Month: October 2016

Categories
News News Feature

Best of Memphis 2016 – The Party!

Last Wednesday evening, more than 2,000 of the Flyer’s closest friends, including our advertisers, contributors, writers — and winners! — gathered at the sparkling new FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms for the annual Best of Memphis party.

There was fine food, great drinks, bumping music, exotic dancing, fire-breathing pixies, ballet, and even an impromptu run through the sprinkler system. Not to mention a glorious sunset over the lake. We hope you enjoy the pictures that Don Perry and George Hancock took of our big night. — BV

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Categories
Editorial Opinion

The Politics of the Electoral College

CREDIT: Danziger

Danziger

As if there weren’t enough problems associated with the ongoing presidential election, a valuable public discussion on Monday between two serious representatives of the legal community — both also well-versed in practical politics — illuminated a fundamental problem that has never quite been clarified to everybody’s satisfaction.

And that issue — the basic one of how to count the votes — was the subject of a dialogue at the University of Memphis Law School between Robert Cooper, the former Tennessee Attorney General, and John Ryder, the current chief legal counsel of the Republican National Committee. What the two legal worthies were at pains to illuminate was the Electoral College, the means by which, in every election since 1789, the nation has elected its president.

Cooper and Ryder are legal scholars and know the nuances of Electoral College law, which are more Byzantine than most of us might imagine. Some states are, in the Orwellian sense, more equal than others. We refer to the fact that, while some states (Republican Tennessee, for example) are so overwhelmingly one-party-minded that there is no suspense regarding the candidate they will vote for, there are several so-called “battleground” states (Ohio, for example) that could go either way.

And because this is so, and because, further, it is the electors in each state, and not the popular-vote totals in that state, that determine how a state’s Electoral College votes (determined by the number of its U.S. House and Senate members, totaled together) will be cast, this skews the way presidential campaigns are conducted. The swing states get catered to disproportionately by the contending candidates. And, significantly, a winner of the popular vote nationally (Democrat Al Gore in 2000 is a recent example) can be the loser of the Electoral College.

When you vote for president, you are really voting for the electors pledged to a specific presidential candidate; it is they who, well after election day, actually cast the votes that count. In practice, those electors are selected, on some sort of statewide basis, by the political parties which the candidates represent.
Now here’s a real complication: Only 30 states mandate that the electors on the ballot as representing, say, Trump or Clinton, must actually cast their votes for their candidate. In the remaining 20 states, though it is expected there will be a direct match of that sort, the electors are technically free to vote for whomever they choose. And, in multi-candidate races where there is no majority winner, the possibility exists for old-fashioned horse-trading and vote-swapping, either in the Electoral College itself or in the House of Representatives, which gets to break an unresolved impasse.

Confusing? Of course! There have been various proposals over the years for reforming the Electoral College or dispensing with it constitutionally in favor of direct national voting. But that is not likely. As Ryder noted on Monday, the system has worked with relatively little fuss, unlike that of, say, France, which, since 1789, has had two monarchies, one empire, and five republics.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

The Birth Of A Nation (2016)

If you’re a follower of film news, you might be under the impression that The Birth of a Nation, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at January’s Sundance Film Festival, is a piece of radical filmmaking. It’s not. It’s a perfectly conventional movie, drawing on a century of tried-and-true techniques. Its antecedents include Kubrick’s 1960 Spartacus, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc, and … well, D.W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation.

The radical part is the heroes in this film are black, and the bad guys are white.

At Sundance, Fox Searchlight paid a record $17.5 million (the previous festival record was $10 million) for the release rights to this film, and they’re not in the business of throwing money at some kind of formal experiment. They want a deeply sympathetic main character, evil villains for the audience to hiss, and clearly communicated scenes of redemptive violence. Actor-turned-director Nate Parker has delivered a rabble-rousing classic of the genre.

Of course, that genre also includes Mel Gibson’s Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ. While I’m drawing parallels, how about one between Gibson and Parker? Both are intense, laser-focused actors who took personal risk to earn the big chair. And both appear to be flawed individuals. Gibson is an Agnus Dei Catholic who tends to spew offensive language when he’s drunk and confronted with cops. After The Birth of a Nation caught fire, it came to light that Parker was tried and acquitted for rape while he was an undergrad at Penn State. This has caused feminist activists to call for a boycott of the movie, whose appropriated title was clearly intended as a political statement of black liberation. They’ll be hashing this one out in African-American and Women’s Studies classes for years. I have always struggled with the question of where to draw the line between artist and work. Roman Polanski may be a predatory scumbag in his personal life, but damned if Chinatown isn’t one of the best movies ever made.

