Month: November 2022

Categories
News News Feature

Three Important Tax Concepts

Photo: Jon Tyson | Unsplash

The modern U.S. income tax began in 1913, and at first it was very simple. Since then, virtually every congress and administration has layered on additional complexity to the point that the tax code is thousands of pages long and no one person can be expected to be competent in every nuance of tax.

As your income and assets grow, tax planning is more and more important. Consulting an expert is almost always a good idea, but here are three general concepts that cover a lot of ground when it comes to working through this complexity via personal tax planning.

Tax advantaged saving

Depending on income, employment status, and employee benefits, there are various tax-advantaged ways to save. Things like 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, traditional and Roth IRAs, and HSAs are all potentially advantageous from a tax perspective. Generally, they either allow you to exclude money from your taxable income (to save taxes today) or allow you to pay taxes now but let the money grow tax free (so you can save on taxes in the future). Every situation is different, but it is likely in your best interest to max out these types of programs, even if you feel like you have “too much” money locked away in IRAs, or even if you want to retire early. There are many ways to access retirement accounts early, such as the rule of 55, Substantially Equal Periodic Payments, or Roth Conversion Ladders.

Roth Conversions

In traditional IRAs or 401(k)s, the money going in is not taxed but any eventual withdrawals are taxed like ordinary income. With “Roth” accounts, the money going in is fully taxed but then any eventual distributions are generally tax free. There is a way to convert traditional money to Roth at any time — you just have to treat the money converted as though it’s income which is taxed. Usually, it’s best to defer taxes as long as possible, but in some cases it makes sense to take the hit and pay taxes early. If you plot a typical person’s lifetime tax paid, it is U-shaped — income and therefore taxes paid are higher while working, get lower after retirement, and then rise later in life when required minimum distributions create taxable income. It can make sense to do Roth conversions during those low tax years just after retirement when you’re likely in a low tax bracket.

Charitable giving strategies

Most people become more charitably inclined as they age, and understand the tax benefits that giving can bring. There are a number of strategies that can make doing good do even better when it comes to your tax liability. Donor Advised Funds are a way to move money to an account and take the full deduction at the time of the gift. You can never take back the gift, but you can continue to control it in the sense that the money can stay invested and can be donated over time to the charities of your choice. This lets donors take a larger deduction in certain high-tax times, so gifting can be bunched up and then used over multiple years in the future. Later in life, Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) can be made directly from IRAs to charity to meet RMD requirements.

Conclusion

These concepts are only the beginning of a comprehensive tax plan, especially if your income and assets are large. While these ideas are a good start, there’s no substitute for real advice from tax professionals and financial advisors. We all have a responsibility to pay our taxes, but there’s no reason to ignore the opportunities afforded by the tax code when planning for your future — and it’s never too early to begin!

Gene Gard is Chief Investment Officer at Telarray, a Memphis-based wealth management firm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions. Ask him your questions or schedule an objective, no-pressure portfolio review at letstalk@telarrayadvisors.com. Sign up for the next free online seminar on the Events tab at telarrayadvisors.com.

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Taco Burn, Lookin’ Like Christmas, and It’s a Sign!

Posted to Facebook by Taconganas

Memphis on the internet.

Taco Burn

The word is out that TacoNGanas owner Greg Diaz is under federal investigation for alleged sketchy labor practices (h/t to The Commercial Appeal’s Daniel Connolly). Some here are barely hiding suspicions and, perhaps, contempt.

“Say it ain’t so, Greg!” wrote Larry Livingston on Nextdoor last week. “My go-to food truck is being investigated by the U.S. government. However, last Thursday’s usual order actually sucked? Coincidence or just your underpaid workers don’t care anymore?”

Beginning to Look …

Posted to Nextdoor by Jack Yates

… a lot like Christmas! An East Buntyn neighbor knew last week his holiday decorations may be “too early for some” but invited those in the spirit to drive by his house on Ellsworth for “some holiday cheer.”

It’s A Sign

Posted to Instagram by unapologeticallymemphis

The Union Krystal misspelled the restaurant chain’s misspelling of “chick” as “chic” instead of “chik,” and Unapologetically Memphis unapologetically busted them out for it on Instagram.

