching halt and save us the money it is costing every day. I know Edwards may not have the highest of morals, but come on. Who cares what he did with all that money — at least, the portion of it that Andrew Young didn’t spend to build that hideous “dream home.” And if anyone is going to be on trial, why isn’t it him? I don’t think he should be on trial either, but he did pocket 80 percent of the hush money. But it seems that it was just hush money and prosecutors are out to get Edwards to teach him a moral lesson, and that shouldn’t be mixed up with court proceedings. A lot of hungry folks could be fed with the money being spent on the trial.

I would also like to talk with the president about letting everyone out of prison who is not incarcerated for a violent crime. Again, how many hungry folks could be fed with the money it costs every day for a prison to house and feed someone who’s locked up for possession of pot? It’s ridiculous. There are roughly 50 million admitted pot smokers in the United States. Legalize it, decriminalize it, whatever. Just quit wasting money locking people up for it.

In fact, I would like to talk with President Obama about the entire United States prison system. It is not working. Inmates are left to fend for themselves, there is no shred of rehabilitation, there are as many drugs on the inside as there are on the streets, and people are regularly brutalized. What’s that, I hear you thinking? They are getting what they deserve? No, not really. And society is the main group getting shortchanged. Why not study violent criminals to find out what makes them that way and figure out a way to not make them that way. They could still be locked up, albeit in a different kind of facility and in a way that would not simply make them more violent. Maybe they could change. I don’t know, but I think it would be worth a shot.

And what about gay marriage? As intelligent and progressive as he is, you know Obama has to be completely in support of it but just can’t sign it into law because of the campaign and politics. Maybe he’ll do it in his second term. I still don’t understand why people think that gay marriage threatens marriage between a man and a woman. I wish someone would explain that one to me in a realistic way.

Education? College should be free. I don’t know how it would get paid for, unless we stop spending trillions of dollars on wars, but any high school senior who gets accepted to college but can’t attend because of lack of funds should get the money and not have to spend the rest of his or her life paying it back.

Arizona? Just let them secede from the country. I hope Michelle is okay out there. I don’t think I will ever go there in my lifetime.

Gas prices? I love the people who think high gas prices are the fault of the president. Have any of you looked at the earnings of the big oil companies? I guess Obama could try to pass a law that would put a maximum on what they are allowed to earn, but that still wouldn’t stop Iran and other Middle Eastern oil-rich countries from screwing around with the crude.

Exploiting the killing of Osama bin Laden for campaign ads? I know Arianna Huffington thinks it’s “despicable,” but I say go on with it. Who cares? If it had been a Republican president who took him out, his birthday would have been made a national holiday. All we heard about for a decade was the uber-dangerous Osama, and when Obama finally made the decision that got him, no one in the GOP was honorable enough to give him the credit he deserved. So I say, let him use it. And then send me my dinner invitation. I have much more I want to talk about with you.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from The Editor: The BS Crazy Merger Debate Society

CREDIT: Dreamstime

I should be an expert on the schools merger issue by now. I’ve read and edited the equivalent verbiage of War and Peace on the subject. Jackson Baker alone has probably written 50,000 words about the merger and the political machinations surrounding it. John Branston’s not far behind.

And I’ve had the distinct, um, pleasure of reading the approximately seven million web comments made on all those school merger articles. There’s a group of six or seven folks who seemingly have little else to do but argue with each other about the subject, 24/7 — members of what we on the staff lovingly call the Bat-Shit Crazy Merger Debate Society (BSCMDS). All of them are experts. And all of them are already writing comments on this column.

But despite all this, I can barely keep up with the proposed dates for possible municipal school elections, the Transition Planning Commission, the Unified (ha) School Board, etc. I do know this: We used to have a city school district with 100,000 or so kids, the majority African American. And we had a smaller county school system that was racially mixed but majority white. The names are going to change. That’s about it.

When Shelby County made noises about forming a separate district, the Memphis school board surrendered its charter, giving the responsibility for educating city kids to the county. In response, six suburban communities are now attempting to form their own municipal districts. I get why: If I lived in Collierville, I’d prefer to have a local, smaller system run by fellow Colliervillians (or is that Colliervillains?), rather than being part of a large all-county system.

The suburbs will get their way eventually. It will cost them dearly — in raised taxes (they’ll be paying to support two school systems), regular muni school elections, plus busing, maintenance, payroll, and all the other associated expenses of running schools. Not to mention, the coming legal battles on all fronts, from who gets what buildings to who gets to claim which students for ADA payments.

