Author: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue began his career in 1975 at the now-defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar and moved to The Commercial Appeal in 1984, where he wrote about food and dining, music, and covered social events until early 2017, when he joined Contemporary Media.

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Music Music Blog

Listen Up: Geist

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Geist: Nathan Woloshin, Allen Wade and Patrick Mulhearn

If records – or VHS tapes – hadn’t been invented the members of Geist might not be making beautiful music together.

Something about the spirit of the performers they heard or viewed back in the day connected with the guys.

And, literally, changed their lives.

“One of the first things that got me into guitar was Lindsey Buckingham’s solo on ‘Don’t Stop,’” said guitarist Nathan Woloshin, 25. “When he hits the pitch harmonic. I was just a little kid. I remember it so vividly. I was listening to it in my dad’s car in the backseat. I slid down to the floor air guitaring because I was so into it.”

“When I was 15 I heard Tool’s ‘10,000 Days’ record for the first time,” said bass player Allen Wade, 25. “I don’t know what it was about their sound. Like it was their power. Something about it made me want to explore music more. That eventually lead down the avenue, ‘Well, I like music a lot. Why not play an instrument?’”

He initially chose guitar. “But then I went to Guitar Center to get my first guitar. I saw all these dudes and they were just like shredding it. And I was just like, ‘I’ll play bass.’”

Guitar was “too intimidating,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about music. I didn’t know about how chords worked or scales. Or, really, anything.”

If he’d never seen the 2003 movie, “School of Rock,” Patrick Mulhearn, 20, might not be Geist’s drummer. “I was kind of sleepy because we had just watched ‘Ghostbusters’ and I wanted to go to bed” Mulhearn said.

But he snapped wide awake after a friend put the “School of Rock” tape in the VCR. “I was like, ‘First of all, this movie is hilarious. Two, this music rocks.’ And then there’s the montage where Jack Black is teaching all the kids how to play their instruments, teaching them how to rock and stuff like that.”

“My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)” by the Ramones played during the montage. “I got goosebumps.”

And, he said, “There was this little clip in the montage of Keith Moon playing the drums as hard as he can. And he just kicks the drum set down and it explodes or something. And I was like, ‘I want to do that. I want to be the guy bashing on the drums, kicking drums. You know, raising hell, I guess.”

Woloshin began writing songs at 12 years old, around the same time he began playing guitar. “A lot of them were probably just abstract thoughts of mine,” he said.

His first band was Five Dollar Date. “From the time that I joined a band I knew that that’s what I wanted to do with my life. Write music and create art that way.”

Woloshin had a lot of friends who were rappers and hip-hop artists, so he began “producing beats and making instrumental stuff like that.”

He was in the hip-hop groups Walks of LIfe and The Bear and Fear, which lead to him and his brother, Jacob Woloshin, 24, making their “May I” album.

“I always wrote my own version of slam poetry,” said Jacob, who is in advertising sales at the Memphis Flyer.

He approached Nathan about doing the album. “It was more or less his baby,” Nathan said. “I just made all the beats for him.”

Nathan then began his solo project, “Purple Cat Jane,” which he continues to do in addition to Geist. “I kind of wanted to just do my own thing.”

Wade didn’t come from a musical family. “No one really nurtured that love of music in me that I didn’t even know I had,” he said.

After discovering Tool and buying a bass, Wade joined his first band. “We didn’t really play any gigs. It was sort of like a bunch of dudes meet up and (play) music. I was more of a bedroom bass player. I would sit down, pick up my bass, play along to records. I memorized a whole bunch of records. All of Tool’s records.”

He joined the jazz program at University of Memphis. “I liked it, but I didn’t have that deep love and appreciation that you have to have in order to survive in that program. Like you have to eat it, breathe it, drink it. You have to live on it, basically. And that just wasn’t me.”

Wade then noticed an ad Nathan posted on a billboard in the music building: “If you like these bands, give us a call.”

“It listed off like Radiohead, the Beatles – like real common bands everyone likes. And I was like, ‘OK. Whatever. Sure.’ I was just like, ‘Why not? What could possibly happen?’”

Mulhearn saw the same ad, but he didn’t answer it. “I was intimidated ‘cause I was like, ‘Oh, no. They’re going to be a bunch of like rock metal guys and they’re going to have really good chops. So, I’m not going to impress them,’” he said. “So, I specifically did not go to that audition.”

That band was short lived. “I don’t think we even had a name,” Nathan said. “It didn’t get very far. We maybe had like three or four rehearsals.”

Mulhearn, who was in several bands before Geist, remembered one of his earliest groups – Bombs Go Boom. “I came up with that like in fourth grade,” he said. “We would basically just mess around. It would end up with us playing Playstation.”

But, he said, “I would hardly call that a band.”

He and his friend, Eli Spake, currently are in another band, Glow Girls.

After the demise of their first band together, Nathan called Wade and asked him if he’d like to play bass in a new group. Wade agreed – and he suggested Mulhearn play drums in the new band.

Nathan was impressed with Mulhearn. “I like Herbie Hancock, stuff like that,” he said. “And, of course, I love Led Zeppelin. He has a mixture of all the drummers I love. All in one. Very John Bonham-esque. Very John Theodore of The Mars Volta.”

“He has a Ringo swing feel, too, sometimes,” Wade said.

Geist was born.

All three band members write the music, but Nathan writes the lyrics, which can be dark and a contrast to the more melodious music. “Dead in the Water” is about a person who’s being thrown in the water with a cinder block tied to them,” Nathan said. “And talking to fish. And just experiencing that death.”

“When I listen to our music it reminds me of me having ADHD,” Mulhearn said. “Where it will all be floaty and dream like and gentle for a second. LIke in ‘Dead in the Water.’ It’ll just be really quiet. And then when you’ve been spacing out, you snap back to reality.”

“I think that’s how life is, too,” Nathan said. “You have your calm moments and then you have your very abrupt, static moments. I feel like we all three push that into our music.”

Describing their newer music, Nathan said, “We had a hint of darkness on our first record. But now we’re sort of diving in the deep end.”