Categories
Music Music Features

Tom Paxton Embraces Collaboration

Tom Paxton (Photo: Courtesy of Fleming & Associates)

Now 85, Tom Paxton is what you might call an OG folk musician, having made his name as a songwriter in Greenwich Village before Bob Dylan even arrived from Minnesota. And so there’s a certain historical spark in speaking with him about our common love for Woody Guthrie. He surely had that same conversation with countless compatriots at the Gaslight Cafe, back in the day, especially since he’d landed there by way of his native Oklahoma. “I played football against a team from [Guthrie’s hometown of] Okemah, about 26 miles from my hometown,” Paxton remembers today. “But I actually never heard of Woody Guthrie until I went to the University of Oklahoma and started hearing his records, and he quickly became one of my heroes. I think he’s one of my biggest influences.”

Of course, part of Guthrie’s legacy is the tradition of the political or protest song, something that Paxton’s always had at the core of his craft. It’s also at the core of the annual series known as Acoustic Sunday Live, the latest version of which will feature Paxton, Crys Matthews, Susan Werner, The Accidentals, and Terry “Harmonica” Bean on Sunday, December 4th, at the First Congregational Church.

Woody Guthrie’s spirit has been with the concert series from the very beginning, when Bruce and Barbara Newman organized a tribute to Guthrie 28 years ago, featuring Paxton, Richie Havens, Odetta, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Since then, each show has been a fundraiser for a local cause, and in recent years that’s been Protect Our Aquifer.

Paxton, reflecting on the cause of ensuring the purity of the Sparta or Memphis Sand Aquifer, quips, “Talk about a no-brainer! It makes you want to get a bumper sticker: ‘Like Drinking Water? Duh?!’” He’s seen innumerable citizen movements to protect sources of fresh water and feels one of his songs still rings true in that context. “The one I mainly still sing after 50 years is ‘Whose Garden Was This?’” he says. “Everything about ecology is in that song. If you want to enjoy it, you’ve got to preserve it.”

It’s yet another echo of Guthrie’s approach to folk music. “You had no trouble understanding the lyrics when he sang,” Paxton says. “And that’s always been a really important part to me. The way I feel is, I busted my butt writing these lyrics, I want to make sure people understand them.” That’s especially crucial to topical songs, he says. “You know, political and protest songs are as old as America. Now and then you’ll turn up songs that were current before or during our revolution, that were just flat-out protest songs against England and King George. Lots of them! Back during the Vietnam days, we took a lot of heat for writing songs opposing the war, but it’s a very old tradition.”

Old traditions appeal to Paxton, and his appreciation of the late Jean Ritchie spoke to that. “I visited with her in Kentucky two weeks before she passed [in 2015],” he says. “There was a song that was current back in the ’60s called ‘Passing Through’. So I wrote a verse for her: ‘Jean Ritchie of the Cumberlands, her dulcimer in hand/Came singing songs both old and new. … And she sang ’em all while she was passing through.’ She was a good, good person.”

Always generous in his praise of fellow artists, Paxton has leaned into the joys of collaboration of late. “I went for years basically just writing for myself, but the pandemic shut everything down, and if I was going to stay in touch with people, [co-writing on] Zoom was a way to do it. So I really went for it. I’ve been writing with The Accidentals, with Jackson Emmer, with my friend Cathy Fink. And it’s so satisfying that I want to keep doing it. Since the pandemic, so far I’ve co-written over 200 songs.”

He’s looking forward to the songwriters-in-the-round style of Acoustic Sunday Live, he says. “It’s great to be coming back to Memphis, and it stacks up to be a hell of a concert. You’ve got some really good people on there, like Crys Matthews and The Accidentals, and Susan Werner is absolutely dynamite on stage. And I’m bringing a colleague of mine from Colorado to be part of this, named Jackson Emmer. We’ve co-written several songs now. It’s a real kick for me, to hear young people singing a song I’ve helped to write.”

