Month: June 2017

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We Recommend We Recommend

Boston and Journey perform this week

Wait, wait, hold the phone. So rockin’ Mike Huckabee’s not in Boston anymore and won’t be playing the Botanic Garden this Saturday? Mind blown. It’s so hard to imagine big hits like “Foreplay,” “Peace of Mind,” and “Amanda” without the former Arkansas governor and presidential also-ran playing his conservative bass.

Just kidding! Huckabee never was in the band Boston. He tried to make “More Than a Feeling” his theme song, and he played it on the campaign trail with some guy who played with Boston for a couple of years, till Tom Scholz, the technology wizard, musical polymath, and Obama supporter behind all things Boston, finally told ol’ Huck to cease and desist. For Scholz, who wrote “More Than a Feeling,” played all the guitar parts, and invented the gear that made his guitars sound unlike anything else on the radio in 1976, it all boiled down to identity. “I think I’ve been ripped off, dude,” he wrote in a sternly worded letter. Scholz’ message was clear. He is Boston. And if Neal Schon’s still running his guitar through Scholz-built Rockman equipment, he’s at least a little piece of the Journey sound too. Both Journey and Boston — certifiable monsters of the monsters-of-rock era — are in town this week, to compare and contrast.

Journey

Steve Perry was Journey’s face in the ’80s during a run of MTV-era hits like “Open Arms,” “Any Way You Want It,” and “Who’s Cryin’ Now.” He’s the eternally warbling voice of the band’s inescapable megahit, “Don’t Stop Believing.” But Perry didn’t show up till album number four and when he went solo in the mid-’80s, the prog-pop band soldiered on without him. Schon and company, always tech-forward, found Arnel Pineda, Journey’s current lead singer on YouTube. They’re playing the hits at the BankPlus Amphitheater at Snowden Grove Wednesday, July 5th. Mike Huckabee won’t be there either. Probably. Unless he’s somehow landed a gig in the current lineup of Asia, who open the show.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Making Waves at Shelby County Commission

Changes in national government always cause adjustments on the part of local governments, in the same way that dropping a pebble on the surface of a settled body of water prompts ripples outward.

But the most recent change from the Democratic presidency of Obama to the Republican administration of Trump has generated more than the usual uncertainties in Memphis and Shelby County. The impact is more like that of a boulder being thrown into a bathtub.

One obvious case in point has been the continuing brouhaha over the effort by three local officials — Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, Sheriff Bill Oldham, and Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael — to get the court out from under the direct supervision of the U.S. Department of Justice, as imposed by a 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between the DOJ and Shelby County government.

Most or all of these officials had a chance three weeks ago to buttonhole the current boss of the DOJ, Trump-appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, about ending his department’s hands-on monitoring of Juvenile Court, and a now-famous letter by the three to Sessions followed up on the matter. Predictably, there was great opposition to the request, which has dominated various local proceedings, including last week’s kickoff in Memphis of a statewide listening tour by the legislative Black Caucus.

The essential argument of those opposed to the Justice Department’s potential withdrawal of direct oversight is that sufficient remedies have not been provided to correct the irregularities pinpointed by a prior DOJ investigation of the court, including what the investigators saw as outright racial bias in processing of juvenile offenders.

As indicated in Politics (p. 8), the matter spilled over into this week’s meeting of the Shelby County Commission, which saw all six African-American Democrats and one supportive white Republican formally adopt a resolution opposing the withdrawal request — all this in the county mayor’s presence. Four of the commission’s Republicans demurred, but not by voting no; even they, reading the aroused reaction against the initiative on the part of several audience members, saw abstention from voting to be the better part of valor.

One of them, however, Millington Commissioner Terry Roland, cautioned, in essence, that the political views of Sessions, a conservative Republican, were liable to be significantly different from those of former Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder, the Democrat under whose tenure the MOU was authorized.

It is hard to imagine Luttrell et al. venturing to petition whatever attorney general might have been appointed by Clinton for a lifting of the MOU.

The root fact is that, in the absence of verifiable concrete data, Sessions is indeed likely to base his decision on subjective — which is to say political — interpretation of the evidence.