Ultimately, meaning in art is created in the minds of the audience, and the meaning you take away from The Birth of a Nation is going to depend on where you draw certain lines. This is entirely appropriate, because Parker is all about drawing lines in the sand and daring you to cross them. The first and biggest line is obvious: You’re either with the people who practiced human slavery, or you’re against them. Parker chose as his subject Nat Turner, a man born into slavery who was taught to read the Bible as a child by a sympathetic white woman and grew into a Christian preacher. His master, Sam Turner (Armie Hammer), fell on hard times and rented out his prize chattel to spread the gospel of obedience to the slaves of Southern Virginia. But Nat Turner saw the horrors inflicted on his people, and, like Joan of Arc, had what he believed to be visions from God directing him to take up arms against his enemies. Then, like Spartacus, he set out with a small cohort to inspire a larger rebellion that would take down the oppressive system. (Parker makes the comparison explicit by wielding a gladius during the climactic battle.) But Spartacus had 80 trained gladiators whose exploits inspired an army of 100,000 that kept the full might of Rome at bay for almost three years; Nat Turner had a few dozen field hands who were trapped and killed in a couple of days. Turner knew his movement needed a martyr, and he was ready to give it one.

Parker also knows exactly what he is doing and executes with skill and precision on every front. He wisely cast Jackie Earle Haley, who has a perverse gleam in his eye as he nails the role of slavecatcher Raymond Cobb, the film’s embodiment of white supremacist brutality. Where Gone With the Wind swept the all-corrupting system of slavery under the rug, Parker rubs it in Rhett Butler’s face.

In Conan the Barbarian, the hero learns the answer to the “Riddle of Steel”: It is not the strength of the sword that changes history, but the will of the one who wields it. The tools of propaganda are neutral; it is the mind that wields them that matters.

The Birth of a Nation
Opens Friday
Multiple locations

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Trump and Other Natural Disasters

CREDIT: © Doddis | Dreamstime.com

© Doddis | Dreamstime.com

There’s an old saying: “Be grateful you’re only miserable, because some people are horrible.” Watching the daily disaster known as Donald Trump is like that proverbial pileup on the interstate from which you can’t turn away. The Trump campaign has turned into a moshpit of tweet tantrums and discredited surrogates screaming repugnant falsehoods. It’s all become, frankly, horrible.

I did not savor the thought of writing about politics again when there are so many other important things to discuss, like Kim Kardashian being robbed of $10 million worth of jewelry at gunpoint in a Paris hotel. Of all people, she should have known not to stay at the Paris Hilton. Or, Lindsay Lohan losing a fingertip in a Turkish boating accident. Fortunately, the piece was found and surgically re-attached, adding to Lohan’s cosmetic procedures.

Anything would have been more pleasant than delving into the bilge known as Trumpworld. But this carnival continues to grow more bizarre by the day. Despite the best efforts of his handlers to contain him, Trump’s post-debate trashing of a former Miss Universe continued for a week. All Hillary Clinton had to do was mention the name Alicia Machado to send Trump into a stammering frenzy. All he had to do was shut up, and no one would have thought twice about it, but he couldn’t help himself. Trump’s taking to Fox News to say Machado was a “disgusting” person who “gained massive amounts of weight” struck at the heart of every woman who has ever struggled with a diet. And in so doing, Trump proved himself to be something other than a con artist; he’s a mark as well. Hillary hooked him and reeled him in.

I don’t understand how any woman could vote for him, but Trump is correct in saying there’s nothing he could do to shake his supporters. This puts him in league with former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, who said, “The only way I can lose is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.” Trump’s misogyny is fairly easy to trace, since he has so diligently documented it through the years. The victims of his ugly attacks include Rosie O’Donnell, Hillary Clinton (who “doesn’t have the look to be president”), Carly Fiorina, Megyn Kelly, Huma Abedin, Heidi Cruz, reporter Katy Tur, columnist Gail Collins (who has “the face of a dog”), Arianna Huffington (of whom he tweeted, “I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man”), and “goofy” Elizabeth Warren, whom he calls “Pocahontas,” not even cognizant of his racist remarks.

