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Desperately Seeking Glo!

We’re betting Glo knows what a.d.i.d.a.s. stands for. After all, she's one of the icons included in the adidas “Superstar, The Original” campaign. (Photo: Thibaut Grevet, courtesy adidas)

So many things these days are giving us whiplash — that “Wait, what just happened?” feeling of business as usual being turned on its head. Such was the feeling, in a positive direction, when the world witnessed the swift, steady ascension of GloRilla in 2022 to ’23. Her first hit single, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” brought that “OMG” feeling as we realized a new supernova had blossomed in the Milky Way of rap. Her cocky, tell-it-like-it-is, Memphian delivery felt like a wake-up call. And the Mid-South found a new hero, as did the new Memphis sound, that uniquely spacious orchestral bounce of the city’s beat that has perennially dominated the global hip-hop charts. Since that shot across the bow, GloRilla’s dropped one hit single after another on Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group (CMG) label, not to mention 2024’s full-length Glorious, which locked in her triumphs of the previous year. Now, on a tour named for that gold album, she’s reaping the rewards, including her triumphant headliner homecoming at FedExForum this Friday, July 25th, the GloRilla & Friends First Annual GLO Bash.

BOOM! And then there was Glo, or so goes the myth. But, having begun rapping at least 10 years ago at the age of 16, GloRilla was on locals’ radar well before “F.N.F.” was even a gleam in her eye. To better understand this phenomenon of the woman born Gloria Hallelujah Woods, the Flyer staff has combed the city and crossed the nation to chase that “OMG” feeling, to better grasp the magic of her persona, the secret ingredients of her flow, and the magnetic draw of her shows. Read on, then, as we follow the road, step by step, station by station, to that golden FedExForum which, come Friday, may very well begin radiate a whole new glow.

What Makes Glo Great?

“The first time I heard about GloRilla was when she was doing local shows in and around Orange Mound,” says IMAKEMADBEATS, founder of the hip-hop collective Unapologetic. “It was her and Slimeroni and the rest of the gang. You heard that there was a mob of young girls rapping and rapping hard. You felt a movement coming for sure.” 

GloRilla’s debut mixtape, 2019’s Most Likely Up Next, is a document of the time the teenage rapper was taking the Mound by storm. She burst out of the underground in 2022 with the Hitkidd-produced “F.N.F.” On the surface, the video follows the familiar formula of hot girls, hot cars, and excess. Only this video is shot on a smartphone, the “hot cars” are Nissans, and the women are not objects — they’re in charge. “Twerking on the cars at the red light, it definitely felt like a heightened viral moment of ‘Wow! Look at this!’” says Jared Boyd, program manager for WYXR. “This is very uniquely Memphis in a way that I hadn’t seen in a long time.”

There are thousands of no-budget hip-hop videos on YouTube, but “F.N.F.” has racked up more than 93 million views since it dropped in April 2022. It was the first inkling of GloRilla’s populist instincts, and what would become her fierce control of her own image. “She is a glowing representative — I guess pun intended — of what happens when you are extremely aware of who you are, and then unapologetic about being that,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. 

After “F.N.F” blew up and she scored a collaboration with her cousin Cardi B for the Anyway, Life’s Great EP, it could have been the end for Glo. “It’s not uncommon in hip-hop for someone to have a really, really huge debut, and for them to get signed and their single to get picked up by a larger organization, and maybe they don’t necessarily get the support to capitalize off of that. It’s not always the artist’s fault,” says Boyd. “[But] almost as soon as it came out of my mouth that I wasn’t sure that Glo would have a follow-up, she had ‘Yeah Glo!’ come out, and I was blown away! It was that moment I realized this is the next big woman rapper.” 

For me, that moment came when I heard her 2023 single with Hitkidd, “Internet Trolls.” It’s a two-minute, 21-second treatise on staying sane in the social media age. I could write a 1,500-word essay on 21st-century information warfare, but it wouldn’t get the point across like, “Watch out for them internet trolls/They be tryna satisfy them internet goals.”

“That’s the thing about Glo, I think, that makes her attractive to listeners and fans,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “It’s how real she keeps it about her experience and her life in a way that’s immediately digestible. It’s a simplified, direct delivery of an experience that resonates with people because it’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel!’”

In the image-obsessed world of post-TikTok hip-hop, GloRilla’s secret sauce is that she is a truly great rapper. “That’s one thing that’s not spoken about her a lot,” says Boyd. “She is a skilled rapper, and I would hope that anybody who thinks the opposite would shut the hell up. I grew up rapping, I’ve studied it, and I’ve written about it. She is no slouch. She can put words together in a very tight way, and she is intentional about making sure that the South and Memphis are represented in her dialect. … She has almost single-handedly manufactured this infatuation globally with the way Memphians say things. Like, my cousins in Detroit will call me and say, ‘Hey, can you pronounce this for me? I just want to hear how you would say it.’ And I’m like, ‘Get off the phone, mane!’” 