Whatever the attorney general does will make waves in the chambers of local government — just as Sessions’ promise of federal help to the understaffed Memphis Police Department has complicated the thinking of both city and county officials about how to remedy the MPD’s problems.

We imagine Sessions sees it all as a welcome break from the turmoil of the ongoing Russia investigations in Washington.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Luttrell’s Triple Whammy

CREDIT: JB

Give Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell points for coming front and center to account for an effort by himself and two other county officials to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to discontinue its oversight of Juvenile Court operations.

Give Luttrell an Excedrin or a flak jacket (pick one) as a remedy for the consequences of that candor. Double his dose or his armament for the triple whammy he incurred during Monday’s regular meeting of the Shelby County Commission, a legislative body that has been carrying on guerrilla warfare against the mayor’s authority for at least two years. 

The commission ramped up its assault on Monday with action on three different fronts.

First, after a run-through of a commission agenda that ultimately bypassed the matter of the county’s 2017-18 budget, the commission voted in favor of an add-on resolution, sponsored by Democrat Walter Bailey, that directly opposed the request by Luttrell, Sheriff Bill Oldham, and Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael (all Republicans) that was expressed in their recently publicized letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions seeking to end DOJ oversight of the court.

That vote was unanimous after a fashion, with seven members — six Democrats and Republican David Reaves — voting aye and four, all Republicans, abstaining. 

Clearly, the abstention by the four non-concurring (but also non-objecting) GOP members — Terry Roland, Steve Basar, George Chism, and Heidi Shafer — was based less on aversion to the action of Luttrell, Oldham, and Michael than on a wish to be discreet on a racially charged matter that numerous audience members, all opposing the officials’ action, had spoken to on the meeting’s front end.

The DOJ’s Memorandum of Understanding with the county, dating from 2012, was based on a department investigation of what it ultimately proclaimed to be administrative problems and racial bias on the court’s part. 

Saying, “You may not get what you’re asking for,” Roland, in fact, made the point that a Department of Justice under Sessions undoubtedly had a different attitude toward the Juvenile Court matter than the department, led by Eric Holder, that imposed oversight in the 2012 MOU — a point countered by resolution supporter Van Turner, who insisted that “local monitors” were and would continue to be the actual overseers and that the court’s irregularities had not been sufficiently addressed, as Luttrell suggested they had.    

An obviously angry mayor then said the commission majority’s action was “much ado about nothing,” said that it would be ignored in Washington, and that, in any case, he would veto it, so that “it won’t have the county seal.”

The second whammy was presented to the mayor in a resolution, sponsored by Turner, asking the administration to submit any change in county security operations to the commission for its approval. 

Luttrell’s CAO, Harvey Kennedy, lambasted that one as yet another incursion on executive prerogatives, and the resolution failed by a 3-4 vote — a result that was probably inevitable, inasmuch as a commission majority had approved the changeover in question — from the security management of Allied Universal, a corporation based outside Shelby County, to that of Clarion Security, a local operation headed by a woman, Kim Heathcott, in conjunction with four local majority-black companies.

The changeover satisfied the commission’s recently adopted guidelines requiring an increase in county contracts with locally owned small businesses (LOSBs) and business enterprises owned by racial minorities or women (MWBEs).

And the final provocation to the mayor’s usual calm demeanor — the third whammy, as it were  — came from the commission’s decision, by a 6-4 vote, to postpone approval of Luttrell’s proposed 2017-18 operating budget because of unresolved amendment requests, all made relatively recently and including some which, as Luttrell noted, had only been presented to him on Monday. An uncharacteristically fuming Luttrell called the delay “frustrating,” and, on that matter, he was echoed by commission budget chairman Steve Basar, who pronounced himself “disgusted” and by Commissioner David Reaves, who vented his displeasure by voting no on an otherwise unanimous continuing-budget resolution, leaving current expenditure requirements in place pending some forthcoming late agreement on a new budget, technically due to be in place by July 1st.