“We’ve really kind of honed in on our own sound and kind of produce it in a way that’s more ourselves than just me and Allen having a riff and going to Pat with it. Or me coming to Allen with something or Allen coming to me with something. It’s like we’re all kind of getting together at the same time and pushing it out.”

Nathan came up with the name, Geist, which “means ‘ghost’ in German,” he said.

“I always interpreted it as the spirit of all three of us in one group,” Wade said. “Like the energy, the passion, the love we have for music. All in one name.”

Geist at “Blue TOM Records Memphis Music Industry” 8-11 p.m. Sept. 26 at Newby’s, 539 South Highland. Also performing: Colorfold, The Midnight Lamp, The Pink Suede, Flirting with Sincerity, Sonic Pulse, Fall of Rome and PRVLG. 

"Birth" from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Listen Up: Geist

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Kathryn Perry is the Pie Lady

Kathryn Perry made her first pie from a recipe in her fourth-grade arithmetic book.

“It was a recipe for cookies,” she said. “I asked my mom if I could do this, and she said, ‘Yes, go on. I guess I’ll let you mess up my sugar and flour and what have you.'”

That was thousands of pies ago. Perry, 75, makes 30 pies a week for Bozo’s Hot Pit Bar-B-Que in Mason, Tennessee. People call her “The Pie Lady.”

“I make coconut, egg custard, chocolate, German chocolate, pecan, caramel, cherry, apple, lemon meringue, and key lime.”

by her work

Everything is from scratch. And Perry doesn’t use recipes.

A native of Somerville, Perry said her mother was a good cook. “My mom never used self-rising or anything like that. She always used baking powder, soda, and salt.

“She could just make the best soup. Not with all these different vegetables and things in them like we use now. She would use soup bone and potatoes and onions and tomatoes. It was good.”

Her mother hurt her back, so Perry took over the kitchen duties when she was 13. She already knew her way around the kitchen because she watched her mom cook. Perry prepared dinner, which included fried chicken and vegetables, including green beans, pinto beans, cabbage, and squash.

Perry cooked for her husband after they were married in 1968. “He was satisfied with meat and bread. He wanted biscuits every day.”

After her son and daughter were born, Perry went to work as a teacher’s assistant at Jefferson Elementary. She also studied computer science at night at a technical school.

She later became a secretary at Jefferson, where she remained for three years before moving to Oakland Elementary, where she worked as a secretary for 31 years.

Perry got into desserts after her children began volunteering her to make cupcakes. “I made pies for the teachers.”

She became known for her pies when she went to work 30 years ago at The Hut in Somerville. Her dad, who did the barbecue, asked her if she would make pies at the restaurant during her summer vacation. She ended up staying at The Hut.

“They always just called me ‘The Pie Lady.’ At school, this lady who worked in the office with me made me a bunch of cards with ‘Pie Lady’ on it.”

Perry left The Hut about 10 years ago after she was offered a job at Bozo’s.

She makes pies two days a week. Perry, who still works for the school system, says, “I just monitor on the school bus. Sit down and look at the children.”

She also cooks once a month for her AARP meeting. She recently prepared chicken salad, which she served with potato chips, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Perry still makes an occasional pie at home. “Well, there’s not that many people at my house to eat pie. So, most of the time when I make it at home, I’m making it for a neighbor or somebody.”

She also cooks for her six grandchildren. Her 14-year-old will enter her kitchen and say, “Whatcha cookin’, Gran?” They love her spaghetti and chili, she says.

What’s the most difficult pie to make? “Well, if you don’t really know what you’re doing, the caramel pie would be a difficult one for you because your milk and your sugar have to be the same temperature to keep the caramelized sugar from curdling.”

Perry forgot to add sugar the first time she made caramel pie. She threw it out because it was too bitter.

But, she says, “It was so beautiful.”

Pie Lady from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Kathryn Perry is the Pie Lady

Categories
Music Music Blog

Listen Up: Louise Page

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Louise Page

Louise Page timed the release of her EP, “Salt Mosaic,” so she would turn 24 during its release show at the Hi-Tone.

“I love my birthday,” she said. “I don’t want to just throw myself a giant birthday party. I wanted to sort of do something fun with it. And it lined up really well.”

But, she said, “I don’t think I’ll have a cake at the Hi-Tone ‘cause it would quickly taste like cigarettes.”

Page, who grew up in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, was a born performer. “My first word was ‘ta-dah,’ so I’ve always been kind of a ham.”

She played the family’s upright Yamaha piano. “I was just fascinated by it. I always liked to press buttons as a little kid. I was always trying to click on things. And was just fascinated by the checkout person at the supermarket. I think I just liked that I pressed something and it made noise. I was like, ‘That’s awesome and I want to do that.’”

Page began playing the oboe when she was in the fourth grade. “I played the oboe because it’s the duck in ‘Peter and the Wolf.’”

She joined the marching band when she was in the ninth grade. “Oboe doesn’t march because it’s a double reed and it would break. I signed up for double percussion.”

Page also began writing songs in middle school. “Some of them were about little crushes on boys. Some of them I don’t even know where they were coming from.”

And she sang in choirs. “I was loud and I liked musicals. I really have a very nerdy background in music. It’s like band and choir and musicals. I think that set me up for success. When you’re into stuff like classical piano music or full band ensembles or singing in a choir, you inherently learn music theory and learn how different musical instruments and different voices and different sounds fit together.”

Page admitted she used to be a “nerd” in general. “I did not party or drink or do drugs. I was a really late bloomer. I was one of those kids that looked like an elementary schooler when I was in the 10th grade. I wasn’t really interested in boys that much. I was really interested in stuff like choirs and Eric Whitacre.”

She got into rock music after discovering St. Vincent. “She’s just like a badass lady. She rocks super hard. I was like, ‘I want to do that.’”

Fiona Apple was another influence. “The number one thing I love about Fiona Apple is the piano in her music. And she has unique lyrics. She doesn’t fall into cliches in her lyrics. Her lyrics make you listen to the song. Because they’re interesting.”