Acoustic Sunday Live, the 4th concert to Protect Our Aquifer, takes place at the First Congregational Church on Sunday, December 4th at 7 p.m. Tax deductible tickets are available at acousticsundaylive.com

Categories
Book Features Books

Censoring History

Author Alice Faye Duncan (Photo: Alice Faye Duncan)

“That was first time in my life that I saw a living writer. I assumed most of them were dead.” Alice Faye Duncan recalls the day in the sixth grade at Snowden Elementary School in Memphis that the poet Etheridge Knight spoke to her class. Duncan, the child of two educators, was the one walking around with “oodles” of journals, filled with poems and short stories. It was that day her life changed. After that, “I told anyone who would listen, ‘I’m going to be a writer.’”

Today, Duncan is an award winner, the author of 12 books, including her latest, Yellow Dog Blues, the story of a boy and his runaway dog, the Blues Trail, and Beale Street. The New York Times and the New York Public Library have honored the book (with illustrations by Caldecott Medal-winner Chris Raschka) as one of the Best Illustrated among children’s books published in 2022. Duncan’s writing is considered to be in line for awards as well.

Now, Duncan’s 2018 book, Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop, has been pulled into a growing controversy — the banning of books aimed at young readers in conservative-leaning states. Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop received a Coretta Scott King Books For Children Honor Medal in 2019, but since January it has been banned “pending investigation” by the Duval County (Jacksonville, Florida) Board of Education. Speaking on the WKNO-TV series A Conversation With (available at wkno.org), Duncan calls book-banning “anti-intellectual” and “unhealthy” and says it “contributes to the dumbing down of America.”

Duncan’s book is one of almost 200 on the Duval County banned book list. Calls and emails to the Board of Education have not been answered. According to PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans, more than 1,600 titles have been banned or restricted in libraries across America.

Tennessee, through what’s called the Age-Appropriate Materials Act, is one of the states leading the movement to restrict student access to certain books. The act, signed into law in April by Governor Bill Lee, requires “each public school to maintain and post on the school’s website, a list of materials in the school’s library collection.”

While the new Tennessee law is aimed at screening “obscene materials or materials harmful to minors,” the study by PEN America estimates that at least 40 percent of bans nationwide “are connected to either proposed or enacted legislation” or from “political pressure to restrict the teaching or presence of certain books or concepts.” Among those concepts is racism. Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop looks at the ill-fated 1968 strike by sanitation workers from the point of view of a 9-year-old girl, whose father is one of the strikers.

Another of Duncan’s books, Evicted!: The Struggle For The Right To Vote, also published in 2022, chronicles the story of voter registration drives led by Black people in Fayette County, Tennessee, starting in the 1950s.

“My mission is to write books to leave a record for the children who weren’t there,” she says. “Because if we don’t share the history as we are seeing it, people will say it never happened.”

Duncan has three other books currently in the works and says she won’t allow censorship to affect what she writes, or how. You can learn more about Alice Faye Duncan and her books at alicefayeduncan.com.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Andor Season 1

Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in Lucasfilm's ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

In 2016, Star Wars violated its own formula with Rogue One. Directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Tony Gilroy and Chris Weitz, it jettisoned the space wizards and coming-of-age stories in favor of more straightforward space thriller action, all spun off of two sentences in A New Hope’s famous opening crawl text from 1977.

Rogue One was to be the first of many anthology films, telling stories in the Star Wars universe outside of the increasingly played-out Skywalker family saga. But after Solo’s mediocre box office performance and the pandemic set Disney down a course toward streaming, those energies were directed toward creating live-action series. Coming three years after the debut of The Mandalorian, Andor is the best of the bunch.

Diego Luna stars as the rebel super spy Cassian Andor. When we first meet him, he’s far from the ideologically motivated utilitarian who sacrifices himself to give the Rebellion a fighting chance in Rogue One. His first brush with the Empire is with one of Palpatine’s subcontractors. He’s in a brothel searching for his missing sister. He hasn’t seen her since he was rescued from the dying planet Kenari by Maarva (Fiona Shaw), a kindly scavenger making a living from collecting discarded Imperial technology. Andor attracts unwelcome attention from a couple of security contractors looking for a quick shakedown, and when things get out of hand, he kills them and flees back to Maarva’s home on Ferrix. On the run, he decides to sell the most valuable piece of contraband he owns to buy passage offworld. His buyer turns out to be Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), one of the founders of the Rebellion against the Empire, who recruits him for an impossibly dangerous mission: stealing the Imperial payroll for an entire planet.

Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma

Meanwhile, a corporate security officer named Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) is trying to track down and arrest Andor for the murder of his two employees. His bungling attracts the attention of Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), an Imperial Security Bureau officer who believes Andor is the key to unraveling the galaxy-wide conspiracy that will become the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Rogue One screenwriter Tony Gilroy has developed Andor into one of the most compelling characters on television. The 12-episode series starts slow, but the first episode is also the worst. It gains momentum as Andor’s perspective changes. At first, his only goal is survival. But when he tries to flee the politics of the fragmenting Empire, he finds that wherever you go, politics always finds you. Before he even understands what he’s fighting for, Andor is already making sacrifices and hard choices for the sake of the Rebellion.

Just as interesting as Andor’s commando missions and prison breakouts is the intrigue on Coruscant, where wealthy Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) plays cat and mouse with Imperial investigators as she tries to coordinate and arm the rebellion’s restless factions.

While there is the requisite cute robot (B2EMO, voiced by Dave Chapman), Andor’s tone is different than the space opera we’re used to from Star Wars. The action on the Imperial capital planet Coruscant resembles the Cold War tension of The Americans; I would watch an entire series that’s just scenes from Mon Mothma’s marriage to the clueless playboy Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie). I still don’t side with the people who say all of Star Wars should be gritty and “realistic” (whatever that means in a universe with space wizards), but it certainly works for Andor.

On Wednesday, November 23rd, the first two episodes of Andor will air on ABC, while the series finale will join the other 11 episodes streaming on Disney+.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Extra! Extra! Something New’s Stirring in the Flyer

Get weirder. (Photo: Dan Parlante | Unsplash)

I am so excited! I wish you could have seen me last week when I realized I was going to be able to bring some old favorites back into the pages of the Memphis Flyer. Just giddy as all get-out! Grinnin’ and whistlin’ and dancin’ a jig … well, I wasn’t really whistling. I’ve never been able to get much out aside from a tea-kettle-like whisper. Anyway, after our tasting for the fall beer guide we published a couple weeks back, we (may have been buzzed and) got to talking about changes we might want to implement, what new and exciting — or simply reader-friendly and engaging — things we could do to make the paper bigger, better, and weirder.

We’ve still got some ideas stewing, but we really went for it this week. And I am excited for y’all, too! I’m also excited for the handful of coworkers who are going to be just as surprised as you are when they crack open this week’s issue. I did my best to keep this a secret outside of the folks who work in the design and copyediting trenches of producing this paper.

Longtime readers will surely recognize some changes — and the return of some fun and super-useful content — all in a slightly larger, 32-page package that allowed us the breathing room to TCB on these goals. Some of you may remember the weekly insights offered by Rob Brezsny with his Free Will Astrology horoscopes. His work has been syndicated for years by alt-weeklies across the U.S. and was in our very own paper for a long time. It was cut some years back when so many publications like ours downsized and focused more closely on original content in limited print space. Another item that was cut — that I continue to be asked about when the Flyer comes up in conversation — is News of the Weird, a compilation of strange and surreal news stories from headlines across the globe. Well, guess what, lovelies? They’re baaaaack!

Also gracing these pages once again is our After Dark live music calendar. This is a bit of a trial run on those listings, as we’ve not printed them since the Before Times. But live music is kicking and thriving in the city now, and we believe this to be a valuable resource. If you’re in a band or do promotions for local venues, please send your music events to calendar@memphisflyer.com with the subject line AFTER DARK.

Were you tired of having to dig out a magnifying glass to read the clues on The New York Times crossword puzzle? Did you have to use the smallest pen in the world to fill in the answers in those teeny-tiny boxes? We’ve got great news for you (and for the many folks who’ve complained about it over the years) — we upsized the puzzle!

Lastly on the new-and-different front this week is a “now playing” conclusion to the film/TV section, where we’re testing finishing up there with a rundown of must-see films currently in theaters.