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Recent Record Roundup

Marco Pavé
Welcome to Grc Lnd (Radio Rahim Music)
by Chris McCoy
Marco Pavé’s Welcome To Grc Lnd makes the party political from its opening moment, when Jamey Hatley intones the album’s name, sarcasm dripping from her voice like the devil’s honey. Hatley functions on the album like a DJ taking the temperature of the city. And that temperature is hot.
She’s not the only strong female voice chiming in. Duchess spits fire on “Hood Obit”. Soul singer Big Baby takes it to church on “Let Me Go”, providing a hook for a Black Lives Matter protester’s story of abusive police. Later, Artistik Approach wraps thoughts on the intersection of capitalism and racism in layers of angelic harmony.
Pavé is a charismatic frontman, equally at home flowing about the school-to-prison pipeline or barking his shins while getting out of bed. But his greatest talent may be in choosing collaborators and bringing out great performances. Overall, this is one of the most meticulously constructed, finely paced albums to come out of Memphis in recent memory.
***** (5 stars)

Various Artists
Fruition (Culture Power 45)
by Andria Lisle
This new vinyl-only hip hop imprint has an Arizona mailing address, but much of the label’s talent comes from the Memphop scene. Of 19 tracks, eight have local connections, including Empee’s gritty “Never CMO,” two memorable instrumentals from MaxPtah, and Jason Da Hater’s pile-driving wrestling ode “Black Randy,” also produced by Empee.
It’s a stretch to call Chicago-born, Philadelphia-based Fatnice local, but he has roots here — and his “Time U Miss” is biographical brilliance. That track and Infinito 2017’s “War Against Commercialism” transcend era and geography, a rare feat in contemporary hip hop. The latter’s hook (“I’ll never cross over”) rings with the assurance of an artist who is accustomed to DIY — Infinito 2017 is one of the “ten black men” behind the label which, so far, has released six lathe-cut limited edition 45s in addition to this vinyl-only full-length.
***** (5 stars)

Shannon McNally
Black Irish (Compass Records)
by Chris McCoy
What distinguishes Oxford-based Shannon McNally from the pack of Bonnie Raitt-influenced roots rockers is her commitment to the beat. McNally could have gone the rhythmless route on “Prayer in Open D”, the emotional and temporal center of Black Irish, when she is unaccompanied by her band. But even as she sings about “the river of darkness in my blood,” she keeps the beat bouncy. Elsewhere on the record, her cadre of Nashville cats keeps it tight. Album opener “You Made Me Feel For You” reworks “Baby Please Don’t Go” to good effect — the first of many times McNally and co-writer Rodney Crowell lean on the traditional hill country blues structure. On “Banshee Moan,” McNally is clearly having a blast going full Tusk, complete with pounding toms and breathy, Stevie Nicks vocal flourishes. Black Irish won’t teach you anything new about country, rock, or blues, but McNally’s craftsmanship and emotional honesty could get under your skin.
*** (3 stars)

Don Bryant
Don’t Give Up on Love (Fat Possum Records)
by J.D. Reager
Memphis native Don Bryant has been a fixture of the local soul scene since the early 1960s. Though he is primarily known as a songwriter — he has penned cuts for Al Green, Albert King, his wife, Ann Peebles, and others — he’s also a talented singer and performer. His 1969 album for Hi Records, Precious Soul, is regarded by many as an underground soul/r&b classic. And while Don’t Give Up on Love is only the second “secular” offering of Bryant’s career (and his first since the pure gospel of 2000’s It’s All in the World), it radiates confidence and old-school Memphis swagger. With an ace backing band in tow, consisting of members of the Bo-Keys and the legendary Hi Rhythm Section, the grooves never feel forced or anachronistic: This is the real deal. Highlights include the uptown blues shuffle “I Got to Know” and a fierce cover of O.V. Wright’s “A Nickel and a Nail,” which opens Don’t Give Up on Love in style.
**** (4 stars)