Did Page become a hippie at that point? “That’s probably the polite way to put it. I think I just started to be a little more curious about tasting life.”

She majored in creative writing at Rhodes College, where her grandparents met. Her mother, Katherine Allen, is a native Memphian.

Since she didn’t have much access to a piano at first, Page played a ukulele her parents sent her. “‘A lot of just four chord jams. ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ Whatever. I just had trouble breaking into the music scene at my college as a non-music major.”

Page composed songs on the ukulele. “I’m not going to pretend that all of the songs have been good. A lot of them are hideously terrible. But that is my emotional outlet. Playing my emotions in the keyboard. Words will just come out.”

College “was a rocky time for me in my personal life,” Page said. “I just didn’t always hang out with the right people. Shout out to all the assholes I dated. You are now beautiful songs. Right?”

A turning point was when Page attended a Halloween party. “I showed up at a frat party dressed as Austin Powers. In full character as Austin Powers. I just wasn’t very well received at the party and I was into it, man. I was like, ‘This costume’s amazing!’ And then after the party I went to a house show with what turned out to be some of the dudes in Spaceface and the costume was super well received. People loved it. So, I met those guys my freshman year of college. I’ve been friends with them forever.

“Through that band and a few other local bands – just going to see local music – I just fell in love with that local scene. It’s like your friends are playing the songs and they’re great. And you can get just right up in their face ‘cause it’s a local venue or in your living room.”

As for her music, Page said, “I thought my songs were fun and my friends liked them. But I really never thought it would be something that other people would want to listen to. I thought my friends would like them because they loved me. So, they’re going to love the things that I create. But I didn’t know there was any sort of mass appeal outside of that.

“If I had friends over to my house drinking or something I would play the piano and make up goofy songs to make them laugh. It was really more of a gag. And then I enjoyed being able to be like ‘Oh, by the way, I play classical piano.’ I just kept it as kind of a little side detail about myself.”

That went on through college. “A lot of that was just my self confidence. I just dated a string of crappy guys, which will really just shoot your self esteem in the stomach. I just didn’t think I was good enough.”

Page didn’t get positive response from those guys when she sang her songs. “They’d be like, ‘That’s so cute.’ That was the main thing, which is invalidating in its own way. Saying something is cute does not give you enough gas to go out and do it in front of a bunch of people.”

She then was asked to perform at a pop-up event at Urban Outfitters, where she worked. “I had no amp. I don’t even think I had a microphone. It was just my piano plugged in and I was playing my songs. And I was super nervous because my boyfriend’s grandma was there and I had never met her.”

Page didn’t think she did that great a job, but, she said, “Nobody said, ‘Oh, how cute.’”

She then was asked to play a GrrlPunch magazine gig. “That one went pretty well. Then I met Kyle Carmon. He’s playing upright bass with me. He heard me at the Urban Outfitters thing. He was like, ‘Hey, if you need someone to play upright bass with you, I’ll play with you.’ For a few months we had bi-weekly gigs at DKDC.”

More doors opened after Page opened for Strong Martian at The Hi Tone. “A lot of it was people approaching me and asking me to play at something. A couple of times it was me reaching out to other people. I sort of jumped in and started doing.”

She didn’t have the old thoughts of, “This isn’t good music. People just like it ‘cause they’re being nice to me.”

Page played more shows and her confidence grew. “Sometimes strangers would come up and say, ‘That was really great.’”

She released her first single, “Flowers Grow to Die.” “The hook of it is, ‘I don’t know if I’m wishing for you/or if I just need you to occupy my time/I don’t know if you want to kiss me/but I’m pretty sure I’d like it if you tried.’ It’s about being a young person trying to navigate romance and not even knowing if you really want it. Do you even want to date or talk to someone? I don’t know, but you’re doing it.”

Calvin Lauber from Young Avenue Sound contacted her on Facebook. “And was like, ‘Hey, I’ve heard you at a couple of your shows. It would be really cool to record an EP.’”

A lot of the songs on “Salt Mosaic” are “about relationships that have ended. Be they friendships or romantic relationships or people I have bitter feelings towards. Hence, the salt. Then it’s a mosaic. I’m making a beautiful thing out of it.”

Asked her future plans, Page said, “I’m trying to be happy with what I’ve got. Just the fact that I’m releasing this EP and that I’ve overcome my stage fright and my self doubt and I’m throwing my heart out there for everyone to listen to, that’s awesome.



“But looking to the future, I would love it if I got a wider fan base or people listening to what I’m doing.I would love it if I could go on tour. Those are things that I dream about. I think if I keep on the path I’m on, I think they’ll happen for me.”

Louise Page with Strong Martian and Magnolia Sept. 22 at The Hi Tone, 412 North Cleveland. Doors open at 7 p.m. Cover: $5.

"Little Coast" from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Listen Up: Louise Page

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We Recommend We Saw You

Cooper-Young Fest, Big Bugs, Art of Caring

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Pauldarius Brown and Paula Raiford at Cooper-Young Festival.

You probably bumped into somebody you knew at the Cooper-Young Festival. Literally.

About 125,000 people attended this year’s event, which was held Sept. 17, said Tamara Cook, Cooper-Young Business Association executive director.

“We were down about 5,000 or 10,000, but they think it was probably the football game,” she said.

Cook was referring to the University of Memphis/UCLA game, held the same day. Many Tiger blue shirts were seen at the festival after U of M’s win.

Music was in the air – and not just from the jubilant pigskin fans. “We had 17 bands on three stages,” Cook said. “And that’s not counting the fringe festivals that were going on. Memphis Made had six bands down there. I think Cafe Ole in their back parking lot had bands all day. And bands were at 381 South Cooper. I can’t keep up with all those people. It’s always something new every year.”

This year’s festival also included 425 artists booths, Cook said.

She rated this year’s event as great. “Everything is always good in Cooper-Young. How can it not be?”

…….

Michael Donahue

Terri Fox and David H. G. Rogers at Big Bugs.

Guests drank green “Bug Juice” (not made with bugs, but with green Kool-Aid) and ate bug (made with icing)-decorated cookies at the VIB (Very Big Bug Party) Sept. 14 at Memphis Botanic Center. The event was a preview party for the new exhibit, “David Rogers’s Big Bugs at the Garden.”

