Author: Alex Greene

Sense of Place

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date October 5, 2017

CREDIT: Stacie Huckeba

While “The Memphis Sound” was refined and heralded from the 1950s-’70s, attracting artists from all over the world, it lost its drawing power as the last century drew to a close. But lately it’s been on the rise again, exhibit A being the mega-hit “Uptown Funk,” recorded at Royal Studios. I spoke with producer Matt Ross-Spang about recording singer/songwriter Emily Barker’s soulful new album, Sweet Kind of Blue, and why international artists fall in love with not just Sam Phillips Recording Service, but the city and its people.

Stacie Huckeba

Memphis Flyer: Is Memphis attracting more artists who want a certain sound?

Matt Ross-Spang: They’re coming now. I used to joke about this — it seems like they always come and do the one funky track. “We have this one funky song, so we’re gonna go to Memphis.” And that would end up being the coolest song on the record. But really, you should do the whole record here. And you gotta finish it here. You gotta do the whole thing here, or it’s not the same feel.

Emily was looking for a producer. She talked about cutting it in Nashville, but I really wanted her to see Memphis. So we met here and did some songwriting. Of course, I took her to Pho Binh and Gus’s Fried Chicken, and it was over after that. She wanted to do the whole thing here.

It’s funny how this room, but also this city, is like the extra member in the band. It really influences people, the sound and song choice, the way people play. So I’m a big proponent of trying to get everyone I can to come here because it’s such an integral part of what we do.

That sense of place, that sense of a particular room, is part of the magic of older recordings. Even when doing overdubs, you get settled in there, you don’t mail tracks from L.A.

Yeah, I agree. It’s everybody in a room together. Whether they do it at the same time, or in parts, everyone’s there as one unit. The stuff Sam Phillips did, or Willie Mitchell, or Chips Moman, you can tell it’s their record, but they don’t put their fingerprint on it so much that it changes the artist’s sound. They just help facilitate, but at the same time you know that was cut at Royal, or it was cut at American. I love that kind of thumbprint on the track.

So how was Emily’s record put together?

I like to do it all on the floor. I don’t like people to memorize or chart the song before we get there. So she let me put the band together, and I got some of my favorite Memphis guys. We just let, in this case, Steve Potts, Dave Smith, Rick Steff, and Dave Cousar come up with parts, maybe change a chord. And it’s always lovely when an artist is okay to let you get your hands all over their songs. She’d show us the song, 30 seconds later we’re playing it, and there’s no overthinking it. A lot of these were country songs, and they became grooves. She was really great with letting that happen.

There were no rehearsals. Everything was nailed in two or three takes. It’s all live vocals on Emily’s part. The only thing we punched would be a harmony or strings or something. The musicians have all played together many times, but it’s been a while, so it was like a really cool family reunion. And they just killed it. I still get goosebumps listening to “Sister Goodbye.” I think that was the first one we tracked, and it set the tone for the whole record. Emily played and sang live. We went till we got the take. And we all loved the rough mixes that [engineer] Jeff Powell did right after tracking. So I just added a little reverb now and then, and it was done. It was a matter of “don’t ruin it; we already had it.”

Emily Barker plays the Levitt Shell Sunday, October 15th at 7 p.m.

Tags Emily Barker, Matt Ross-Spang, Sam Phillips Recording Studio, The New 'Memphis Sound'

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Gonerfest 14: Saturday

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date October 3, 2017

A Saturday afternoon in September was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract known as Memphis embrowned itself moment by moment. I settled into day three of Gonerfest 14. For the record, let it be known that we enjoyed glorious weather. Murphy’s drew us in with the promise of delicious suds in the open air.

Know from the start that this is a selective chronicle, damned from the start by too much of the world imposing itself to allow me a full day of frivolity. And yet, while I regret missing the enigmatic Hartle Road bringing the ‘Ssippi synth sound, not to mention their worthy predecessors, I can report that Cobra Man tore the place up with manic electro-funk, and even converted a once-retiring teen boy to crowd surfing on a sheet of plywood. The Heavy Lids lived up to their name with pounding ferocity; everyone was raving about them. “Sick of Being Sick!” Hash Redactor chilled things down with a dose of angst, focusing on the texture of their sonic guitar drones. They proved a perfect palate cleanser for the main attraction: historic proto-punk sonic sculptors X__X.
Alex Greene

