Month: May 2014

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II: Anticlimax

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II is the second half of the all-night conversation between titular heroine Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and interpreter/partial audience surrogate Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) that began shortly after Seligman found Joe’s battered body in an alley at the start of Nymphomaniac: Vol. I. Among other things, the rest of Lars von Trier’s four-hour opus provides a measure of closure. But it’s also darker and uglier than its restless, dryly funny predecessor.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I wasn’t really about sex; it was about what we talk about when we talk about sex, although the “we” — men? women? intellectuals? artists? voyeurs? psychos? — remained elusive. Despite its early slapstick three-way and even more close-ups of male and female genitalia, Vol. II isn’t really about sex, either. If Vol. I was a movie about discovery and youth, then Vol. II is a movie about routine and adulthood. For von Trier, that means it’s almost by necessity a movie about pain and suffering.

Anhedonia, or the inability to inexperience pleasure, is Joe’s main problem throughout most of Vol. II. The way she tells it, her existence becomes conventional and meaningless as she grows older. She marries Jerôme (Shia LaBeouf), the man who took her virginity, and together they have a child. But somewhere along the way she loses her ability to experience any sexual pleasure; her last words in Vol. I are “I can’t feel anything.” After some painful, nearly pathological self-abuse, she begins to seek out more extreme forms of physical stimulation.

This need leads Joe into some dark places. One of the most frightening scenes in Vol. II is Joe’s initial encounter with K (Jamie Bell), a polite, chiseled sadist who’s set up shop in what looks like an abandoned hospital. Their first session together is a queasy mixture of BDSM, genteel propriety, and cold-eyed cruelty — as K states, with him there is no safe word. As he prepares to do whatever he’s going to do to her, K repeatedly whispers “take it easy” to Joe while he tightens the straps and ropes that render her more or less immobile. (Von Trier further increases Joe’s — and the viewer’s — fear and uncertainty by shooting her in tighter and tighter close-ups.) The unflinching brutality of K’s actions is undercut by the politeness of the post-whipping pleasantries. (“Thank you.” “You’re welcome.”) His Christmas gift to her is a cat o’ nine tails.

As young Joe, Stacy Martin was a pretty, vacant perfect human prop who intensified the clinical chilliness inherent in Vol. I‘s many sex scenes. But Gainsbourg, who finally starts to play herself in flashbacks about 20 minutes into Vol. II, is something else entirely. She’s a fearless performer whose talents evoke all kinds of weird stuff. How weird? Well, it’s almost a relief when she stops pursuing sex and begins a life of crime.

Like its companion piece, Nymphomaniac: Vol. II resists simple categorization. It’s a movie to endure first and figure out afterward. But it’s nonetheless essential viewing of a sort. And its final scene is as pitiless (and, some might say, inevitable) as a sunrise.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Opens Friday, May 2nd

Wolfchase

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Safe Words

Dom Hemingway begins with an extended monologue about the “exquisite” handsomeness of a certain man’s penis: The penis belongs to Dom Hemingway; the soliloquist is Dom Hemingway. The convicted safecracker is receiving oral sex from a fellow prisoner, and, as the description goes on and on, with references to Picasso and whatnot, enjoyment comes not from the scenario but from the delight actor Jude Law takes in reading those lines and playing so far against type. He’s a mutton-chopped brute, a trash poet who likes the way words feel in his mouth, who doesn’t have a thought that doesn’t pass through his lips, who tries out different ways of saying things as if listening for the tumblers to fall into the correct place, who narrates as if David Mamet or the Coen Brothers were crammed in his skull feeding him lines.

So goes the vulgar charm of Dom Hemingway. Hemingway is released from prison — the yegg served time but never ratted out his friends — and takes his freedom like he’s been fired out of a cannon. He’s looking for a man and won’t even take the time to stop for traffic to find him, which he does promptly, beats the hell out of the guy for having stolen his “betroved,” and then hits a pub because he fancies a pint. Law/Hemingway is mesmerizing.

Hemingway reunites with an old accomplice, Dickie Black (Richard E. Grant), who gets him drunk and laid. Successfully hungover, which Hemingway describes as “fucking insurgents inside my brain, Cossacks sodomizing my cranium,” he rendezvous with Mr. Fontaine (Demián Bichir), the man who hired Hemingway when he took the fall 12 years before. Hemingway is hoping he gets a very generous reward for doing right by Fontaine; Dickie assures Hemingway he will, but the look on Dickie’s face suggests Fontaine may kill them both to save the dime or might lowball Hemingway and things could get ugly.

The second act of the film takes place over the weekend in the European countryside among the three reunited thieves. Each character is absurdly lurid in some way: Hemingway has his thing going on; Dickie has a prosthetic hand in a black glove and kind of looks like an aging but cautious hedonist, the way Grant naturally does; and Fontaine was raised in a Russian orphanage, kills people for a living (“one of the most dangerous men in Europe”), and has a fatally beautiful mistress (Mădălina Diana Ghenea). You’re not sure if Hemingway will survive the weekend or what/who will kill him if he doesn’t.

The film is more visually stylish than is necessary, which is always appreciated. Director (and writer) Richard Shepard and cinematographer Giles Nuttgens do interesting things with color gels, and the set design is bold. The script is a little off square, though. A subplot with Dom’s daughter (Emilia Clarke) and grandson (Jordan A. Nash) is sympathetic but requires more flesh, and another subplot with a gangster who needs a safe broken into (Jumayn Hunter) goes nowhere fast. Dom Hemingway doesn’t quite hold up favorably to recent films it will draw comparisons to, such as Layer Cake and Sexy Beast.

Law’s personal satisfaction only takes the audience so far, and the film can’t quite sustain the breakneck fun. But it sure as hell tries.

Dom Hemingway

Opens Friday, May 2nd

Studio on the Square

Categories
Flyer Flashback News

Up, Up, and Away

With the Memphis In May Beale Street Music Festival once again upon us, we take a look back to the 1999 Best of Memphis issue, which featured a staff pick on one memorable music fest appearance:

“Best Performance R&B artist Lois Lane is all-woman and then some. She threw out all kinds of moxie at this year’s Memphis In May Beale Street Music Festival. Thrilling the nearly all-white crowd with her gyrating and forcefully lewd performance, she kicked up the fun when she invited a few members of the audience to get onstage with her to dance. Among those was a young man who couldn’t resist spanking himself. Such is the superpower of Lois Lane.”

But this was not the first appearance by Lane in the Flyer, nor the last. Lane was at the center of a true-blue Memphis phenomenon, which began in 1997 at Bill’s Twilight. Groups of folks would crowd the dance floor to perform a line dance/slide hybrid to an electronic jangle of a tune that featured a riff from Booker T. & the MGs’ “Chinese Checkers.”

Lane’s friend Mixx Master Lee convinced her to write some lyrics for that number, which they reintroduced at Bill’s. Then things went nuts.

