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.

Categories
Art Art Feature

Tyler Hildebrand on “Retirement.”

Tyler Hildebrand is getting older.

“I just turned 33 July 3rd,” he says. “I found a gray hair in my beard. It’s the first one. You know what? I’m feeling old.”

“Retirement Party” is the name of his new show of mixed-media (house paint and found objects) works at David Lusk Gallery. “I’m retiring a lot of things. I think this is it for me as a working artist.”

Hildebrand, a former Memphian now living in his hometown of Cincinnati, began drawing as a child. “My grandma was an art teacher. I was never that close to her. I was close with my other grandma, who was just kind of a rough lady. She would cuss, and she would take off her shoe and hit somebody. That happened.”

Hildebrand joined his high school football team and then his football career suddenly came to an end. “I got in trouble and went to rehab in Mexico, so I didn’t get to play my senior year. It was mostly stupid stuff. You’d get arrested for weed. Or you’d steal some liquor from Kroger. And that kind of stuff adds up. So, at a certain point, they’re like, ‘Well, you’re going to have to do some time in juvie.’ It was wild. It was an experience. It was cool.”

And he said, “I wanted to be a tough guy. But, looking back, I wasn’t as tough as I thought.”

Hildebrand majored in illustration when he was at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. After graduation, Hildebrand, who married his high school sweetheart, Emily, opened Hilde’s Gallery and sold his own work.

Hildebrand and his wife moved to Memphis after he got a scholarship to Memphis College of Art. Memphis, he says, “is one of my favorite places. It has a weird feel here. It’s just authentic. And sort of dark. It’s got some kind of an aura about it. Some history. Some ghosts. Something’s going on here.”

Hildebrand developed his style, which he calls “a little edgy.”

He created his “Mohawk Blvd.” series, which were based on a tough Cincinnati neighborhood, where he used to get in trouble when he was younger. He created fictional characters that populated the area.

After he and his wife moved to Nashville, Hildebrand created another series called “Lumberjack Road,” which was based on their lower-middle-class Nashville neighborhood that was filled with food chains. “There was this sculpture where this lumberjack cut this lady’s head open at this table, and it was just White Castles coming out of her head. That was it. Waffle House and White Castles were everywhere.”

He and his wife moved to Baltimore, where Hildebrand got a job teaching drawing at the University of Maryland. “That’s when I really kind of started painting whatever I wanted to paint. And I started feeling older.”

One painting in the Lusk show includes several colorful Snoopy rugs. “You like Snoopy when you’re a kid.”

The painting also includes the face of Johnny Cash, one of his heroes along with Waylon Jennings. Jennings “was a rebel before punk rock or anything. He and Johnny Cash were the outlaws.”

And the painting includes a depiction of a man defecating on a wall. “It’s like young to old. And this is the reality. This is real life now. I’m not in this adolescent fairytale anymore. This is real. I’ve got to do stuff. Make money.”

His Lusk show includes about a year-and-a-half of work. “I feel like this is my last hurrah. There’s a lot of work. I’ve got a 9-to-5 job now I really like. It’s a desk job. I work at a college. I do sort of administrative stuff. But I’m liking the routine. I like it better than being alone in a studio kind of weirding myself out.”

Instead of spending time painting, Hildebrand is “worrying about getting the gutters fixed and stuff like that. Just normal stuff. My wife and I are trying to start a family. I kind of like the normal stuff a little bit.”

But then, he said, “I might start painting flowers.”

At David Lusk Gallery through July 29th

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We Recommend We Saw You

Jimbo Mathus, Gone to the Dogs Fest and Arcade wedding celebration

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Jimbo Mathus and the Squirrel Nut Zippers performed at the Levitt Shell

The Squirrel Nut Zippers played Levitt Shell for the first time on July 8, but lead singer/co-founder Jimbo Mathus played at the venue many times.

He played with his own group, Jimbo Mathus, and tribute shows for the late Jim Dickinson.

“It’s a beautiful venue,” said Mathus. “So much history. I love the whole band shell style. It’s one place Memphis really comes together.”

Mathus, a Fat Possum recording artist/producer living in Oxford, also loves the lighting and sound and the “all ages aspect and the free aspect” of Levitt Shell.

“It’s one of the best places to play if not THE best in Memphis. The staff is fantastic. Just a good family environment.”

The Squirrel Nut Zippers has been revived and currently is on tour, Mathus said. The group also has a new album, “Beasts of Burgundy,” coming out in January. The music is “cabaret, vaudeville, swing, burlesque and jazz,” he said. “Same energy, but a higher level of performance.”

Also debuting at the Levitt Shell were “Booze Pops,” which sounds like a music group, but they’re actually an alcohol-added version of Mempops.

“They’re pretty much frozen drinks on a stick with alcohol in them,” said Mempops founder Chris Taylor. “We use a lot of the same ingredients we use for Mempops, but we add alcohol – rum, vodka, tequila and bourbon depending on what we’re making.”

On hand during the Squirrel Nut Zippers show were “Blueberry Mojito” with rum, “Roasted Peach and Bourbon,” “Strawberry Margarita” with tequila and the “Moscow Mule” with vodka. More flavors will be available, Taylor said.

Each pop is “give or take five percent alcohol,” Taylor said. “As much alcohol as in a beer. So, only a four-ounce serving. If you’re going to get drunk off those, you’re going to have to be dedicated.”

….

Michael Donahue

Eagle Claw at Gone to the Dogs Fest 3.

Gone to the Dogs Fest 3 was their most successful festival, said event founder Shawn Mullins. The music festival, held July 6 to 9 at Growlers, raised between $3,000 and $4,000 for Streetdog Foundation, Mullins estimated. “We raised more than the last two combined.”