X__X

Now, I wouldn’t call them historic to their faces, time-worn as they may have been. On second glance, one could see that X__X helmsman John D. Morton’s face was not time-worn, but marked with random Sharpie scribbles. On third glance, one could see that they were actually tattoo marks made to look like Sharpie scribbles. With things going so meta, Morton donned a tinfoil hat, resembling a Hershey’s Kiss with a Gibson Thunderbird. They soon played themselves into a time and space where age was meaningless. Unpredictable bursts of rhythm and guitar riffage might be in sync, then go pointedly off the rails, then return, as Morton chimed in with wry anger. If mad ranting is an art, with poet John Giorno being the Picasso of the form, then Morton could be its Monet. He cut an almost hippie-ish figure with his loose clothes and earth tone beads, which gave a sense of the kinds of contradictions one was likely to embrace, growing up in the 1970s rust belt as he did. But if there was any hippy idealism in the group’s striving for trance-inducing noise, it was forever foiled by the sounds of the factory floor.

At one point, Morton’s banter even seemed to acknowledge a twisted debt to hippiedom: “Ah, the Summer of Love was magical, it was when I got my first golden shower. It was so beautiful… I was alone.” Musically, free form assault and even playing with power tools would give way to a blessedly simple rock riff tune, with echoes of the Dead Boys and chants of “Transmogrification!” Then back to more twisted sounds, perhaps a chant of “Don’t wear sandals!” concluding with the Dylan quote, “twenty years of schoolin’ and they put ya on the day shift!”

All in all, a satisfyingly dark, layered, and rocking time was had by all. The only dim spot from these incandescent players was a theremin sitting front and center before Morton, waiting to be played. A few tantalizing seconds were heard early in the set, the arcing sound of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” seemingly ready to be unleashed amid the industrial clamor. But no, the theremin only stood there, mostly unplayed. As I left, I saw a solitary tear falling from the elderly electronic instrument.

Golden Pelicans

As night descended, the partiers shifted over to the Hi Tone. When I arrived, ever the unfaithful correspondent, everyone was raving about Traumahelikopter. So What, who would back the Equals’ Derv Gordon later that night, were playing a set of their own, great choppy power pop replete with harmonies. Then Vanity took the stage with a bit of New York grandiosity; yet all previous bands were swept away by the hurricane force winds of Florida’s Golden Pelicans. They mercilessly pounded Memphis down like a crushed can of Schlitz. Coltrane Duckworth, local lad about town and bassist extraordinaire, took to the crowd surf with aplomb, resting his head on his hand like Betty Grable in repose as the audience bore him along to the riffs of accelerated sludge. Viva Golden Pelicans!

Memphis threw its hat in the ring with the formidable Jack O’blivian and the Sheiks, who combined the sonic attack, common enough during the festival, with honest-to-god songs. Seth Moody was on board for extra sax and synth zing. Jesse Davis joined on tambourine. One highlight was Jack’s masterpiece, “War Child,” played tightly with abandon. The set was bookended by brilliant covers, opening with Roxy Music’s “Remake/Remodel” and its earworm chorus of “CPL 593H!!”, closing with a fast and ferocious “I See No Evil” that gave Television a run for their money.

Jack Oblivian & the Sheiks

Next came the enigmatic intro by the night’s emcee, Dan Rose, “The Detroit Hammer,” who had crafted a ritual to situate the festival headliners in the twisted times we are living through. A slow beat of dread pounded as he took the stage in a wolf’s head, calling out and calling down the powers of Babylon that lord over us at the moment. If some in the crowd got testy, waiting for the big beat to begin, most were gobsmacked, held in suspense. It all ended with Rose leading the room in the chant, “Let’s go to the moon! At the Equals show!” — a line from one of many brilliant Equals tracks.

Derv Gordon & So What

Derv Gordon and So What took to the stage. “This is the oddest intro I ever had!” proclaimed Derv, and in a flash the band were laying full throttle into “Softly Softly.” So What did a fine job of staying true to the old Equals arrangements, harmonies and all, but with a bigger, louder sound courtesy of Jason Duncan’s Gibson SG through a Marshall. Derv’s voice was in fine shape, from crooning to belting to singalong mode. Most of your favorite Equals tunes were revived and given a new jumpstart by So What: “Diversion,” “Police on my Back,” “Michael and his Slipper Tree.” Of the latter, Derv confessed that it was originally written as a “nutmeg tree,” until Derv himself made the more enigmatic lyrical change. The crowd was revved up, joining the band in nearly every chorus of every song, not satisfied until the encore brought the house down. Clearly Memphis is Equals territory.