The Bar-Kays’ James Alexander founded JEA Music to release the single, which sold 40,000 copies and was played in regular rotation on radio station K97. An album was the next obvious step, and Lane worked with Al Kapone to write songs for The Adventures of Lois Lane.

Lois Lane, of course, was not the singer/rapper’s real name. She said her audacious onstage persona was something she adopted as well. Lane was booked for appearances most nights of the week, and she quit her day job because being Lois Lane was her job. Her upward projection continued when Alexander helped her get a deal with Sony.

A May 5, 2000, cover story details what happened next: “It was an exciting time for Lane. Sony flew her and her sister to New York City to talk specifics. She would do a video, and she would become ‘Miss Lane’ to avoid any conflict with the D.C. comics character. She ate at Puff Daddy’s restaurant, she shopped, and she saw Carnegie Hall.

“Then they flew her to Los Angeles for a photo shoot. ‘I had a daytime look of Lois Lane and the evening look. I was like the caped crusader or something,’ she says, explaining that part of her act would be her transformation from the daytime to the nighttime Lane. They put wigs on her and covered her in baby powder so she could get into rubber outfits. They even convinced a non-short-skirt-wearing Lane that she could show the leg and wear six-inch spike-heeled, thigh-high boots. ‘I’m going to stand up straight,’ she remembers thinking, ‘because if I bend over, I’ll be mooning everybody.’

“Of course, she loved all the pampering. ‘I felt so good. I felt like a star, you know?’

“Lane returned to Memphis, and Sony sent a choreographer to work with her. Tryouts were held for dancers, who were not only required to dance well but to be able to morph from daytime to nighttime as the new Miss Lane would. And then nothing.”

Sony dropped Lane, and the cover story concludes with Lane contemplating her next step. What’s become of Lane is unknown. Alexander says that The Adventures of Lois Lane was the first and last album that she recorded for him.

“She went Hollywood on me,” Alexander explains. “I had to move on.”

Alexander says he keeps up with almost everybody he’s worked with. He says he spoke to Lee, who now lives in Nashville, about a month ago. He says he has no idea what’s become of Lane. He’s certain that she’s no longer performing.

Says Alexander, “She had the makings of a real big star.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Scoot Up

CREDIT: alexandra pusateri

Riding a scooter provides a different way of seeing things, Shawn Smith says, tossing his head to the side as we ride down Front Street. It’s a little hard to hear him through the borrowed helmet on my head, so I have to lean down to listen.

My hands grip the handles on the side of his Majesty scooter, holding on as we follow others ahead. It’s my first ride through the city on the back of a motor scooter.

Smith is one of many scooter enthusiasts celebrating the seventh annual Dead Elvis Rally in Memphis, organized by the Memphis Kings Scooter Club. More than 100 people from all over the country (and even Canada) come to the city each year for the four-day event, which took place this past weekend.

alexandra pusateri

A scooter makes its way through an obstacle course at the Dead Elvis Rally “Kingkhana” competition.

Not surprisingly, scheduled rides — long and short — make up most of the activities. One ride takes scooter drivers on a tour of past movie set locations in Memphis, while another one offers a musical tour of the city.

Smith’s scooter has a 395-cubic centimeter (cc) engine, which dictates its top speed. When he says someone once topped it out at more than 140 miles per hour, the grin on his face testifies on his behalf.

Scooters at the rally range anywhere from 50cc, which tops out at about 40 miles per hour, to Smith’s hefty engine. Anything above a 50cc scooter requires a motorcycle license.

Smith, a member of the Mid-South Scooter Collective, has been riding for more than 10 years but has been interested in scooters for far longer.

“My parents said I couldn’t, so I went into the Navy for 23 years and now I do what I want,” Smith says.

For folks like Smith and his fellow scooter enthusiast Tim Adair, the scooter lifestyle is a hobby that began a long time ago. Adair has been riding since he was about 3-years-old but says he has a knack for just about anything on wheels, racing with cars and contending in BMX.

“I started off on a little mini-bike that my dad had built for my brother and said, ‘Take off!’ It was all over after that,” he says. “As an adult, it’s expanded into my career.”

Local motorcycle/scooter shop Performance Plus, where Adair is a service manager, is one of the many sponsors of the Dead Elvis Rally and raffles off a new scooter to event-goers.

Adair also owns his own business called Alleyway Customs, which personalizes motorcycle and scooter builds.

Adair, who touts his competitive nature, ends up winning two events in the rally’s Kingkhana competition that took place at Mud Island. There, riders show off their skills in a timed obstacle course and even compete to see who has the slowest scooter (without touching their feet to the ground, of course), among other events.

Almost as quickly as it began, my scooter ride through downtown — like the Dead Elvis Rally — comes to an end. As I pull the helmet off, Smith points to my face with a gloved finger.

“She’s got it. She’s got the grin,” he says. “Once you get that grin, it’s over. You’re addicted.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly On The Wall

Found Puppy

This flyer spotted in a window on the Main Street Mall advertises a found “puppy.” The animal, which is described on the poster as being “not very friendly” and “Fe-Male,” has an awfully nice smile. We here at “Fly on the Wall” hope that s/he will be reunited with her/his human sooner rather than later.

Panty Raid

A Memphis man was arrested last week for possession of women’s underwear with intent to sell. According to reports, Joe Milam opened his very special pop-up shop at a downtown MATA station and attempted to sell approximately $800 worth of Victoria’s Secret underwear. The fancy drawers were unworn and still festooned with original price tags and clearly ineffectual anti-theft devices. Few souvenirs really scream “Memphis” like a pair of stolen bus station panties.

Verbatim

Last week, the late-night scene on Beale after the Grizzlies/Thunder game blew the mind of at least one blogger for The Oklahoman. Some excerpts: “As nutty as this series has been, it pales in comparison to Beale Street … the 21st century version of Dodge City on a Saturday night … This was a scene so full of madness, people from Chicago were stunned … A guy asked if we were news media. Said we ought to do a story on discrimination. Said he wasn’t allowed onto Beale Street because he was wearing animal print.” The Convention & Visitor’s Bureau just can’t buy that kind of advertising.

Categories
News

No Country For Old Men

Bruce VanWyngarden wonders what’s up with all the racist old geezers?

Categories
News

The Music Issue

Joe Boone previews three off-the-beaten-path acts you should check out at Beale Street Music Festival this weekend.

Categories
Music Music Features

Beale Street Music Fest: The Bands

Beale Street Music Fest: The Bands

Friday, May 2

Lord T & Eloise

FedEx Stage • 6 p.m.

Aristocrunk, the combination of debauched continental privilege and Deep South horror-core hip-hip, was founded by royalty right here in Memphis. Lord T & Eloise established the upper limit on wealth, braggadocio, and rococo trappings in the rap community. Providing an absolutist approach to policy issues, such as day drinking and fine cobblery, Lord Treadwell and Maurice Eloise XIII rain down doubloons and malt beverages on the 1-percenters themselves.