It’s not just GloRilla’s dialect that invokes the 901. Most of her catalog has the sparse, spooky, synth-riff heavy sound pioneered by the DIY hip-hop of the 1990s. “It’s thoroughly and traditionally Memphis rap to the fullest,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “You know, a lot of times with female rappers or singers, you don’t see young men riding around playing their music, right? I don’t think I ever pulled up to a car and some guy was playing Nicki Minaj. But Glo is different because of how Memphis she is. That’s something that spans across gender.” 

Unlike many of her peers, GloRilla is an electric live performer. Memphis got to see that firsthand when she headlined the Beale Street Music Festival in 2023. Flanked by her squad of dancers and a giant purple gorilla, Glo electrified tens of thousands of Memphians who crowded into Tom Lee Park. Earlier this year, she repeated the feat on one of the biggest stages in the world at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. “She’s always had a certain aggression and energy,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “If you go back and watch videos of the early days, she’s always been like that. Being famous didn’t make her like that. That made her famous.” 

Boyd agrees that we’re looking at a generational talent. “I think the sky’s the limit for GloRilla.” — Chris McCoy


GloRilla in the “TGIF” video (Photo (top): Interscope); GloRilla hits the gym with Moneybagg Yo. (Photo (bottom): Courtesy Interscope)

Rite of Passage

It was the summer of 2024, and “Wanna Be” by GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion had quickly shaped up to be the song of the season. The sample of Soulja Boy’s “Pretty Boy Swag” juxtaposed with Glo’s cadence and the promise of “Real Hot Girl Sh*t” created a bop that’d make its way to my end-of-the-year replay playlist.

It became that year’s backing track for epic summer photo dumps and story posts — but it also showed me that Glo was always on time. In 2022, she dropped the seminal single “F.N.F.” And as my friends and I hit the town that season, hearing “Hitkidd, what it do mane?” was the precursor to memories we still relish. Add in the release that year of “Tomorrow” and “Tomorrow 2” — with verses as prophetic as “Can get my feelings hurt today/I won’t give a fuck tomorrow” — her songs became anthems filled with empowering mantras, marked by her signature gangsta prowess.

Back to 2024, the release of “Wanna Be” ensured that the event of the summer was going to be everything my friends and I had hoped for. The three of us snagged tickets for the Houston show on Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer Tour, and while the sweltering heat could’ve taken even the fiercest hotties out, we sat ready in floor seats for the epic core memories to come. 

Seeing Glo in person is special. I’d even say it’s a rite of passage for any pop-culture connoisseur. She transcends the moniker of a “rap artist” — her interviews and snappy quips give life to the charm that reverberates in her flow.

Take one of her most recent viral videos of her in her bonnet in the studio chanting, “Wobbilly wiggily, huah!” into the microphone. She has the relatability and candidness that even the most sought-after publicist can’t manufacture for artists. And she can’t help but make you smile during a late-night scroll on TikTok.

Whether it’s her authentic reaction to meeting Beyoncé or breaking the fourth wall and interacting with fans on Facebook, she so naturally reminds us that she’s human — a girl from Memphis, to be exact. Days before she’s set to perform at her inaugural Glo Bash, she takes to Facebook — a more intimate social platform — asking her fans if she should tease us with a snippet before the show. Her chronically online presence is refreshing. Glo could easily just grace us with the occasional surprise drop, as many of her colleagues do, but something about asking her friends and followers for advice on the web shows a more open and intimate side that we don’t often see of superstars.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that the world would be captivated by her Southern charm — amplified by the Memphis accent (see “Accent” by Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla). She’s aware that she’s loved far and wide, and every appearance, interaction, and interview seem to be a love letter to her fans — a mark of her ingenuity and a promise of her sincerity.

Her approachability makes seeing her in concert that much more exciting. It’s like seeing a friend work hard and enjoy the fruits of their labor, rather than just another celebrity. And that feeling, for me, is furthered by a shared identity. Not only is Glo a fellow Leo, but she’s a Black woman, which makes rooting for her even more sentimental.

The music industry has always been an inequitable place for women, and being a Black female artist in the hip-hop space is even more complicated. Society is often stricter when evaluating the success of women artists based on likability and how they measure up to male artists on the charts.

Seeing Glo come alive to the lyrics of “Yeah Glo!” with other Black girls yelling at the top of our lungs was exhilarating. We were cheering her on, celebrating her success as an artist who’d fulfilled a dream she was destined to claim. — Kailynn Johnson

Glo donates to Westside Middle School. (Photo: Yasa Kaumba)

Queen of Memphis

While GloRilla has been omnipresent on the charts, and a regular on our favorite playlists, there have not been many Glo sightings in her hometown of late. Her past three years having been one of the most prolific stretches of hitmaking that any artist could boast, this is a woman on the move, busy making waves. Yet before diving back into the studio, she can’t resist taking a minute to speak with the Flyer about this most triumphant of homecomings for Glo Bash. 

“I’m not in Memphis that much,” she admits right off the bat. “I record a lot in Atlanta and L.A.” And yet it’s clear from her music that Glo carries her hometown in her heart wherever she goes. It’s all spelled out in one of the standout tracks on Glorious, “Queen of Memphis,” featuring Fridayy, where she absolutely owns her roots: “I’m from where you cross that line you can’t go back/Money ain’t change shit, I’m the same bitch from Fraysеr/Right up out the trenches, I’m the same bitch who made it/Callin’ me you twin, but you the same bitch who hated.”