The festival, which featured 13 bands, was based on the old Memphis Hates You Fest, said Mullins, who “didn’t really have anything to do” with that festival. “It was basically a local showcase for bands people didn’t feel like got a lot of attention.”



That festival “fell through,” but people wanted to bring it back. Mullins didn’t want to bring it back the way it was. “Something like that wouldn’t work unless it was for a good cause, so we re-tooled it.”



Dogs sounded perfect. “My wife and I have been rescuing dogs for a while and we love dogs. It seemed like the next logical step was to attach the two things we cared about.”

This year’s festival featured “mostly metal bands, but Saturday afternoon got a little more family friendly with indie rock. But I think it’s safe to say all the bands are on the heavy side. Mostly metal bands.”

Growlers manager Jonathan Kiersky will be more involved with the upcoming Gone to the Dogs festival, Mullins said. “One of the first things he spoke to me about after he got his foot in the door was, ‘Let’s do Gone to the Dogs again and do it every year. Let’s make it a consistent thing.’”

Said Kiersky: “Anything we can do to support the community, we as a company feel strongly about. The other thing is that I love dogs.”

Kiersky’s dog, Fezzik, attended Saturday night’s show.

Melanie Pafford, who, along with her husband, Kent, are founders of Streetdog Foundation, was pleased with the response. “I went all four nights,” she said. “The people who attended were all dog lovers and have an affinity for dogs. We had a donation bucket. They already paid to come in and they were very generous about wanting to donate.”


They also would “come up and talk to us about dogs,” she said.

Describing Streetdog Foundation (streetdogfoundation.com), Melanie said, “We take the worst of the worst dogs off the street. Our mission is to get dogs off the street – rescue, rehabilitate and re-home.”

Streetdog Foundation’s biggest fundraiser, “Howl at the Moon,” will be Nov. 11 at The Warehouse off South Main.

…….

Michael Donahue

Kelcie and Jeffrey Zepatos at Arcade

The fourth generation of the Arcade Restaurant owners and his wife celebrated their recent marriage with a party July 7 at the restaurant, which is billed as “Memphis’s oldest cafe.”

Jeffrey Zepatos and the former Kelcie Beharelle were married June 17 on the beach in Santa Rosa, Florida. The bride wore a blush pink gown and a white veil with a rose gold crown and the groom wore a white button up and gray vest and gray suit pants. “We were barefoot,” Jeffrey said. “Very casual.”

Relatives and friends threw the Memphis party, Jeffrey said. “We just wanted to have a celebration on South Main, really,” he said. “Have all our friends from South Main, Downtown and Memphis celebrate with us. A destination wedding made it tricky. Basically, we wanted to come back here and do something fun with everybody else.”

Jeffrey’s great-grandfather, Speros Zepatos, opened the Arcade in 1919, Jeffrey said.

[slideshow-1]

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We Recommend We Saw You

Alexis Grace, Canvas, Trolley Night, Live at the Garden, Crescent Club, Rooftop

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Alexis Grace and Thomas Bergstig were at Railgarten

Alexis Grace and her husband, Thomas Bergstig, were the guests of honor at a party July 1 at Railgarten.

The couple are moving to Los Angeles.

The invitation for the event – “A Trash Party for Alexis” and an “Avskedfest for Thomas” – asked guests to “Come say goodbye to the two trashiest worst humans on the planet ….Let’s celebrate their awfulness together.”

A native Memphian, Alexis was a finalist who came in 11th place on season eight of TV’s “American Idol.” For the past eight years, she was a deejay on Q-107 FM.

Thomas, who is from Sweden, is the former music director at Playhouse on the Square. He and Isaac Middleton are the tap-dancing-musical-instrument-playing performers in Swedish Gun Factory.

It was Alexis’s idea to move to LA. “I decided LA over New York,” she said. “At first it was New York, but I just know so many people (in LA) and I know a lot of people in the same industry as me. I made a lot of friends and connections from my ‘Idol’ days and a lot of them live out there. That was a big reason. I want to do more TV and film, which, obviously, is heavier out there than in New York. I’ve always wanted to live in either city and I reached a point in my life where I’m able to do that now.”

Bergstig plans to focus on his tap dancing and composing in LA. On July 11, he and Middleton will officially release their Swedish Gun Factory EP, “Chris Raines,” which includes six songs and one piano composition.

“I’m going to bring Swedish Gun Factory to Los Angeles,” Bergstig said. “I have meetings set up with producers, managers and agents and I’m definitely going to try to make that happen.”

Asked who wrote their party invitation, Bergstig said, “It was Courtney Oliver (Playhouse on the Square special events director) who wrote it. We were supposed to have it at her house. We were sitting on her porch and said, ‘Write something.’ And she wrote that.”

Maybe it’s what she was really thinking and she finally got to write it, Bergstig said.

And the meaning of “avskedfest”? “It just means ‘goodbye party’ in Swedish.”

….

Michael Donahue

From left, Robert Coletta, Jim Lord, Seth Cook and Juju Bushman at Canvas wedding.

Guests celebrated the nuptials of Canvas of Memphis and RAWK ‘n Grub July 1 at the Midtown club.

The “bride” – Robert Coletta, who, along with Brandon Knight, co-own Canvas – wore a gown and the groom – RAWK ‘n Grub owner/chef Steph Cook wore a tuxedo T-shirt and chef’s pants.

RAWK ‘n Grub is a “food truck specializing in gourmet sandwiches and burgers and unique dishes,” said Cook.

The marriage was “a union of two businesses,” Cook said. His food truck will provide the fare for Canvas seven days a week from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. He’ll use Canvas’s kitchen as the prep area and he’ll cook the food in the truck.

“We’ve added a lot of our favorites,” Cook said. “In the past we couldn’t stay on top as a truck because we didn’t have the proper facility to hold product, which we do now.”