We will end up with a county school system that looks a lot like the current MCS, only it will have more money and a few more kids. With any luck, the Transition Planning Commission will come up with some innovative proposals to improve what’s already in place.

And my White Station freshman stepson will end up graduating from a county school, without even having to move out of the city. It’s like magic.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Cover Feature News

The New Old Blues

Beale Street is synonymous with the blues, and, this year, the most interesting and vital music at the Beale Street Music Festival is as likely to come from a handful of blues-based musicians — most but not all Memphis-connected — as from the more high-profile rock and rap headliners.

If the modern blues too often feels ossified — riffs and poses handed down from the Blues Brothers and white classic rockers — and self-contained, there are a group of artists on this year’s fest bill — North Mississippi Allstar Luther Dickinson, with his South Memphis String Band-mates Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus, Memphis-bred “secret” Valerie June, and Austin hotshot Gary Clark Jr. — whose common threads of relative youth, independence, iconoclasm, and musicality offer a compelling alternative path for the genre. One that looks backward and forward at the same time.

Dickinson will take to the Bud Light Stage on the opening night of the festival with his North Mississippi Allstars bandmates Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew, the long-standing trio rejuvenated by last year’s arguable career-best album Keys to the Kingdom. But four days later, Dickinson will preside over the simultaneous release of three roughly connected “side project” albums for three different labels: “Old Times There …,” the second album from the South Memphis String Band; Go On Now, You Can’t Stay Here, the debut from the Wandering, a regional roots-music “super group” of sorts that Dickinson organized; and Hambone’s Meditations, a

solo-acoustic guitar album that’s been a long-standing labor of love for Dickinson.

“The theme of it all is just acoustic music, for me,” Dickinson says of his May 8th hat trick. “I don’t even keep amps in my house. Alvin, he’ll plug up and rock out all day. But I just love acoustic music.

“You know me, I’m not a blues revivalist,” Dickinson says when asked about how this trio of releases fits into the current blues scene. “I’m not a blues traditionalist. Until I discovered hill country in the ’90s, I didn’t listen to any [blues music] made after the ’50s. I still don’t. That whole gray area was pretty depressing to me, after the heyday of ’50s electric blues. It just went wrong as far as I’m concerned.”

The solo album, recorded two years ago at the Dickinson family’s Zebra Ranch studio, has been in the works for a while, with the album delayed because Dickinson and partner David Katznelson, of Birdman Records, wanted to get the vinyl release just right.

“We’d been waiting to get the right packaging,” Dickinson explains. “We wanted the old-school Folkways wrap-around. It’s been tricky getting that. With that record, it’s all about the vinyl.”

The album — a collection of virtuoso musings on blues, folk, and gospel themes — was inspired by late avant-folk guitarists Jack Rose and John Fahey.

“Jack Rose, he’s who really inspired me,” Dickinson says. “I grew up with Fahey, but he used to freak me out when I was a little kid. A friend turned me on to Rose, and that led me back into John Fahey, which was a huge sigh of relief. Dad always told me, ‘Fahey got it, he was the man,’ and I just said, nah, that guy’s a weirdo.”

“Old Times There …,” South Memphis String Band’s second album, for the local Memphis International label, is as rowdy and communal as Hambone’s Meditations is gentle and introspective.

“For a group of guys who are as like-minded with the acoustic aesthetic as we are, we just cannot seem to get it together. It’s like we break up after every couple of shows and every recording,” Dickinson says with a laugh about a band where he tends to play the straight man in between the strong personalities of Hart and Mathus.

“Alvin and Jimbo are such characters, and they have so much in common,” Dickinson says. “They both worked on the river in their youths, and they’re both American history buffs, Alvin especially.” (Like Dickinson, Hart and Mathus will also be playing Music Fest with their primary projects: Mathus and his Tri-State Coalition on Friday and Hart’s Muscle Theory on Sunday, both in the FedEx Blues Tent.)

That sense of history filters into “Old Times There …,” which draws on early 20th-century acoustic blues and jug-band musicians such as Gus Cannon, Furry Lewis, and the Mississippi Sheiks. Covers such as the Sheiks’ “Turnip Greens,” Cannon’s “Can You Blame the Colored Man” (a sardonic vision of Booker T. Washington meeting President Teddy Roosevelt), and Lewis’ “B-L-A-C-K” (recorded as an ebony-and-ivory duet between Hart and Dickinson that mimics a version an elder Lewis did with white Memphis guitarist Lee Baker) stand out on an album that dives into the rich, twisted racial history of America and particularly the South — slavery, war, reconstruction, Jim Crow. Instead of shying away from the messiness at the very roots of American “roots” music, the South Memphis String Band reclaims it all with a knowing irreverence.