Trump has promised to attack former President Bill Clinton’s sexual transgressions and relitigate the whole Monica Lewinsky affair. Hasn’t this poor woman suffered enough? It’s hard enough to be known as the world’s most famous fellator without having to relive it 20 years later. We know all about Bill Clinton’s infidelities from the voluminous Starr Report of 1998, which described in detail everything from intimate sexual acts to the shape of the former president’s penis. The author, Kenneth Starr, has recently been ousted as president of Baylor University over a sex scandal involving the football team. Karma’s funny that way.

The New York Times‘ explosive exposé of Trump’s partial tax records from 1995, in which he declared a personal loss of nearly a billion dollars (which would theoretically allow him to avoid paying federal income taxes for 18 years), was verified by his personal accountant. Fox News immediately declared that the Times was “trying to take Trump down” and castigated all those liberal newspapers that endorsed Hillary, like The Dallas Morning News, the Arizona Daily Star, and USA Today. 

The Trump campaign countered by saying newspaper endorsements are meaningless because no one reads them anymore, and they’re probably right. Logic and reason don’t dissuade the Trump army. They’re locked in, even though the online fact-checker Snopes.com declared that in the previous debate, Trump’s lies were “unprecedented.” Some undecided voters, however, might have been among the millions who watched the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Remember when Al Gore’s staff had to force him to sit down and watch Darrell Hammond’s brilliant parody of his sighing, pompous debate performance against Dubya in 2000? If Trump’s team forced him to watch SNL, he’d probably spend the next week invoking Alec Baldwin’s sexual history.

The tax charade is rapidly falling apart. Trump’s claim that it’s “smart” not to pay taxes just makes him a burden on the rest of us. The only comparable tax cheat that comes to mind is Leona Helmsley, who once famously said, “Only the little people pay taxes.” It doesn’t matter to Trump supporters. They don’t care. Trump recently tweeted, “Remember, don’t believe ‘sources said’ by the VERY dishonest media. If they don’t name the sources, the sources don’t exist.”

Such stunning hypocrisy from someone who prefaces every other sentence with, “Many people say,” or “I don’t know if it’s true, but a lot people are saying it.” This is the laziest rhetorical trick in the book. You can say whatever the hell you want if your sources are anonymous, like the time Trump tweeted that “an extremely credible source” told him that Barack Obama’s birth certificate was a fraud.

I don’t care how much you hate Hillary Clinton or how much you think she’s a liar, at least she is in control of her mental faculties. Trump doesn’t seem to be in control of much of anything.

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

‘Tis the Season For Octoberfest Beers in Memphis

It’s Oktoberfest season. 

In Munich, Germany, the Oktoberfest tradition dates back to a circa-1805 party held to celebrate the marriage of King Ludwig I to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen with horse races, parades, an agricultural show, and, yes, beer drinking. Two hundred years later, the celebration begins in mid-September and runs two-and-a-half weeks, ending the first weekend in October. The festival opens with a 12-gun salute and a ceremonial keg-tapping by Munich’s mayor. The pomp and circumstance is followed by a public celebration that draws millions of people to beer tents to drink brews that conform to the Reinheitsgebot, or German Beer Purity Law, which was originally adapted by Bavaria, Munich’s state, in 1516.

When I attended an Oktoberfest party in a friend’s Central Gardens backyard on September 24th, it was so hot outside that the host had to change out of his traditional knee-length leather trousers into shorts long before the night was over. Still, the evening was a blast. We dined on brats and drank several varieties of Oktoberfest-inspired beers, including a keg from Ghost River and cases of beer from Wiseacre, Bell’s, and Spaten.

Now that it’s actually October, cooler temps mean that these heartier beers are becoming big sellers at taps around town. My growler recommendations include several varieties I tried at the party. All are widely available in the Memphis area — through the end of the month, at least. Drink now, or forever hold your peace. 

Up first: Bell’s Octoberfest Beer, from Michigan-based Bell’s Brewery, which isn’t too sweet, with notes of dry toasted malt. Bell’s has a 5.5 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) and goes down smoothly, with a very clean taste. 

Next, Wiseacre’s new kid on the block, a Märzen, or full-bodied lager, with a pedigree that harkens all the way back to Bavaria. Wiseacre’s Märzen, dubbed Gemütlichkeit Oktoberfest, has a 5.9 percent ABV and finishes clean with a toasted, malty taste. It’s hard to believe that it was brewed right here on Broad Avenue. 