The menu includes “Kung Fu Al Green” (collards and kimchi) and “Fried Fleetwood Mac” (four cheese breaded and fried macaroni and cheese).

Asked why he wanted to join together Canvas and RAWK ‘n Grub, Coletta said, “Food is not my best forte.” He wanted to showcase creative food as well as paintings and other works by artists at Canvas. “Food should be art.”

Juju Bushman performed at the “reception.”

Michael Donahue

Snowglobe performed at Peabody rooftop.

……

Snowglobe, which celebrates its 16th anniversary this year, performed June 28 at the Peabody rooftop party.

“I think the overarching thing that’s held us together is just our friendships,” said drummer/songwriter Jeff Hulett. “Some of us have known each other since we were kids. Brandon (Robertson) and Brad (Postlethwaite) have known each other – literally – since kindergarten.”

The band performed some of its well-known songs, including “Waves Rolling,” “Playground” and “Ms. June.”

“The other thing that’s kept us together so long are the friendships we’ve made with our fans. And the people singing along and coming up to us and telling us how much those songs mean to them and how they feel like they’re a part of the band.”

Memphis Flyer sponsored the June 28 rooftop party, which included a special cocktail appropriately titled the “Fireflyer.”

Michael Donahue

Boston at Live at the Garden

……

Boston met Memphis July 1. Or at least a good portion of the city.

About 6,400 attended Boston’s performance at Live at the Garden, said Memphis Botanic Garden executive director Mike Allen. “That’s a good number,” he said.

About 2,800 of those people were in the VIP area, which held 300 tables, Mike said.

“I thought the huge video screen, the technology in the background, which is so current, juxtaposed against the music, which is 40 years old or something, made for a current and fun show. But still a throwback to the day, if you will.”

And, he said, “They’re from my era when I was in college. When they sang, a lot of memories came flying back.”

Michael Donahue

Gabrielle Pappas and Stephen Duckett at Trolley Night.

……


Music was on track June 29 at Trolley Night.

“I had more music on the street between Green Beetle and Central Station down to St. Paul,” said South Main Sounds owner Mark Parsell.

He also held his South Main Sounds Songwriter Night, which featured Low Society Band, blues player Danny Green and singers Claire Radel and Levi Smith.

Earnestine and Hazel’s house band performed a tribute show to the late E&H manager Keenan Harding.

This wasn’t your typical trolley night. Joan Robinson with the Downtown Neighborhood Association “organized a committee to ramp it up a little bit,” Parsell said. “She had the Grizzline and the Second Line band.”

Adding to the energy of the evening were SuperLo on the Go’s steaks, which were grilled outdoors, and the Amurica photo booth.

The Trolley Tour committee included South Main Association president Don Williams and Penelope Huston with the Downtown Memphis Commission.

Michael Donahue

Bridges Phillips, Michaelyn Bradford, Stan Gibson, Cynthia Thompson, Angel Fisther, Charles Thompson were at Farm to Table Wine Dinner at the Crescent Club.

….

How difficult is it to pair wines with a dinner?

Bridges Phillips, on premise sales representative for Southern Glazers Wine and spirits of Tennessee, took on that job at the four course Farm to Table Wine Dinner June 29 at the Crescent Club.

“Since it was warm outside, being on the patio, I wanted to do more white ’cause I knew it was going to be a little warm,” Phillips said.

He doesn’t do a taste testing. “I get the men from Stan (Gibson, Crescent Club executive chef). I pair the wines based on the menu. I don’t eat everything. I’ve tasted all the wines before. He gave me the menu one day. I had them paired the same day.”

Gibson’s dinner began with an amuse of roasted beets and gorgonzola with white balsamic vinegar and continued with free range chicken tortilla soup, farm-raised catfish-stuffed portabella mushroom, a local Tennessee beef tenderloin in cabernet sauce and smashed potatoes and a peach and preserve crepe. 

[slideshow-1]

Categories
News News Blog

Famed Local Restaurateur Ronnie Grisanti Dies

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Ronnie Grisanti

Restaurateur Ronnie Grisanti, 79, died Friday June 30.

Grisanti, owner of Ronnie Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant in Collierville, grew up in the restaurant business. He worked for his father and grandfather at their restaurant, Grisanti’s on Main, across from Central Station.

The popular, gregarious restaurant owner who seemingly knew every notable in Memphis opened his first restaurant in the early 1980s on Union at Marshall by Sun Studios before moving to Beale Street. He then moved his restaurant to Poplar near the viaduct before opening his Collierville location about four years ago in Sheffield Antiques Mall.

Grisanti leaves three sons, Dino, Judd, and Alex Grisanti; a brother, Frank Grisanti; a sister, Dee Grisanti; and nine grandchildren.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Beauty Shop at 15

Some folks still think Beauty Shop restaurant is a beauty salon.

“People call and ask if they can get an appointment,” says owner/chef Karen Carrier. “I say, ‘Do you want a reservation?’ And they go, ‘No. An appointment.’ And I go, ‘No, this isn’t a beauty shop.’ We should start calling our reservations ‘appointments.'”

Beauty Shop (with its slogan “Look Good/Eat Good”) at 966 Cooper will celebrate its 15th anniversary July 14th and 15th. For those two days, the dinner menu will be the same as the one when the restaurant opened in 2002. The Wild Magnolias from New Orleans will perform at 9:45 p.m. July 15th, following a second line from Beauty Shop down Cooper and back.

Carrier, who also owns Mollie Fontaine Lounge, Bar DKDC, and Another Roadside Attraction caterers, didn’t have a beauty shop theme in mind when she began looking for a space for a new restaurant. At the time, she owned Automatic Slim’s (which she sold in 2008) downtown and Cielo (which later became Mollie Fontaine) in Victorian Village. “I wanted to be in a neighborhood,” she says. “I wanted to get out of the touristy part of downtown. I’d done it for so long.”