Tags Derv Gordon, Gonerfest 14, Jack Oblivian, Memphis Music, The Equals, xx

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Reggie Young’s “Debut” and Groundbreaking Discography

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 29, 2017

Though Reggie Young was born in Missouri, history has confirmed that he is as Memphis as they come. Having begun his career in Eddie “Rockin’ Daddy” Bond’s band in the 50s, his guitar acumen helped him to advance quickly. After a spell with Johnny Horton, he became an integral part of Bill Black’s Combo, who worked out of Hi Records’ Royal Studios to produce scores of instrumental hits.

From Hi, he moved to American Studios and once again was part of a hit making machine, this time known as the Memphis Boys, American’s in house band. That’s him on Elvis’ hits of the time, and many others from the late 60s and 70s, including the distinctive electric sitar on B.J. Thomas’ “Hooked on a Feeling.” In the decades beyond, he was associated more with the Highwaymen and Waylon Jennings.

It’s worth recalling his storied history in Memphis now, after the summer release of his album Forever Young. Incredibly, this marks Young’s first album under his own name, as a band leader. Recorded in several studios in Tennessee and Alabama, but primarily at La La Land Studio in Muscle Shoals, it captures the elegant, shimmering fretwork that Young is known for. The result may not set the world on fire. Perhaps it’s polished to a fault, but fans of smooth soul/jazz will enjoy it immensely. To these ears, and aside from its sheer dexterity, it’s chiefly significant as a landmark in a career that has mostly been in the service of other artists.

But the album also drives home a point that is easily forgotten in the revolving door of musical trends: giants still walk among us. Those who have survived this long, after the white hot decades of the 50s-70s, deserve recognition. To this end, it’s significant that Young has received honors from the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Memphis chapter of The Recording Academy in just the past decade. Recognition can be a long time coming.

His role in history is doubly important because, as he lived it, he painstakingly notated every session he participated in from 1964 on. These neatly hand-penned notebooks are a music historian’s dream. And it’s now being made available to the general public, thanks to his collaboration with the Soul Detective website. One can get lost in the hundreds of sessions and releases documented on this site. An ongoing labor of love, it is a work in progress as information for each new year is added. Check it out and take a stroll through one giant’s role in American music.

Young will appear in the panel discussion, Forever Young: An Oral History with Reggie Young, at the Ponderosa Stomp Music History Conference in New Orleans, Oct. 5-6.

Tags Memphis Boys, Memphis Soul, Ponderosa Stomp, Reggie Young

Music Music Features

Gonerfest 14: Getting real gone with trailblazers old and new.

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 28, 2017

Memphians have come to embrace it like a change of season: Every year in the first full week of fall, the Australians appear. And the Kiwis, the Italians, and the Japanese. It’s as reliable as Death Week, which is fitting: These are all Goners, and like Elvis they want to “get real gone for a change,” though not quite in the way intended by the King. There will be screaming, riffs galore, and chants, but the direction of any band in particular is unpredictable. Thanks to the curation of Goner Records’ head honchos Zac Ives and Eric Friedl, unpredictability is guaranteed.

Anyone thinking the Goner worldview can be reduced to a formula need only explore the wildly diverse releases they’ve promoted, from Harlan T. Bobo to the Barbaras to BÊNNÍ. Better yet, check out two of the headliners of this week’s Gonerfest, John D. Morton of X__X and Derv Gordon of the Equals, both in their own way representative of a certain pioneering spirit more than any genre tag.

John D. Morton

Having grown up in a backwater, I can appreciate the bleak feeling of a typical Midwestern existence in the early ’70s. In Cleveland and Akron, artists were beginning to chafe at this zeitgeist, and, perhaps because of their isolation from cultural centers like New York or London, things got very weird. Weirdness, the unheimlich, the unsettling, was really the point. Later, the rising stars of the scene like Devo or Pere Ubu would be considered founding fathers of punk, but, as Morton says, “the whole term ‘proto-punk’ is like — how can there be proto-punk if there isn’t punk? But that’s how it works, it’s a backward appellation. We were just doing the music we wanted to do and what we thought we should do.”

