Author: Chris Shaw

From his time performing in local rock-and-roll bands, to his latest involvement with bringing a School of Rock location to Memphis, Marc Gurley has dedicated much of his adult life to music.

Gurley was the original lead singer of Dust for Life, a local group that toured regionally and opened for local rock stars Saliva on occasion. But after deciding to buy into the family golf business rather than live a life on the road, Gurley’s musical journey took a short detour.

“Life on the road just wasn’t appealing to me, especially because I have a wife and three daughters,” Gurley said. “About five years later, I discovered the School of Rock franchise and fell in love with the business model. Given my background in music and business, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

The national School of Rock franchise opened its first location in Philadelphia in 2002 with the simple mission statement of “Helping Kids Rock on Stage and in Life.” This year, the franchise is celebrating its 100th location and has become a popular means to teach children how to play music, specifically the instruments most commonly used in rock.

The Memphis School of Rock officially opens on January 12th at 400 Perkins Ext., but the school will have a soft opening on December 15th. There is a Germantown School of Rock that opened this past August, but the Memphis school will have more instructors and full recording studio.

Instead of one-on-one sessions with an instructor and sheet music, the School of Rock uses a more hands-on experience, allowing children to jam with other kids at similar skill levels. Gurley said the School of Rock business model helps kids stay interested, and they learn the importance of playing in groups.

“Kids quit lessons because they get bored with them,” Gurley said. “This model uses reverse engineering and teaches kids to play first, and as they learn to play and have fun, we introduce them to [music] theory.”

In addition to the “rock out first” idea, children can also learn the importance of group dynamics from local musicians who have made a living out of performing. Gurley said that his staff of seven musicians all have had experience in the local music scene, which lives up to the unofficial business model of “live to play and play to live” that Gurley has adopted for his music school.

The School of Rock will also develop a house band of 10 or 12 children who will perform “everywhere they can,” according to Gurley. The Hard Rock Café is already a national partner with the School of Rock and hosts shows at Hard Rock locations across the country.

Because School of Rock is part of a nationwide program, there are also four regional all-star groups that go on a legitimate tour and play festivals like Lollapalooza and the Van’s Warped Tour.

“Everyone I’ve talked to just can’t believe that there’s not already something like this in our city,” Gurley said. “This is Memphis. Music is in our blood.”

The newest landmark paying homage to the “home of the blues” was erected downtown last week, honoring the historic southern leg of Highway 61 and the musicians who know that stretch of road best.

Highway 61 has been the subject of songs written by everyone from Blind Mississippi Morris to Bob Dylan. According to legend, Robert Johnson even sold his soul to the devil on the famed stretch of asphalt. Now, almost a century after the genre that changed popular music forever was first played on old dusty guitars, Memphians and tourists from around the world can learn more about the musicians and places that helped mold the modern-day blues.

Andy Kitsinger, senior vice president of the Downtown Memphis Commission and head of the Memphis Blues Trail Project, said that he felt such a trail was missing from downtown music attractions. After enlisting the help of the Rock ‘N’ Soul Museum and the Center for Southern Folklore, Kitsinger’s idea was put into action.

“I identified a need to the challenge that visitors and locals face [by developing] a user-friendly way of exploring Memphis’ blues culture and heritage,” Kitsinger said.

The Memphis Blues Trail will complement the State of Mississippi Blues Trail, running about 13 miles along Highway 61, from the Tennessee state line through downtown Memphis.

Because Highway 61 doesn’t actually run through downtown, the Downtown Memphis Commission asked the Memphis City Council to designate Third Street as an honorary part of Highway 61. But while the Mississippi Blues Trail has over 100 stops, honoring everyone from Elvis Presley to Papa Light Foot, the Memphis Blues Trail will tentatively only have 12 stops, with several types of markers along the trail.  

The marker unveiled last week will serve as the starting point, while other markers will feature information on prominent blues artists and significant sites. Other components of the blues trail include public art, murals, and enhanced crosswalks and gateways. Kitsinger said that while the Blues Trail is still in its infancy, he hopes it will become one of the city’s main musical attractions.