The party included sponsors, donors, media, board members and others. As well as the children and grand-children of guests.

David Rogers, who created and built the giant wooden bugs, also attended. The bugs, which stand up to 18-feet tall, represent eight different species.

“It was fun to see the bugs change personalities as the evening grew darker and the colorful lighting of the bugs came up,” said the center’s executive director Mike Allen.

The exhibit, on view through Jan. 1, is “important to MBG in that we hope it will raise awareness about our gardens as a local attraction, break down any barriers or misconceptions people might have about what a botanic garden is, drive more visitors from all parts of our community ot the Garden, increase attendance and, ultimately, create more members.”

OBJECKT 12 will provide the tunes and local food trucks, the food.

Note: Those who want some grown-up “bug juice” can attend the Bug Crawl at the Garden 7 to 10 p.m. Sept. 30. While viewing the big bugs, guests can sip beer from numerous breweries at stations adjacent to each wooden insect.

……

Michael Donahue

Jim and Missy Rainer at Art of Caring.

About 250 people attended Art of Caring Sept. 14 at Shelby Farms Park FedEx Event Center, said Missy Rainer, who co-chaired the event with her husband, Jim.

The event benefits the Baptist Reynolds Hospice House in Collierville and the Center for Good Grief.

Dana and Frazer Gieselmann were honorary co-chairs of the event, which included food from A Moveable Feast and a silent auction.

Judy Vandergrift worked on a painting in the midst of the partiers. The completed work then was included in the silent auction.

Ken Hall was art curator.

[slideshow-1]

Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Little Big Town, Art on Tap, Stock Exchange, Morris Midway Carnival

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Taylor James and Levi Clarkson at Art on Tap.

“Rooibos” may not be as common as “Bud” or “PBR,” but five gallons of the beer were downed at Art on Tap, which was held Sept. 8 at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

Jordan Raine, 24, who is from Johannesburg, South Africa, created and made the beer. “It’s a South African pale lager with orange peel,” he said.

It’s made with rooibos. “It’s a type of tea. It grows specifically in South Africa.”

The lager is a “milder, well rounded beer,” said Raine, who moved to Memphis last May to attend medical school at University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

“I started home brewing a couple of months ago. I decided to put some South African influences on it. I thought it just might be interesting. I gave it a try. It came out pretty well. Probably the third or fourth time I made that specific recipe.”

Art on Tap, which featured mostly beer stations, was the first time Raine participated in a beer event. “I’d given it to friends and family, but never really taken it to a festival or anything like this. This is my first trip out there to the big, wide world.”

Asked how Rooibos did, Raine said, “I brought five gallons and it was all gone. All the beer was pretty popular. I think we were all at the end of our kegs at the end of the night. I can’t really tell you if it was as popular as the others.”

But, he said, his beer was “something you wouldn’t see at a grocery store or a bar. And people enjoyed it just as much as the other stuff.”

Airside performed.

Michael Donahue

Robert Winstead and Megan Collins at Live at the Garden,

…..

Enough people to populate a little big town attended Little Big Town’s performance Sept. 9 at Live at the Garden.

A record-setting-crowd of about 8,000 attended the concert at Memphis Botanic Garden. Devin Dawson was the opener.

Executive director Mike Allen was pleased. “The evening was terrific from start to finish,” he said. “Spectacularly beautiful weather.”

And, he said, “The LIttle Big Town band was as nice and personable as you hoped they would be.”

The group originally was going to play June 23, but the show was rescheduled “because of Tropical Storm Cindy, which drenched Memphis that day with a couple of inches of rain and some power outages.”

Little Big Town was “so gracious to work with us to reschedule. Just a beautiful night.”

Pimento’s Kitchen catered the event.

…..

Michael Donahue

Jonathan and Ashleigh Bernhardt at Stock Exchange preview party.

The only thing that got broken at Les Passees Stock Exchange consignment shop – that made members happy – was the attendance record at the preview party.

It was “the largest attendance we’ve had and it was over 700 people,” said Stock Exchange chair Jennie Helm.

This year’s Stock Exchange, which runs now through Oct. 28, is held in the 35,000 square-foot space at 10337 East Shelby Drive in Carriage Crossing Market Place in Collierville.

“We have 4,000 consignors and I would say over half of those have already brought items,” Helm said.

People are encouraged to bring items to be consigned, she said. Items are flying off the shelves, so to speak. “We’ll run out of stuff at this rate,” she said.

Since items constantly are being brought to the floor, shoppers don’t know what surprises are in store. “We have this woman who bought this lamp. She had a pair when she was married 35 years earlier and had broken one. And here was the match to that lamp she had. Stuff like that is so bizarre. It was absolutely a perfect match.

“We have a lot of that. We could write a book.”

Judy Ashby is Les Passees president.

Michael Donahue

Morris Midway Carnival.

…….

“Morris Midway Carnival” was the theme of this month’s Morris Marketing Group’s Bar 456 Happy Hour.

Fair food, including deep fried Oreos, corn dogs and funnel cakes, were the buffet items. Guests could try their hand at ring toss or the “High Striker,” where you swing a sledgehammer and try to ring the bell on top.

The “big top’ was Morris Marketing Group’s office on Tennessee Street. “There are three fairs this month – Delta Fair, Mid-South Fair and Bluff City Fair,” said president Valerie Morris. “It’s fair season. So, we decided to give everyone a little taste of fair food.”

Bar 456 holds its networking events once a quarter, Morris said. The next one will be held Dec. 7.

It’s going to be holiday themed, but, Morris said, “I think we’re going to go a little bit crazy. It’s a different type of holiday. With an alternative holiday theme.”

[slideshow-1]

Categories
Music Music Blog

Listen Up: Jeremiah Matthews

Santa didn’t realize how boss he was when he brought Jeremiah Matthews a drum set for Christmas 21 years ago.