I’m new to this position and title, but I’m not new here, as you may have read in my introductory official editor’s note a few weeks back. I started out as a reader more than two decades ago — literally just a kid. I looked to the Flyer for the fun stuff — like astrology and weird news from around the world, long before we all scrolled viral videos on our phones. The extensive live music, arts, food, theater, film (etc.!) event listings helped me plan my weekends, and showed me just how much Memphis had to offer in terms of entertainment. And of course these were icing on the cake for the unmatched news reporting, politics analysis, event highlights, music and film reviews, food coverage, poignant opinion pieces (etc.!) that could be found in every issue, every single week.

We’re hoping you all will find these additions, along with our outstanding standard content, informative, fun, and useful — and we’re hoping some new readers will join us on this journey as we make the Flyer bigger, better, and weirder! (And boy, there are a lot of exclamation marks in this column! Did I mention I was excited?) With that said, after you’ve read through this week’s issue, pass your copy along to a friend or colleague. Share the love and legacy of Memphis’ alternative weekly newspaper — and stay tuned for what comes next!

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Karen Camper’s Race

Karen Camper as a freshman legislator in 2008 (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Depending on how one interprets the recent announcement by Michelle McKissack as to her political intentions, there are either one or two women in the running for Memphis mayor. There are still those who regard McKissack, the school board chair and former TV anchor, as having been equivocal or hypothetical in her formal announcement. Did she say she was running or merely indicate she was thinking about it?

There was no such ambiguity about Karen Camper’s intentions. The minority leader, declaring her candidacy from a position next to her grandmother’s front porch in South Memphis, proclaimed herself “ready” and reinforced the immediacy of her candidacy with some striking words: “From the front porch, we can see the conditions of our streets. We can see whether it is littered with potholes. We can hear the engines of cars roaring out of control. We can hear street racing. We can hear gunshots.”

She declared, “Memphis needs a mayor that’s willing to meet with you on your front porch.”

In so dramatizing her effort, positioning herself as having sprung right from the grassroots of inner city Memphis, Camper was ingeniously minimizing one of the potential shortcomings of her position — that her basic governmental experience, however renowned, has taken place at something of a remove from home.

Camper’s race can usefully be compared to that of a previous mayoral aspirant, Carol Chumney, who sought the office in 2007, against then incumbent Mayor Willie Herenton and MLGW CEO Herman Morris.

Like Camper, Chumney, now a Civil Court judge, had served for many years in the Tennessee state House. She did not become her party’s leader, as has Camper, but Chumney was an influential legislator, particularly in the field of children’s services, which she turned into a major public concern, and she held several leadership positions in the Democratic hierarchy, which in those days actually controlled the House.

Chumney had credentials, but they were, like those of Camper today, amassed primarily in an environment, Capitol Hill in Nashville, that was physically distant from the constituency of greater Memphis and not nearly as familiar to its voters as the governmental arenas for those public officials who had served closer to home.

Had Chumney chanced a mayoral race on the basis of her legislative qualifications, she would likely have had far greater difficulty than she did in the 2007 race, where she was a major contender from beginning to end. Indeed, she had made a Democratic primary race for Shelby County mayor in 2002, while still a legislator, and had run respectably, but well behind, against eventual winner AC Wharton, then the county’s public defender.

In 2003, though, Chumney had said goodbye to the General Assembly and run for a seat on the Memphis City Council against fellow hopefuls George Flinn and Jim Strickland. She won that race and wasted no time in broadening her acquaintance with the city’s voters and theirs with her.

In the four years leading up to the 2007 mayor’s race, Chumney was the most visible member of the council, posing challenge after challenge not only to the more questionable actions of Mayor Willie Herenton but to the good-ol’-boy presumptions of a council where pork was ladled about by members like so many reciprocated scratchings of each other’s back.

In so doing, Chumney ruffled some feathers in city hall, but she got the attention of the voters, enough so that she finished a close second to Herenton in the three-cornered mayor’s race, leading to speculation that she might have won in a one-on-one.

Karen Camper doesn’t have the advantage that Chumney had of recent and close-up tangles with the powers-that-be, but, to judge by her unusual mode of announcement, she has good grassroots instincts. And, of all the contestants, she may be most familiar with the ongoing threats to home rule posed by today’s state government. Which may be more of an issue than it may seem.