MS MR

Bud Light Stage • 6:05 p.m.

Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow formed this duo, which is signed to Columbia, while attending Vassar College. In a musical environment where duos and DJs pack everything they can find into tracks, MS MR reserve the spaces between the beats for Plapinger’s voice. She has earned the distinction, and the music is all the better for the style. It’s refreshing to see the voice take the primary focus of a band working in this milieu.

Project Pat

Orion Stage • 6:10 p.m.

Project Pat will be the perfect pick for anyone salivating to hear street-influenced lyrics spewed with a Southern drawl over bass-ridden tracks. The North Memphis-bred spitter has been doing his thing since the ’90s and continues to keep his name ringing. He’s released several projects over the past few calendars and was featured on his younger brother Juicy J’s Never Sober Tour earlier this year. He’s also putting the finishing touches on the sequel to his platinum-selling classic album, Mista Don’t Play: Everythangs Workin. Keeping the crowd pleased shouldn’t be too difficult for the gold-grill sporting Southern rap heavyweight.

Lucky Peterson

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 6:10 p.m.

Look out for Lucky Peterson. He had a hit at age five and grew up in a club where he soaked in blues and jazz from greats like Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed. Decades later he can still seem like a kid when he plays. Peterson can assume all sorts of musical guises — from wearing stylin’ suits onstage with Wynton Marsalis in France to running around the joint in a biker jacket with a Gibson 330. He’ll play gospel-spiked R&B on the Hammond or wild-dog blues on guitar. It all sounds good. Peterson’s backing band is worth the ticket, but he is a lively guitarist whose tone can be startlingly cool. Watching a musician who still has such enthusiasm for performing is a blast. Peterson would not be having so much fun if his audience wasn’t happily riled up, too.

GROUPLOVE

Grouplove

FedEx Stage • 6:50 p.m.

GROUPLOVE is a big, happy, and appropriately named collective of musicians. The group met traveling in Greece and New York. They bring an international bend to the traditional American pop collective: While the Mamas & the Papas and the Band might come to mind when you think of big, homey groups of talented musicians, GROUPLOVE is of these times. Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi bring big voices and a reliable pop sensibility to this group of talented players. That GROUPLOVE is hard to characterize speaks to their genre-bending capacities. They may look like a pop phenomenon, but this is a real band with good songs.

Third Eye Blind

Bud Light Stage • 7:30 p.m.

Those who grew up on MTV’s Total Request Live need no introduction to Third Eye Blind. With hits like “Jumper” and “How’s it Going To Be,” Third Eye Blind were one of THE alternative bands from the ’90s, alongside other radio-friendly groups like the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20. Since starting in 1993, the alternative band from San Francisco has released four studio albums, appearing every few years or so to drop another album and keep the idea alive that purple-tinted sunglasses equal rock-and-roll. While their latest efforts might not live up to the hype of Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind is a must for anyone in their mid-20s wanting to take a trip down memory lane.

Dropkick Murphy’s

Dropkick Murphys

Orion Stage • 7:35 p.m.

While they have had a loyal following from Warped Tour types for years, it wasn’t until Martin Scorsese’s 2007 film The Departed that the Dropkick Murphys became a household name. That movie introduced the world to their song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” a mega-hit that’s played at just about every sporting event you can think of. Since signing to Warner Brothers in 2007, Dropkick Murphys’ success continues to grow, with their last two albums making it to no. 9 and no. 6 on two Billboard charts. Not bad for a humble punk band from Massachusetts.

Will Tucker

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 7:40 p.m.

An up-and-comer on Beale, Tucker has settled in at B.B. King’s, where he started at age 14 and his band still has its regular Friday night gig. Tucker has opened for King and played with Charlie Musselwhite, the Beach Boys, and others. He’s attracted attention beyond the local blues scene, notably that of American Idol judge and populizer of the word “dawg,” Randy Jackson, who called upon the young Memphian for two soundtrack jobs. Tucker has earned warehouses of local fan-favorite awards and will be one to watch for another half century.

Juicy J

FedEx Stage • 8:20 p.m.

Thanks to his platinum single (and twerk phenomenon) “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” Juicy J has transcended from being known as a co-founder of Memphis’ most prosperous rap group, Three 6 Mafia, to a groundbreaking solo artist. Currently a part of Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang imprint, he dropped his Stay Trippy album in 2013 and is prepping the release of his forthcoming project, The Hustle Continues, later this year. The last time Juicy performed at the festival was in 2012 alongside fellow Three 6 Mafia co-founder DJ Paul. This time around, Juicy will perform by his lonesome, but if it’s anything like his recent concerts, be ready for a high-energy show and maybe a little twerking from talented dancers.

Fitz & the Tantrums

Bud Light Stage • 9:10 p.m.

Fitz & the Tantrums is an R&B/soul-inspired indie rock band that hails from Los Angeles. Formed in 2008, the group is fronted by a pair of dynamic lead singers — Noelle Scaggs and band founder/namesake Michael Fitzpatrick — and made its name in the underground music world through tours in support of groups like Hepcat, Flogging Molly, and Maroon 5, as well as a semi-legendary performance at Austin’s South By Southwest music festival in 2010. Later that year, the band unveiled its first full-length album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces, which garnered rave reviews and led to national television appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Conan, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The 2013 follow-up More Than Just a Dream also received positive reviews on the strength of the band’s solid pop hooks and club-ready beats.

311

Orion Stage • 9:15 p.m.

Nick Hexum and his DJ-infused pop-funk outfit have been riling up folks since 1988. They didn’t let a Bruce Willis-style escape from a burning tour bus hold them back and hit triple-platinum in 1995 with their self-titled third album. This year’s Stereolithic is their 11th album. 311 spices up the typical bro-funk-metal thing with elements of pop and ska. You don’t make it this far without a good live show.

Marco Van Rooijen

Ana Popovic

Ana Popovic

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 9:15 p.m.

Hailing from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Popovic has colonized the contemporary American blues scene. Growing up under the government of Slobodan Milosevic, she formed a band and rose as the nationalist regime fell. She took a music-study opportunity in Switzerland, turned it into European notoriety, and eventually landed a record deal in Memphis with producer Jim Gaines. She covered “Belly Button Window” for the Jimi Hendrix tribute album Blue Haze, which also featured cuts by Carlos Santana and John Lee Hooker. She’s a Memphian now, which is awesome.

Pretty Lights

FedEx Stage • 9:55 p.m.

A festival and neo-jam-circuit veteran with a sound that harkens back to a funkier age of hip-hop — Grand Puba, Funkdoobiest, and De La Soul come to mind. There is an underlay of ’70s-era funk that was an essential aspect of ’90s rap, but Pretty Lights brings to bear the big filters and synths that dominate less thoughtful electronic dance music. The latest release, A Color Map of the Sun, has no canned samples. Derek Smith recorded real musicians playing tracks and pressed them to vinyl.