But even as she owns her roots, she also owns her fame: “Lately I been winning, took some Ls but it ain’t faze me/Ran up them millions and the glow-up lookin’ crazy/Sellin’ out arenas, every city do it daily/KD, I’m just sayin’ how they traded/Hate me ’cause I’m on top like some gravy/Track meet, I been runnin’ up that paper/Big Glo, Queen of Memphis, no debatin’.”

Her success has meant an escape from those roots, even if her brand includes being Memphis AF. “The energy of Memphis lives in her,” wrote Brooklyn White in Essence magazine in 2022. Glo herself told White, “I still got the crunk sound. I got the sound Memphis got. When you hear me rap, you hear Memphis.” Yet her hometown is also something to transcend. As White wrote, “Once the ‘F.N.F.’ video was released, the world wanted a piece of Big Glo. ‘The next day everybody was calling and talking about, “Come to Miami. Come here.” All the labels were calling me,’ she says, her cadence speeding up. The success of the song changed her life. ‘I don’t never be [in] Memphis no more. And I ain’t broke no more.’”

Yet look no further than her latest single and music video to see a very Memphis Glo in full flower. If the upcoming Glo Bash is one way of reaping the rewards of what she’s built, so too is using her freedom to push her art, and the genre of hip-hop, beyond its status quo boundaries. And that’s what she does with “Rain Down on Me,” an intriguing mix of the rapper’s storytelling genius and contemporary gospel, featuring none other than Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music. In this version of Glo, haters are just “blessings-blockers,” and faith offers a way to make it in the world: “I know I’m a sinner, Lord, and I know I might sin again,” she intones. “So thank You for not givin’ up and still givin’ me the strength to win/Protect me from the evil that I can’t see with my eyes/And if it’s any blessing-blockers ’round me, help me cut them ties/In Jesus’ name …”

The church, it turns out, has always been tremendously important to GloRilla. “I was in church most of my life,” she tells the Flyer. “My mama, she’s a Christian, and my dad’s a Christian. So I grew up in church, and it’s played a big part in all my life.” When asked what church in particular she attended, she says, “Oh, I grew up going to a few churches. I don’t want to single any out, but one of them was Promise Land [Church of God in Christ] in Orange Mound.” 

The song, she says, reflects all of her church experiences, “everything as a whole, like my whole life, being in church, and even to now.” And, she notes, “When I’m in Memphis, I’ve stopped there a couple times, but not as often as I should. I’m trying to make it a habit. I was just talking about this the other day …”

She’s also stayed connected to Memphis in other ways, first donating $20,000 to her early alma mater, Westside Middle School, then gifting another $25,000 to Melrose High School, which she attended in her late teens. Glo has also expressed her social engagement on the national stage, formally endorsing Kamala Harris for president last year and meeting with President Biden. 

Now, she’s on the threshold of her triumphant, star-studded homecoming, which will, she says, “have a lot of superstar guest artists popping out. A lot of people Memphis ain’t seen yet. So I think they’re gonna love it, including my performance. I’m in rehearsals now for it, and it’s gonna be something big for Memphis.” Moreover, as Glo Bash approaches, she’s acutely aware of her position as a role model and inspiration to millions of young women, offering this final message to her sisters far and wide:

“To my ladies out there, especially my Memphis people: It’s hard, where we come from. And all across the world where it’s hard, just get through it. Pray, stand on what you believe in, and keep pushing — and never give up.” — Alex Greene 

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Music Music Features

Lamplighter Redux

Laurel Cannito and Chuck Wenzler (Photo: Maggie Trisler)

Back in the day, the classic Lamplighter Lounge experience didn’t involve live music. Pushing through the front door, you would swim through the clouds of cigarette smoke, spy a seat at the bar, settle down, and begin your night of drinking beer, talking, drinking beer, smoking, and drinking beer. No liquor was available, but it was dim, old, and cozy. As the world outside kept spinning out of control, somehow this dive remained unmoved, unaffected, and unconcerned. William Eggleston might step in wearing his full-length black leather coat, or perhaps you’d see Alex Chilton and drummer Doug Garrison saunter up to the jukebox. They weren’t there to play, only finding shelter from the storm. Miss Shirley (Williams) would call you out for swearing but served up the cheap beer and the burgers that bore her name with unflappable conviviality.

Later, after Shirley’s passing, the owner, Ms. Ann (Bradley) would fill much the same role. As she presided over her final years there before retirement, the vibe remained unchanged, but the clientele began to shift. Millennials, and later Gen Zers, it turned out, also craved that shelter. Yet they brought with them a new aesthetic. Maybe their favorite dive bar could also feature bands?

It began happening in dribs and drabs, occasional shows by soloists set up beside the pool table. Who could forget Lamplighter regular Ron Easley singing an obscure oldie about Fidel Castro while strumming a ukulele in 2012? But it still wasn’t really what you’d call a music venue, despite having a legendary jukebox. 