In fact, just as those bigger names were emerging from Cleveland, Morton’s own group, the electric eels (no caps), was no more. But by then the eels had staked out a sonic territory wedding anger to semi-chaotic noise rock. “Agitated,” one of their biggest “hits,” captured the electric eels at their peak in 1975, with rhythmic blasts of noise guitar topped with grunts, a sneering vocal (“the whole world stinks!”), and clanging lead guitar lines, but it wasn’t released on a single until three years after the group’s demise.

By 1978, Morton had moved on to the more conceptual X__X, which took the absurdism to new heights. One song consisted only of the band striking a pose for a few minutes. Another, “Tool Jazz,” involved the musical, rhythmic use of power tools, echoing a similarly inspired use of such tools by the embryonic “art damaged” Tav Falco that same year in Memphis. But after five gigs and a handful of recordings, even that group was kaput, and Morton had moved to New York to explore visual art and more hedonistic pursuits.

The decades flew by, with respect for the nascent Cleveland scene only growing, until a compilation of their ’70s recordings was released in 2014. This prompted the formation of a new X__X configuration, with Morton joined by Craig Willis Bell, an alum of Rocket from the Tombs, the band which spawned both Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys. Since then, they’ve recorded new material, and Morton, as an artist using the tools at hand, is running with it. For him, it’s all a continuation of his original impulse to disrupt complacency. “How I ended up a professional musician I’ll never know,” he says. “But, you know, go up and do the work. Everything that’s gone on in my life in the interim, and you know I’ve done some music and art, did a lot of other things, and it’s like, ‘So this is what we’re doing today.’ It’s a continuum.”

Derv Gordon

“We wanted to be a blues band,” says Derv Gordon of his first days as lead singer with 1960s beat boom group the Equals, which also included Eddy Grant. “We were big fans of B.B. King, Albert King, Muddy Waters, and so on. But then we realized that we weren’t going to be a very good blues band. And if I’m gonna stand on stage, I need to be the best at what I’m doing. After that, we wrote all our own stuff. Because the thing is, if you write your own stuff, no one can say that you’re playing it badly. It’s yours. When you write it yourself, you are the original.”

The Equals were never huge in the U.S., charting mainly in the U.K. and continental Europe. With recordings of “Police on My Back” by the Clash, “Baby Come Back” by UB40, and “Rough Rider” by the English Beat (which the Equals released as the Four Gees), it was mainly covers of their distinctive sound that led music fans to dig into their back catalog.

Born in Jamaica, Gordon moved to London at an early age. By chance, his family settled near the famed Finsbury Park Astoria Theatre. “They had some great artists there,” says Gordon. “Stax Revue was there, the Ronettes, the Crystals. As kids we used to sneak in through the side door because we couldn’t afford the entry fee, and we would watch all these great performers. When I saw Chuck Berry, that’s when I decided, this is the life for me. This is what I want.”

Eventually, he and his brother Lincoln fell in with Guyanese expat Grant and London natives Pat Lloyd and John Hall, and the Equals plied the club circuit as one of the only interracial bands of the era. “We performed in a soul club in London. Artists like Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, and Rufus Thomas would perform there, and we would be the resident support band and back them up. So we picked up a lot of stuff from these artists.”

The group didn’t fit easily into any one genre, however. Not wholly soul, rock-and-roll, or the rock steady/ska of Gordon’s homeland, it was a beguiling blend of all that. Nowadays Gordon is honoring that catalog with a new band from San Francisco, So What. “They really do know their stuff. But the idea wasn’t to do it exactly like the records anyway. It’s a different take on the songs. Their style is more modern, but the foundation is there.”

Gonerfest 14 begins with an art exhibition on Wednesday, Sept. 27th at Crosstown Arts, with performances from September 28th-October 1st. X__X performs Saturday, Sept. 30th at Murphy’s, 6:30 p.m. Derv Gordon performs that night at the Hi-Tone, 1 a.m. For a full schedule, go to www.goner-records.com/gonerfest/

Tags Derv Gordon, Equals, GonerFest 2017, Harlan T Bobo, John D. Morton, The Barbaras, xx

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Linda Heck: Bound to ExCITM tonight

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 20, 2017

Linda Heck

Tonight marks the unleashing of a project that has been years in the making, with scores of Memphis players. Linda Heck is practically a Bluff City institution, though she now lives in Sewanee. Indeed, she embodies the old Antenna Club scene when, in the wake of punk and new wave, things got weird. Linda Heck and the Train Wreck were fixtures on that scene, and even at that youngish age, Heck made her mark as a deft wordsmith with beguiling melodies and changes, delivered in a unique voice with theatrical aplomb.