Foster the People

Bud Light Stage • 10:50 p.m.

“All the little girls with their pumped up kicks …” That song. “Pumped Up Kicks” was Foster the People’s radio hit of 2011. Catchy as hell and worthy of a Grammy nomination, the skinny-jeans pop tune became a certified earworm and was a big break for former jingle writer Mark Foster. Their sound is a blend of digital production with occasional cameos by real instruments. The band released their follow-up album Supermodel last month. Foster’s jingle-writing past is still apparent, but Supermodel has a wider range of sounds and ideas than their debut Torches.

Snoop Dogg AKA Snoop Lion

Snoop Dogg aka Snoop Lion

Orion Stage • 11 p.m.

Snoop Dogg, or Snoop Lion, is likely to keep the crowd entertained at this year’s festival with more than two decades of hits to select from during his set. One of gangsta rap’s pioneers, Snoop has managed to diversify his archive throughout his career and appeal to individuals from all walks of life. His ability to maintain relevance and innovate new sounds, slang, and ways to hustle has preserved his seat among hip-hop’s elite. Fans of timeless tracks from the golden era of gangsta rap up until the modern hip-hop sound will be in for a treat when the D.O. double G. graces the Orion Stage.

Dickey Betts & Great Southern

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 11 p.m.

The name Dickey Betts is virtually synonymous with Southern rock. As a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, Betts is a certified music legend, having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. In fact, two of the group’s biggest hits — “Jessica” and “Ramblin’ Man” — are both Betts’ compositions. Betts has also been quite prolific on his own over the years, releasing several successful solo albums in his esteemed career. His current touring band, Great Southern, also features his son Duane Betts (named for his former counterpart Duane Allman) on guitar.

Kenny Brown

Blues Shack • Times Vary

Kenny Brown has blues cred like few others. R.L. Burnside referred to the slide-playing Nesbit, Mississippi, native as his adopted son. Brown also studied under Joe Callicott, the hill country legend whose sound and life emerged from the darkness of the forgotten North Mississippi sound as he mentored Burnside as well as Brown. As Burnside rose from obscurity to celebrity in the 1990s, Brown was essential to the sound and the logistics, serving as a grateful student to a renowned master. Brown has attained mastery in his own right and is a first-order exponent of the hill country sound.

Robert “Wolfman” Belfour

Blues Shack • Times Vary

Belfour is another second-generation hill country bluesman. A protégé of fife-and-drum bandleader Othar Turner, Belfour takes the acoustic bargain and keeps that regional drone and drawl humming in the air. His driving, rhythmic pulse bounces under his thumb as his fingers syncopate with sheet-lightning chords and jumper-cable lines. Belfour’s voice has the stone assurance that keeps the gravitas in the mix. This is the real deal.

Big Gigantic

Late Night at FedEx Stage • 12:15 a.m.

Big Gigantic, another duo arising from the lap-top-driven dance scene, take a more proactive approach to getting down over beats and samples. The group is driven by drummer Jeremy Salken and saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli, with their live, instrumental ornamentation of the dance-music stock earning them the label of “livetronica.” Their latest album is The Night is Young. This is another big light show situation, which is de rigueur for the lap-top set.

Saturday, May 3

Sonny Burgess & the Legendary Pacers

FedEx Stage • 2:10 p.m.

Of all the rockabilly artists to cut records at Sun in the 1950s, very few could match the raw, raucous energy and excitement captured on vinyl by Albert Austin “Sonny” Burgess and his band, the Legendary Pacers. Burgess played in a boogie-woogie dance band before moving to Memphis. His dance-band sensibility is evidenced by swinging guitar-driven arrangements decorated with squawking horns, pounding keys, and wild call-and-response refrains. Burgess gets more rock on his first Sun single “We Wanna Boogie” than most artists manage in an entire career.

Daddy Mack Blues Band

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 2:15 p.m.

Mack Orr has been on the Memphis blues scene for decades and is known for a solid show that represents the Memphis sound in blues. Daddy Mack’s sound is derived from Albert King and redolent of the great Memphis blues bands that lasted into the early 1990s around Green’s Lounge. It’s R&B-infused but keeps things funky, earthy, and analog. Daddy Mack has a catch phrase, and he earned it: “When people say, ‘Memphis blues ain’t what it used to be,’ they haven’t heard the Daddy Mack Blues Band.” In a town that thrives on the braggadocio, there’s a lot of truth to what he says.

Eric Gales

Orion Stage • 2:25 p.m.

Gales’ latest undertaking is Pinnick Gales Pridgen, a collaboration with bassist dUg Pinnick and drummer Thomas Pridgen. The hard-hitting, radio-ready rock band features Gales’ renowned electric fireworks. He learned Hendrix parts (complete with the upside-down lefty approach) from older brother Little Jimmy King. Gales has played with Carlos Santana and Mitch Mitchell and remains in a tiny group of peers who play with the aural ferocity of Jimi Hendrix. He has released more than a dozen albums.

Memphis Dawls

Bud Light Stage • 2:30 p.m.

The trio of Holly Cole, Jana Misener, and Krista Wroten Combest started working on their sweet harmonies in high school, and it shows. Their soaring, complex vocal arrangements and guitar, cello, and violin sounds blend seamlessly to create a unique sonic space. Their music defies easy genre description, drawing influences from such disparate elements as Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, the Andrews Sisters, Otis Redding, and others. Their deeply felt folk style has been attracting big crowds in Memphis and beyond, where the band has opened for Jack White and toured America on their own. Don’t miss this hometown favorite.

Carolina Chocolate Drops

FedEx Stage • 3:20 p.m.

There are few sounds on Earth more joyful than listening to Rhiannon Giddens gorgeously singing an a cappella Irish reel while one of her bandmates in the Carolina Chocolate Drops beatboxes. The Chocolate Drops are an old-time string band from North Carolina and beatboxing doesn’t figure large in the group’s traditional banjo, mandolin, and fiddle-driven sound. But when they do break it out, the mingling of the ancient and contemporary can be something truly special.

Blind Mississippi Morris

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent 3:50 p.m.

“I’m one of the lucky ones,” Morris told film director Bill Totolo. “There’s a lot of people got trapped down there and all their dreams died between them rows, choppin’ that cotton and pickin’. All their dreams died right there. But I got the chance to come to Memphis and further my life and see other things and do other things.” Morris is a harp player from Clarksdale and is an institution at Memphis’ Center for Southern Folklore.

Los Rabanes

Los Rabanes

Orion Stage • 4 p.m.