Categories
At Large Opinion

Hail Mary #8

Did you hear the big news?

Memphis is going to get a USFL team! The USFL, in case you’re not familiar with the latest iteration (I wasn’t), is a professional football league that had its debut season last spring with eight teams, all of which played their games in Birmingham, Alabama — which is weird, since the teams were supposedly affiliated with other cities. The Philadelphia Stars take on the Pittsburgh Maulers in Alabama in April? How does that setup not draw huge crowds?

Anyway, next spring, according to a newly signed agreement (obtained by the Daily Memphian via an FOIA request) between the city of Memphis, Liberty Stadium managers Global Spectrum, and the USFL, Memphis gets a piece of this sweet gridiron action. The new Memphis Showboats will play in the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, along with the possibly mighty Houston Gamblers, who will also call Memphis their home field. (When the Gamblers and the Showboats hook up, will both teams wear home uniforms? Tune in next spring and find out!) The Showboats will mostly be made up of players from the now-defunct Tampa Bay Bandits USFL team, which folded after one season.

Dear reader, you may be forgiven if you are less than enthralled. I am myself extraordinarily underwhelmed. They should have called this team the Memphis Deja Vu because we’ve all been here before. Memphis is no stranger to start-up, wonky-league football teams, having been home to no less than seven through the years. Let me refresh your memory, in case you don’t still have the souvenir jerseys: Memphis Southmen, WFL (1974-75); Memphis Showboats, USFL (1984-85); Memphis Mad Dogs, CFL (1995); Tennessee Oilers, NFL (1997); Memphis Maniax, XFL (2001); Memphis Express, AAF (2019). This list doesn’t include the Memphis Pharaohs, an Arena League team that played in the Pyramid for a season in the 1990s.

Suffice it to say that all Memphis professional football teams should be required to have the words “The Short-Lived” above the team name on the jerseys. Two years for a Memphis pro football team is an “era.”

Reportedly, the prime mover for this latest Excellent Adventure in Football Fantasy is FedEx founder and chairman Fred Smith, who, bless his heart, has wanted a professional football franchise for his home city for decades. Remember the Memphis Hound Dogs, the city’s well-funded 1990s Hail Mary pass at the NFL? Smith was part of that ownership group, along with cotton magnate Billy Dunavant, billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, and Elvis Presley Enterprises. Despite the undeniably rockin’ name and lots of money, Memphis lost out to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, who had the good sense to choose cat names.

Smith then became part of the ownership group of the (obligatory “short-lived” descriptor goes here) CFL Memphis Mad Dogs, who entertained the city, sort of, for one season. Oh, Canada.

Anyway, at last week’s announcement, when Smith and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland posed awkwardly, jointly holding an orange-ish football and wearing too-small Memphis Showboat hats, it had a kabuki theater, been-here-done-this feel. Lord help us. Who’s fired up for April minor-league football, y’all? Show of hands.

By all accounts, the city’s financial commitment to this silliness is fairly minimal: some minor upgrades to the stadium and providing office and practice space to the team — which is apparently going to be the Pipkin building. The last time most Memphians were there was when we were driving through to get Covid shots in 2020. Good times!

It should be noted for historical purposes that the original USFL lasted three (whoo!) entire seasons (1983-85). Three consecutive Heisman Trophy winners signed with the league, including Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker (who said last week he would rather be a werewolf than a vampire). The league played its games in the spring for two seasons, but one influential team owner pushed relentlessly for the league to shift its games to the fall. “If God wanted football in the spring,” the owner said, closing his case, “he wouldn’t have created baseball.”

The ensuing move to a fall schedule doomed the league, which could not compete for fans or TV eyeballs with the NFL and college football. The owner whose business acumen destroyed the original USFL? It was New Jersey Generals owner Donald J. Trump. A stable genius, even back then.

Go Showboats.

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Richard Wilson: Folk Jazz for the Fireside

Though the Memphis Flyer often covers the venerable Royal Studios‘ musical ventures, that’s typically in the context of stone legends — the likes of Al Green, Ann Peebles, Hi Rhythm and the like. What’s less often mentioned is Royal’s availability to the working musician today. Hi Rhythm, Boo Mitchell, and microphone #9 are right there, waiting to be booked.