Cory Branan
Adios (Bloodshot Records)
by J.D. Reager
Adios is Memphis-by-way-of-Southaven singer/songwriter Cory Branan’s fifth studio album — his third for the large indie label Bloodshot, and his first since moving back to Memphis from Nashville earlier this year. And though it might not be his sunniest offering to date (Adios is touted as Branan’s “death record” in promotional materials), it definitely shows Branan’s deft touch with a catchy pop hook and clever turn of phrase is undiminished by personal tragedy. From the opening earworm “I Only Know” (which features scorching backing vocals from Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace) to the 1980s Springsteen synth-pads of “The Vow,” to the barroom-ish closer, “My Father Was an Accordian Player,” the journey definitely has its emotional ups and downs. But as with most of his catalog, Branan’s wit and skill with the craft make the journey worthwhile.
**** (4 stars)

Charles Lloyd
Passin’ Through (Blue Note Records)
by Alex Greene
This Memphis native is a point of pride for Mannassas High School, which has spawned so many legendary players. It was 50 years ago that Lloyd was first named Jazz Artist of the Year by Downbeat, and he may deserve that moniker still. This album finds him taking a virtual tour of jazz since then. Opening with the Coltrane-esque sonic washes and free flourishes of “Dream Weaver,” the quartet reveals its mastery of mood and style in this live setting. The next track ranges from Miles Smiles-type delicacy and out-ness, to classic swinging moments with walking bass. “Nu Blues” opens up its titular genre with unique tonal colors and an abrupt, punctuated arrangement. “Tagore on the Delta” is a classic ’60s boogaloo groover that breaks down into a butt-simple half-time section, featuring Lloyd’s flute chops. And it’s all grounded by Lloyd’s glorious tone, epitomized by the finale, which decelerates from more sonic upheaval into the long, moody closing note.
***** (5 stars)

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News News Blog

MATA Board Approves New Version of 31 Crosstown Route

The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) board of commissioners voted Tuesday to instate four new routes, including the 31 Firestone which will restore service to areas once served by the 31 Crosstown that was discontinued in 2013.

The new Firestone route will serve parts of New Chicago in North Memphis, but will not connect to South Memphis, like its predecessor, 31 Crosstown.

Members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU) count this new route as a victory, but are still pushing to have the route return its service to South Memphis.

Justin Davis of the MBRU says residents of the Riverside community in South Memphis have expressed their need for a route that will connect them to major corridors, economic centers, and North Memphis.

“It’s not only a big victory for residents of New Chicago, but for bus riders and supporters throughout Memphis who have been fighting for this important route since last year,” Davis said. “At the same time, we will continue to push for a fully-funded 31 that has greater frequency, covers more of the service day, and serves South Memphis, especially Riverside.”

Because of limited funds, 31 Firestone will be a demonstration route, which to continue must
maintain at least five boards per hour.

MATA’s director of planning and scheduling John Lancaster says the route may be adjusted after December based on ridership patterns during the demonstration period.

Other new routes include one Lancaster says will “beef up service” in the area near the Airways Transit Center and allow for more efficient transfers, as well as one that will run from Downtown to the Agricenter International and offer a new “park and ride” service.

All of the new routes, exlcluding the 31 Firestone, are funded by the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program.

Additionally, the board voted to adjust times and routes for 24 existing routes, including the 50 Poplar, 56 Lamar, and 44 Goodlett Ikea Way.

All of the revised schedules and routes, along with the new routes, which MATA officials say won’t go into effect until August 6, are listed here.

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We Recommend We Saw You

Big Wig Ball, Recording Academy, Old Dominick Distillery and Hole-in-One

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Jeremy and Sky McEwen and Nichole and Peter Stein at Big Wig Ball.

Liza Routh could be considered one of the bigwigs at the Big Wig Ball.

“I was on the committee the first year we did it,” she said. “And then I chaired it for two years.”

Routh and Kyle Cannon were co-chairs at this year’s event, which was held June 23 at Annesdale Mansion.

The fundraiser, which drew 250 people, benefits Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Most of the guests wore some type of wig.

Routh wore a big wig, one of the many she owns.

“I get a new one every year and I’ve collected a lot of other ones over time. We’ve passed a bunch of them around to friends each year. So, I have a big wig collection.”

Her husband, Stephen, also wears a wig each year. “He probably has six to seven men’s wigs.”