Representing this year’s Memphis In May honored country of Panama, Los Rabanes started out as a raw punk band playing the bars of Central America and, over their 20-year history, have grown into an international phenomenon. Everything about the Latin Grammy winners’ sound is eclectic and original, mixing bits of ska, calypso, and soca with more traditional Latin rock, and singing in a fiery combination of Spanish and English. With songs like the international hit “Bam Bam,” they will keep your booty shaking.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

Bud Light Stage • 4:05 p.m.

Soul never dies, it just keeps on moving and changing. Birmingham, Alabama’s St. Paul & the Broken Bones are dedicated to bringing the legacy of the Muscle Shoals soul sound into the 21st century. Lead singer “St. Paul” Janeway understands that good soul is always rooted in the sacred music of the church, and the group’s first full-length album Half The City has been getting attention for its soulful, rootsy sound. Watch Memphis keyboard hotshot Al Gamble help out with the band’s energetic live show.

Blues Traveler

Blues Traveler

FedEx Stage • 4:55 p.m.

Best known for catchy hit singles like “Hook,” “Run-Around,” and “But Anyway,” New Jersey alternative/jam-rock act Blues Traveler is a well-established live commodity, having toured consistently since the early ’90s. The band is fronted by harmonica virtuoso John Popper, who also serves as lead singer. In its 25-year-plus history, Blues Traveler has also released 11 studio albums (including 1994’s Four, which cracked Billboard‘s Top 10) and played countless festivals, including Lollapalooza, H.O.R.D.E., Woodstock, and Bonnaroo.

Quinn Sullivan

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 5:25 p.m.

Fifteen-year-old blues guitar prodigy Quinn Sullivan has already done more in his short but illustrious career than artists more than three times his age. Initially discovered on The Ellen DeGeneres Show at the tender age of six, Sullivan has gone on to share the stage with blues legends like Buddy Guy and B.B. King, as well as appear on other national TV shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. He’s also released two studio albums thus far, 2011’s Cyclone and 2013’s Getting There.

Aer

Orion Stage • 5:35 p.m.

Formerly a full band called Fresh Aer Movement, Aer is abbreviated in name and in personnel. Carter Schultz and David von Mering pared things down to a duo and hit with their 2011 EP What You Need, sing-songy, poppy hip-hop in the vein of G. Love & Special Sauce. Their next record, The Bright Side, showed some exposure to ’90s hip-hop but didn’t stray too far from the easy and accessible.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Bud Light Stage • 5:45 p.m.

One could argue that Elvis had to go make movies because he couldn’t burn the house down like Jerry Lee. Nobody before or since has laid down such a primal musical gauntlet as did the Ferriday, Louisiana, native when he bum-rushed Sun Studio and recorded Big Maybelle’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” in 1957. Other people are singers or piano players. He is the fissile material in the detonation of rock-and-roll, and he’s still going. There are videos online of him performing recently. He’s 79 years old. He still tears up a piano.

Buddy Guy

FedEx Stage • 6:35 p.m.

The Louisiana native is one of the revered architects of Chicago blues. While on the legendary Chess records, he recorded with the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. These recordings would go on to be revered by a generation of blues rockers like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. His flamboyant live performances and feedback-heavy style were cited by Jimi Hendrix as his greatest influence. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee has played on dozens of albums and taken his sound live around the world. He’s a true blues legend who is still going strong at 77.

Reba Russell Band

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 7 p.m.

Now in her fourth decade of working the Memphis music scene, Russell has forged an independent career alongside her bass-playing, art-making husband. The only person she ever “worked for” was Chips Moman, for whom she sang with Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Ringo Starr, and U2. Otherwise, she has released her own work and formed a production company with business partner Dawn Hopkins called Blued Eyed Bitches. Russell established her place among the wild-hare, furiously independent Memphis music world and continues to chart her own path with songs that embody her feisty spirit.

Wolfmother

Orion Stage • 7:10 p.m.

Guitarist Andrew Stockdale’s hard-rocking trio took their native Australia by storm in 2006, selling a half-million records and winning a Grammy for their song “Woman.” Stockdale’s soaring vocals can sound uncannily like prime Ozzy Osborne, and his guitar prowess rivals any metal gunslinger you care to name. But they can also do fast and hard garage rock and woozy psychedelia, slipping between styles sometimes within the same song. After a brief hiatus, the band is back with the recently released album New Crown.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

Bud Light Stage • 7:20 p.m.

Cleveland’s thuggish-ruggish hip-hop supergroup Bone Thugs-N-Harmony know a thing or two about writing a hit. From the silky smooth voice of Krayzie Bone to the classic beats used on tracks like “Tha Crossroads” and “1st of tha Month,” songs by Bone Thugs are usually recognizable within the first few seconds. Although the group saw the height of their fame in 1997 when they won multiple awards (including a Grammy for Best Rap Album) for their album E. 1999 Eternal, Bone Thugs have stayed active despite line-up changes, releasing six studio albums since the mid-’90s.

Twenty One Pilots

FedEx Stage • 8:15 p.m.

Pure pop. Twenty One Pilots has a knack for the sugar. This duo has a divining rod to tunes that are current and catchy. The chirpy, adolescent-crisis-confessional raps and dance-derived synth pads stay on target. That focus earned drummer Josh Dun and producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer Tyler Joseph — who would be perfect if they redid the FedEx commercial where the guy talked real fast — a spot on the 2014 MTV Music Awards broadcast.

Kenny Neal

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 8:40 p.m.

They say Kenny Neal was 3 years old and making a racket crying about something when Slim Harpo put a blues harp in his mouth to quiet him. Despite the questionable logic of giving a child a harmonica, things worked out. Neal grew up in a home filled with legends: Harpo, Lazy Lester, and Buddy Guy were family friends. It’s no wonder that decades later Neal has earned Grammy nominations and Handy Awards.

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

Orion Stage • 8:50 p.m.

Joan Jett is a genuine rock legend. In 1975, she founded the Runaways, a pioneering, all-female rock band perched on the cusp of glam, metal, and punk. As a solo artist in the 1980s, she had chart-topping success with “I Love Rock ‘n Roll,” “Bad Reputation,” and “I Hate Myself For Loving You.” Not only is she a feminist icon who has been portrayed onscreen by Kristen Stewart, but just a couple weeks ago, she sang “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with Nirvana at their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction. That’s rock-and-roll.

Chick Corea & the Vigil

Bud Light Stage • 9:05 p.m.

Currently on a tour of solo performances, Corea will perform with his band the Vigil. He’s had a Latin undercurrent in much of his jazz dating back to early gigs with percussion master Willie Bobo in the 1960s. Corea went on to epitomize the electric jazz of the late 1960s and ’70s. He is the definitive electric pianist in the jazz idiom and has remained on the vanguard of new sounds. His solo work and his collaborations with the groups Circle, Return To Forever, and the Elektric Band represent a wide range of genius.

STS9

FedEx Stage • 9:50 p.m.