“Alvin was going for a racial edge,” Dickinson says. “That’s his theme for this record.”

The album was recorded on the quick, using vintage equipment, at Mathus’ Como, Mississippi, studio, with Justin Showah, of Mathus’ band, along as a fourth member.

“We made the first record at a radio station after our first tour. We did that first tour with two songs from another project, a photo, and a MySpace page. It was just a hustle,” Dickinson says. “During that tour we were at a radio station, and they said take your time, do whatever you want. So we stayed all afternoon and made a record. And Memphis International wanted to put it out. But we didn’t read the contract. They had an option for a second record and picked it up. So we made this record, under duress. But I’m really glad we did it. I think it’s way better than the first record.”

The Wandering’s Go On Now, You Can’t Stay Here, which is being released via Dickinson’s own Songs of the South imprint, is the most recent of this trio of projects. It started when Dickinson and his wife were musing over a photo of Valerie June.

“I was looking at a picture of Valerie June playing her banjo, and I thought about Amy [LaVere] playing her bass, her upright. And that made me think about Sharde [Thomas, Otha Turner’s granddaughter and the leader of the Rising Star Fife & Drum band] playing her drums. And then Shannon [McNally] was the logical guitar player/singer. The idea just kind of brewed,” Dickinson says. “I called them all up, and it kind of fell into place. I didn’t really know Valerie at all. Some of the girls knew each other. I was a fan of Valerie, but I didn’t really know her.”

The four women met up at Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch studio earlier this year.

“I told everybody, just bring three or four traditionals. That’s the perfect common denominator,” Dickinson says. “Dad used to say that was the best way to make a record: Get a bunch of people in the studio who don’t know each other.”

Instantly, they had a band. Three days later, they had a record.

The eclectic material, all covers, features each of the four women on lead vocals at least a couple of times: the Mississippi Sheiks’ “Sittin’ on Top of the World” (with Thomas on lead), the Byrds’ “Mr. Spaceman” (a palpably compassionate lead vocal from LaVere bolstered by harmonies from McNally and June), Kris Kristofferson’s “Lovin’ Him Was Easier” (McNally), and Robert Johnson’s “If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day” (June) among the highlights.

“The way Amy and Sharde groove is just unreal. Sharde’s such a cool, understated drummer, and Amy is so heavy on that upright. And Valerie’s banjo parts are like the secret weapon. They play really quiet and let Valerie have the space to pop through,” Dickinson says. “And then they started singing together, and it sounded so beautiful. It just made me so happy. I hadn’t even planned on playing on the record [Dickinson plays mainly mandolin and guitar], but it was so much fun I couldn’t resist.

“That’s terrible as a producer to put yourself in the band,” he says with a laugh.

The Wandering will hit the road soon after Music Fest for their first tour, working their way up north and back down south, with a local debut on May 19th at the Levitt Shell.

“I think it really has potential,” Dickinson says. “I hope that band has wings. I hope they stay together even if I’m not involved. Anybody can fill my spot.”

“We just went in and let the tape roll,” June says of the Wandering sessions. “I like the way they work at the Zebra Ranch. You look back, but you don’t look back too long.”

For June, a “best kept secret” for too long on the Memphis music scene, hitting the road with the Wandering will be a new experience after a fruitful year developing her solo career.

“It should be pretty fun,” June says. “This will be my first band experience.”

In the meantime, June — who will perform in the FedEx Blues Tent on Saturday — has been putting the finishing touches on a long-in-coming solo debut album, one recorded primarily in Nashville, in close collaboration with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who co-produced (with Los Angeles producer Kevin Augunas), co-wrote several songs with June, and plays on the record. Two additional songs for the album were cut in early spring in Los Angeles, both featuring Booker T. Jones, one co-written with the Stax icon. (Tying it all together: Mathus played guitar and mandolin on the album.)

“It’s a blend of a lot of what I do in a solo show, which is roots music — blues, folk, and country, with a hint of gospel,” June says of the work-in-progress album. “A blend of that with a more soulful note that Dan and Kevin brought to the table.”

June struggled some with the full-band sound Auerbach was pushing, having grown so used to her solo/acoustic sound honed through solo touring. She was concerned about having music on her debut album she wouldn’t be able to fully replicate on the road.