“I thought drums were the coolest things when I was a kid,” said Matthews, 27. “I still do to this day. I just think they dictate the whole song. They’re the ones just kind of guiding everything. If music’s a train, then the drums are the wheels. They’re the ones that are actually getting you from point A to B.”

Matthews, a graphic designer at the Memphis Flyer, also is an experimental singer/songwriter. He describes his performances as “a live show that’s just me and a guitar. I have a drum machine attached to my guitar that I run through loopers. So, it’s a lot of looping, a lot of ambient, weird stuff. I have several different loop pedals running at the same time. A lot of feedback. A lot of ambient reverb noise.”

Drums, which eventually led to keyboards, were “more like a foundation of music theory,” Matthews said.
“When I started with drums, it was like, ‘This is how rhythm works. Breaking down into fours or threes. This is how time signatures work.’ And that kind of thing. And then when I got to keyboards, it was like, ‘This is how a music scale works.’’’

His mother died when he was 10, said Matthews, who was born near Houston, Texas. “I was a really angry kid for a while. Everyone kind of had that impression of me.”

His dad, guitarist Freddie Matthews, who was in bands, kept music going around the house for Matthews and two of his brothers living at home. He played records by the Beatles, Bob Seger, and others.

“I was that really lame kid that always had his big old book of CDs on the school bus. That kind of thing. Eventually, I got an iPad and I was like, ‘This is amazing.’”



Matthews picked up the bass when he was 14. “I didn’t have a lot of really close friends or active friends so I would just stay home and practice all the time. Eventually, I just started playing bass with my dad. When I was like 15 or 16 my dad made me learn the bass line to ‘Something’ by the Beatles, which is still the hardest bass line.”

Matthews joined his dad on stage at times and played bass on “Johnny B. Goode.”

He joined his first band as lead guitarist after his family moved to San Angelo, Texas. “I had moved from bass to guitar because it’s a pretty natural slide.”

Asked the name of the band, Matthews said, “It might been like ‘Running on Empty’ or something lame like that.”

He remembered playing with the band at a festival. “People were cheering and stuff and I was like, ‘This is not cheer-worthy. I’m terrible.’”

Matthews joined a contemporary alternative band when he moved to Cleveland, Mississippi. He also became a nicer guy. “When I moved to Mississippi, nobody knew who I was, so I got to kind of reinvent myself and make some friends. I think overnight I went from being this angsty little teenager to this actually OK-to-be-around dude.”

His father bought him some recording hardware. “I had already downloaded Audacity, which is like a free recording software, and was messing with that. I had this old four-track tape recorder that I would run though as an interface into my computer through the audio input. I would just record all these songs myself. I was really into Mars Volta at the time, so I would make all these crazy, trippy songs. I’ve gone back and listened to them and they are terrible. They are super-trebly.”

Matthews, who double majored in graphic design and audio technology at Delta State, was more fascinated with recording music than playing it. If he wrote a riff, he would say, “This is a cool riff. I‘m going to record it into my computer.”

He began putting his compositions on MySpace and ReverbNation using the moniker “Winston the Crime-Fighting Office Manager.’”

Matthews, who played “real simple instrumentals, but with weird guitar solos,” began writing songs when he took a business of songwriting class. “I always overproduced my stuff. I would have MIDI drums all over it. I would have keyboards, guitar, bass, multiple vocals with harmonies. LIke everything.”

Overproducing was because of “a lack of self confidence. I wasn’t confident enough in my writing ability or my singing ability or one specific area to just let it rest on that. I was like, ‘If this guitar solo isn’t that good,’ or, ‘I don’t know if these lyrics are any good, I need to make everything else good enough to distract from that.’”

He joined his friend’s band, The Belts, as bass player. “I got comfortable enough with them to where I was like, ‘I have all these songs I’ve written and I have recorded and I have up online to listen to. Do you guys want to help me make a live band out of it?’”

The result was “The Ellie Badge,” which was his pseudonym. He got the name from “that Disney Pixar movie, ‘Up.’ I was like 20 at the time and thought it was super cool and romantic.”

When the band broke up, Matthews began performing his original songs, which he described as “sad and emotional,” in coffee houses.

He graduated with a degree in studio art with an emphasis on graphic design. He then moved to Memphis, where he got his masters degree in graphic design at University of Memphis. “I spent three years at U of M and kind of worked on an album in the background. It was a lot more super overproduced. I was just like, ‘I don’t have a band right now. I’m going to make the craziest conceptual record I can.’”

The album, “The Ellie Badge vs. all Your Problems,” was based on a “really bad breakup” that had taken place before Matthews moved to Memphis. “There’s a song called ‘500 Days of Bummer’ that I thought was really good. I’m really proud of that song. That’s the one everybody kind of latched onto.”

The album, he said, is “very pop-punk energetic kind of stuff. There’s a lot of indie influence, a lot of mallcore mid 2000s influence. But then there’s a lot of 8-bit stuff on there, too. I did a lot of really bit-crushed drums and video game theme stuff. All the art is very nerd-culture based.”

“…Again,” his latest album, is a “time-based concept about repetition. I tried to make one song for each season.”

Describing his one-man-show, Matthews, who performs about once a week at various venues, said, “I have a drum machine attached to my guitar. I start a loop and make the drumbeat on my guitar. I have a lot of kill switches and stuff to turn the signals off and on and just start and change the signal afterward. My guitar goes through my pedal board, splits into three signals, goes through a bunch of delays and reverbs and then to my amp.

“There is also a second and third pickup on my guitar that only picks up the bottom E and A string and goes through a kill switch and then goes straight to a bass amp. Basically, I can lay down a guitar lead, lay down a drum thing on two different loops. And then I can kill the signal post loop to kind of change the way it sounds. And then run a distortion after on the drums. Stuff like that. When I need it, I can turn the bass on and just have this really deep big sound for choruses and things like that.”

As far as he knows, Matthews say, “I’m the only person that has the duophonic pickup around here. People have been using loops forever, but I think I’m the only person who thought of doing it this way. I like to think I have my own little niche, but I probably don’t.”

Matthews recently bought a Thinline telecaster body. “I’m building another guitar with the same set up.”