Sound Tribe Sector 9 are primarily a live act born of the festival circuit who are geared toward gigging over recording. STS9 demonstrates a synthesis of dance-driven rules but with vigorous live shows. Very comfortable on a bill with electronic dance music or a jam band, the Georgia-bred, California-based group favors simple, interlocking instrumental parts that evolve over the timespan of a club track or DJ set.

Tommy Castro

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 10:25 p.m.

Castro has won a frigate’s worth of awards for his hollering and Stratocaster playing. He is a Bay Area stalwart and one of the superstars of modern blues. Castro is a regular opener for B.B. King. His show is a high-energy electrical machine. Rather than looking to a throwback concept, Castro is content in his identity, giving the music a radio-rock feel.

Kid Rock

Kid Rock

Orion Stage • 10:35 p.m.

It’s not easy being a self-proclaimed “American badass,” but then again, not everybody can use a made-up word for a chorus and get a platinum-selling album out of it. Thus is the skill set of Kid Rock, who is equal parts trailer park hero, hip-hop outlaw, and country-music superstar. Kid Rock is the epitome of a renaissance man, and he’s got the chart-topping hits to prove it. With 11 albums under his belt and no sign of slowing down, it’s safe to assume the Cowboy from Michigan will be gracing our ears with hits for quite some time.

Patti Labelle

Bud Light Stage • 10:50 p.m.

Beginning with the Bluebells’ “I Sold My Heart to the Junk Man,” LaBelle has carried one of the big guns of 20th-century diva soul. The early girl-group records are all about that huge, acrobatic voice. Go find the self-titled first record of her band, Labelle. Holy moly, it’s good. They opened for the Who and went on to own 1970s glam with “Lady Marmalade.” The ’80s? “New Attitude” was on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. She earned a Grammy in 1991. Her influence on the sound of female R&B vocals can’t be overstated. Her melismatic vocals set the style for the 1990s and beyond.

Fuzzy Jeffries

Blues Shack • Times Vary

Jeffries is a contemporary blues burner whose sound slips easily into classic R&B. His playing comes from the post-Hendrix world of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, and to a lesser extent, Robert Cray. His band, the Kings of Memphis, bear the hallmarks of gospel and R&B experience, which rounds out the sound much better than a straight blues band would with this sort of music.

Leo Bud Welch

Blues Shack • Times Vary

Leo Bud Welch is the purest spring of good music to surface in a long time. He’s 81 years old and released his first album earlier this year. Sabougla Voices is a collection of gospel songs. Welch is a preacher in Bruce, Mississippi, where he also worked on logging crews. His message is delivered with all the hill country charm and power that has made the region’s secular blues so popular in recent decades. This is exciting and engaging gospel from a man who has been spreading the word since 1975. This is a festival highlight.

Beats Antique

Late Night at FedEx Stage • 12:15 a.m.

Beats Antique is a dance-driven multicultural storm of lights and exotic sounds. Legendary producer Miles Copeland helped assemble the group to support a dance troupe, and it has kept people dancing around the world since 2007. The mix of live belly dancing, a remix palette of international scope, and live instrumental performance are one thing. The lights add another dimension.

Sunday, May 4

FreeWorld

FedEx Stage • 2:10 p.m.

Richard Cushing’s FreeWorld are a Memphis institution that have transcended their jam band roots to become as solid a band as you can find in town. Serving as a reliable gig for jazz eminences and as a breeding ground for young musicians, FreeWorld are rolling toward their third decade. FreeWorld can easily jump from a respectful take on a classic soul tune to a Zappa-esque caprice. They call themselves the world’s tightest jam band. To see what it takes to survive as a musician in Memphis, go see FreeWorld.

Los Rabanes

Bud Light Stage • 2:15 p.m.

Since its inception in 1977, punk rock has become something of a universal musical language, as bands throughout the world have taken the music of rebellion and made it their own. Representing this year’s Memphis In May honored country of Panama, Los Rabanes started out as a raw punk band playing the bars of Central America and, over their 20-year history, have grown into an international phenomenon. Everything about the Latin Grammy winners’ sound is eclectic and original, mixing bits of ska, calypso, and soca with more traditional Latin rock and singing in a fiery combination of Spanish and English. With songs like the international hit “Bam Bam,” they will keep your booty shaking.

Herman Green

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 2:15 p.m.

From 1955 until 1957, Herman Green was the saxophonist in the house band at San Francisco’s legendary Black Hawk Club, where he played with Cannonball Adderley, Dave Brubeck, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Miles Davis. He backed Marilyn Monroe and had Sinatra sit in. A gig for Lionel Hampton led to a move to New York and friendship with John Coltrane. Green’s played with Bob Weir, Jimmie Vaughan, and countless others. His work with the Newborn family and his tenure with FreeWorld are highlights of his time in Memphis.

Surrender The Fall

Orion Stage • 2:20 p.m.

Memphis’ own Surrender The Fall make their debut Beale Street Music Festival appearance, adding their dynamic brand of modern hard rock/metal to this year’s eclectic line-up. The band, which formed in 2005, is currently touring in support of its latest release, the 2012 full-length Burn In The Spotlight. The album was released by the Rum Bum Records label (also the home of fellow local heavy-rockers Saliva) and debuted on Billboard‘s Active Rock chart.

Black Joe Lewis

FedEx Stage • 3:35 p.m.

Lewis continues to awe festivals and critics with his mix of punk and blues. He learned to play in a pawnshop, which is probably the coolest possible way to learn the guitar. His last album, Electric Slave, takes the Jon Spencer playbook into the Jack White age. It’s fuzzy, straight-ahead power sludge that is a natural habitat for Lewis’ feral shriek. It’s some of the best pure rock-and-roll to come out in this decade. If you invite comparisons to Roky Erickson, then congratulations on being great at music. Lewis also includes horns and — for the love of all that is good — a bass player.

Black Stone Cherry

Orion Stage • 3:50 p.m.

Black Stone Cherry are gearing up to release a new album, which is probably what brings the boys from Edmonton, Kentucky, down to Memphis. Since forming in 2001, the band has seen its fair share of success, touring with the likes of Def Leppard and Nickelback, and somewhere in there a deal with Road Runner Records came along. But don’t look to the aforementioned bands if you’re trying to pin down the sound of Black Stone Cherry, as the band rides a groove best described as modern hard rock with a Southern twang. With songs about marijuana (“Me and Mary Jane”) and questionable lifestyles (“White Trash Millionaires”), Black Stone Cherry keep the subject matter light and the riffs heavy.

Ghost Town Blues Band

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 3:50 p.m.

These guys have been kicking up a storm in Memphis since 1999 and have earned loads of awards and fans. In 2013, Ghost Town were finalists in the International Blues Challenge. A full-on West Memphis-style blues act with keys and horns, they infuse the tried-and-true big-band lineup with a powerful dose of youthful energy. Ghost Town take an eclectic approach, sampling from Memphis soul à la Rufus Thomas or working things out on a scale appropriate to the jam band scene.