Michael Donahue

Richard Hightower and Richard Saigeon at Old Dominick dinner

….


Corn is one of the ingredients in the whiskey and vodka made at Old Dominick Distillery. It also was an ingredient in the dishes served at a special dinner, held June 23 at the distillery on Front Street.



Chefs from restaurants owned by Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman served corn-inspired cuisine to 150 guests at five stations on the first and second floors.

Listing the restaurants and what they served Catherine and Mary’s chef de cuisine Ryan Jenniges said Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen served polenta stuffed with porcini and corn, Porcellino’s Craft Butcher served Roman gnocchi made from cornmeal, Hog & Hominy served tarragon creamed corn and Catherine and Mary’s served braised corned beef on a savory corn pancake.

Dessert was the corn-less chocolates provided by Phillip Ashley Chocolates.

Old Dominick sales director Clark Schifani described the event as “a friends and family dinner” for Old Dominick and D. Canale & Co. Another purpose was to announce the partnership between Old Dominick and Ticer and Hudman. The chefs will operate the distillery’s restaurant, which is slated to open in late November or early December.

The dinner kicked off the distillery’s celebration weekend, which included “Memphis Spirit Returns,” held June 19. About 800 attended that event, which featured cuisine from area chefs, Schifani said.


Michael Donahue

Sam Barnett, Brandon Abraham, Jennifer Jones, Lilz Chiozza and Lee Chiozza at St. Louis Catholic Church Men’s Club’s Hole in One Charity Festival

….


Bailey Childress was the big winner at this year’s St. Louis Men’s Club Hole-In-One Festival, which began on Father’s Day and ended June 24 on the grounds of St. Louis Catholic Church.

He accumulated the most points, which meant he won the Cardinal Cup. This is the first time the cup has been awarded at the event, said the event’s fundraising chair Wes Kraker.

It’s no surprise Childress won; he’s a consistent winner at the event, which benefits St Louis school’s athletic, Scouting and youth programs and the Blue Streak Scholarship Fund for students in the Jubilee Schools.

Each night, golfers try to win cash and prizes after they make shots closest to the hole. Qualifying golfers take part in the Mercedes-Benz of Memphis-sponsored shoot-out for cars. The top 10 golfers who accumulated the most points during the week took part in the million dollar shoot-out on the last night of the event. The top golfer wins the Cardinal Cup.

The Hole-In-One is close to Childress’s heart. He participated in the tournament immediately after he and his wife, Keely, were married. “We got married at St. Louis the last night of the Hole-In-One four years ago,” he said. “Since I played college golf, the groomsmen and I came down and hit golf balls before we went to the reception.”

Their son, Jackson, was born one year on “the first day of the Hole-In-One. Father’s Day.”

And Childress won a car. “I hit a hole in one for the car the same year Jackson was born.”

He won a Ford Focus, but traded it for a gray Ford F 150 truck.

Coming in second, third and fourth were Austin Bennett, David Moran and Frank Lewis.

Michael Donahue

I. B. Dat Guy and Keelyn Ellis at Recording Academy Memphis Chapter’s Memphis Membership Celebration.

….

If you wanted to rub shoulders with some of Memphis’s music greats, the Recording Academy Memphis Chapter’s Membership Celebration was the place to be. Al Kapone, Frayser Boy, John Paul Keith and Matt Ross-Spang were on hand at the event, held June 19 at the Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education.

Performances were by Don Bryant and the Bo-Keys, Julien Baker and Marco Pave and Alfred Banks.

“The is the chapter’s largest annual event,” said event publicist Elizabeth Cawein. “It’s an opportunity for the chapter members – the chapter stretches from New Orleans to St. Louis – to get together. Then we also do live performances and we screen music videos. Share the latest music that’s coming out of the chapter. In year’s past we’ve done listening parties. It’s a great opportunity to network and catch up.”

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Categories
News News Blog

Russell Named New Commercial Appeal Editor

CREDIT: The Commercial Appeal

The Commercial Appeal

Russell

Mark Russell has been named the new executive editor of The Commercial Appeal, the newspaper announced Wednesday, becoming the first African American to lead the newsroom in the paper’s 176-year-old history.