He usually plays “a weird hybrid” Squire guitar. “It’s Frankensteined with a new neck, new parts and everything, but the intonation is off because that specific guitar was made with a conversion neck. The intonation is messed up permanently. I’m building one that’s going to have better intonation.”

Matthews constantly searches for just the right sound. “I buy new pedals a lot. I’m probably going to buy a new amp eventually. I have way too much gear.”

Jeremiah Matthews will perform at 8 p.m. Sept. 12 at the HI-Tone. Also appearing are Alex Fraser, Kake and the 0.* and Sequoia. Tickets: $5.

'The Road to Judecca' from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Listen Up: Jeremiah Matthews

Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Exposure, Heritage Festival, Hardin Hall

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Nikola Printz at Exposure.

Most players wore shorts and T-shirts to play kickball at Exposure, but Nikola Printz wore a below-the-knee spaghetti strap dress with red polka dots.

She wore a costume from the upcoming Opera Memphis production of “The Italian Girl in Algiers,” which will run Feb. 2 and 3 at Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

“I’m playing the title role,” she said.

This year’s festival, presented by New Memphis on Sept. 1 (“901 Day”), drew “several thousand” people, said Anna Traverse, New Memphis communications specialist. “But we don’t have the exact figures yet.”

Exposure is “a way for people to get involved with their city. To love their city actively. And to sort of find fresh ways of being part of the Memphis community. As well as just enjoy and celebrate all the wonderful things Memphis has to offer. Whether it be all the nonprofits and other organizations that were representing themselves or the kickball game as a fun way to get together and see all these different, interesting groups from Memphis you might not otherwise see on a kickball field together.”

The event “got started several years ago, but last year was the first we opened it up to the general public. For the first year we did the Exposure event, it was not on 901 day and also was tailored especially for city newcomers. What we found was a bunch of native Memphians kept showing up. They wanted fresh ways to get involved with our city. We thought, ‘Oh, if this is what everyone wants, we should open the doors wide and let everyone in.’”

Michael Donahue

Michael Darnell and Lyric, 2, at Center for Southern Folklore Memphis Music & Heritage Festival.

………

Center for Southern Folklore’s Memphis Heritage Festival was more than music, food, crafts and art to Zack and Kim Sykes.

It was their first outing since their son, Samuel, was born eight weeks ago.

Or, as Zack described it, “Mom and Dad’s day out.”

Their outing was “a little nerve wracking,” he said.

“Scary, but fun,” Kim added.

Asked to name the highpoint of the free festival, founder/general chair Judy Peiser said, “It looked like everybody was smiling the whole time. I felt the people who came to the festival over two days got a slice of the music grown here.”

And, she said, “For two days you can hear the music that goes from blues to jazz to bluegrass to country to gospel to hip-hop, dance.”

……….

Michael Donahue

Memphis Food & Wine Festival kickoff party.

Guests got a taste of the upcoming Memphis Food & Wine Festival at a kickoff party Aug. 29 at River Oaks restaurant.

Guests learned what the large roster of chefs will prepare at the FedExFamilyHouse fundraiser, which will be held Oct. 14 at Memphis Botanic Garden.

For instance: acclaimed chef Guy Savoy, who has restaurants in Paris and Las Vegas, will prepare artichoke and black truffle soup; Tory McPhail of Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, will prepare kelp and sea salt grilled royal red shrimp with rum agricole grilled pineapple, jicama, hearts of palm, sliced lemon, toasted coconut, mango aspci and three-year aged “Rum Barrel” hot sauce; and Nick Vergos from the Rendezvous will serve Rendezvous ribs.

In other words – get your palates ready for cuisine prepared from the palettes of renowned chefs.

MIchael Donahue

Jennifer Hamblin, Mike Allen and Veronica Tansley at Hardin Hall.

…….

Harvey met Hardin Aug. 31.

Guests braved rain and wind – Hurricane Harvey remnants – to attend a preview party for the newly-renovated Hardin Hall at Memphis Botanic Garden.

Executive director Mike Allen was on hand. “The renovation of Hardin Hall is really important for the long-term sustainability of the Memphis Botanic Garden,” he said. “Rental income from Hardin Hall as well as our three other venues is in a large measure what helps to underwrite the operating costs of our Garden. This renovation brings Hardin Hall into the 21st Century with a current, neutral look, better audio visual technology, enhanced lighting options and more. It will allow us to better compete with some of the newer event venues that have opened in recent months. We have already hosted a couple of wedding receptions, a large civic event and both the Ole Miss and University of Memphis kick-off events. All to really positive reviews.”

……..

Michael Donahue

Matt McCormack at Matt McCormack and Friends at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Former Memphian Matt McCormack appeared in “Matt McCormack and Friends” Aug. 28 at Lafayette’s Music Room.

He included music from his album, “Life in Stereo,” which will be released Sept. 8. He also performed “Pride,” a song he collaborated with KISS guitarist Gene Simmons.

“I just saw people there that I’ve known since the first grade,” said McCormack, who lives in San Antonio. “And I saw people I knew at college. All the time periods I lived in Memphis – there was somebody there from that group. Which is great.”

On this Memphis trip, instead of going to Corky’s and Krystal – places “we don’t have in Texas” – McCormack “just stayed at a friend’s house and barbecued and had a nice time.”

Michael Donahue

Andrew Vanelli

………….

Andrew Vanelli now has three of his own radio shows under his belt.

He just aired his third “Sports Hour with Ace,” which airs from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday through Thursday. He also co-hosts “Beast of Sports Gab” with Quenton Bailey from 2 to 3 p,m. Thursdays. Both shows air on AM 730.

“It’s a sports talk show, so i’ll be taking callers,” said Vanelli, 35. “I’ll go in there and I’ll talk about the trending topics, stuff everyone’s talking about.”

Vanelli and his fiance, Amanda Phelps, recently were at dinner at the new Farm Burger Memphis in Crosstown Complex.

Sports is something Vanelli knows a thing or two about. “I had a football in my hand since I was three years old, man.”

He was wide receiver and defensive back at St. Benedict at Auburndale. “I ended up being all-state honorable mention my senior year.”

