Month: February 2020

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Sweetgrass Smash, Morgan & Morgan & Morgan & Morgan

Sweetgrass Smash

Details are fuzzy, but it’s clear that something definitely happened at Sweetgrass in Cooper-Young on Saturday, according to a post by Brad Gilmer on Nextdoor.

The restaurant did not post anything formal about the incident online. Nextdoor users had questions and theories.

“Looks as if a vehicle would have come in at a very odd angle?” asked Kathy Ladner.

“Someone ordered the large plate of nachos and then couldn’t fit through the door on the way out!” exclaimed Michael Cairo. But Cairo later explained that a driver lost control before midnight and hit the building.

“It was so loud it shot me out of bed. I thought someone was about to drive through my apartment. Wild Saturday night!” said Cady Mink.

Morgan & Morgan

Posted to instagram by memphisasf_ck

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Socialism’s Okay. We Already Have It.

CREDIT: CNN screenshot

It is said that if you’re not a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative when you’re old, you have no brain. May I add that if you believe government is always the problem and never the solution, your philosophy needs a reality check.

CNN screenshot

Bernie Sanders

As the 2020 primary season begins and the poor and working classes threaten to coalesce around a “socialist” candidate, the GOP has predictably trotted out its latest version of the Red Scare. And, bless their hearts, Democratic candidates are too terrified or inept to explain what socialism really is. Not to mention that “democratic” socialism, such as that practiced in much of Europe, including Germany, is a system of the people, by the people, and for the people. Which, of course, is what terrifies the powerful.

Democracy is a political system. It is frequently conflated with capitalism, which is an economic system. One can exist without the other, and this obfuscation is no accident. Somewhere in the rugged individualist propaganda is the use of the word “freedom,” which is a well-worn rhetorical device used by conservatives to make sure the inflation-adjusted rate of CEO pay doesn’t keep pace with that of the federal minimum wage.

So, as you step into the voting booth amid this Chicken Little hysteria about the dangers of “gubmint,” please consider the following set of qualifying questions:

Do you live in an enclave of hearty pioneers who dug their own wells rather than rely on a municipal water supply? Do you travel on taxpayer-funded roads? Did you grow all your own food instead of purchasing comestibles inspected by the FDA and the USDA? Was that food nourished by clean air, soil, and water protected by the EPA? If these stores of food are threatened, do you have your own security personnel and have no need to rely on law enforcement? Were your homes built under construction codes designed to protect against an electrical fire? If such a fire occurs, is it extinguished by other residents armed with buckets instead of a fire department? If you live in a flood zone, do you self-insure? If that flood occurs, do you refuse FEMA assistance? Does your outpost have its own sewer system and power grid, too?

Speaking of utilities, does your band of rugged individualists eschew any entertainment that involves satellites? Does whatever news you receive about the socialist horde come from a traveling town crier who brings news of the outside world without any need of the internet?

Were your children born at home without the assistance of university-trained physicians and without modern medicine and equipment developed by government research institutions?

Will your travel plans eliminate using a publicly built airport to travel to a federally operated national park or to visit a war monument commemorating the military fallen who were paid with defense department checks? And if you wish to read what the Founding Fathers actually had to say about our origins, will you refuse to view these documents being housed in a taxpayer-provided facility known as the National Archives?

Long ago and far away, in the mythical America of Republican wet dreams where there existed no federal income tax and few laws constraining behavior, it might have been possible for those who lived in near isolation on a mountaintop to do as they pleased. Curiously, Republicans and libertarians (aka “closet anarchists”) never seem to consider the negative impact of this theoretical citizen if he dumps his garbage on a slope that rainfall sends flowing to his downhill neighbor. Nor does it occur to them that the power of the government is what protects the rights of the minority, including what remedies exist for the guy downhill.

Government can’t do everything, but neither does it achieve nothing. Government creates the thin veneer of civilization that mitigates “might makes right” and, in doing so, protects all of us who aren’t rich enough to purchase our own elected official or private army.  

At the core of the most ardent anti-government zealot is an opportunist who seeks to gain maximum social benefit with a minimum of financial responsibility. A citizen whose true philosophy and definition of socialism can be summed up as “any government largess from which I do not personally benefit.”  

So does that make all of us socialists? Unless your answer to all of the questions above was “no,” the answer to that one is “yes.”