The Dandy Warhols

Bud Light Stage • 3:55 p.m.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the alternative ’90s best, the Portland, Oregon-based Dandy Warhols. The band, whose single “We Used To Be Friends” is familiar as the theme song to the TV teen detective show-turned film Veronica Mars, have explored sounds from ’60s garage psychedelia to Big Star-style power pop to ’80s postpunk and Britpop. In addition to their high-profile international appearances, such as an opening slot for the legendary David Bowie’s last tour, the band was also the subject of the 2004 film Dig!, which won the Best Documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Leftover Salmon

Leftover Salmon

FedEx Stage • 5:15 p.m.

Jam band legends Leftover Salmon formed in Boulder, Colorado, in 1989 around a trio of founding members: Drew Emmitt, Mark Vann, and Vince Herman. The group, which combined elements of bluegrass, Zydeco, and rock into its sound (dubbed “polyethnic Cajun slamgrass” by the band itself), enjoyed immense success throughout the ’90s, releasing four acclaimed studio albums and touring relentlessly. Vann’s death in 2002 was a tragic setback, but the group has soldiered on, even releasing a new album called Aquatic Hitchhiker in 2012 with recent members Andy Thorn, Greg Garrison, and Jose Martinez.

Anthrax

Orion Stage • 5:25 p.m.

Anthrax entered its fourth decade in 2011. They have released 11 full-length albums of thrash metal. This music fed a generation of dudes raised on Anthrax and their peers Megadeth, Slayer, and the big winners (and in some ways losers) Metallica. Pharaoh-bearded guitarist Scott Ian (the only consistent member) has held onto the wheel of a band that has seen lots of turnover in personnel but maintained a durable fan base.

Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell

Bud Light Stage • 5:30 p.m.

Would you be surprised if Jason Isbell was governor of Alabama one day? Here’s to that. Isbell has been on a tear since he dropped the bottle and his position in the Drive-By Truckers. Isbell is well into a slow-burn career that just keeps smoldering. He is the antidote to Nashville’s slavish adherence to commodity country. He bites harder lyrically, his voice is human (not auto-tuned), and his music can be replicated live. Where country and its alt cousin seem caught up in mindless fun, drinking Bud and PBR, respectively, Isbell has elevated the dialog. It’s good to see someone take on the mantle of adulthood and keep making sincere music in such an artful way.

Tony Joe White

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 5:30 p.m.

There was a belle epoch in country soul and Tony Joe White had a lot to do with it. White wrote “Polk Salad Annie,” the sad tale of a lady’s granny, which hit no. 8 in 1969. It became a regular tune in the live shows of Tom Jones and the King of Rock-and-Roll, Elvis Presley. White wrote “Willie and Laura Mae Jones,” which ended up on Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Spingfield’s country-soul masterpiece. White rose again in the early 1990s, writing for Tina Turner. In 2006, he hit his own stride, warming up for Roger Waters in Europe and cutting records with Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, and others.

Bootsy Collins

FedEx Stage • 7 p.m.

Bootsy Collins’ unorthodox appearance, entertaining alter egos, and talented bass guitar skills were a breath of fresh air to the funk culture several decades ago. From playing background for funk icons like James Brown and George Clinton to forming his own collective, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, which crafted an array of hits, he’s solidified his spot among the who’s who of the genre. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee continues to spread the funk across the globe. From “I’d Rather Be With You” to “Stretching Out” to “Can’t Stay Away,” attendees should anticipate receiving earfuls of funky hits when Bootsy touches the FedEx Stage.

Seether

Orion Stage • 7:05 p.m.

The alt-rock/metal trio Seether might hail from South Africa, but the band’s sound is steeped in the sounds of late-’90s American modern-rock radio, a formula which has yielded great success. The group has regularly shared the stage with acts like 3 Doors Down, Nickelback, and Papa Roach. Seether is perhaps best known for hit singles like “Remedy,” “Fake It,” and “Broken,” the latter of which featured a cameo from Evanescence’s Amy Lee. The band’s sixth studio album, Isolate and Medicate, is due out later this year.

North Mississippi Allstars

North Mississippi Allstars

Bud Light Stage • 7:15 p.m.

Local boys! The Allstars ought to be amped up for Memphis. They have a lot to be excited about, starting with a perfect slot. They have made seven albums and draw from a wellspring of songs, styles, and creativity that sustains their success. Luther Dickinson is at his best with a wide-open pick up and full-throttle rhythm section, which is just what Cody Dickinson and bassist Lightnin’ Malcolm provide.

Roy Rogers & the Delta Rhythm Kings

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 7:15 p.m.

Roy Rogers played on the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest soundtrack. But that’s not the half of it. He has won two Grammys for producing John Lee Hooker albums, penned Grammy-nominated tunes for Bonnie Raitt, and released an album with Ray Manzarek of the Doors. His specialty is slide, and his style is rooted in the bobwire tones and skip rhythms of the Delta. He moves from wild jump blues to beautifully all-worn-out country-blues philosophical tales.

The String Cheese Incident

The String Cheese Incident

FedEx Stage • 8:45 p.m.

Colorado jam band institution the String Cheese Incident has been a near-constant presence on the festival/touring circuit since its formation in 1993. Drawing influence from an eclectic mix of music genres, including bluegrass, reggae, prog-rock, and psychedelia, among others, the band has amassed a large and dedicated following throughout the years. Though the String Cheese Incident is primarily known as a live act, the group has also released nine fine studio albums, including this year’s A Song In My Head.

Avenged Sevenfold

Orion Stage • 8:50 p.m.

Avenged Sevenfold have earned the right to be called one of the biggest bands in alternative rock. Since forming in 1999, the band has seen an overwhelming amount of success, thanks in large part to a music video for the single “Bat Country” from their album City of Evil that parodied Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. While many bands that sell themselves on looks have a short shelf life, Avenged Sevenfold continue to evolve and change their sound, a practice that’s seen them sell more than 8 million records to date.

Alabama Shakes

Alabama Shakes

Bud Light Stage • 9 p.m.

They’ve only been around for a little less than five years, but the Alabama Shakes have already made a big splash in the world music scene, playing on Austin City Limits, Saturday Night Live, and Late Night With David Letterman in support of their gold record Boys & Girls. Singer/guitarist Brittany Howard and company promise to bring the same gutsy vocals and bottomless soul that have wowed audiences from the Glastonbury Festival in England to the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

Canned Heat

Horseshoe Casino Blues Tent • 9 p.m.