And she says, “I get bored every six to seven years and re-invent myself.”

Karen Carrier’s Beauty Shop is celebrating 15 years in business.

While looking at another spot in Cooper-Young, Carrier discovered a “For Rent” sign on the space that once was the old Atkins Beauty and Barber Shop.

She “flipped out” when she walked inside and saw the big cone-shaped hair dryers, the mirrors, and the avocado green sinks in the old hair-styling areas that were separated from each other by glass bricks. “Everything was here,” she says. “And I was like, ‘Oh, my God.'”

Carrier went back to her phone and called the owner. “Her father had started Atkins Beauty Salon back in 1942.”

Carrier put down $1,000 as earnest money. “And that was it.”

She knew she could make a restaurant out of a beauty shop. “I can just walk into a place and have this weird feel if it will work or not.”

She visualized how it would look. Booths would be installed in the hair-styling areas. The green sinks would be moved behind the bar. “I saw the hair dryers becoming chairs where you can sit.”

Carrier removed the old drop ceiling to add more height. She had a double kitchen built. “Up front, we took that wall out and opened the whole bar up. I hung the curtains.”

Sculptor Wayne Edge made the bar and the wormwood tables. “He built a banquette, and I covered it with an old Turkish rug.”

She also rented the space next to the old beauty salon. “We had the ‘Beauty Shop General Store.’ We sold old Vespas. We sold refurbished bikes. We sold Dinstuhl’s chocolates. All kinds of cheeses. We sold prepared foods to-go from Roadside. We sold men’s and women’s Giraudon shoes from Italy, my favorite shoe shop in New York.”

Food at Beauty Shop was Americana Caribbean. “I love that spice, but not that heat. I like that flavor. The big, bold flavors. It’s very much influenced by that sun-drenched cuisine: Mexico, Jamaica, Israel, Louisiana.”

In keeping with the 1960s theme, Beauty Shop servers wore beehive wigs. “My friend, who was doing hair in the ’60s, had a place down on Perkins. So, she created 10 beehives in 10 different colors. The servers got to pick them and put them on their heads. It was hilarious.”

Beauty Shop’s opening night was a hit. “This place went nuts. It was just mobbed from the time we opened at lunch through the end of the night.”

Servers in beehives prepared guacamole tableside, Carrier says.

“Everybody wanted to sit in the booths. They wanted to sit under the dryers. I said, ‘Don’t pull it down!’ ‘Cause we had rigged lights in them so they would light up pink.”

Over the years, customers from Atkins Beauty and Barber Shop dined at Beauty Shop restaurant. “Do you know how many people have come in here and said, ‘I used to have my hair done here back in the ’50s’?”

Priscilla Presley was one of them. “She’d come here to get her beehive, her big hairdos, done at Atkins in the first booth. She came in one day, and she goes, ‘You know, that’s the booth where I used to get my hair done.'”

Changes have taken place over the years. Beauty Shop General Store closed and became Do Sushi. It’s now Bar DKDC (Don’t Know Don’t Care), a restaurant/bar/music venue featuring street food from around the world.

Menu items changed at Beauty Shop, but customers celebrating the restaurant’s anniversary can dine on original menu items, including Ying/Yang Carpaccio of Red and White Tuna, Tuna Pizzette, Bangkok Salad, and Crispy Salt and Szechuan Pepper Scrimps.

Servers stopped wearing beehives years ago. “The waitresses started bitching, ‘This is hot.'”

But they’ll wear beehives during the anniversary weekend, Carrier says.

And maybe longer. “I don’t know. That might stick. We might not let that go again.”

Beauty Shop 15th Anniversary, July 14th-15th

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We Recommend We Saw You

Big Wig Ball, Recording Academy, Old Dominick Distillery and Hole-in-One

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Jeremy and Sky McEwen and Nichole and Peter Stein at Big Wig Ball.

Liza Routh could be considered one of the bigwigs at the Big Wig Ball.

“I was on the committee the first year we did it,” she said. “And then I chaired it for two years.”

Routh and Kyle Cannon were co-chairs at this year’s event, which was held June 23 at Annesdale Mansion.

The fundraiser, which drew 250 people, benefits Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Most of the guests wore some type of wig.

Routh wore a big wig, one of the many she owns.

“I get a new one every year and I’ve collected a lot of other ones over time. We’ve passed a bunch of them around to friends each year. So, I have a big wig collection.”

Her husband, Stephen, also wears a wig each year. “He probably has six to seven men’s wigs.”

Michael Donahue

Richard Hightower and Richard Saigeon at Old Dominick dinner

….


Corn is one of the ingredients in the whiskey and vodka made at Old Dominick Distillery. It also was an ingredient in the dishes served at a special dinner, held June 23 at the distillery on Front Street.



Chefs from restaurants owned by Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman served corn-inspired cuisine to 150 guests at five stations on the first and second floors.

Listing the restaurants and what they served Catherine and Mary’s chef de cuisine Ryan Jenniges said Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen served polenta stuffed with porcini and corn, Porcellino’s Craft Butcher served Roman gnocchi made from cornmeal, Hog & Hominy served tarragon creamed corn and Catherine and Mary’s served braised corned beef on a savory corn pancake.

Dessert was the corn-less chocolates provided by Phillip Ashley Chocolates.

Old Dominick sales director Clark Schifani described the event as “a friends and family dinner” for Old Dominick and D. Canale & Co. Another purpose was to announce the partnership between Old Dominick and Ticer and Hudman. The chefs will operate the distillery’s restaurant, which is slated to open in late November or early December.