That all feels like ancient history now, of course. In 2018, Bradley got out of the bar business and two younger employees, Laurel Cannito and Chuck “Vicious” Wenzler, bought the place, yet they were committed to keeping that magic, funky vibe that had built up organically over the decades. “Keeping it the same was really important to us,” Cannito said at the time. “We were so adamant about that. ‘The same, but cleaner’ was my motto.”

Nonetheless, the two also leaned into hosting more music events than ever in the tiny bar. And within a year or so, they had added the adjoining space in their retail strip on Madison and more than doubled the capacity. This would mark a new era of the Lamplighter hosting bands, one that has continued to this day, albeit on a shoestring budget. For much of that time, the PA and other gear required of a music venue was cobbled together in true D.I.Y. fashion. 

But now, seven years after the “youngsters” took over, all of that has changed once again, though the vibe has remained. Over that time, the venue has earned a reputation for embracing some of the most inventive music in town, due to the adventurous tastes of Cannito and Wenzler. “We try to book, like, anything,” says Cannito today. “Even if something’s maybe not our cup of tea, we still try to give every type of music and every type of artistic expression a chance.”

“We’ll let anybody play twice,” quips Wenzler with a grin.

Yet, over those years, while management was open to any flavor of music, the venue’s equipment was not always up to the task. That’s changing in a big way, and the results will be clear when the bar hosts its “LampyFest 2025” this Saturday, July 19th, starting at 3 p.m. Now, the many featured bands will ring out more clearly than ever, powered by major improvements to the venue’s sound system, including new speakers and microphones. It’s an unmistakable sign that music and other performances will continue to be central to the Lamp’s top priorities for the foreseeable future. 

As Cannito notes, “This all started when we decided to open up to private investments from our community, right?” Supporters of the bar could buy shares in it, a somewhat untested model for community involvement. As it turned out, it was just crazy enough to work. “The whole impetus for that was us wanting to make improvements and make it a more comfortable space. Now we’re doing that, which is great! We were not only able to improve the sound equipment, we were able to get a liquor license, so we can make more money and pay back our investment.”

And, in keeping with their motto of “the same, but cleaner,” the cigarette smoke-tinted ceiling tiles have been replaced. Will wonders never cease?

Celebrating all of this at LampyFest, with cocktails, no less, will be some of the city’s most iconic bands, mixed with a few newcomers, in keeping with the Lamplighter’s spirit. The festival will feature Dr. Brown, Turnt, Jeffrey Evans & Ross Johnson, Aquarian Blood, Tyler Keith, Jack Oblivian and the Sheiks, Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship, plus drag and burlesque performers galore. There’s even a new (used) piano that, rumor has it, is actually in tune — a rarity for any club in the city.

The sheer sonic diversity is classic Lamp fare, but, as Cannito notes, they want to take it even further with their regular Wednesday night variety open mic events. “It’s great to see what people bring,” she says. “Like, one of our friends and staff did her first clown act at one of them. I really want to get that off the ground because I want to see puppets. I want to see more magic. I want to see, like, ballet! I would love to see those things at that open mic because it kind of encompasses what we’re going for anyways, which is like: ‘Hit us up. If you want to do something, be safe, and have fun, go get creative in there. Dance if you want!”

As we speak, the co-owners are brainstorming, and it starts to snowball. “I want to have pro wrestling,” chimes in Wenzler. 

“That would be so cool!” agrees Cannito, then adds, “Chuck and I have been working on this collaborative art project for seven years with our community, having to drag this place through Covid and everything. We got really savvy, I think, in how we deal with things. What’s really cool is that now we’ve been able to make these improvements. And it feels like it’s finally ready to show, you know? I think it’s cool that everybody got to see the process, and that everybody had input on the process.

“It’s never gonna be finished,” Cannito adds. “But as far as reaching the vision that we had when we called for investments from the community, I think that’s what we’re so excited to unveil at LampyFest.”

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Film/TV Music

Music Video Monday: “Old Gray Moon” by Restless Townies

The musicians who make up Restless Townies rarely get together. They live all over the United States. Melissa Goodwin Shepherd in Arizona, Chris Weary in New York City, Jeff Hulett is a Memphian, and Adam Poor is a Denverite. They collaborate long distance in creating beautiful, folkie melodies.

Their latest is written by Poor. He says “Old Gray Moon” is “about letting go, accepting that what’s gone is gone, and that something new will take its place.” 

The video, like the one for “Strange New World”, is a montage of historic footage cut together by Weary. It fits perfectly with the song’s dreamy tone. Check it out.

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Music Music Features

The Long String Instrument

Theresa Wong and Ellen Fullman (Photo: Andria Lo)

Early this year, I attended a cutting-edge music performance and workshop at the celebrated venue Roulette, in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, during which the ghosts of Memphis were very present. Bassist/composer Stephan Crump and I waited in a packed room to hear Ellen Fullman on the “long string instrument” and Theresa Wong on cello, electric guitar, electronics — and the music, consisting of rich, layered drones with ever-shifting overtones and textures, was certainly ghostly. But it was during the Q&A session that echoes of Memphis were most palpable, when Fullman spoke about growing up here. 