She laid low for a spell, but in 2012 Heck released Transformed, a tour de force that boldly announced her return to music after many years of experimenting with adulthood. And it expressed that adulthood with a well-chosen cast of players: Doug Easley, John McClure, Kurt Ruleman, Jimi Inc., Jim Spake, Jim Duckworth, Rick Steff, Greg Easterly, and Jonathan Kirkscey all contributed.

Not long after that album, Heck took up even more experimentation, with any even larger cast of players. She became a regular on the local scene again, often with a sketchbook and ideas for fresh collaborations. Recording on the fly became her modus operandi — house sitting or couch surfing with microphones strung through people’s living rooms, or showing up on porches with her laptop and a guitar. “Hi, let’s do something for my Experimental Connections in the Memphis!” she’d say. And who could refuse? (Full disclosure: I certainly couldn’t). From there, the songs would develop whichever way the wind blew.

The years of carpeing the diem have finally come to fruition with Heck’s album release show tonight at Bar DKDC. It’s an early one, perfect for those still experimenting with adulthood. And it will bring many of the best players in town together to recreate her most eclectic work. Experimental Connections in the Memphis, or ExCITM, goes even further afield than Transformed, featuring hip hop beats one minute, the live drumming of NOTS’ Charlotte Watson the next; acoustic, electric, and treated guitars; synths, reeds, and children’s voices; and a rotating circus of players and collaborators. “Poor Little Stray,” co-written with Greg Cartwright, is a standout track. All the tunes benefit from the creative, polished production (and musicianship) of Alan Hayes, whose House of Hayes studio has been a hidden gem of midtown for years.

But then, production is neither here nor there: when it comes to a live performance, Heck is sure to re-imagine every song in a fresh way. Yes, the band has been rehearsing, but her singing and playing can’t help but spring from the moment. Check it out live tonight to see what surprises she has in store. There will also be a “Way Of The Memphis” sound installation made from field recordings and conversations with the late Rick Ivy, Ross Johnson, Don Share, Corey Mesler, and Nick Canterucci.

Linda Heck ExCITM album release party, Sept. 20 at Bar DKDC, 7:00 pm.

Music Music Blog

Honoring the legendary Beatles/Arkansas connection

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 14, 2017

In September of 1964, the Beatles were busy conquering America. We were busy welcoming our new overlords. It was a manic, unforgiving time for the Fabs, who were encountering an unheard-of level of teen mania and police protection. Having just played Dallas less than a year after Kennedy’s assassination, on the 18th, they were a bit overwhelmed. That’s when the owner of their charter plane, Reed Pigman, Sr., suggested that they take some time off, far from the madding crowd, before resuming their tour in New York on the 20th. And thus did Arkansas earn its place on the map of Beatles’ legend.

In a little-known chapter of the Beatles’ touring history, they made a two day detour to Pigman’s dude ranch in Walnut Ridge, relaxing by the pool and presumably working on their Arkansasian accents. Two teenage boys discovered the ranch’s location, jumped the fence, and ended up sitting with their idols for a spell. While it may have merely been a bit of downtime to the Fabs, they made an indelible impression on the little burg that hosted them. And it’s commemorated to this day, with the annual “Beatles at the Ridge” celebration.

Walnut Ridge now plays host to much the same scene as the “Fest for Beatles Fans,” with merchandise vendors, bands, impersonators, and panel discussions by Beatle-ologists. Say what you will about the original visit’s importance to Beatles history, this is a decidedly oddball event, sure to draw a diverse mix of folks to this small Arkansas town, only ninety minutes from Memphis.

The full schedule is listed here; highlights include a panel discussion with Bettie and Eva, stewardesses on the charter plane for the entire tour, who probably saw a thing or two, and a presentation by Bruce Spizer, author of the new book The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper: A Fans’ Perspective.