The dinner kicked off the distillery’s celebration weekend, which included “Memphis Spirit Returns,” held June 19. About 800 attended that event, which featured cuisine from area chefs, Schifani said.


Michael Donahue

Sam Barnett, Brandon Abraham, Jennifer Jones, Lilz Chiozza and Lee Chiozza at St. Louis Catholic Church Men’s Club’s Hole in One Charity Festival

….


Bailey Childress was the big winner at this year’s St. Louis Men’s Club Hole-In-One Festival, which began on Father’s Day and ended June 24 on the grounds of St. Louis Catholic Church.

He accumulated the most points, which meant he won the Cardinal Cup. This is the first time the cup has been awarded at the event, said the event’s fundraising chair Wes Kraker.

It’s no surprise Childress won; he’s a consistent winner at the event, which benefits St Louis school’s athletic, Scouting and youth programs and the Blue Streak Scholarship Fund for students in the Jubilee Schools.

Each night, golfers try to win cash and prizes after they make shots closest to the hole. Qualifying golfers take part in the Mercedes-Benz of Memphis-sponsored shoot-out for cars. The top 10 golfers who accumulated the most points during the week took part in the million dollar shoot-out on the last night of the event. The top golfer wins the Cardinal Cup.

The Hole-In-One is close to Childress’s heart. He participated in the tournament immediately after he and his wife, Keely, were married. “We got married at St. Louis the last night of the Hole-In-One four years ago,” he said. “Since I played college golf, the groomsmen and I came down and hit golf balls before we went to the reception.”

Their son, Jackson, was born one year on “the first day of the Hole-In-One. Father’s Day.”

And Childress won a car. “I hit a hole in one for the car the same year Jackson was born.”

He won a Ford Focus, but traded it for a gray Ford F 150 truck.

Coming in second, third and fourth were Austin Bennett, David Moran and Frank Lewis.

Michael Donahue

I. B. Dat Guy and Keelyn Ellis at Recording Academy Memphis Chapter’s Memphis Membership Celebration.

….

If you wanted to rub shoulders with some of Memphis’s music greats, the Recording Academy Memphis Chapter’s Membership Celebration was the place to be. Al Kapone, Frayser Boy, John Paul Keith and Matt Ross-Spang were on hand at the event, held June 19 at the Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education.

Performances were by Don Bryant and the Bo-Keys, Julien Baker and Marco Pave and Alfred Banks.

“The is the chapter’s largest annual event,” said event publicist Elizabeth Cawein. “It’s an opportunity for the chapter members – the chapter stretches from New Orleans to St. Louis – to get together. Then we also do live performances and we screen music videos. Share the latest music that’s coming out of the chapter. In year’s past we’ve done listening parties. It’s a great opportunity to network and catch up.”

[slideshow-1]

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman to open restaurant at Old Dominick Distillery

Old Dominick Distillery

Chef/restaurateurs Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman will operate a restaurant in Old Dominick Distillery.
The restaurant, slated to open in late November or December, will be on the North side of the 50,000 square-foot facility at 305 South Front Street. Windows in the 100-year-old warehouse will overlook the Mississippi River.

Restaurant construction has begun and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
Ticer and Hudman, owner of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Porcellino’s Craft Butcher, Catherine and Mary’s and Hog & Hominy, were finalists for this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards Best Chef Southeast. They were Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs in 2013.

The chefs and beverage director Nick Talarico will cater a private dinner Friday June 23 at the distillery. Accompanying the menu for the dinner, created for the evening by Ticer and Hudman, will be craft cocktails made with Old Dominick vodkas and the award-winning Memphis Toddy.

The dinner will be held the night before the distillery’s “Memphis Spirit Returns” grand opening celebration, which will be open to the public. The event, which will be held from 2 to 7 p.m. June 24, will commemorate the 150th anniversary of when Old Dominick Whiskey and D. Canale settled on Front Street.

Jose Gutierrez from River Oaks, Felicia Willett from Felicia Suzanne, Kelly English from Restaurant Iris and Second Line and Patrick and Deni Reilly from Majestic Grille will prepare food for the June 24th event. Craft cocktails will be created by Memphis bartenders Brad Pitt from Germantown Performing Arts Centre, Miles Epley from Cafe Society, Daniel Lynn from South of Beale, Colby Jones from Catherine and Mary’s and Dan Price, creator of Undercurrent Memphis.

Tickets are $30 per person and are available at olddominick.com.

Old Dominick Distillery opened May 1. “We’re in distribution at all your favorite local liquor and wine shops and your favorite bar,” said Old Dominick director of sales Clark Schifani.

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We Recommend We Saw You

Margarita Fest, Seth Walker, LGBT Legend Awards and Le Youth

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Dylan Anderson, Mayce Moore, Britney Hassel, Tom Moore and Trisha Cason at Margarita Fest

Overton Park – at least part of it – was transformed into Margaritaville June 17 at Memphis Flyer’s Margarita Fest.

About 800 attended the annual event. This year’s festival featured 12 restaurants and three food trucks.

And lots and lots of that famous frozen concoction.

“Man, we have a cucumber margarita,” said Michael Illenberger, who mixed margaritas at the Bonefish Grill station. “It’s garnished with a sugar Jalapeno rim. It’s the best one here in Memphis, man. You’ll love it.”

Asked how many he served so far, Illenberger said. “It’s gotta be over 250, 500 margaritas, man. We’ve given away so many margaritas.”

Janique Byrd attended the event with Venicellon Williams, Desiree Lyles Wallace and Elaina Norman. “This is our third year supporting the Memphis Flyer’s margarita festival,” Janique said. “It’s a great event. We’re having a great time. Keep it up. Keep it up.”