Ruth Ogles Johnson is an occasional contributor to the Flyer.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Heavy Metal Beer: Hair Bands are Making Brews

The voting has opened for the Memphis Flyer Beer Bracket Challenge. Not being at the Young Avenue Deli for the Flyer‘s Toby Sells’ reveal of the match-ups in four categories — light beer, dark beer, IPAs, and seasonals — is no excuse not to cast a vote. These are some of the best beers from Ghost River, Wiseacre, High Cotton, Crosstown, Meddlesome, and Memphis Made. Who is the favorite? Well, that’s not my job, Spanky, that’s on you. Support your local brewers, and pray to all that’s holy that they don’t start promoting their beers with 1980s hair band music videos.

This is a greater danger than you might think. There is a strange trend lately of aging heavy metal bands launching their own brews, and it raises some legitimate questions: How involved in the process are they really? What’s the policy on spandex and carbonation? Do they wear hair nets? They should.

Is it any weirder than that Ian Anderson guy from Jethro Tull becoming a salmon farmer? Or Francis Ford Coppola making wine (yes, actually, he’s an almost-Italian foodie with a certain attention to detail)? Or, for that matter, George Clooney getting in (and out with a boatload of cash) of the tequila game or Ryan Reynolds flogging Aviation Gin (the commercials are brilliant)? Probably not.

Still, the side hustle of these aging rockers is a bit off-kilter. Growing up, I was never a fan of heavy metal because the music is so awful, but I got the general vibe. So when legendary Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson starts going on about the band’s new Trooper Sun and Steel lager being “a delicate, subtle fruit flavor infused into a pilsner-style lager,” the world seems to have air-guitared itself off its cultural axis.

Sun and Steel is a saké-infused beer, or rather, it’s a double-fermented lager, with the second round of fermentation using saké yeast. The name comes from a song about a samurai on their 1984 album Piece of Mind. What’s more confusing is that it’s not actually bad — a little weird, maybe, but not bad. Dickinson says that the beer, now available stateside, is a thank you to all the fans who came out to the “Legacy of the Beast” North American tour in 2017. Okay. The Legacy of any Beast worth its salt, I’d think, would be neither subtle nor delicate.

Iron Maiden isn’t the only band getting into the game. Last fall, Megadeth released its second beer in collaboration with award-winning Canadian brewer Unibroue. It’s a Belgian-style farmhouse ale called Saison 13, named for front man Dave Mustaine’s chronic fascination with that number. We are told that it is made with “13 special ingredients.” In my opinion, a good beer needs to be made with however many ingredients a decent brewer thinks are needed to make it work, not the magic number of some formerly drug-addled obsessive compulsive. But that’s just me.

The first Megadeth foray into the otherwise decidedly not-Megadeth world of craft beer was called A Tout le Monde, which is French for “To Everyone.” It was named after one of those twangy heavy metal ballads where headbangers want to show how sensitive they are by not screaming. Megadeth went one step further and started singing in French. I understand it was a big hit in Quebec.

Craft beer has a pronounced hipster vibe — so who is the market for these beers? Does it even matter? If the metal bands aren’t playing the FedExForums, they are playing the Tunicas of the world. And when Bonnaroo kicks off for the year, the metal-heads do converge on Manchester. So why not?

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Spencer McMillin, Jonathan Magallanes Join Forces for Caritas Chef Partnership Dinner

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Caritas Community Center & Cafe (formerly Caritas Village) has one simple mission: to provide quality food to the public, regardless of their ability to pay. To help carry out that mission, former head chef Spencer McMillin is bringing Jonathan Magallanes of Las Tortugas on as the featured chef in this month’s chef partnership dinner to share his Mexican delights.

“Spencer came into my restaurant and became a regular, and we became friends,” says Magallanes. “Spencer could ask me to do anything, and I would do it. He approached me and said he’d love to cook together. This was a no-brainer. I’ve known about Caritas for a while, so I think it’s just a perfect opportunity to cook some really good food.”

Michael Donahue

Jonathan Magallanes

Magallanes has spent much of his life living in both Memphis and Mexico City, and he takes culinary influences from both cities to create his own unique spins on classic Mexican dishes, like his tacos al pastor, which traditionally features a sweet and spicy combination of red chile pork and pineapple.

“I like to use juicy pomegranate in place of the pineapple and then use that with fried pork belly,” he says. “It’s marinated in sour orange, black pepper, and cinnamon. Then, instead of using cilantro, I might use chopped mint. That’s sort of a little nod to the pastor in my opinion.”