Russell was serving in the role on an interim basis, following the May departure of the CA’s former editor Louis Graham, who left for a position with American Syrian Lebanese Associated Charities (ALSAC). Russell was also serving as the head of opinion/engagement for the USA Today Network of Tennessee.

Russell was hired as managing editor of the CA in 2013, coming from posts as executive editor and managing editor of The Orlando Sentinel. Russell had also held posts as The Boston Globe, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, and the Wall Street Journal, according to the CA.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

5 Attorneys File for Circuit Court Vacancy

L to R: Elsea, Faughnan, Lyons, McNabb, Rudolph

Five local attorneys have applied for the Circuit Court vacancy currently held by Judge Robert L. “Butch” Childers, who has announced his retirement as of this Friday, June 30.

The five, who will be interviewed in Memphis on Friday, July 21, when the state Trial Court Vacancy Commission convenes in Memphis, are listed as follows, along with their current law-firm relationships:

*Shannon D. Elsea: Cordova, John Michael Bailey Injury Lawyers
*Brian S. Faughnan: Memphis, Lewis, Thomason, King, Krieg, and Waldrop
*Lewis W. Lyons: Memphis, Glassman, Wyatt, Tuttle, and Cox
*Tabitha F. McNabb: Germantown, Harris, Shelton, Hanover, Walsh
*David M. Rudolph: Memphis, Bourland, Heflin, Alvarez, Minor, and Matthews

The Commission’s interviews with the applicants will be open to the public. There will be a public hearing at that venue at 9 a.m., during which members of the public may express their opinions on any or all of the applicants.

Following the interview session, the Commission is expected to have an immediate vote to select the names of three of the applicants and forward them to Governor Haslam for his consideration.
The Commission is expected to vote immediately following the interviews and forward three names to Governor Haslam for his consideration.

Categories
News News Blog

Memphians Rally for ‘Health Care, not Wealth Care’

CREDIT: Maya Smith

Maya Smith

Although on Tuesday the vote to overhaul Affordable Health Care (AHC) was postponed until after the Independence Day recess, groups from around the city gathered Wednesday morning to rally against the possible repeal.

Dozens of individuals, holding signs reading phrases like, “healthcare not wealthcare” and “healthcare is a human right,” crowded in the parking lot of 1870 Madison Ave near N. McLean Boulevard.

Organized by the Coalition for Organizational Protection of People and Equal Rights (COPPER) in collaboration with the Coalition of Black Trade Unionist (CBTU), the rally was meant to grab the attention of Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, says Vee Banks who also helped to organize the gathering.

Banks told the group of ralliers that it is important that they stay focused and continue to put pressure on Tennessee Senators in the upcoming weeks. She encouraged the group to “not go out without a fight.”

The fight for affordable healthcare is one that the executive director of COPPER, Rhonnie Brewer says is personal and “not about politics.”

“This is something that would impact the daily lives of over 20 million Americans,” Brewer said.

Brewer says the new bill would specifically be detrimental to the city of Memphis and its large population of people who depend on Medicaid.

CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Greater Memphis Region, Ashley Coffield was also present at the rally and says the new healthcare bill would be the “worst bill for women’s health in a generation,” as it would block women on Medicaid from using Planned Parenthood to receive birth control, cancer screenings, and other services.

“We don’t want healthcare taken away,” Coffield said. “And we don’t want to block women from coming to Planned Parenthood. The delay in the vote shows how powerful our voices are, but make no mistake; it’s far from over.”

Others present were representatives from the Memphis Center for Independent Living, Indivisible Memphis, and United Methodist Church.

Banks says more rallies like this are planned to take place in the next couple of weeks as officials in Washington D.C. prepare to vote on the repeal of AHC.

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis Pets of the Week (June 29-July 5)

Each week, the Flyer will feature adoptable dogs and cats from Memphis Animal Services. All photos are credited to Memphis Pets Alive. More pictures can be found on the Memphis Pets Alive Facebook page.


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