As Fullman recalled the Bluff City’s indelible mark on her budding musicality, her performance at a Downtown Memphis gallery in the late 1980s suddenly made sense to me. A co-worker, the late, great Vicki Marshall, had taken me, and the experience — seeing and hearing Fullman walk along high-tension wires bolted into the gallery walls, brushing them lightly as they resonated with eerie harmonics — was transformative. But there had been no mention of Fullman’s Memphis roots back then. I had to wait until the 21st century to learn of that. 

Intrigued, I called her after the Roulette show to hear the details of an unorthodox career that had taken her away from Memphis long ago, leading her to move to Minneapolis, New York, Austin, Seattle, Tokyo, and Berlin over the years. Now based in Berkeley, California, Fullman still recalls Memphis vividly. 

“To begin with,” she said, “Elvis kissed my hand when I was 1 year old. My father was holding me, and Elvis kissed my hand and said, ‘Hi-ya, baby!’” Beyond that momentous event, she was exposed to alternative approaches to music that prefigured her own experimental inclinations. 

“In retrospect, looking back and learning about what was going on there, I always really loved the warm sound of soul music that was produced in Memphis, like Otis Redding. He was the focal point of that. And then, as a teenager, I was learning about blues music from the British Invasion bands, you know, and being intrigued,” Fullman recalled. 

“I checked out Smithsonian Folkways records from the public library,” she said, “and listened to archival recordings. And then I started to be able to see some people live. There was Little Laura Dukes, who was amazing, and I loved her. I got to hear B.B. King and Furry Lewis. So I really loved those original, early blues sounds. And I look back and I think that’s what really made me appreciate tunings that were outside of the normal equal temperament. The blues players did things with tunings, and who knows what they did exactly? But, you know, it relates to my interest in natural tuning and also in extended-technique sounds.”

Given her fascination with blues tunings, one might be tempted to compare Fullman’s long string instrument to the classic diddley bow from Mississippi folk culture. Made with baling wire nailed into a cabin wall and stretched taut, a diddley bow can serve as a sort of one-string slide guitar with an entire building as its resonator — resembling the lengths of cable Fullman strings horizontally between the walls of a large room. But the resemblance is only superficial, she explains. 

“A diddley bow is a distant cousin, maybe. But in principle, it has nothing to do with [the long string instrument] because my strings are excited in the longitudinal mode, which is not employed on any other string instrument.” Without wading too deeply into the physics of sound, that means the long string instrument’s sounds are not made by the strings vibrating up and down, as in a guitar string, but by waves moving horizontally through the material of the wire itself. As Fullman discovered early on, that complicates how pitch can be manipulated. 

And that made the instrument confusing when she first began, she noted at Roulette. “At that time, I didn’t understand how to tune this because I tried to tighten the string, I tried higher gauge wire, all the different things we normally do to change the tuning, and it didn’t work. So I was in the Twin Cities, and I thought, ‘There’s got to be someone who knows engineering in New York who can help me understand this,’ so I just moved to New York!” 

She’d developed an interest in art while attending White Station High School. “I took a bus to the Memphis College of Art every afternoon, and I took drawing courses, and I audited in the ceramics department, which was a very strong, interesting department. I studied Asian ceramics, and it was a very high level department. I was really lucky. And then I went on to be with Ken Ferguson, who was one of the founders of the American craft movement, and the department he was in at the Kansas City Art Institute was really amazing. That’s why I went to school there.” 

Shifting from ceramics to sculpture, she also became interested in performance art. At some point, “I was inspired by a piece called ‘Music on a Long Thin Wire’ by Alvin Lucier, although his piece operates on a totally different principle,” she said. “But it just gave me the idea to explore what kinds of sounds I might make with a long wire, and then I came upon this discovery accidentally.” It grew out of a single question she pondered: “What does a long string sound like if I manually manipulate it?”  

By the time I saw Fullman in Memphis in 1988, she had already left home for Kansas City, then Minnesota, then New York. Back then, as I saw her walk with slow determination in a gallery strung wall-to-wall with wires, making them vibrate with her fingers, then adding overtones from other strings to create harmonies, it seemed that her art was already fully formed. In truth, she was only beginning a life practice that she’s been pursuing ever since. And that pursuit has been fruitful, with her work celebrated internationally, and in venues like Roulette. 

In Fullman’s mind, though, it’s been a slow, steady climb. For the past decade or two, she’s become more interested in collaboration, such as her ongoing work with cellist/multi-instrumentalist Wong. That’s reflected her growing confidence in her command of the long string instrument.

“I always felt that it had a lot of potential, and over the years I never really felt that I reached full potential. And so that’s what has kept me focused on it,” Fullman told me. “For example, here I am in retirement years, you know, really wondering, after all these years of invention and design, what is the most appropriate way to play this instrument? What does it want to do? How do you sound it in an authentic way? How do you write notation for something that you walk while playing? There’s just so much about it that has taken a lot of time. But it has grown, and I think it has grown with my artistic voice. I think that has developed and is reaching more people now.” 

For more information, visit ellenfullman.com.