Ghost River has its own Märzen ale, also called Oktoberfest, available in bottles and kegs through the end of this month. The roasted malts give it a caramel taste that reminds me of Samuel Adams OctoberFest, a pale malt blend that has the unique distinction of being the only American Oktoberfest-style beer poured in Munich during this year’s celebration.  

I’m happy to see bottles of Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest on local grocery store shelves. The Wisconsin-brewed beer is a traditional Märzen with a 5.1 percent ABV, but it has spicy notes that really perk up my taste buds. Grab a six-pack if you see it.

Also of interest: Memphis Made is currently brewing a wheaty Greenswarden Hefeweizen, with a 5.7 percent ABV. The brewery, located on the northern edge of the Cooper-Young neighborhood, conceived this beer for a Support the Greensward event and plans to keep it on tap through October. 

And this Saturday, High Cotton Brewing Company is holding their third annual Oktoberfest from noon to 5 p.m. outside of their location at 598 Monroe. They’ll serve Bavarian fare provided by Central BBQ and have a bevy of limited-release beers on tap, including a pilsner, a Hefeweizen, and an Oktoberfest lager with 5.7 percent ABV. High Cotton’s riff on the Reinheitsgebot laws yields a dark amber beer with a complex maltiness. It’s rich, but has a very clean finish. 

High Cotton partner Ryan Staggs describes the Oktoberfest celebration as “a big, all-inclusive block party with free-flowing taps.” Ticket prices range from $10 to $40, with free admission to kids 9 and under.

It’s October. Go drink beer. It’s the law.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: 99¢ Soul Food, Tuscany Italian Eatery.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Will Eddie Nash Jr. got into restaurant ownership after serving in the charter school program where he provided breakfast, lunch, and snacks to more than 3,000 students five days a week.

In June, he opened 99¢ Soul Food Express at 414 S. Main to fulfill a longtime dream of his.

“I’ve had this idea for probably over 20 years,” Nash says. “I decided not to go back to the charter school industry so I could give this 125 percent of my time and focus.”

The setup works like a Picadilly-fast-food hybrid, with everything made fresh, by hand, daily.

“I tried to create a fast-food experience but from a soul food standpoint,” Nash says.

He serves the same items every day — 13 meats to choose from, such as oxtail, meatloaf, smoked ribs, fried catfish, liver and onion, pork chops, chicken, and others.

After choosing a meat option, diners opt for their veggies, such as black eyed peas, greens, yams, cabbage, green beans, fried okra, mac and cheese, and homemade dressing.

Each three-ounce serving of vegetables is only 99 cents, including the buttermilk cornbread.

Most meats are anywhere between $2.99 and $10.99.

Then there’s dessert. Summer in a bowl, otherwise known as peach cobbler, apple cobbler, lemon pound cake, like “from old-time church socials,” and double chocolate cake, all with the a-la-mode option.

“I just want to serve my community and give the best possible experience with great soul food,” Nash says.

99¢ Soul Food Express, 414 S. Main,

207-5124, 99centsoulfoodexpress.com.

Mon.-Tues., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wed.-Sat. 11 a.m. to p.m., and Sun. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Business partners Jeremy Martin and Debbie Houck had to close doors after their Olive Branch Tuscany Italian Steakhouse burned in January.

They knew they wanted to reopen, but they wanted to find just the right place, particularly to be closer to the children’s hospitals in Memphis.

Martin hoofed the pavement of downtown Memphis for months looking for an ideal location while asking around what people were looking for in a new restaurant.

The feedback he received consisted of a deli that wasn’t corporate, something Italian, and good quality.

So Martin put his 26 years of restaurant experience to work and came up with Tuscany Italian Eatery, an Italian deli that serves up paninis, pasta, and salads, all hand-made from scratch.

“I grew up on a produce farm, and I would sell produce from the back of a truck when I was 8, so I’ve always been about fresh ingredients and quality,” Martin said.

Houck described his meatballs as “out of this world” more than once, which you can order with pasta or on a sub.

He serves Chicago beef, which he seasons and cooks for 12 to 15 hours, and his salad dressings he makes from scratch.

They deliver downtown, and offer catering, which includes not only their Italian specialities, but also most any other cuisine requested.