But, he said, “I was not good enough to play in college. I was fast, but I wasn’t fast enough to play that position in at the college level.”

Vanelli provides a sports handicapping service at acesports324.myfreesites.net.

And, he does “some fantasy football advising. People don’t know how to draft or build them, I’ll help them do that.”

Vanelli is a newcomer to radio. “I used to have a hard time speaking in front of 10 people. And, man, when I’m talking about something that I love and I’m passionate about, it just flows, man.”

Where does “Ace” in the show title come from?. “That’s my nickname,” Vanelli said. “It goes back to my Uncle Tony. When I was about 10 or 11 I’d just got done playing a peewee football game and my uncle came over and said, ‘Good game, Ace.’ And one of my buddies said, ‘Why did you call him that?’ And he said, ‘’Cause, boy, he’s the best one out there.’ That always stuck in my head. I think it’s catchy. And I just brought it back.”

If you want to see what Vanelli looks like in person, you can catch him bringing Elfo’s Special or some other dish to tables at Ronnie Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant, where he’s a server.

[slideshow-1]

Categories
Art Art Feature

Greely Myatt on trees and conversation bubbles.

Artist Greely Myatt doesn’t let his past life events go to waste.

Take the pine tree he planted decades ago in his mother’s yard.

“When I was in the third grade, my teacher — Mrs. Davis — gave all the kids in the class a little pine sapling, and we were supposed to take it home and plant it,” says Myatt, who is 65 and a professor of art at the University of Memphis. “Well, I was a reasonably good student, and I did. Fifty-five years later, my sister called me up and said, ‘Hey, I cut your tree. Do you want any of it?'”

Their mother had the pine tree cut down because she was afraid it would fall on her house. Myatt said he wanted all 60 feet of it.

Part of that tree is included in some of Myatt’s works in “Making Marks,” his new show at David Lusk Gallery. Indicating his giant Saul Steinberg-looking steel piece depicting a man contemplating a question mark, Myatt said the man’s cuff links, the block he’s sitting on, and the question mark as well as the ball on his exclamation mark sculpture and the shelf holding building blocks are “all wood I grew.”

The aluminum quilts in Tablecloths are another story. “I guess some of that’s kind of trying to purge a guilt. When I went to college, my grandmother gave me this beautiful quilt. And I was a kid. I didn’t have respect for anything. Not that I didn’t like the quilt. I was appreciative.”

But he used the quilt to wrap up some sharp plaster pieces he had made. “These worthless things. To protect them. And tore the quilt up.”

Cartoon or speaking balloons, which show up in his piece, Remarks, made of colorful steel gas cylinder caps, often reappear in his work. “The balloons started when I was making this piece for the old Memphis Center for Contemporary Art years and years ago.”

Greely Myatt’s “Making Marks” is on display at David Lusk Gallery.

Gathering wood in a dump, Myatt found “this title page of a little novel. And it was called The Lady. On the other side was a handwritten note that said, ‘Grandpa’s sick. I’ll see you at the hospital.’ I thought, ‘Wow. This is really powerful. What do you do with it?'”

He made a steel speaking balloon and stuck the page sideways into it, so the viewer could read both sides of the page.

Later, he placed wooden quilt-pattern speaking balloons next to some old box spring mattresses. “It was kind of like trying to give inanimate objects a voice, in a way.”

Myatt currently is using speaking balloons in his UrbanArts project, “Everybody’s Talking,” a series of five steel sculptures that “increasingly get larger” in Audubon Park.

The first segment is an empty speaking balloon and a platform, the second is two balloons and two chairs, and so on. The final segment has a small 15-foot stage with five balloons. “It was an opportunity to give the viewer the chance to say something.”

A native of Aberdeen, Mississippi, Myatt read Beetle Bailey and other comic strips. “I tried to draw a few cartoons for our little school paper, and I wasn’t very good at it.”‘

He grew up “in the South away from art, but in a big visual culture. We put stuff in our yards, and we’ll call it art because if you don’t, you get beat up or something.”

He remembered the tree stump made to look like a bear in a yard down the street from him when he was a kid. “It’s got two branches coming up that are his arms. And he’s holding two mailboxes. That’s the kind of thing I grew up around. Not only was it art, I knew what it was. It did something.”

So, later when he was shown a box made out of steel in art class at Delta State and told, “This is art,” he was confused. But not for long.

Myatt, who wants viewers to come up with their own take on his art work, considers his pieces to be “about talking, which is not communication necessarily. It’s more about confusion and misleading and double reads and all those things than it is about clarity. My job is to confuse.”

“Making Marks” is on view through September 30th at David Lusk Gallery.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Interim Under New Ownership

CREDIT: Interim, Facebook

Interim, Facebook

Interim Restaurant & Bar has a new owner.

Tony Westmoreland and Nick Scott, the owners of Alchemy Memphis, and Ed and Brittany Cabigao, the owners of South of Beale and Zaka Bowl, bought Interim Restaurant & Bar from Eat Here Brands, the owners of Babalu.

David Krog will remain as executive chef. Krog’s culinary career includes working at Erling Jensen: the Restaurant and The Tennessean. He also opened the old Madidi restaurant in Clarksdale.

Said Krog: “I’m grateful to Eat Here Brands and excited about the next chapter. And the breath of fresh air from this local group.”

Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Ballet Memphis, Urban League, Pillars of Excellence and more!

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Grand opening of new Ballet Memphis headquarters.

Crystal Brothers. who danced in the “Sa Voix” number, was the first dancer to set foot on the new stage at the mini-performance Aug. 26 to celebrate the grand opening of Ballet Memphis’s new headquarters at 2144 Madison.

That was just a coincidence, not symbolic, said Ballet Memphis CEO/founding artistic director Dorothy Gunther Pugh. “Crystal has been here over 20 years now,” she said. “So many of those dancers had their first jobs with us and they’ve loved it so much they’ve grown with us. They’ve reached a stature of excellence that’s understood by people across the country who really know what professional ballet is.”