One such workaday musician who made sparks fly at Royal back in 2020 is Michael “Spaceman” Graber. This year’s noteworthy entry is Richard Wilson, who’s jazz-inflected tunes for voice and guitar have graced Memphis for many years now, often cut at Scott Bomar’s former Electraphonic Recording location. This time around, with Distant Train, he’s upped the ante considerably, in terms of his ensemble. For when recording at Royal, why not seize the opportunity to include Boo Mitchell and Rev. Charles Hodges in your band?

Throw in Justin Walker on drums and that’s exactly what we have here. And the end result is such a warm, unpretentious vibe that the album could well grace many a holiday get-together this year. For, while these are not holiday songs in the least, and the album was in fact released this summer, the overall mellow-yet-swinging mood befits the chilly season exceptionally well.

Wilson’s lightly swinging jazz rhythm guitar sets the pace for each tune, with Hodges’ trademark creamy Hammond B-3 chords voiced perfectly around it. Even before the drums and Mitchell’s occasional electric piano chime in, a graceful harmonic blend is happening, on top of which Wilson weaves his low key lyrics and melodies.

Wilson, who originally hailed from England before relocating to Memphis, hits a sweet spot in the British blue-eyed soul tradition that stretches from Georgie Fame to Kevin Rowland to Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr. The singer himself invokes Bobby Darin. Whatever the influences, Wilson’s delivering his songs quietly, but earnestly and tunefully.

One standout is the folk/blues/jazz call to arms, “Say What is Right Blues.” Intoning “ooooh” like a half-remembered fever dream of Howlin’ Wolf, Wilson laments the state of the world:

Ooh — I’m not crying
Ooh — I ain’t lying
On and on and on and on it goes
Ooh — these thoughts ain’t dying

You gotta stand up and say what is right
Theres no more time
To stay down

The groove is raw and deliberate; the interplay of rhythm, keyboards and guitar is subtle and atmospheric. Despite the stellar players, this is not a soloist’s album, but rather a songwriter’s album. In treading the jazzier side of that genre, it avoids many of the cliches of Americana-style singer/songwriters; instead, it brings a kind of approachable, soulful jazz into play. And, when the home fires are burning, that’s a very welcome sound indeed.

Categories
Sports Upper 90

USA Ties Wales in World Cup Opener

(Credit: Peter Kováč | Dreamstime.com)

The United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) kicked off its 2022 Qatar World Cup campaign in Group B on Monday against Wales. The U.S. led after a dominant first half thanks to a Timothy Weah goal, but a resurgent Wales clawed back the deficit with a late Gareth Bale penalty, leaving the final score knotted at 1-1. Elsewhere in Group B, England smashed Iran 6-2.

Samuel Cicci: Greetings, soccer fans. Delighted to have you here for our local World Cup coverage at the Memphis Flyer. I would like to thank my employer for letting us host our quadrennial soccer blog, The Workmanlike Performers, on the site. Every four years, I convene with my acquaintance Matthew Hein to give updates on all things World Cup, but for this column we’ll just be focusing on Team USA’s exploits throughout the tournament.

So let’s get started! There were a few question marks surrounding who would make the starting lineup, but you felt that the Wales opener was certainly a winnable game. How do you feel about the 1-1 result after leading for the first 80-odd minutes?

Matthew Hein: Honestly, it was a frustrating result. We didn’t know what to expect going in, since the USMNT’s form had been uneven leading up to the tournament. But instead of a flat performance, we really took control of the game early on, looking calm in possession and not giving Wales any chance on the counter. 

However, it felt that a switch had been flipped at halftime, and the U.S. just was trying to hold on for the last 45 minutes. To give away an equalizing goal on a rash penalty always feels bad but, in the end, the result was probably fair. 

SC: I agree, but it rankles after going through the first half in cruise control. It’s been a long time since the U.S. has looked so confident in possession, but that’s on us for not adding another goal while we were on top. The goal was fantastic, with Josh Sargent holding up play to make space for Christian Pulisic, who dribbled forward and slid a clever pass in for Weah to convert. But beyond that, I’d argue that many of our players were guilty of overcomplicating things, always looking to make an eye-catching, yet low-percentage pass, rather than building up play organically. And there were certainly plenty of opportunities to do that in both halves. 