Their reason for relocating from DeSoto County to downtown Memphis is obvious before diners even walk through the doors. Signs advertising St. Jude 5Ks sit in every window, and the interior walls are covered in paintings — all of which are for sale to help the cause — created by children with cancer.

Martin offers his catering services to cancer research fund-raising functions at a major discount, and invites families to come eat at his restaurant at no cost.

Martin and Houck also plan to open a breakfast and lunch spot at 200 Jefferson any day now, and eventually a commissary.

“There are so many amazing restaurants down here, and I wanted to be a part of that and add to what’s down here,” Martin says.

Tuscany Italian Eatery, 116 S. Front,

567-4065, tuscanyitalianeatery.com.

Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fri. and Sat., 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Sun.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

“Charles III” rules Playhouse on the Square.

CREDIT: FindMemphis (McDonald/Simmers)

Mike Bartlett’s deliberately (and delightfully) Shakespearean King Charles III is a history play about things that haven’t happened yet. It’s also one of the more interesting and innovative scripts to make rounds in ages. It begins with somber candles and a sad eventuality — the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II who, in real life, is still very much alive but a relative short-timer.

In a twinkling, England has changed and everybody — Prince Charles, especially — wonders what it means to have a king in Buckingham Palace.

Things get tense right away when Charles is presented with a privacy bill that undermines press freedom and, in doing so, looms as a serious threat to English democracy. Law requiring the royal autograph has come to be regarded as ceremonial, and when the required signature is withheld, a crisis ensues that threatens to boil over into anarchy. And that’s just the beginning. Charles knows history and the law, so when the politicians seek to neuter him, he raises the stakes in a big, big way.

Here is a play where politics is practiced by master craftsmen and rude brawlers alike, while the royals get on with a proper game of thrones. Prince Harry (Jared H. Graham) struggles to reconcile his disposition with birthright and responsibility, while media darlings William and Kate learn how to leverage their own authority as the reigning “King and Queen of column inches.” Bartlett presents it all in Shakespearean verse, with special working-class dives into prose. It’s tribute artistry fine and rare.

As directed by Dave Landis, Playhouse on the Square’s Charles III is smart, but sharper than it is crisp — full of vigor and clever, history-winking design, but badly organized in spots that could and should make jaws hit the ground. As long as one thing is happening on stage at a time, the sailing’s smooth, but stagecraft lists freeform and sloppy whenever the set’s enormous staircase is packed with party people or protesters.

Actors struggled with lines opening weekend, but the end result was still something to cheer about.

As Charles, James Stuart France had the heaviest load to bear, and the most trouble matching words to action. But when he was on he was on, and very much the evening’s sad star — risking the crown to save Democracy. Charles finally catches his elusive dream, stepping into a role he’s spent a lifetime preparing for, only to discover he’s arrived late to the party in last season’s frock.

Jamie Boller is infinitely watchable as Kate, much beloved of the camera. Bartlett imagines her as a less ghoulish iteration of Lady Macbeth driving William (Ian Lah) as he trips and lunges toward glory.

And what about the media who, over the course of the play, turn an ordinary girl’s life into a circus shame-show because she had the good/bad fortune to get on with a prince? Playhouse’s production never pulls this thread hard enough to make audiences second guess Charles’ problematic but moral position; a position informed by his own complicated relationship with the British press. He’d been the king of column inches too, when Diana was by his side, and none of that turned out well for anybody. Now the doomed ex-princess’ ghost wanders through this bleak parody, with a punchline on her lips. It only sounds like prophesy.

Tony Isbell and Michael Gravois are the conservative devil (doing the Lord’s work?) and Labor’s angel (fallen?) whispering treason and hateful policy in the King’s royal ears. Isbell’s the opposition leader, playing all sides; Gravois the Prime Minister, prepared to go nuclear if he has to. Christina Wellford Scott’s also quite fine as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. It’s a smaller role compared to the heavy lifting she’s performed in shows like Doubt and The Lion in Winter, but it’s pivotal, and one of the best things she’s done in a long time.

Charles III‘s awkward moments will probably stay a little awkward. The rest will tighten with repetition, and from edge-of-seat suspense to meditations on the meaning of celebrity, it was all pretty tasty to begin with.

At Playhouse on the Square through October 9th. Playhouseonthesquare.org

Categories
Art Art Feature

“The Weight of Hope” at Clough-Hanson.