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Music Music Blog

Orion Free Concert Series Releases Fall Lineup

North Mississippi Allstars at the Overton Park Shell (Photo: Craig Thompson)

July can be a tough stretch for lovers of the performing arts. Many music venues slow down their booking, most theatrical houses go dark, and local dance ensembles focus mainly on their summer camps. But today, in the first sign that life will reemerge after this month’s swelter, the Overton Park Shell and Orion Financial are announcing the artists to be featured in the Orion Free Concert Series, that fair-weather bastion of free music in Memphis that serves up shows in the late spring/early summer and the late summer/early fall, but not in July.

From August 23rd to October 23rd, weekends will light up at the Shell once more, but not only with music. While the Memphis Country Blues Festival and Memphis PowerPop Festival will return, along with usual stellar lineup of individual artists, Shakespeare at the Shell — in partnership with the Tennessee Shakespeare Company — will also be back onstage.

Perhaps the most notable change is the addition of the Gonerfest Grand Finale on September 28th. “We’re taking the music out of the bar and into the park; that’s exciting!” Zac Ives and Eric Friedl, co-owners of Goner Records, enthused in a statement. “The Overton Park Shell is such a landmark of music in Memphis, and it’s an honor to be a part of the fall lineup.”

The collaborative spirit also informs the final night of the free series, produced by Rhodes College, who will bring trumpeter, composer, and author Muneer Nasser to Memphis. He’s written extensively about his father, jazz bassist Jamil Nasser, even as he’s made his name as a player in his own right.

While Rhodes has a long tradition of collaboration with the Shell, the most historically resonant event is surely the Memphis Country Blues Festival, which was launched in 1966 and continued until 1970 in a legendary run that spawned albums and films, including 2023’s perceptive documentary, The Blues Society. It’s been a part of the Orion Financial series for years now and will surely evoke the glory days of the ’60s grassroots spirit that launched the fest when the North Mississippi Allstars and the Sensational Barnes Brothers take the stage this fall.

It’s all a sign of how the free concert series’ sponsors have a finger on the pulse of the city’s arts. Since 2012, Orion Financial has invested in the Overton Park Shell mission, using music as the catalyst to cultivate community. “The Overton Park Shell has always been a gathering place for Memphis — a space where music brings us together,” Ashley McDurmon, Orion Financial CEO, said in a statement. “Orion Financial is proud to support the Free Concert Series, continuing the rich tradition of making live music accessible to all.”

August 23: Stax Music Academy
August 29: Bobby Rush
August 30: Pokey LaFarge
September 5: Kudzu Kings
September 6: Memphis Powerpop Festival feat. The Connells
September 12: Shadowgrass
September 13: Lukah
September 19: DJ A.D. & the Vibe Tribe
September 20: Princeton James Productions Backyard Experience
September 26: Arkansauce
September 27: Daisha McBride
September 28: Gonerfest 22 Finale
October 3: The New Respects
October 4: Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen
October 11: Memphis Country Blues Festival feat. North Mississippi Allstars and the Sensational Barnes Brothers
October 17: Corey Lou & Da Village, with Savannah Brister
October 19: Shakespeare at the Shell
October 23: Rhodes Night feat. Muneer Nasser

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Flyer Video Music Music Blog News Politics

Memphis Flyer Podcast July 3, 2025: Songs of Protest

Seize and Desist (Photo: H.N. James)

Alex Greene joins Chris McCoy to talk about his cover story on protest music in Memphis, “Positively UnAmerikan.” Check it out on the Memphis Flyer YouTube channel.

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Fun Stuff Music News News Feature

Play On, Amro

Amro’s distinctive wall of windows, graced by a white grand piano (Photo: Andy Mannis)

For nearly 20 years, Amro Music has won the Flyer’s Best Music Equipment Store in Memphis. Regarding the long-standing honor, vice president and co-owner Nick Averwater says it’s as simple as customer and employee satisfaction: “This is our people telling us that we’re doing a good job.”

You’ve certainly driven by Amro. Located on Poplar Avenue next to the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, its iconic piano sign displays the weather or phrases like “Music Makes You Smarter.” “Most people know us as that music store with windows,” says Averwater. Inside is an abstract arrangement of stringed instruments and pianos. The historical Piano Gallery is housed in the lot next door. This dates back to Averwater’s great-grandfather, Sil Averwater, who founded Amro in 1921. “He was on his way to L.A., seeking fame and fortune, and made a stop in Memphis. Nobody was teaching piano, so he opened his windows and played for passersby. That was marketing back then.” 

The century-old shop eventually grew to serve school orchestras in rural farm communities outside of Memphis. It continues that practice today, repairing and providing instruments for students in Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. 

Walking into Amro, an array of shining saxophones, trumpets, and trombones rests above a fire-engine red keyboard. Dozens of stringed instruments hang on the north wall, with hundreds of music education books (for all skill levels) in accompaniment. 

Music has been part of Averwater’s life since childhood, he says. “I’m a product of music education … and Memphis should have a music culture. It makes our schools and communities a better place.” As they reach their 104th year, their mission of nourishing students has remained unchanged. “School orchestras might not be the blues or clichéd Memphis music, but it’s a vibrant cornerstone.” 