With the movement to save the Mid-South Coliseum hitting its stride, the history of the Beatles in the region is bubbling up in all sorts of ways. Exhibit A: the brand new decals designed by Mike McCarthy, including one honoring the Mop Tops’ appearance here in 1966. That brings to mind images of numskull Klansmen, record burning, and assassination threats. (Imagine hosting a Beatles gathering there, where they actually played). But to go back even further in time, when the 1960s seemed more an extension of the 1950s, consider a little road trip this weekend up to Walnut Ridge.

The 5th annual Beatles At The Ridge celebration, Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16, Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, free admission to all events. Most events are held in or near The Studio, 123 Main Street, downtown Walnut Ridge.

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The Memphis Country Blues Festival rises again

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 14, 2017

Reverend John Wilkins

These days, it seems that music festivals are blossoming like algae around the Greater Memphis Area. But it ‘s worth remembering a time when such celebrations were few and far between, and made a much greater political statement. The original Memphis Country Blues Festival of 1966 was the local counter-culture’s shot across the bow at the prevailing status quo. Held at the Overton Park Shell only a week after the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in the park, it promoted a vision of radical possibilities.

For all the details, (re)read your copy of Robert Gordon’s It Came From Memphis, which vividly evokes a rag-tag cohort of artists, musicians, and other blues fans whose utopian vision was rooted in a careful salvaging of the past – in this case, the genius of blues players like Furry Lewis or Bukka White, who had fallen into obscurity. These were heroes to many in the nascent hippie culture. They ended up throwing a party on a grand scale that included both living legends and cutting edge rock and funk.

Today, we again face the question of who to memorialize from the past and who to scorn. It’s a perfect time to revive that spirit of communal action, and it’s about to happen in two days’ time when the Levitt Shell hosts rebirth of the Memphis Country Blues Festival.

One of the key organizers of the original festival, and a performer there with Insect Trust, was musician and author Robert Palmer. His daughter Augusta Palmer, a documentary film maker, is currently working on a documentary about the original festivals that ran from 1966-69.

The Blues Society – Kickstarter Trailer from Cultural Animal on Vimeo.

The Memphis Country Blues Festival rises again

“Last year there was a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first blues festival,” she recalls. “And Robert Gordon and I curated a panel of people who came and talked. So Marcia Hare/Misty Blue Lavender, and James Alexander, and Jimmy Crosthwait, and Chris Wimmer, who were all part of the original events, came up. We showed a little bit of the New York Channel 13 footage that was shot of the 1969 concert. And then had all the people to talk on stage and answer questions. Yeah, it was a great conversation. Ric was there and that’s where we met, actually.”

Reviving the festival was the brainchild of promoters Ric and Stephen Whitney, cousins from Memphis who learned of the original festivals just as they were looking for fresh ideas for community events. Says Ric, “The fact that there was something that happened so long ago, and it was very innovative in terms of bringing together constituencies who didn’t necessarily spend a lot of time together, but the common denominator was music. And that was one of the things that we often talked about in terms of things we wanted to do in the city ourselves: to produce music-based shows that brought people together.” Augusta Palmer

Original poster for the Memphis Country Blues Festival

Soon after that, Ric Whitney met with Liz Levitt Hirsch, president of the Levitt Foundation in Los Angeles. “There was a salon she had at her home, actually, and we had a chance to chat about the idea in general. And then we ended up being introduced to the Levitt Shell folks in Memphis. And it sort of blossomed from there. Our biggest goal was to produce a free concert. And it worked well because the Shell produces their concert series each year, and the majority are free shows. We didn’t see this as something that we were looking at making tons of money on. We really saw it as an opportunity, really, kinda looking at what’s happening in the US today – there’s a lot of strife, a lot of miscommunication. So we wanted to come up with an opportunity for people to use music, and particularly the blues genre, as an way to bring people together.”

Palmer, naturally, will be there to document the proceedings, and may screen a trailer for her newest work. It’s a powerful moment for both her and the city, “that these two African American Memphis natives are taking on the mantle of the Blues Festival. I think my dad would have been really happy.”

It’s especially fitting that the headliner for the show was a performer at the original event: Rev. John Wilkins. Kevin Cubbins, who plays in the band, reflects, “What a lot of people don’t know is that this is a return trip for Rev. Wilkins. It’s not his first time at the Shell. And that’s not even counting the time he played with his father, delta blues and gospel icon Rev. Robert Wilkins, at one of the first Memphis Country Blues Fests in 1968. See, up until 2006, the year he retired from the City of Memphis Park Services, Rev. Wilkins was the groundskeeper and maintenance supervisor at the Shell. He was responsible for everything from keeping the grass cut to keeping the place secured and cleaned up.”