After three venue changes, the 400-plus capacity Bryan Campus Life Center auditorium at Rhodes College was filled to standing room only, with dozens turned away at the door and at the school gates. Such is the draw of artist Dread Scott, whose work provides a clear connection from the bigotry and injustice of years past to the racism and state-sanctioned violence of the present day.

The September 8th talk was held in conjunction with “The Weight of Hope” group exhibit currently at Clough-Hanson Gallery through October 24th.

Scott’s visit could not have been more timely. He’s been courting controversy for 30 years with performance works (including asking people to walk on the U.S. flag) that speak directly to the current discussions in the media about nationalistic symbols and patriotism.

Most searing to Memphians, perhaps, is Scott’s I Am Not a Man performance stills, which play off the “I Am a Man” signs carried during the 1968 sanitation workers strike. Scott is shown walking the streets of New York wearing clothing befitting a man of the 1960s while holding a sign that reads, “I Am Not a Man.” The On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide stills feature Scott walking against the force of a fire hose, bringing to mind hoses used on civil rights protestors. How much (or how little) has changed in 50 years for black Americans, these images ask.

Scott’s most provocative work in the show is the updating of a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday” flag from the 1930s with the insertion of the words “by Police” — an explicit link to today’s climate of protests against police brutality.

Also in the show: Mariam Ghani’s 28-minute dramatic narrative video The City & The City is about how the two halves of St. Louis live, but the descriptions of two societies (unequally) co-existing and overlapping in the same space at the same time could be about our own city.

Local painter Terry Lynn contributed three pieces to the exhibit. In a nod to the recent Olympics (and black American female dominance displayed therein), Rise features a young black gymnast beaming proudly with one arm outstretched, wearing an American flag leotard and surrounded by thick splotches in different colors. His most evocative work, Pink, is composed of a very young-looking black girl looking straight ahead clad in all pink clothing with her hands clasped in front of her. Most of the painting is not of her, but the black, oily-looking, roughly textured mass surrounding and enveloping the small, doe-eyed girl. She still has her naiveté, but the sinister world awaits her.

In the center of the room is Damon Davis’ All Hands on Deck — photographic prints of enlarged black male hands outstretched over a white background on heavy paper. On the back of the print is an explanation of the climate leading up to the work, beginning with the hope generated from the election of the country’s first black president through the death of Travyon Martin and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Davis began the project in Ferguson in 2014. From the text: “This exhibition looks at the impact of that shifting hope’s weight in the last eight years on the body politic, and in particular on the Black body.” Visitors are encouraged to “display the image where they live or work as a ‘sign of collective responsibility and an ode to that diverse collective dedicated to protecting human rights, no matter race, age, or gender.'” Viewers are invited to download their own images of hands, of all races and ages, at allhandsondeckproject.org.

The work in “The Weight of Hope” sticks to you. It is a call to action against injustice instead of idly standing by.

Through October 24th

Categories
Music Music Features

Moon River Music Festival at the Levitt Shell

CREDIT: Eric Ryan Anderson

Eric Ryan Anderson

Drew Holcomb

Drew Holcomb’s Moon River Music Festival takes over the Levitt Shell this weekend. Now in its third year, the Moon River Music Festival features three nights of family-friendly folk rock from Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, Wade Bowen, JOHNNYSWIM, the Oh Hellos, Kris Allen, Colony House, Dave Barnes, Penny and Sparrow, Gedeon Luke and the People, David Ramirez, the Stax Music Academy, Sean McConnell, Humming House, Lori McKenna, and Castro.

A native of Memphis, Drew Holcomb has experienced critical acclaim for Medicine — his latest album with his backing band the Neighbors. The group recently sold out Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and made an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! television show. Taking that into consideration, it’s easy to see why the Moon River Music Festival became the highest attended paid show in Levitt Shell history last year. But keeping with a tradition that started at the festival’s inception, a significant portion of the money raised at Moon River will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Soulsville Foundation, and the Levitt Shell itself.

While there are many acts on this weekend’s bill that are worthy of your attention, the Oh Hellos are certainly worth checking out. Formed five years ago, the Oh Hellos consist of brother and sister Tyler and Maggie Heath, and their stripped-down folk rock has been featured on the NBC show Parenthood. Other highlights include the Stax Music Academy, Gedeon Luke, and Humming House. Visit moonriverfest.com for advance tickets. — Chris Shaw

Moon River Music Festival, Friday October 7th through Sunday October 9th at the Levitt Shell. Single day tickets start at $45, VIP passes are available for $250.