Michael Donahue

Seth Walker and his band and, on right, Justin Rimer at Seth Walker concert at The Bluff.

….

For their last song at their June 16th show at The Bluff, Seth Walker and his band and the opening artists gathered on stage to perform Hank Williams Jr.’s  “All My Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Tonight.”

A throng of friends and fans showed up at The Bluff, Walker’s second show at the Highland Strip venue.

“This basically was his follow-up to his first sell out at The Bluff,” said Walker’s producer Justin Rimer. “They stopped letting people in the door. They cut it off. We hit their cap, that’s for sure.”

People still were standing in line outside after the show began. “I thought it was great,” Rimer said. “I thought the turnout was phenomenal. The crowd was really into it. All the opening acts were great. All in all I thought the vibe was cool.”

Audience members sang along to Walker’s originals.

“I think we sounded pretty good,” Walker said. “We played a lot of tough songs. I’m really proud the way the people came out and were loud during the show. They were loud and energetic.”

And, he said, “I’m honored to put a smile on somebody’s face.”

Opening for Seth Walker and his band were Seth Austin, Brad Walker, Emily Sheets and Ethan Willis and the Long Goners.

Michael Donahue

Larry Clark, LGBT Legend Awards co-chair

…..

Guests gathered for the LGBT Legend Awards presentation June 18 at The Guest House at Graceland.

“The purpose of the event was to bring the LGBT community together to recognize the hard work some of the people have actually put into the community on a day-to-day basis,” said Larry Clark, event co-chair with Carl Norvell. “We’re acknowledging those individuals who put so much hard work into the art form of female impersonation and different avenues of the community.”

Retired club owner Harold Buckner, who owned Club 901 and Club Lipstick, was honored. He provided “an avenue to female impersonators to go out and have fun,” Clark said. “He was the reason why people had a place to go and enjoy themselves.”

Minister DeVante Hill opened the ceremony with a prayer. “The LGBT community reached out to me to make sure the Black Lives Matter fight included the transgender community because of the recent violence against transgender individuals that has sparked across the country,” he said.

Michael Donahue

Courtney Boyd and Cole Jeanes at Le Youth

….

Chef Cole Jeanes and food blogger Jonathan Cooper hosted their first Le Youth Supper Club dinner June 17 at Jeanes’s apartment.

Jeanes is owner of Amelia Mae caterers and Cooper owns the “Memphis Food and Drink Culture” blog.

Le Youth is designed to bring “young minds my age group – up to early 30s – together,” said Jeanes, 27.

The young people “are moving toward owning their own business or already own their own business.”

He and Cooper also want artists, photographers and other creative types to take part. “We want all the young people who are making a name for themselves and passionate about what they do to come together and talk.”

Food and fellowship is encouraged, Jeanes said. Each month, they will invite 20 people to dinner.

For the June dinner, Jeanes prepared a four-course dinner that included braised boar’s belly tamales, hickory smoked trout and butter pecan creme brulee.

The show-stopper was “The Southern Garden” salad made of watermelon, strawberry, tomato, chamomile ricotta, watermelon rind mostarda, basil-lemon-Jalapeno vinaigrette, cornbread pana gratta, turkey crackllngs and opal basil.

[slideshow-1]

Margarita Fest from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Margarita Fest, Seth Walker, LGBT Legend Awards and Le Youth

Categories
Music Music Blog

Listen Up: Seth Walker

CREDIT: MIchael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Seth Walker, center, with, from left, Stephen Crump, Tim Van Eaton, Vinnie Longoria and Devin Matthews

Michael Donahue

Justin Rimer

Seth Walker constantly moved when he played centerfield in a pair of cleats on the baseball field.

He never dreamed he’d one day be performing his original country songs in a pair of cowboy boots on stage.

A lot of things Walker, 28, never thought about five years ago now are realities.

“I never thought my album would go to No. 20 on the iTunes chart,” he said. “It’s kind of been almost too fast. We’ve opened up for seven people who are on national radio.”

Walker and his band’s show sold out the last time they played at The Bluff. The line stretched down the block, he said. “I had no idea it was going to lead to something so big.”

Growing up in Memphis, baseball was Walker’s passion. “I played in high school at Christian Brothers. Then I went and played at Northwest Mississippi in college and Lee University.”

He picked up the guitar in high school, but he wasn’t serious about it. “I got like two chords down. I tried, but I just wasn’t dedicated enough to learn it. And then playing baseball all the time – that pretty much took over my whole life.”

Walker’s dream of a baseball career suddenly came to an end. “Right before the draft my senior year I decided to go play basketball with some friends. I tore my patella tendon in my knee. I was going up for a layup and somebody undercut me. I just remember my kneecap being up there. And I had to have surgery the next day. They told me that I probably wouldn’t play baseball again for a long time. I was 22.”



Baseball was his life. “I went into a really bad depression after that ‘cause I thought I was going to do that for the rest of my life. I just got real down. I couldn’t move for a month and a half or two months. I was just watching ‘Criminal Minds’ on the couch for a while. Scared the hell out of me and depressed me even more. It probably wasn’t a good show to watch.”

He picked up a copy of Tim Tebow’s “Through My Eyes.” “It really inspired me to get up off the couch and go to physical therapy. Just the fact that the guy is a winner. His passion for everything that he does. His mental strength. Nobody’s better than him. And he’s going to outwork you no matter what. It just got me off my butt.”

Walker’s brother, Brad, invited him to play in the youth choir at church. Walker showed Brad how to play a couple of chords back in high school.

Walker began selling insurance and was successful at it. “I started coaching at Southwest (Community College). I did that for a year, but it was interfering with my insurance job, so I had to stop.”

In addition to the church group, Walker played guitar and sang “just with friends. Actually, it took me quite a while to sing in front of that many people. It’d just be a bunch of our friends drinking at the pool. Just messing around on the guitar.”