Averwater asks if I want a tour. I expect a walk around the floor and a couple of employee greetings. Instead, we walk through the repair shop upstairs. He shows me specific tools, cleaning methods, lighting fixtures, and mechanical approaches to repair. The brass section is flush with bright overhead lights. One mechanic, Jason, solders a brace back onto a trumpet. “Without the light, I wouldn’t be able to see this,” he says, pointing to a minute dent near the mouthpiece. He learned how to repair instruments at Amro, where he’s been working for the past three years. He got his first trumpet at Amro in fifth grade and went on to march in the University of Memphis band. 

Nearby are the woodwind mechanics, who work in a much darker space. “They utilize the shadows to better analyze their instruments,” says Averwater. One technician feeds an illuminated fluffy tube through a saxophone while fluttering the valves. I’m not sure what he’s doing, but it looks very professional. Yet the extent of their work goes beyond examinations and soldering. “We’ve seen ’em run over by cars, dropped off buses. … There’s not much that would surprise us anymore,” says Averwater. “We’ve seen it all, and then some,” says Nico, another repair technician. 

I also see a mountain of instrument cases. Averwater says it’s the line of instruments waiting to be repaired. There were two rooms full of French horns, tubas, trumpets, trombones, oboes, saxophones, and more. “Those instruments represent a kid who doesn’t have an instrument … and they need their instrument to learn.” The shop churns out nearly 300 instruments a week for students all across the Mid-South. 

The tour ends with a framed, original copy of Sil Averwater’s first piano instructional book, titled Amro System of Popular Music. As fourth-generation co-owners, Averwater and his cousin, CJ Averwater, both consider family to be an incredible foundation behind Amro’s success. 

To Averwater, it was never a question whether to join the family business. To contribute to such an integral part of Memphis’ youth is nothing but a privilege, he says. “We could sell something else, but we get to sell musical instruments.” 

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Music Music Features

New Music for the Ages

Ensemble for “Freda’s Voice” by Robert Patterson, far right (Photos: Lucy Owens)

There will be a distinctly personal aspect to the four-day Belvedere Chamber Music Festival when it kicks off its 19th year this Wednesday, June 25th, at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church — and that personal quality exemplifies just how much Luna Nova Music, the nonprofit that launched the festival, is built on relationships that span the globe. Italian composer Gianluca Verlingieri began attending the festival in 2007 as the winner of its first Student Composition Contest. Now, many years later, he’ll be paying bittersweet tribute to a recently deceased Memphis friend.

As Patricia Gray, executive director of Luna Nova, explains, Breen Bland and Jeanie Mercer “were complete believers in this whole project. We used to bring the student composers to Memphis for the festival from wherever they came, and I would find housing for them. At the very first one, the first-place winner was an Italian composer named Gianluca Verlingieri, who stayed with Breen and Jeanie, and they got to be big friends. They had all these things in common. They were big cooks. They liked the same music. Well, it turns out that they kept this up over all these years. When they would go to Europe, they would visit Gianluca. He is now a very successful composer in Italy.” 

Mark Volker

After Bland passed away in December, “Gianluca volunteered to write a piece that was dedicated to Breen, to be premiered at the festival,” Gray notes. “So he wrote this piece for violin and cello that’s going to be on the first concert. And Gianluca will be back in Memphis for this performance of his piece for Breen.” 

As the composer notes in the program, the Galician-Portuguese title, “Falar sen voz [To speak without a voice], in memoriam Breen Bland,” describes “what music often does. And it is also what the memory of a loved one does — continuously — within us.”

John McMurtery

Verlingieri’s piece in Bland’s memory not only evokes the deep personal connections behind the festival; it also reveals one strength of any concert series primarily devoted to contemporary compositions, as opposed to works from over a century ago: Whether personal or political, new music speaks to our time. Consider the works’ titles, so unlike the dry catalog entries of older works in the classical repertoire: “Fast Track,” written in 1999 by Jonathan Chenette; “Ghost Rags,” written by William Bolcom in 1970; “Flouting Convention,” Louis Anthony deLise’s 2024 work; “Moonsong,” David Crumb’s piece for piano and cello, also from last year; or, perhaps most evocatively, “Glimpses of a Better World,” a new piece written by P. Brent Register, with movements like “Trapped,” “Find It,” “Little Things,” “Silence,” and, arguably the most unlikely of classical titles, “I Like Dogs.” These works reflect our lives, our language, our loves, and our loss as we exist today.

As for the newest of the new music, one aspect of the festival evokes not only the present, but the future. The Belvedere Student Composition Contest may be the festival’s most impactful element, shining a light on the latest up-and-coming talent and providing a venue to debut their work. This year, the festival honors “is it still autumn?,” a piano trio by first-prize winner Matthew Tirona of the New England Conservatory and Tufts University; “Three Urban Scenes,” a piece for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano by second-prize winner Ethan Resnik of Rice University; and “Piano Trio No. 1” by third-prize winner Brittney Benton of Yale University. 

Gregory Maytan

Beyond that, the festival offers an opportunity for Luna Nova’s players to stretch out on less common material both old and new. As Gray sees it, including older works is important to the festival’s programming, providing historical context to the newer works, as with the chaconne movement of Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor that will kick off the festival. “Bach is a towering figure that puts the whole world in perspective,” says Gray. “We feel like it’s kind of a cleansing thing to start with some movement of Bach.” 