Magallanes is excited to concoct something equally delicious and unique for the dinner for Caritas.

“It’s an absolute honor and a privilege to be part of the dinner,” he says. “My main philosophy as a chef and a restaurateur is that feeding people is a privilege, period.”

Caritas Chef Partnership Dinner featuring Jonathan Magallanes, Caritas Community Center & Cafe, Thursday, February 27th, 6:30-9 p.m., $56/person (not including gratuity).

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Open Carry for Students on Campus is a Bad Idea

CREDIT: Javitrapero | Dreamstime.com

A group of Tennessee Republican lawmakers wants to allow college students to carry guns on campus.

This is a bad idea for so many reasons. Since 2017, state law has allowed certain employees of public colleges and universities to carry firearms on campus, which, in and of itself, was a precarious move. But now, to allow gun-toting students to populate college campuses introduces a gamut of unnecessary risks.

The bill (SB 2288/ HB 2102) would amend Tennessee’s current law, which allows full-time employees with permits to carry a concealed firearm on public campuses, to include students. The legislation is sponsored in the House by Representatives Rush Bricken and Bruce Griffey and in the Senate by Senator Janice Bowling.

Javitrapero | Dreamstime.com

Tennessee is one of 10 states that currently allow the carrying of concealed weapons on campuses in some way.

Instead of going further down the path of arming folks on college campuses, Tennessee should be working to remove all guns from campuses — except of course those carried by professionally trained law enforcement officers. The Second Amendment gives people the right to bear arms, but there has to be a reasonable limit to where people are allowed to do that.

The National Rifle Association began lobbying lawmakers to allow guns on campuses in 2008 after mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University that resulted in a total of 37 deaths. The group’s argument largely revolves around the “good guy with a gun” stepping in to stop the “bad guy with a gun” scenario.

Here is a snippet from some NRA literature on the matter: “Reality is quite simple — a good guy or woman with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun, but they cannot stop the bad guy if they lack the ability to legally possess a gun for self-defense. In a classroom of disarmed, law-abiding citizens, the criminal with a gun is king.”

But common sense says that adding more guns to the mix is not the solution but instead a key ingredient in a potentially dangerous cocktail. Research from universities and higher education boards across the country suggests that allowing students to carry guns on campus could have more adverse than positive effects.

For example, the Houston Community College Board of Trustees urged lawmakers to vote against the bill allowing concealed firearms on campus because of the possible increase in liability insurance cost, which they estimated could be between $780,000 and $900,000 per year.

Beyond the financial implications this could have for colleges and universities, there are a number of other reasons why such legislation is a step in an unsafe direction.

Everyone knows that college students are one of the most vulnerable, ever-changing, and emotionally complex populations there is. College is hard. It can be a trying, confusing, lonely, and sleepless time for many. And even if that is not the case for some, all college students are in the process of growing and maturing. Science tells us that the frontal lobe — the part of the brain responsible for rational decision making — is not fully developed until the age of 25. Someone who is not fully capable of making rational decisions should not be allowed to carry a gun in the presence of so many others.

We also know that drug and alcohol use is commonplace for many college-aged students. Drugs, alcohol, and firearms just don’t mix.

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety are rampant on college campuses, according to the American Psychological Association. These issues can, in some cases, put students at risk for suicide, which the CDC cites as the third-leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 24. Just last year, the center noted that young adults were dying at record rates from suicide. The rate increased by 56 percent from 2007 to 2017. The CDC reports that the likelihood of suicide increases by three times with access to firearms. Three times.

So why would any sane person want to allow students to freely carry deadly weapons on campuses?

We don’t need more guns on campus. We need fewer. Fewer guns mean fewer chances for people to get shot. It’s that simple. If lawmakers truly care about the livelihood of their young constituents, they would reconsider this move before it’s too late.

Maya Smith is a Flyer staff writer.

Categories
Music Music Features

Get Down Tonight!: KC and the Sunshine Band play Tunica

In the 1970s, one artist who surely seemed to have his finger on the pulse of what type of songs would be hits on top 40 radio was Harry Wayne Casey.

The man who would become known to millions as KC of KC and the Sunshine Band enjoyed some minor success with a pair of early singles, “Blow Your Whistle” in 1973 and “Sound Your Funky Horn” in 1974 on the Miami-based label, TK Records, before making the group’s 1975 self-titled debut album.