“Hopefully, the initiative can grow into an international attraction that can be connected with activities and destinations along the full length of Highway 61, from the Mississippi Gulf Coast through Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago,” Kitsinger said.

Kitsinger hopes the trail will remind blues fans about Memphis’ role in the birth of the genre.

“Besides a strong economic impact to our region, [the Blues Trail] makes our blues heritage and culture more accessible to the public, to both locals as well as visitors from all over the world,” Kitsinger said. “With access to more information on our blues heritage, we can all better understand and appreciate the organic growth of the many other genres of modern music.”

Optometrist Cathy Schanzer has been fulfilling her lifelong goal of being a medical missionary for nearly 25 years. Schanzer travels to Serabu, Sierra Leone, twice a year to perform optical surgery, but her mission work didn’t always have such a clear focus.

“In 1988, I found a program that would let me go to Abak [in Nigeria] a couple weeks at a time, but when I asked the preacher in charge who else was going he said, ‘You’re it,'” said Schanzer, the chief surgeon at the Southern Eye Institute in East Memphis. “In the beginning, I had no idea what I needed. I was borrowing supplies, and my husband and I were unsure if we could make a difference. But once we got to our destination, I was immediately bitten by the mission bug.”

That bite left a lasting impression on Cathy and her husband, Tom, as they organized various mission trips to Africa over the next 15 years. In 2004, the Schanzers faced their largest task as missionaries, when the archbishop of Sierra Leone asked the couple to construct and operate a permanent eye clinic in his home village of Serabu, a place without running water or electricity.

Because Serabu had been devastated by civil war, many of its citizens could not receive the medical attention they desperately needed. Weary of trying to build a modern surgical clinic in a third world country, Cathy Schanzer called on donations and her husband’s experience in construction to build the clinic. In 2006, the Southern Eye Clinic of Serabu was finally opened.

While the clinic is open year-round and staffed by local workers, twice a year Schanzer and a team of around a dozen people travel to Serabu for a three-week blitz of eye surgeries. The next trip is scheduled for January 3rd.

Schanzer most commonly treats patients with cataracts, an extremely common problem in Serabu that can be directly related to poor nutrition. Upwards of 100 clinical patients and 20 surgical patients are seen by Schanzer each day, with an average surgery time of eight minutes per patient.

“In 10 days, I normally perform around 200 surgeries. But because we only have one generator, the time for surgeries is limited,” Schanzer said. “Everything has to be set up and ready to go when I get there so things can run smoothly. Normally, we send all the supplies we need three months in advance so the workers have a chance to set everything up.”

Because Schanzer is also the chief surgeon at the Southern Eye Institute, her work in Memphis directly affects what she is capable of doing in Serabu. Quite simply, more money going into the Southern Eye Institute means more money going out to Serabu. And while the citizens of Serabu are grateful, Schanzer said the male-dominated society has a way of keeping her mission work in perspective.

“Every time we get there, the locals turn to my husband and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Tom. You have brought a very good woman to our village,'” Schanzer said. “But I know that’s just God’s way of keeping me humble.”

After operating their respective contributions to the local music scene out of basements, apartments, and even doctors’ offices, three Memphians are expanding their music promotion operations to a loft at 1372 Overton Park Avenue.

Matt Qualls has been recording local bands for the past five years. His expertise and affordable rates have made him one of the go-to guys for local bands looking for a cheap way to record their music, even if his ever-moving studio has been makeshift at best. So when Crosstown Arts music promoter Ryan Azada asked him if he was interested in a new space, Qualls jumped at the chance to move into a legit location.

“When I was recording in various places, it would take me about two hours to set everything up. I’d record a band for 10 hours, and then we’d have to take another two hours to break down and pack everything back up,” Qualls said. “Ryan asked if I wanted to live [in the Overton Park loft], and I said I wanted to make it my recording studio before I ever even saw the place.”