Once again, honoring the past is lighting the way forward. “It’s kind of epic,” adds Cubbins. “He was there in the golden days of the late 60’s, he was they guy holding the place together during its years of neglect, and now he’s taking the stage in it’s rebirth. Kinda cool.”

The Memphis Country Blues Festival, Levitt Shell, Saturday, September 16, 7:00 – 10:00 pm, free admission. Lineup: Reverend John Wilkins (son of Robert Wilkins); Blue Mother Tupelo (southern soul and blues, Husband & Wife duo); Cam Kimbrough (grandson of Blues legend, Junior Kimbrough).

Tags Blue Mother Tupelo, Cam Kimbrough, Kevin Cubbins, Liz Levitt Hirsch, Memphis Country Blues Festival at Levitt Shell, Rev. John Wilkins, Rick and Stephen Whitney, Robert Gordon, Robert Palmer

Music Music Features

Holding On: Don Lifted Rises Above His Pain With “Alero”

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 14, 2017

CREDIT: Jarvis Hughes

The album that Memphis hip-hop artist Don Lifted drops this Thursday has been a long time in the making. Named after the car he drove when living through a particularly harrowing time, Alero will provide him no small measure of catharsis. After nearly seven years, Don Lifted will finally be able to exhale.

With neither the broad social commentary of Marco Pavé nor the street life debauchery of Yo Gotti, Don Lifted, aka Lawrence Matthews, takes his lyrics to a personal place to fashion a work of art-as-therapy. The album details a stressful period when Matthews and his high school girlfriend ventured east for college and they confronted the challenges of living away from home.

“The story takes place from September 2010 and into 2011. It was six months, but it felt like two years,” he recalls. “We just were clashing. But also it was just being thrown into the world, adulthood, alone. We both were going through a kind of hell. I slept in the car a lot. I was sick a lot, so I’d take cough medicine so I could record music, instead of being sniffly; so I could go to class, go to work.”

The car became a kind of sanctuary for Matthews. “Kappa, Sigma, Omega, Alpha, Kappa, them Deltas/ Futures, degrees and shelters and I am only a nigga/ Carpetbagger from Memphis, they’ll never see me as bigger/ I’m clapping, but I’m pretending, depression down to my tendons, these terrors, they cloud my vision.” So goes the first verse of the first song. And it’s all downhill from there.

Along the way, he struggles with his relationship, his boss, his school, and poverty. But he makes it clear that his hometown was no picnic either. “Family became opponents, all they repping is Memphis/ It offers nothing to poets, offers nothing to loners/ Wasn’t born in the system of 3-6, Elvis, and Jordans.”

Jarvis Hughes

Don Lifted

The struggles evoked in Alero also came as he tried to developed his musical skills. “I was trying to record a record in the closet of my dorm,” he says. “And my plan was to spend six months making the record, finish the record, then spend the next six months going back and forth to New York. I was gonna get on, get connections, meet people. And I got kicked outta school, so I didn’t get to do any of that.”

Instead, he returned home. But it wasn’t until much later that he could reflect on the experience creatively. In the intervening years, he found his voice as an artist, earning a degree from the University of Memphis. “My major was Studio Arts … but my main focus when I came out of college was painting. Now, it’s photography and video work.” Degree in hand, he turned inward to create Alero.
“I started the first song in November 2014, and I finished writing, recording, and producing it by the middle of 2015. And then spent the rest of 2015 just sitting on it, mixing it, being very meticulous.” This period was heavily influenced by his listening habits. “I’m attracted to Kanye West, Common, J Dilla’s production. … But the album I was listening to a lot around the album’s creation was Coldplay’s Ghost Stories. It was about his divorce. Very minimal. And there was a record by Dawn Golden, who I sampled twice.”

Performing such personal material now can still be difficult for Matthews, though he feels he’s gained some perspective on the pain. Listeners need not resign themselves to utter despair. By the final cut, “Holding On,” Matthews finds room for hope. “We’re not holding on for nothing” rings the track’s chorus, and at last it seems Don Lifted has drawn strength from his exile.
Alero will be available for download September 14th. The CD, including a deluxe booklet of lyrics and original photographs, is for sale exclusively at Shangri-La and Goner Records.