And when he came up with a song he was calling “Get Down Tonight,” Casey knew he had a game-changing tune for the album.

Harry Wayne Casey of ’70s funk-rockers KC and the Sunshine Band

“I even remember a story. It came on Billboard at No. 98 one week, and the next week it fell off. I went to the owner of the record company, who was Henry Stone at the time. I said ‘Henry, what’s happening? I have a smash record,'” Casey recalls in a recent phone interview. “He says, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ And six weeks later it was No. 1.”

Between 1975 and 1977, the group notched three more No. 1 hits — “That’s the Way (I Like It”), “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty,” and “I’m Your Boogie Man” — and a No. 2 single in “Keep It Comin’ Love.” Another chart-topper, “Please Don’t Go,” arrived in 1979. Casey says he knew every one of those songs was going to be a hit.

“I always had a feeling when I was writing the song and when I was in the studio, I could kind of feel this really mysterious aura happen during the recording of some of the songs,” he says.

The glory days for KC and the Sunshine Band came to an end as punk/new wave became the next hot trend. Casey had one more top 5 hit, “Yes, I’m Ready,” a duet with Teri DeSario, in 1980, but the new decade yielded only one more modest hit single with “Give It Up” in 1984. The next year, Casey quit the music business.

“I was sort of done, frustrated with the whole political part of it all, and I just wanted out,” Casey says. “I found myself wanting to run away from something that I loved more than anything in the world.”

Casey spent the next decade out of the spotlight, but the 1990s brought a renewed interest in the ’70s, including disco. Eventually Casey was enticed to get back into the music business.

“For the 10 years that I laid around and partied and did stuff, my friends were always saying ‘Why don’t you get back out there? Are you listening to the radio? Everybody’s emulating you,” Casey says. “I just kept laughing it off, [until] I got a call from a friend of mine, ‘Did you see Arsenio Hall? He wants to do a reunion of the band on his show.’ And I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll go do that.’ So I called him, made all the arrangements, put a group together, and went out and did the TV show and bells started going off in my head. I started realizing, you know what, I miss doing this.”

Casey and the current version of KC and the Sunshine Band — 15 musicians, singers, and dancers strong — have been touring ever since.

The live show features the hits of the ’70s, of course, plus a smattering of other original songs and covers of hits from the 1960s that KC and the Sunshine Band recorded on their 2015 album, Feeling You! The 60s.

The set list may evolve later in the year, thanks to some new KC and the Sunshine Band music. A new single, “Give Me Some More (Aye Yai Yai)” — co-written with Tony Moran and Nile Rogers (of Chic fame) — has been released, and a double album of original material should arrive later this year.

“It’s been a five-year project, and I’m ready to let the baby go,” Casey says of the album. “It’s some of the best stuff I’ve ever done, I think.”

KC and the Sunshine Band play the Fitz Tunica Casino on Saturday, February 29th, at 8 p.m.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Tim Howard Comes Out of Retirement to Join 901 FC Roster

CREDIT: 901 FC

Once part of the game, always part of the game. Earlier today, Memphis 901 FC owner Peter Freund and president Craig Unger announced the signing of Tim Howard to the team’s playing roster for the 2020 USL season. Howard, already a part-owner and sporting director of the organization, will now juggle three separate positions for 901 FC.

“Since my retirement in October, my obsession for football has grown,” said Howard upon signing his contract. “The desire to win continues to drive me. I love to play, and I love to compete, this gives me the opportunity to do both.”

901 FC

Craig Unger and Tim Howard

If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry; last year, Howard simultaneously handled responsibilities for both 901 FC ownership tasks and his playing duties for the Colorado Rapids in MLS, telling Memphis magazine at the time that there are “enough hours in the day” to fulfill his various commitments.

Pending league approval, Howard is set to start in goal for Memphis this Saturday, March 7th, at the opening day match against Indy Eleven. With more squad involvement than ever, Howard’s ambition to make 901 FC a USL contender remains firm. “I’ve made a commitment to the City and people of Memphis to build a perennial playoff team. One whose goal continues to be lifting the Eastern Conference trophy and ultimately bringing the USL Cup to AutoZone Park,” he said.

Head coach Tim Mulqueen stated Howard’s addition would spread that enthusiasm to the rest of the squad while respecting the managerial hierarchy. “When he’s in the locker room as a player, he will act as a player,” said Mulqueen. “His focus is only going to be on winning. There will be very clear lines that the players will recognize.”