Fat Sandwich Records founder Daniel Drinkard also trusted that Azada had found a reliable place, signing the lease to his record label’s future headquarters before ever seeing it. This isn’t the first time Qualls and Drinkard have worked together. In addition to playing in the same bands, Qualls has also recorded almost every local Fat Sandwich release, including the critically acclaimed “Coastin” single by former Memphian Cities Aviv.

Azada, a relative newcomer to the Midtown music scene, started booking shows in the basement of the Crosstown Arts office earlier this year. But the shows grew too large for the small space. After successfully booking over 70 bands during his seven-month run in the Crosstown Arts basement, Azada decided he was ready to take on a bigger performance space in the Crosstown area.

“Christian Walker from [the band] Pezz kept calling and telling me about this place above the All-in-One Variety Store [on Cleveland at Overton Park] that was for rent,” Azada said. “I knew I couldn’t live in here alone, so that’s when I called Daniel and Matt to see if they were interested.”

A month and over 40 hours of renovation work later, 1372 Overton Park (they’re using the address as the name for the studio and performance space) opened for its first show on November 8th, with Fat Sandwich recording artists La Armada and a slew of local bands called upon to break in the new space.

Qualls said he eventually would like to set up audio and visual recording sessions for bands, in addition to providing one of the only all-ages music venues in town. The location in Crosstown is especially fitting for such a use, since the neighborhood is currently being rebranded as an arts district following an announcement earlier this year that the Sears Crosstown building will be repurposed as a medical and arts center.

The 1372 Overton Park space once housed local music giants Lucero and His Hero Is Gone. The new residents are confident they can leave their mark on the Crosstown loft.

“The lease is for six months right now, so we’re just going to see how this goes,” Drinkard said. “Honestly, it’s going to take six months to get it cleaned out and ready, but it’s going to be great when it’s all set up.”

Local martial-arts aficionados will have to look elsewhere for armament and weapons after the Summer Avenue institution Dach Imports closes its doors early next year.

Open at various locations since 1979, Dach Imports has been supplying the Mid-South with stun guns, karate robes, and everything in between for more than 30 years. Michelle Dach, owner of Dach Imports, said that she came to the United States after a chance meeting with her future husband, Harry.

“I met Harry in 1974, when I was working on a Navy base during the day and attending college classes at an American university at night,” Dach said.

“Harry was actually supposed to be going to Korea, but on the way there his colonel told him to make a stop in Taiwan, and he just happened to come into where I was working that day. We married in 1975 and came to the United States.”

After settling in Memphis, Dach realized her husband was spending a lot of time and money studying judo and other forms of martial arts.

“I started the business because he spent a lot of money on martial-arts supplies, and I knew I could get it cheaper than buying retail,” Dach said.

“I started with a few items, and people began requesting more and more things. First, people started asking for protective wear, but later on they started asking for weapons. The requests were never-ending, and we became the largest martial-arts supply in the Mid-South.”

Weapons and martial-arts uniforms might be the main attraction at Dach Imports, but the store is also home to hundreds of authentic martial-arts films, something that attracts those who’d rather watch violence on the screen instead of acting it out.

“All of these movies are uncut and unedited. No one wants to hear John Wayne talk in their local dialect. These movies are the same way,” Dach said.

After being housed in a few different locations, including Kirby Woods Mall, the store moved to Summer Avenue in the mid-1990s, where it remains open, at least for the time being. After suffering a serious medical issue over the summer, and with only one other employee on staff, Dach reluctantly realized it was time to close the store.

“For 33 years I have been devoted to this company. I love this business, and I have a passion for it,” Dach said.

“The Back Yard Burger next door just closed one day and didn’t tell their employees or their customers. We don’t want to be like that. We want to give everyone a chance to say goodbye, because we love our customers.”

And while the mothers of young men (Dach Imports’ best customers) might be relieved that brass knuckles, samurai swords, and stun guns won’t be so readily available, Dach said she still plans on maintaining an online store, focusing on the items she designs herself.

“I design a very good karate and [mixed-martial-arts] uniform. The uniform is the same style for 5,000 years, but I made it a little better by making the material extra thick,” Dach said.

Tentatively, Dach Imports will be open through the spring of 2013, with a liquidation sale starting in December.