Walker made an insurance call at Coffee in the Attic, a Covington coffee shop. “I went in there to get their business and asked the guy, ‘Do you all have live music?’ My buddy’s like, ‘Man, you should play here.’”

He played one Saturday night. “And that’s how it all started.”

Walker played in front of about 20 people at church, but performing at the coffee shop was a different story. “There were like over 100. I couldn’t even put the capo on my guitar I was so nervous. And I was singing every song so fast. I sang the first song in a minute and a half and it’s a three and a half minute song. Thomas Rhett’s ‘Take You Home.’ It probably sounded like a rap song when I was singing it.”

The crowd reaction was phenomenal.. “I broke the fire code. That was pretty cool. People standing on the bar. There was just too many people in that one place.’

Walker was hooked. “I just wanted to do it again, so I played at the old Dan McGuinness (Pub) on Spottswood. And I just kept playing. Kept developing that following.”

He decided to record a single. “I’d always wanted to put out a song. It was like a dream. Nobody else had done it around here. None of my friends had.”

Walker thought, “I don’t care if it sucks or not, I still want to do it.”

A buddy introduced him to Justin Rimer, co-owner of Crosstrax Studio and a veteran member of bands, including 12 Stones and Breaking Point. Walker recorded “Whiskey and a Dirt Road,” which he and his brother wrote, at Crosstrax. “I spent all my birthday money – 1,400 bucks.”

The song is about “seeing a girl at the bar,” Walker said. “ It could be anywhere. And just not having the nerve to talk to her. Then downing a couple of drinks and talking to her. And just riding backroads. Something we do in Covington.”

Rimer was impressed the first time he heard Walker. “I was like, ‘Man, there’s something going on with this guy,’” he said. “His voice is unique in a world where the country voices are very cliche. And I could see he was very eager. He was humble to a world he didn’t know anything about.

“We did this one song, ‘Whiskey and a Dirt Road,’ and we put it out on social media. And, literally, the next show he played sold out. In any town it’s hard, but it’s especially hard in Memphis. Especially when there’s no air play. There was nothing but a social media presence. And the show sold out.

“When you see something like that it’s like, ‘Wait a second. Something’s going on. People are attracted to this guy. They’re attracted to his music and they want to come out and see him.’ And that’s a rarity these days.”

He and Rimer began hanging out, Walker said. ““He actually became one of my really good friends after ‘Whiskey and a Dirt Road,’” he said. “We would go to (TJ) Mulligan’s on Trinity and hang out. One day he invited me: ‘Hey, I want to talk to you about some things.’”

“I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to start a record label for you and I’m going to sign you,’” Rimer said. “So, I literally started Crosstrax Records for him. And he’s my only artist.”

“I told him, ‘Man, I’m not scared to perform. If you want to do this, it’s on you,’” Walker said. “And we did.”

Said Rimer: “We recorded over the last year, working on different songs. And a month and a half ago we released the EP, ‘Seth Walker: Volume 1.’ With no radio airplay within 15 hours we were No. 20 on the iTunes country chart.

“Memphis doesn’t have a country guy like this that all of a sudden people are reacting to. You can’t make up sales numbers. And you can’t make up when you’re selling out concerts. It’s a real reaction, man. People are flocking to this guy.”

Walker hand selected the musicians for his band.

He met guitarist/backup vocalist Devin Matthews, 25, on Instagram. They played their first gig together as a duo at the old Double J Smokehouse and Saloon off South Main.

“Somebody taught me to read tabs,” Matthews said. “I never could read music. From then on I’d just figure it out. I played rock music for a really long time. I went through a really bad breakup and I was really depressed. Country. That’s what I fell in love with.”

Walker invited bass player Tim Van Eaton, 24, to play in his band after he heard him play in another band.

Van Eaton, grandson of J. M. Van Eaton, who played drums with Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, acquired the nickname “Three Finger Timmy” after he accidentally stuck his pocketknife into one of his fingers three hours before their first show with a full band and an audience of 800 people. He got 12 stitches in his finger and was back before soundcheck. “I ended up playing the whole gig,” Van Eaton said.

Guitarist Vinnie Longoria, 20, began playing drums before he switched to guitar. His father David Longoria, a touring drummer in the ‘80s and ‘90s, played in several bands, including Roxy Blue, L. A. Guns and Slaughter.

Country wasn’t Vinnie’s first music choice. “I was a metal guitar player and rock guitar player,” he said.

His metal guitar style works in a country band, Vinnie said. “It makes it really full and colorful.”

Drummer Stephen Crump, 26, also comes from a musical family. “My cousin is Larry McCoy and he writes with Thomas Rhett in Nashville,” he said.

“I grew up in church, so most of the guys that I play with are gospel musicians,” Crump said. “My style is not rock and country. I have a very fast right foot. I don’t double bass pedal it. All my feels are very tasty. It’s not rock music at all. When most of these guys around here hear me play, they’re like, ‘I haven’t heard that in a country band. That’s different.’”

For now, Walker and his band are concentrating on performing. The band wants to eventually put out a full-length album.

Asked whether he’d pick baseball over music as a career, Walker said, “I’ve gotten to play baseball in front of 10,000 people and that’s amazing. But there’s no high like what we’ve done. Just played in front of huge crowds. Singing. I mean, it’s pretty cool. When they’re singing a song that we’ve done on the album.”

Seth Walker and his band will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday June 17 at The Bluff at 535 South Highland. Tickets: $10. Call: (901) 454-7771.

Seth Walker 'Nope' from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Listen Up: Seth Walker

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We Recommend We Saw You

He was Batman!

CREDIT: MIchael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Shamefinger paid homage to Adam West at 901 Comics Anniversary Celebration.