Defensively, I was supremely impressed in the first half with how we throttled service to the Welsh frontmen of Bale and Daniel James. They couldn’t get a kick! Centerback Tim Ream at 35 years old has had an impressive career renaissance and was a big part of our dominance. But in the second half, it was almost as if we hadn’t done any scouting on Kieffer Moore. The 6’5 Welsh mountain of a man pretty much had his way with our defenders, Ream included, whenever he was on the ball. Is it worrying that we couldn’t cope with direct play once Wales had a big man up front? Or was this a product of the U.S. being too passive after gaining the first-half lead?

MH: Overall, I think our centerbacks may well be the weakest part of the team, and while Moore is certainly a handful physically, they will have a much stiffer test with England’s Harry Kane next time, so I do think it is a cause for concern. I couldn’t really tell if the USA’s passivity was an intentional play to protect its lead or the product of some mental and physical struggles that pushed us on to the back foot. 

SC: Worth noting, too, that we have one of the youngest teams in the tournament, and they were getting the stuffing kicked out of them all game. Not that that’s an excuse, but it does play a role.

MH: Our forwards and midfielders had done a lot of running to close down Welsh possession early in the game, and that led to some tired legs in the 2nd half. This left more for defensive midfielder and captain Tyler Adams to do, as he was far and away USMNT’s best player. Adams was everywhere, from thwarting Welsh attacks before they started to cleaning up sloppy mistakes. Even Berhalter seemed to recognize his players were tiring, making four substitutes before the 75th minute. Do you think those substitutes were the right move? 

SC: For the most part, I think so. We were clearly tiring, and there were some injury concerns too, with both Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah looking banged up. Bringing on Brendan Aaronson is a no-brainer, since he’s a human battery and has been performing well in the English Premier League this season. Haji Wright in for Josh Sargent gave us some extra legs up top and a more pronounced focal point when we were under pressure, and the forward got his head to a couple of crosses. Kellyn Acosta in midfield was … okay?

MH: Hey, Acosta made one of the biggest plays of the game! If he doesn’t take down Bale late on, the U.S. might have even more regrets about this match. 

SC: That’s true! When our goalkeeper Matt Turner charged out to clear a long ball forward, he left the goal wide open, and with Bale gearing up for a long-range strike into an open net, Acosta hacked him down and potentially saved the point. But overall, I just think Acosta’s level is noticeably lower than our other options in midfield. I can understand DeAndre Yedlin coming in at right back, since Sergiño Dest had started to fade. But sending on … Jordan Morris? Where, oh where, in the world was Giovanni Reyna?

MH: Many pundits predicted that Reyna, the 20-year-old attacker playing for Borussia Dortmund, would start the game, as he is the most skilled playmaker on the roster. While he also has had injury issues, he was healthy and available for this game. Hopefully, we can see him soon. 

SC: He is by far our best weapon against low block defenses like Wales had today, but the only excuse I can think of is that Berhalter was afraid he would be kicked into the ground and aggravate one of his many injuries. But a low block likely won’t be what we’re up against when we face Group B powerhouses England on Friday. They raced out of the blocks with a 6-2 victory over Iran on Monday. Do we have a shot? What key pieces do we need out there to compete?

MH: We’re the clear underdogs, but in a single game, we always have a shot. We have a lot of young talent who can cause problems for the England defense in transition. It’s hard to know if we should be impressed with England’s win — Iran may just be a bad team, or were distracted by everything going on at home for them. The England match might call for a start for Aaronson, whose ceaseless running and quick decision-making will be necessary as the USMNT try to play on the counter. 

SC: Plus, Aaronson plays against those English guys every week. I just hope that everyone who had a niggling injury is okay in a couple days’ time. Our best players are notoriously injury-prone, after all. But we’ll end on a positive note. We’re back at the World Cup after missing out in 2018, and we got a point in our opening match! And just this morning, we saw Saudi Arabia upset tournament favorites Argentina. It’s all to play for.

USMNT plays England on Friday, November 25th, at 1 p.m.