“I had a meeting with Dan and he said, ‘You don’t want to put a record out because you can’t play the songs?'” June says. “And I said, right, I can’t play the songs. And he said, ‘Why don’t you go home and sit down with your guitar and learn how to do your version of these songs, just like you would with a Jessie Mae song or a Carter Family song. Just do that. Just play it that way.’ That sounded good. I thought maybe I could do that. So I listened to it and thought I could do that, but I could also record more songs similar to what I do and have more of a balance as well.”

The result is a relatively even mix of solo and full-band recordings that June has made peace with.

The next step for June — a West Tennessee native now splitting time between Memphis, Nashville, and her primary residence in Brooklyn — is finding a label.

June finished mixing the album a couple of weeks ago and recently turned it in to her manager. She’s been courted by several labels, with interested industry reps trying to reconcile June’s risky originality with her considerable commercial potential. June is currently weighing multiple label offers, from both European and American outlets, and hopes to make a decision in the coming weeks.

“I think it’s hard for people to understand what I do because of the skin I’m in,” says June — as much a country artist as a blues one and not at all the neo-soul artist her image suggests to some — of her struggles negotiating the music industry despite so much interest in her. “The Civil Wars, the Alabama Shakes — with those bands the music matches the image. Labels want to make money, and to do that they want to be able to relate it to something else. People haven’t been able to do that with me, because what I’m doing is original. They don’t know if it will work. But I know it.”

This uncertainty could lead June — who recently married a Hungarian artist — to release the album overseas first.

“Europe seems to work for me, maybe because they don’t have the [racial] history of Americans. We have offers there and they’re very good and the money’s right. So we’re just waiting on the finished product. If we decide to go with the European label, it’s only going to come out there first. And we’ll build interest over there. I know with this record who I am and what I’m worth. And I know what I want out of a label. Until we see that, I think being independent here is the best thing for me.”

June says she hopes to have label stuff sorted out before the summer, but, she says, “I’m excited I’ve gotten this far.”

Meanwhile, June has been back in town rehearsing. She’s assembled a band featuring plenty of notable local musicians (Jason Freeman, Paul Taylor, Hope Clayborn) expressly for the Music Fest show but is hopeful she can use at least some of this new backing unit for future solo shows.

And with Dickinson on the road with the Allstars and Thomas — who will play with June at Music Fest — in college in Mississippi, June, LaVere, and McNally have been working together, recently going through what June calls a “48-hour crash course” to learn some of each other’s songs so the Wandering can turn its 38-minute album into a 90-minute live show.

Texas’ Gary Clark Jr. — who performs in the FedEx Blues Tent on Saturday — stands apart from Dickinson’s and June’s projects for a few reasons: He’s not Memphis-connected, his music is more electric than acoustic, and his commercial potential is more tangible. But, like them, his current music has a creative excitement and niche-defying reach that fruitfully explodes the confines of the blues genre.

It’s been a long time since a young blues player had this kind of potential. A decade ago, Hart and Corey Harris were emerging artists who boasted as much talent, but their personalities and interests were too esoteric to command as much mainstream interest. White guitar specialists Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd had crossover potential but fit safely within a certain blues-rock archetype and never excited critics or aesthetes. Clark is the first young blues artist with the chance to unite art and commerce in a major way since, I dunno, Robert Cray?

Clark signed to Warner Bros. Records after some explosive, high-profile festival performances, and the label took the unusual step of putting out a four-song calling card, The Bright Lights EP, last year, ahead of an upcoming full-length.

The Bright Lights EP is an impressive showcase of Clark’s range and command. The title track, on which Clark asserts, “You gonna know my name by the end of the night,” is a slow-burn blues-rock testament. “Don’t Owe You a Thang” is a sharp, quick-footed blast of juke-joint boogie. These electric cuts are followed by a couple of equally compelling solo/acoustic tracks: “Things Are Changin'” is an intimate, finger-picked soul ballad. The epic “When My Train Pulls In” is country blues with jazz shadings.

Interviewed last fall, before an appearance at the Levitt Shell, Clark said the forthcoming album, which he was still working on, would lean more toward the band (of Gypsies) style of the electric cuts on the EP. “Blues, rock-and-roll, and soul music, that’s what I’m going for,” he said.

“I would like to branch out a bit, but that just comes from being inspired by a lot of things. The blues is definitely my foundation,” Clark said when asked about taking his sound into the wider pop world. “If there’s an opportunity to do that, I’m up for it.”

Blues You Can Use At

Beale Street Music Festival:

North Mississippi Allstars

Bud Light Stage • Friday, May 4th • 6:10 p.m.