Associate director Seven McMahon is another veteran. McMahon, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, used “y’all” in his opening remarks to the audience. “I’ve been in Memphis 14 years,” he said. “I think I can say that.”

Ballet Memphis’s new headquarters officially opened Aug. 24. “Everything from start to finish starting with the ribbon cutting on Thursday afternoon was magical,” Pugh said. “And the magic never stopped. All day Saturday that place was full with excited and over-awed people.”

Guests were “mostly kind of mesmerized by how amazing the place is.”

And, she said, “The building did what it was meant to do: be open to sharing joyful experiences with people in the community.”

The 38,000 square foot, $21-million Ballet Memphis headquarters houses five studios, including a large glass-walled studio with limited, retractable seating, and a costume shop, which is visible from the street.

“This has been a dream for many years and now it’s a reality,” McMahon told the audience.

Mama Gaia restaurant also is housed in the new headquarters. The restaurant, which also has a location in the Crosstown Concourse, held the grand opening for the new location Aug. 24 at Ballet Memphis.

Following the ballet performance, dancers joined guests to kick up their heels in the Flying Hall in the Ballet Memphis headquarters. D. J. Waht kept the music going, but it was Stax instead of Stravinsky. He played Top 40s and rhythm and blues. Toe shoes were not required.

…….

Michael Donahue

Marvin Ballin and Sam Fargotstein at Pillars of Excellence.

Members of the legal profession were placed on pedestals Aug. 26 at Pillars of Excellence at Hilton Memphis.

Honored this year were former University of Memphis president Shirley Raines, judges Julia Gibbons and James Todd and attorneys Homer Branan, John Houseal Jr., Jim Raines and Jim Warner.

Pillars of Excellence is a fundraising event for scholarships to the University of Memphis law school, said Marina Carrier, U of M alumni association event coordinator. “To do that, we’re honoring individuals in the legal community who have practiced for a minimum of 40 years.”

A total of $75,000 was raised at this year’s event, which is the eighth Pillars of Excellence, Carrier said.

U of M alumni law chapter president Richard Glassman was emcee.

…………

Michael Donahue

Tonya Sesley-Baymon and Congressman Steve Cohen at Memphis Urban League Empowerment Luncheon.

Ron Harris, a former reporter for the now defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar, was the speaker at the Memphis Urban League Empowerment Luncheon, held Aug. 24 at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis.

The award-winning Harris, now adjunct journalism professor at the Cathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard University, also is the managing editor of the Howard University News Service.

He also worked at EBONY magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Asked why Harris was selected to speak, Memphis Urban League president/CEO Tonja Sesley-Baymon said, “He’s a Memphian – one – and an award-winning journalist. So, when I discovered what the National Urban League’s theme was for 2017 – ‘Protect Our Progress’ and ‘Put People First’ – I thought he would be a great person to talk about protecting the progress of African-Americans. And talk about the strides we’ve made as a people. And the next step: to move forward.”

……

Michael Donahue

Impala at Tiki Night at Railgarten.

Impala performed on stage near a movie screen showing surfers riding big waves at Tiki Night Aug. 24 at Railgarten. A group of guys played beach volleyball nearby.

But Impala really isn’t a surf band, said guitarist John Stivers. “We certainly have those elements,” he said. “It’s easy to lump an instrumental band that plays that style of music into that. And I don’t mind somebody calling us that. For lack of a better term, that’s what we are. But we span genres.”

They’ve also been called “crime jazz,” he said. “Just think about James Bond themes. That kind of stuff. Guitar heavy. Staccato-type picking. But a lot of times it will have horns.”

He also has heard their songs described as “creepy noir” – “dark, creepy music that would accompany an old movie.”

Surf music “all revolves around a certain type of beat. There’s a thing called ‘surf beat.’ It would typically have more classic rock and roll licks to it, but all the guitars drenched in reverb. It has a little more rock and roll feel to it.”

Surf music “might have been what got us started,” he said. “We listened to the Ventures and Dick Dale and all that stuff. But we also listened to Booker T and the MGs. And John Barry, who did all the James Bond themes – the earlier ones with all the guitar sounds. And spaghetti westerns. We strived to mix all that down together.”

As for the Railgarten stage, Stivers said, “I like that venue. I’d like to play there again. It’s a fun place to play, that’s for sure.”

And Stivers did NOT use the word “gnarly.”

………

Michael Donahue

John Halford, Anna-Lise Halford, Jose Velazquez and Jennifer Velazquez at Next Door.

Guests were introduced to the Baja burger (Home Place Pastures ground beef, guacamole, cilantro slaw, roasted Jalapenos and lime crema), wild caught Alaskan Salmon bowl (pan roasted with Tuscan kale, beets, quinoa and lemon) and curry chicken salad sandwich (green apple, golden raisins, celery and lettuce) at the soft opening of Next Door American Eatery Aug. 24 in the Crosstown Complex.

The menu groaned with more salads, bowls, sandwiches, burgers and soups.

“We’re a scratch kitchen,” said Next Door assistant general manager Scott Lawrence. “We try to source everything as local as we can. As sustainable as we can. Everything is made in the kitchen for the most part that day.”

…………..

Michael Donahue

Paula Anderson and Anthony Hicks at PRSA Memphis networking event at Jack Robinson Gallery.

PRSA Memphis celebrated PRSA DIversity Month with a networking event Aug. 22 at the Jack Robinson Gallery.

“At the beginning of this year the national organization said PRSA was going to make a more concerted effort to promote diversity and inclusion from a national level and throughout our local chapters,” said James Dowd, president of the Memphis chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

Their chapter previously held mixers, but this was the first one devoted to promoting diversity and inclusion, Dowd said. “This is something we will actively promote throughout our programming day to day month to month moving forward. This is the first in a series to situate Memphis PRSA as a leader in diversity and inclusion among our peers and throughout the country. To bring everyone together to have these conversations. Where are we doing a good job promoting diversity and inclusion and where do we need to get better?”

University of Memphis’s Prizm Chamber Music Ensemble members Noel Medford, Joseph Miller and Dylan Willis performed music to network by.

About 150 people attended the event, Dowd said.

[slideshow-1]