Tags Alero, Don Lifted, Goner, Lawrence Matthews, new music from Don Lifted, Shangri-La

Music Music Features

Paa Kow at the Hi-Tone – Echoes of Africa

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 11, 2017

CREDIT: Elliot Siff

Countless scholars write of the African traditions behind the blues, music that defines the Mid-South. Samuel Charters’ The Roots of the Blues: An African Search is just the tip of the iceberg, exploring in depth what has become a cliché of music history. While few would dispute the truth of this, it’s rare that we in the home of the blues can experience the sounds of Africa. Aside from occasional recording projects that bring the two worlds together, like Otha Turner and the Afrossippi Allstars or Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate, what can we hear of the continent that is mother to us all?

This is beginning to change, with the Memphis-based African Jazz Ensemble gaining notoriety and the ongoing presence of African drumming and dance in performances by the New Ballet Ensemble. And soon we’ll have a chance to hear more of it, with the return of Paa Kow, a trap set master from Ghana who has assembled a unique ensemble appearing next Wednesday at the Hi-Tone.

Kow grew up in a small village in Ghana, making his first drum set from assembled odds and ends, including a drum pedal made with a sandal and a door hinge. “I started when I was, like, 5,” Kow says. “I played with my uncles, and was in a band with my mom. From there, it just took off. I moved to the city — all the best artists were in Accra.” Under the wing of Ghanaian pop star Amakye Dede, Kow quickly made a name for himself and was touring in other parts of Africa and in Europe.

By 2007, after befriending a traveling student from the University of Colorado, Kow was invited to teach there as a guest artist. Ultimately, he ended up settling in the Denver area, assembling a band of Nigerian and American players to perform his unique hybrid compositions. “I call it Afro Fusion, because I’m not really doing traditional highlife music. I’m an explorer — so it’s pretty original, you know?”

Kow is also prolific: His 2012 debut, Hand Go Hand Come, was a double CD. Since then, he’s released 2014’s Ask, and next Wednesday, he’ll be promoting a new album, Cookpot. Over the past 10 years, with these releases under his belt, he’s built up a fan base in unexpected places. “I have a good foundation in Lincoln, Nebraksa. Omaha, it’s great. Iowa. It keeps getting better and better. I’ve been here a while, and people start realizing what I do. The fan base is getting better.”

His eclecticism may be a key to that. While Ghanaian highlife, with its extended jams over polyrhythmic grooves, underpins much of the music, there are more diverse flavors in the mix. “I like Weather Report; Earth, Wind and Fire; Herbie Hancock; Buddy Rich. So, it’s a lot of influences,” he notes. Such musical touchstones demand excellent players. “I like the jazz background of the musicians. Because it’s very complicated stuff, you know? When they know what they’re doing already, it makes it easier.”

Kow’s band now typically includes organ, multiple percussionists, guitar, bass, and several horn players, but this wasn’t always the case. For a time, he and a much smaller ensemble relocated to Memphis. “I moved my band I started in Colorado, and it was only a four-piece then. It was just drum set, trumpet, percussion, and bass. That’s what I had at that time. But we made a good thing out of it.” The group was a notable presence on the local scene. “We played at the Cooper-Young Festival. I played a night at the Levitt Shell, and at the Hi-Tone, I played a couple times, before I moved back to Colorado. So I know Memphis. Yeah, I lived there before, I love Memphis.”

It’s notable that the Levitt Shell hosted one of his shows at the time: They have become perhaps the most reliable curator of world music artists in the Mid-South. Many recall an electric (and controversial) show there in 2015 by Seun Kuti, son of the outspoken pioneer of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti. With this in mind, I asked Kow if his songwriting reflected the same combination of politics and jazz as Kuti’s music.

“No,” he said. “I’m not trying to do political at all. I just wanna be happy. I want everybody to be happy. And it’s not really spiritual, no. When the music comes, I give it out. It’s a personal thing. The music always comes, and then I give it out, you know?”

Paa Kow performs with the Obruni Dance Band Wednesday, September 13th at the Hi-Tone, $10 cover.

Tags African music, Paa Kow at the Hi-Tone, Paa Kow in Memphis