Jimbo Mathus’ Tri-State Coalition

FedEx Blues Tent • Friday, May 4th • 6:15 p.m.

Valerie June

FedEx Blues Tent • Saturday, May 5th • 7:10 p.m.

Gary Clark Jr.

FedEx Blues Tent • Saturday, May 5th • 10:45 p.m.

Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Muscle Theory

FedEx Blues Tent • Sunday, May 6th • 3:40 p.m.

And Beyond:

The Wandering

Levitt Shell • Saturday, May 19th • 7:30 p.m.

Thrash Unreal

Categories
Cover Feature News

Why “Class of ’86” metal legends Megadeth still matter.

When Chris Broderick joined Megadeth in 2008, he had been a fan of the band for most of his life. “I first heard Megadeth when Peace Sells… came out,” says the Colorado native, referring to the band’s legendary 1986 debut. “[The title track] hit MTV and radio like a storm.”

Broderick was only 16 years old at the time, but he was already playing guitar and gravitating to classical and jazz players as well as the usual guitar gods.

“I was always into the virtuoso guitarists and was a big fan of people like Jason Becker and Marty Friedman. I was following Marty when he joined Megadeth, so that’s when I became a real fan of the band.”

For any teenage metalhead in the 1980s, Megadeth were inescapable. Part of the legendary Class of ’86 — which includes Slayer and Metallica, who also released foundational debuts that year — frontman Dave Mustaine & Co. drew from British metal forebears but made music that was heavier and harder. It was, to some degree, punk with an emphasis on technical precision, and the genre grew in clubs and small venues, offering a sense of moshing community first to hundreds, later to thousands, and finally to millions of misfits.

Broderick is Megadeth’s sixth lead guitar player in its nearly 30-year history, following such distinctive players as Chris Poland, Marty Friedman, and Glenn Drover. Poland, a founding member, had a concise style that borrowed heavily from jazz, Broderick says, while “Marty had a more exotic sound. They’re all very different. And I think the same is true today with my playing. On the last CD, TH1RT3EN, we recorded classical guitar parts and flamenco parts.”

Like most metal bands, Megadeth encourages that kind of technical wizardry in the service of impossibly hard thrashing rhythms and lyrics that owe a debt to old EC Comics. Frontman Mustaine — who notoriously was kicked out of Metallica for his drinking — has guided the band to an enviable spot in the metal landscape: surviving drug addiction, charges of s atanism, dwindling sales, and the implosion of the music industry, Megadeth have become legends in the genre, although they don’t function as a nostalgia act.

In fact, Megadeth represents metal success in its truest form, and Mustaine, in particular, offers perhaps the best example of aging gracefully in a youth-based music. For an instructive contrast, compare him with Metallica, which became the biggest band in the world during the ’90s. Megadeth never enjoyed that level of success, but they’re arguably more revered and more active in the metal community. They fill large venues, headline huge festivals around the world, and have reached a point where their back catalog is being reissued and critically reconsidered. In 2012, they sound like metal lifers who are never too besotted with their own relevance and never too far removed from their own fans. Especially given the band’s long and contentious history, metal fans are notoriously divided into Team Megadeth and Team Metallica.

Broderick dismisses any rumor of rivalry. “I think a lot of people draw allegiances like that. Back when I was in high school, you were either in Team Judas Priest or Team Iron Maiden. Who knows why that is? People know the history between Dave and Metallica, so maybe that’s why the press and so many of the fans have trumped it up a bit more than what it really is.”

What throws that conflict into relief in 2012 is metal’s recent resurgence, which has not only critically rehabbed the Class of ’86 but introduced a new battalion of bands expanding on those thrash ideals. In publications that once never had much use for metal, groups like Mastodon, Baroness, High on Fire, and Wolves in the Throne Room, among many others, are receiving positive reviews and wider exposure than metal bands enjoyed a decade ago.

Broderick, for one, views this new attention somewhat skeptically: “I’ve seen a lot of smaller resurgences over the years, so I wonder, is it really coming out from the underground, or is the underground just getting a little bit bigger? I don’t think metal will become like pop or anything like that, although ultimately that’s for the fans and the public to decide.”

For metal to grow too big — at least in 2012 — would mean losing something essential, something that creates a personal connection between artist and audience. Megadeth thrives just outside the mainstream, but maintaining a smaller presence allows them to loom so much larger: “When I get onstage,” Broderick says, “I feel like I’m a part of something with the fans that’s much bigger than just a band playing onstage.”

Megadeth Beale Street Music Festival, Friday, May 4th, Orion Stage, 9 p.m.