Categories
Music Music Features

WEVL Turns 40

CREDIT: Jake Cunningham

In its 40-year history, Memphis’ longstanding community radio station WEVL FM 90 (technically, 89.9 on the dial) has transformed fxrom a tiny operation very few people could even pick up outside of Midtown, to an over 50-mile coverage radius reaching three states, in addition to streaming worldwide online at wevl.org. The station’s popularity has also grown accordingly, thanks both to the stronger signal and a widely diverse schedule of programming, offering everything from underground rock to bluegrass to world music.

WEVL was founded in 1976 by a social worker and event promoter named Dennis Batson, who would also go on to be a founding member of the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance. Batson shepherded WEVL through its shaky first few years and, obviously, played a crucial role in the station’s history.

“I never knew him,” says Brian Craig, a WEVL volunteer since 1981 and its program director since 1992. “But I’m told he listened to a few community stations in other cities and really liked what he heard. He got inspired to create something like that for Memphis.”

WEVL’s upward trajectory truly began to take shape in 1986, when the signal strength was increased dramatically and Judy Dorsey was given the title of station manager, a position she holds to this day. Under Dorsey’s leadership, the station has taken great strides in terms of fund-raising, promotion, and maintaining the growing core of station members and volunteers. WEVL is now funded entirely by its membership drives and other fund-raising efforts, such as the annual Blues on the Bluff concert.

To commemorate its 40th year, the station tapped a dedicated trio of volunteer DJs — Amanda Dent, Kelly Kraisinger, and Amy Schaftlein — to create an event to serve as both a benefit concert and a celebration. That event is the WEVL 40 Fest, which takes place on Saturday, October 8th, 3-10 p.m. at Loflin Yard.

“When I think about how important this station has been to so many people over the past 40 years, it really hits me what an honor it is to be organizing this with Amy and Kelly,” says Dent, who has been hosting her Monday afternoon show Lost in the Shuffle on WEVL for roughly eight years.

What Dent, Kraisinger, and Schaftlein have put together is an all-day music festival boasting a tremendous lineup of Memphis music talent, combining established mainstays MouseRocket, the Mighty Souls Brass Band, and DJs Andrew McCalla and Eric Hermeyer (formerly known as Buck Wilders and the Hook-Up) with rising stars like Chickasaw Mound and sensation Julien Baker. But the main attraction on the bill might be the WEVLs, a local supergroup featuring well-known local players Mark Edgar Stuart, Steve Selvidge, Terrence Bishop, and Graham Winchester, plus special guests who were assembled just for this particular show. “Our motto throughout has been ‘it doesn’t hurt to ask,'” Dent says. “And I’ve really been in awe of how so many people are not just willing but also eager to help us with this. “I called Terrence Bishop and asked what he thought about putting together a group of really great Memphis musicians for a one-time show. I’d been corresponding with Steve Selvidge about him playing the festival and threw the idea out to him as well. They jumped on board immediately. On the fly, Terrence named the band the WEVLs. He also recruited Mark Edgar Stuart and Graham Winchester for the core band with several special guests in the works.”

And if the personnel of the WEVLs wasn’t enticing enough, the idea behind the band makes it a must-see.

“They will be performing some of WEVL DJs’ favorite tunes that they’ve played on their shows,” Dent says. “So we’ll be hearing versions of songs from shows like Joyce Cobb’s Voices, Pajama Party, Sho-Nuff Country, and other shows we love on WEVL.” With the schedule of bands set and the show date rapidly approaching, both Dent and Craig are confident that WEVL 40 Fest will be a fitting tribute to a cornerstone of Memphis music and radio. “People like us because we have passionate, knowledgeable DJs — real people who love music and put their hearts into it,” says Craig. “And that’s what Amanda, Kelly and Amy have done with the festival.” “I can’t imagine a station like WEVL being any place but Memphis,” Dent says. “At the very least, it feels like home — like these are friends playing incredible music for you from the vastest and most diverse record collection ever. Because, really, that’s what it is. Just a bunch of schmoes like me with regular jobs, bad habits, and an undying love for music. ”Excluding Joyce Cobb from the schmoes comment, obviously.” WEVL 40 Fest, Saturday, October 8th at Loflin Yard, 3-10 p.m. Prices vary.