Canned Heat keeps burning. One of the original “festival acts” going back to the Monterey Pop Festival, Canned Heat set the standard for hippie blues recordings with the freewheeling flute of “Going Up Country” and the bonkers falsetto and eerie hammered piano strings of “On the Road Again.” United by a love for digging through record crates, the original members have gone on to their rewards with the exception of drummer Adolfo de la Parra. Founder and master harpist Alan Wilson’s last effort was the band’s 1970 collaboration with John Lee Hooker, Hooker n’ Heat.

David Evans

Blues Shack • Times Vary

The Doctor. Memphis is lucky to have this ethnomusicologist popping up on stages, radios, and at lecterns at the University of Memphis. A world authority on blues and musical culture, he’s won a Grammy for liner notes and is the author of The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to the Blues. Evans has published tons of field recordings, but he plays guitar and jumps right into the river of sound. He’s also a member of the Last Chance Jug Band. If you want to get schooled on the blues, gospel, folk, and all sorts of other things, this is your chance. He’s a 24-7 master class.

Brandon O. Bailey

Blues Shack • Times Vary

To say that Memphis musician Brandon O. Bailey is a unique artist is more than an understatement. Bailey is a one-man-band who combines his equally skillful blues harmonica playing and hip-hop beatboxing (with help from a loop pedal) into a wholly original live experience he calls “harpboxing.” His talents have been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition as well as PBS’ Music Voyager series, and he placed second in the 2010 International Blues Competition (solo/duo category).

Categories
News The Fly-By

Trash Pile-Up

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Leaves, limbs, and big items like toilets, furniture, and pallets have been piling up on Memphis sidewalks for weeks, and while city officials called the situation a “crisis,” they can’t say when all the trash will be removed.

Crews of city sanitation workers have been and will continue working overtime on weekdays and weekends until the city can stabilize the regular collection of waste outside of trash cans, according to Memphis Public Works spokeswoman Matoiri Spencer. 

Until then, “you can anticipate delays in the removal of excess trash, limbs, and yard debris,” she said, and asked for “patience by allowing us to prioritize the use of our resources to respond accordingly to this crisis.”  

“Citizens serviced by the City of Memphis are encouraged to leave trash/debris at curbside until services are rendered,” Spencer said. “We regret any inconvenience at this time and anticipate resuming normal collections very soon.”  

The situation began with so-called Winter Storm Titan, she said, that dumped snow and ice on the Mid-South in the first days of March. The storm knocked down numerous trees in Raleigh and Frayser, and crews have been trying to clean them up ever since. The disruption pushed back pick-up schedules, which were already strained by the end of leaf season and the beginning of spring-cleaning season, Spencer said. 

But no matter the reasons, residents remain confused about the delay in trash collection. Kristan Huntley, executive director of the Cooper-Young Community Association, said residents in her Midtown neighborhood are frustrated with the lack of communication.

 “They’re not really sure when stuff’s going to be picked up or why it’s not being picked up,” Huntley said. “What is being picked up? What isn’t being picked up? Why has this been sitting here for three weeks? What do I have to do? When is this stuff going to be picked up?”

The situation has also caused friction between city leaders and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the union that represents many of the city’s sanitation workers. AFSCME Executive Director Janice Chalmers said city leaders turned down her group’s suggestions to quicken the clean-up process. The sanitation workers are executing the city’s plan but are “getting negativity because the way the city wants it done.”

“Whatever they want us to do and whatever they ask of us, we cooperate,” Chalmers said. “But when we do it how they want us to do it, we can’t be held accountable because it didn’t work out.”

But the city apparently doesn’t need the labor union’s backing, according to Spencer.

“It is not necessary for us to point fingers or exchange words with AFSCME over whether we have their support during this crisis, because there may be enough blame to share,” Spencer said in a statement.

The city has long tried to implement a volume-based, “pay-as-you-throw” collection system that would charge residents to collect any trash outside of their garbage cans. The idea was part of larger changes planned for Memphis waste collection last year but was defeated by a Memphis City Council vote in December.  

“With limited resources, we are consistently challenged during certain seasons because residents continue to discard excessive amounts of waste at no additional cost and expect for it to disappear within a week,” Spencer said. “No other city does this for what we charge our customers, $22.80, which is not enough to fund the cost of such an operation.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Soulsville’s New Neighbors

CREDIT: Josh Colfer

Soulsville residents can now shop for shoes and have their computers repaired without having to leave their neighborhood.            

Shoe boutique Klassy Chics and computer repair shop

@Home Computers were the latest pop-up shops chosen through the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team’s MEMShop program.        

Since 2012, the MEMShop program has brought new local businesses to formerly long-vacant spaces in the Broad Avenue Arts District, Crosstown, and Overton Square. Through the program, local entrepreneurs apply for a grant from MEMShop, and if they are selected, the businesses get free business advice from the locally based consulting firm, alt.Consulting, and a six-month lease through which the tenant only pays rent for the last three months at a lower price.

More than 10 businesses applied for the vacant storefronts at the corner of Walker and Mississippi in the Soulsville neighborhood, and @Home Computers and Klassy Chics were selected.

Cynthia Norwood, managing director of alt.Consulting, which partners with the mayor’s team to run MEMShop, said her company provides up to 50 hours of customized consulting, from developing financial projections to public relations training.

“We want to provide these business owners with the tools they will need to succeed as new business owners and as new additions to their communities,” Norwood said.

Michael Patno, who is opening @Home Computers, said he was attracted to the area because of the lack of affordable computer care in the neighborhood.

“South Memphis is a very under-serviced community when it comes to dependable computer repair,” Patno said. “When I went to a Soulsville Neighborhood Association meeting, I learned that Soulsville will soon be getting free Wi-Fi in the whole community, and these people are going to need a store that fixes tablets and laptops at an affordable price.”

Patno currently owns the @Home Computer store at 1800 Union in Midtown, but he said that his South Memphis store will concentrate on affordable repair as well as offer numerous refurbished tablets and laptops at discounted prices. Patno also hopes to work with Lemoyne-Owen College and set up an internship at his store for students.

Toya Bailey, who currently owns a cleaning business in Memphis, will be opening up her first shoe boutique in the space next to @Home Computers.

“There are a few shoe stores in South Memphis, but none of them will have the different styles that I offer, and I think it’s important for South Memphis to have a presence in the Memphis fashion world,” Bailey said. “As long as I keep up with the trends, I will always have a product to sell.”

The grand opening for both shops will be in early May, with Klassy Chics set for a grand opening on May 10th. Norwood said that these are the first of several MEMShops in South Memphis, with alt.Consulting looking to introduce two or three more storefronts by the fall.  

Although the MEMShop program only provides temporary leases, business owners are encouraged to continue their businesses beyond the six months. On Broad, a number of MEMShop businesses, including Five in One Social Club and My Heavenly Creations, which opened last April, have since signed long-term leases.

The Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team will remain involved with the MEMShop program until October. After that, alt.Consulting will take over the program. The firm is currently raising funds to keep MEMShop going after the fall.