Howard’s last professional outing came against LAFC last October. During his career, he made 399 appearances for Manchester United and Everton in the English Premier League, and made 121 appearances for the USMNT. He holds the record for most saves – 16 – in a world cup match (against Belgium in 2014).

901 FC kicks off the season at AutoZone Park this Saturday, March 7th, 6 p.m., against Eastern Conference rival Indy Eleven.


Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

How Will Injuries Affect the Grizzlies’ Playoff Push?

The injury bug has hit the Memphis Grizzlies. First, Jaren Jackson Jr. went down against the Los Angeles Lakers with a knee injury, and then Brandon Clarke, who replaced Jackson in the starting lineup, went down with a hip injury against the Clippers after just four minutes of play on Monday night at Staples Center. Both are to be re-evaluated in two weeks. How will these injuries affect the Grizzlies’ playoff chances? It’s anyone’s guess.

Larry Kuzniewski

Jaren Jackson Jr.

The Grizzlies have lost three in a row and will be without Jackson and Clarke from seven to 10 games, or possibly longer, depending on the healing process. It doesn’t help that Dillon Brooks and Jonas Valanciunas have been in a funk lately, averaging a combined 13.66 points over the last three games. With Jackson and Clarke out, the Grizzlies can’t win when Brooks and Valanciunas aren’t playing well. And rookie phenom Ja Morant can’t carry the load alone if the Grizzlies want to continue to make a push for the playoffs.

What will the starting lineup look like without Jackson Jr. or Clarke? 

Larry Kuzniewski

Brandon Clarke

Josh Jackson more than likely will become a starter, since he has been more comfortable playing as of late. He is averaging 15 points over the last three games and has been helping when the Grizzlies’ offense has gone stagnant. Gorgiu Dieng is another player who may get starter minutes. In the past two games, Dieng has averaged a double-double, with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

How will Coach Taylor Jenkins tweak it? He will certainly have to make adjustments. And Morant really might have to put the team on his back and play out of his mind until Jackson and Clarke return. And the now-depleted bench has to continue its strong play.

Memphis still has a hold on the eighth spot in the Western Conference at 28–29 on the season, three games in front of the Portland Trail Blazers, and 3.5 games ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans and San Antonio Spurs.

Adjustments will have to come quick, starting tonight in Houston against the Rockets, who will have Russell Westbrook available to play. Westbrook hasn’t played in either game against Memphis this season. The series is tied 1–1.

Categories
Book Features Books

Outer Dark: The Boatman’s Daughter by Andy Davidson

I recently finished Blackwater: The Complete Saga (Valancourt Books) by Michael McDowell, the prolific author who wrote the script for Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice.

Originally serialized in six volumes in 1983, I’m not sure how big a splash the Blackwater saga made on its initial release, but the darkly comic, Southern Gothic horror novel about family drama, societal norms, and a shapeshifting river monster still gets brought up on the kinds of message boards and subreddit threads where people talk about cult classic genre fiction.

The novel begins in 1912 in Perdido, Alabama, a little town nestled between the Perdido and Blackwater rivers, and records the lives of the Caskey family — beginning when Elinor, the aforementioned river monster, marries into the family. The fuel that propels the novel is the Caskeys’ ever-evolving family drama. And Blackwater offers no shortage where drama’s concerned; there’s plenty of porch-sitting infighting between the Caskeys themselves, not to mention the tension between the oddball family and the straight-laced Perdido townsfolk. Plus sometimes Elinor morphs back into an alligator-creature and eats someone.

As much as I loved the 1983-era horror saga, I never thought I would get to write about it — that is, until I read The Boatman’s Daughter (MCD x FSG Originals), released earlier this February. I would wager that Andy Davidson, author of The Boatman’s Daughter, has probably read Blackwater. I had the good fortune of picking up an advance review copy after finishing McDowell’s six-volume saga, and I was struck by how much Davidson’s new novel reminded me of Blackwater — only bloodier, more muscular, and with far more menacing fangs.

Andy Davidson

Davidson will be in Memphis to discuss and sign The Boatman’s Daughter at Novel bookstore, Tuesday, March 3rd, at 6 p.m.