Adam West, who played Batman in the 1960s TV series, was remembered June 10 at the 901 Comics Anniversary Celebration. West died June 9 at age 88.

The week-long celebration of events, which commemorated the first year anniversary of the store at 2162 Young Avenue, included performances by Shamefinger, Gloryholes and The Turn It Offs June 10 in the gazebo at the corner of Cooper and Young. The event coincided with the Blythe & Young Block Party, which included Goner Records and other participating businesses.

The members of Shamefinger wore DC Comics superhero masks in honor of West.

“We’d already planned to dress up as superheroes in some form, but we decided to go with DC superheroes for Adam West,” said bass player Farmer Zanath.

Their costume was “a little $5 cardboard mask pack that we bought at Party City. It was a pack of Justice League superheroes.”

Who wore the Batman mask? “That would be me,” Farmer said. “I wanted it, but I left it up to the band.”

Asked why he was selected to be Batman, Farmer said. “I tend to write the darker, faster songs for the band, I guess.”

The band members didn’t wear the masks during the entire set, which opened with Nerf Herder’s theme for TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” “We found out the masks muffled our voices for the mike. (We) took off the masks and played the rest of the set.”

The 901 Comics store owners Shannon Merritt and Jaime Wright learned about West’s death from a customer. “I just thought how big of an impact he was on my life,” Shannon said. “I used to come home from school and watch Batman. And my friend across the street and I would grab towels from the linen closet and run around and play Batman. We didn’t have capes, so we would take towels and we’d safety pin a blue towel and a yellow towel on our shirts so we’re like Batman and Robin.”

One of the 901 Comics events was a show featuring art work by Memphis artist Dean Zachary, who drew Batman in “Batman: Day of Judgement” in 1999 for DC Comics. “I’d been working toward drawing Batman ‘cause that’s always been my favorite character,” said Dean, 54. “I’d done work for DC along the lines of Green Lantern and Superboy. Various showcase pieces.”

Asked why he liked the Batman character, Dean said, “The fact that individual was self disciplined and focused. And sort of that idea of someone who was not a superpower like a lot of the other heroes in the Spandex universe.”

Batman was “a good guy who trains constantly and stays on that level of excellence as far as training physically and mentally and keeping on the edge of technology. What attracted me was he was just a human being trying to make a difference. Protecting the innocent, putting the bad guys away.”

Dean was a fan of the Batman TV show. “I loved it. I was a little kid then. And that was my first introduction to superheroes. I would watch it on a black-and-white TV in my room. And when you would see that flame come out of the back of the batmobile and they slid down the bat pole, jumped in and drove off – I knew it was campy and silly then, but when you’re 5, you don’t really care.

“I thought Adam west brought a charm to the role. A playful, suave, lighthearted charm not unlike Roger Moore did in the Bond films. He was lighter and more playful, but he managed to ground the character enough to where, as a grade schooler, I was impressed and excited and entertained, but I thought it was the right look for Bruce Wayne and Batman.”

And, he said, West “had this unforgettable voice. You always knew when Adam West was talking. A singular voice very much like William Shatner. Not question who it its. For the time and for the stylization of that particular incarnation of the character, he was perfect.”

MIchael Donahue

Rodney McDowell was at Fourth Bluff Fridays

Rodney McDowell kicked back in a red plastic Adirondack chair at the Fourth Bluff Beer Garden, part of the Fourth Bluff Fridays weekly gathering. The Sheiks band was about to play at Memphis Park, formerly-named Confederate Park.. Other people staked out chairs or lolled on the grass under shade trees.

Fourth Bluff Fridays wasn’t the first time Rodney had been to the park. “I used to come down here before they ever had it when I was a little boy,” he said. “We’d ride down here on a bicycle.”

Fourth Bluff Fridays, which began last year, started the 2017 season in May and will conclude June 30.

“Fourth Bluff Fridays is part of the national initiative Reimagining the Civic Commons,” said Fourth Bluff Project programming curator Andria Lisle. “In Memphis, the project scope is four blocks of Downtown, including Cossitt Library, Memphis Park, Mississippi River Park and the promenade behind the University of Memphis Law School.”

The event includes games, food trucks, the TapBox beer trailer and bands. “All local bands and all local vendors,” said Blake Lichterman, who is managing Fourth Bluff Fridays.

Fourth Bluff Fridays is sponsored by Downtown Memphis Commission, Riverfront Development Commission, Innovate Memphis and the Mayor’s office.

Fourth Bluff Fridays is for people to “just just join for a common, peaceful event,” Blake said. “Essentially, this is just a party.”

Back row: Bill Mard, Seth Moody, Daniel McKee, Jacob Church.

Graham Winchester brought 200 little bits of paper to his band’s album release party May 26 at Young Avenue Deli. The paper included the download code for Until the End, the new album by Graham’s band, Winchester and the Ammunition.

“Each one had a picture of the album cover and it had just a little code written on it that you punched in on line to get a free album,” Graham said.

By the end of the concert, 180 of the little sheets of paper were gone, he said.

Graham, who said he had a blast at the concert, was impressed with the audience’s reaction. “Three out of the 10 songs on the album were kind of slower or more medium paced. To be able to play those kind of songs in a rowdy Friday-night bar and have everybody listen and absorb the music was really refreshing. I felt like people were listening closely.”

Graham described the band as “very sort of late ‘60s early ‘70s style with multiple layers of instruments. We’re definitely influenced by the latter era Beatles album and Beach Boys albums and Harry Nilsson. Stuff like that. Solo George Harrison. Stuff that’s got a big production going on. Even sometimes strings and horns.”

Graham has been in “about 40 bands” since he began playing drum at age 12. “It was just the instrument that matched my energy levels,” he said.

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