The Boatman’s Daughter recalls, at least in page-turner quality, the work of Joe Hill or Neil Gaiman (the British author’s more nightmarish fairy tales, anyway — think Sandman or Coraline, but, again, bloodier). The often poetic prose, though, and some of the motifs call to mind another Southern writer, one Cormac McCarthy. Still, the river creature, the book’s focus on ideas of family and outcasts, and the novel’s wrestling to understand that it’s not always what one does but how one looks that often leads society to label someone a monster — these all seem to hearken back to Blackwater.

All that isn’t to suggest that The Boatman’s Daughter is a collection of homages; it’s not. Instead it feels like an evolution. For all that Davidson’s novel seems to advance the work of earlier Southern authors, especially those mining the rich horror vein, it is also a delightfully original work. Its social commentary seems well-earned, too. Davidson can write about the South; he was born and raised in Arkansas, studied in Mississippi, and now lives in Georgia. And, as I mentioned earlier, it really seems as though he’s done his homework when it comes to the classics (and cult classics) in his chosen field.

The novel begins with a birth, a witch as a midwife, and an unnamed monster — all on the night of protagonist Miranda Crabtree’s father’s death — and it doesn’t slow down from there. Miranda works as a sort of swamp smuggler, ferrying contraband for Billy Cotton, an insane and murderous preacher. The cast of characters includes Miranda, the preacher, a corrupt sheriff, and the witch and a young boy, both under Miranda’s protection. And yes, someone looks like a river creature.

With such a weirdly wonderful cast of characters, a setting that centers around the river and the rotting Holy Days Church and Sabbath House, and themes of greed, violence, and family, Andy Davidson has crafted a creepily compelling Southern Gothic for our time. Even if I’m wrong and he hasn’t read Blackwater.

Andy Davidson discusses and signs The Boatman’s Daughter at Novel bookstore, Tuesday, March 3rd, at 6 p.m.

Categories
Music Music Blog

When Ameripolitan Lets Its Hair Down: Unforgettable Images From Hernando’s

CREDIT: Jamie Harmon

Jamie Harmon

James Intveld joined Dale Watson and band during the Saturday afternoon show.

The Ameripolitan Music Awards celebrated its seventh annual ceremony on Monday, capping a weekend of shows and activities that included the grand reopening of The World Famous Hernando’s Hide-A-Way, now graced with a new historical marker. None other than Tanya Tucker made a surprise appearance at Hernando’s, where she sang “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and “I’ll Fly Away,” backed by Dale Watson and His Lone Stars, with guest pianist Jason D. Williams.

At the awards ceremony, hosted by Big Sandy (of Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys), guitar pioneer Duane Eddy received the Master Award, and drummer J.M. Van Eaton (who played on Sun Records tracks by Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Billy Lee Riley) received the Founder of the Sound Award from Jerry Phillips (son of Sam Phillips). Phillips poignantly said, “If J.M. Van Eaton hadn’t played on all those records, I’m not sure my father would have had the success he had.”

In another Memphis-related development, Goner Records recording artist Bloodshot Bill won the award for Best Rockabilly Male. Here he is playing bass and singing “Gone, Gone, Gone” with his fellow nominees:

When Ameripolitan Lets Its Hair Down: Unforgettable Images From Hernando’s

2020 Ameripolitan Music Award winners

Western swing Female – Georgia Parker
Western swing Male – Dave Stuckey
Western swing group – The Farmer & Adele
Honky Tonk Female – Sarah Vista
Honky Tonk Male – Charley Crockett
Honky Tonk Group – Country Side of Harmonica Sam
Master Award – Duane Eddy
Founder of the Sound – J.M. Van Eaton
Musician – Sean Mencher
Venue – Dukes Indy
Festival – Bristol Rhythm & Roots (Bristol, TN)
DJ – Eddie White (Cosmic Cowboy Café 2RRR 88.5FM, Sydney, Australia)
Rockabilly Female – Laura Palmer (of Laura Palmer & Screamin’ Rebel Angels)
Rockabilly Male – Bloodshot Bill
Rockabilly Group – The Lustre Kings

The end of the show served as an impromptu tribute to Carl Perkins, with the 2020 Rockabilly Male nominees, Shaun Young, Bloodshot Bill, Jittery Jack, and Eddie Clendening, all performing Perkins’ “Gone, Gone, Gone” together, followed by a grand finale with Watson, Tammi Savoy, Jim Heather, Jerry Phillips, Jittery Jeff, Dave Stuckey, Nick 13, Laura Palmer, and more singing Perkins’ “Boppin’ the Blues.” [slideshow-1]