This year, that particular passage will also serve as a tribute to Breen Bland. “Breen and Jeanie also were the hosts for Gregory Maytan, an amazing violinist that’s coming here from Germany, and Gregory of course has played that Bach chaconne a number of times. In fact, Breen had a recording of it that Gregory listened to at home often. So that was another reason it made sense to begin the first concert with it.”

Other recognized giants of the classical world will make an appearance, largely through 20th century works such as Romanian Folk Dances and selections from “Duos for Two Violins” by Béla Bartók, “Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano” by Darius Milhaud, “Five Melodies for Violin and Piano” by Sergei Prokofiev, and L’Histoire du Soldat by Igor Stravinsky, not to mention pianist Maeve Brophy’s take on “A Shaded Lane” from Florence Price’s Village Scenes, and cellist Hannah Schmidt’s interpretation of Philip Glass’ Orbit, which premiered in a 2013 Yo-Yo Ma performance that also featured Memphis-born dancer Lil Buck. 

Expect many sonic surprises from roughly two dozen contemporary composers (including music inspired by art at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens composed by Gray’s husband, Robert Patterson of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra). 

If the chamber music form lends itself to every variety of musical exploration, its inherently close-up and personal nature has led the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival to touch the hearts of Memphis audiences, and they keep returning. “I think it’s an easier draw,” Gray muses, “because you can tailor these programs to what you have available, to who you know you’ve got to play, and what they play, and how good they are. And you can tailor it to your audience. I think that there’s something that’s very approachable about it, just from the point of view of it being pretty easy to get in the car and go to a church and listen to music for an hour.” 

The free Belvedere Chamber Music Festival takes place evenings at 7 p.m., June 25th to 28th, at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (use the west entrance), with additional concerts on June 27th and 28th at 3 p.m. Visit belvederefestival.org for details.

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Music Music Features

‘If It Rips, I’m About It’

Joybomb (Photo: Abby Cooke)

When Joybomb takes the stage at the Radians Amphitheater in the Memphis Botanic Garden, opening for Third Eye Blind for Live at the Garden’s kickoff concert of the summer this Saturday, June 21st, the band will be where it was always meant to be, in a sense. Sure, the group has cut their teeth in local clubs like Bar DKDC, Growlers, and the Hi Tone, but a quick listen to their wall of sound confirms that they were destined to rock festival stages.  

“Some bands lean into the lo-fi, and that’s a signature part of their sound,” reflects the band’s front man, singer, and songwriter, Grant Beatty. “But I don’t know, for Joybomb, I want to feel the drums in my chest. I want to hear the guitar soar in the left and right speakers. I think some of those alt-rock, pop punk records of the mid-aughts by, like, Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World, from 2005 to ’06, just sound so good.”

It’s a huge sound, one that the band has embraced from the beginning. And that’s due to Beatty’s earliest encounters with the first music that moved him in the mid-aughts. “When I was a kid,” he says, “I got into punk rock and went to the Warped Tour, and there was Rock Against Bush. ‘Political punk’ sounds so cheesy, but at the time, you know, there was a war going on. Being a kid, I was super inspired by a lot of that stuff and those bands, even going back to the Clash, you know? Protest music through the power of good lyricism and clever writing and rock-and-roll.”

And he’s serious about the rock-and-roll. His guiding mantra has kept him focused on that, as he’s aimed to “will myself to just make the best shit that I can and just bring the rock, you know? Just strive to melt face and then make it undeniable, I guess is my inner motto,” says Beatty.

That’s also staying true to his inner teen, dating back to his youth in Mississippi. And for much of his life, that just meant having fun, even when he moved to Memphis after completing his undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University in Starkville. His bass player at the time moved here soon after, and “we made Memphis our new home, our new launch pad. So for a few years after that, Joybomb played places like the Hi Tone, and we’d occasionally go to Nashville, stuff like that. But we were kind of treading water. We were having fun, making friends, sowing our wild oats. But I don’t know, I wasn’t really goal-oriented with it, or trying to spread our wings, and then I just got it got to a point where that made me sad. I wanted to do something for real. I wanted to give it my best shot, like a real effort.”

To be sure, that still included fun, but, for the record, “Joybomb” is not a playful take on the phrase “Soy Bomb,” which artist Michael Portnoy scrawled on his torso before jumping onstage during Bob Dylan’s appearance at the 1998 Grammy Awards. “No,” says Beatty, “it was a compromise between two different names, and so we just smooshed them together and decided on Joybomb.” 

All names aside, the group, while going through some personnel changes since those early days, has only leaned into rocking harder since becoming a quartet a couple years ago. “We were a four piece by the middle of ’23,” says Beatty, “because we did two singles in ’23 that had a fourth member. So that was when Joybomb was really coming together, although I’ve been with my bassist Conner Booth since ’21.” The other players in the current lineup are Luki Luvsik on guitar and vocals and Xander Sinclair on drums. And ultimately, having a four piece helped the band flesh out their arrangements to create that big, anthemic sound that Beatty has always loved. 

Also crucial to perfecting their bigger sound was starting to record with Matt Qualls at Easley-McCain Recording. “We have worked with him since cutting the singles in ’23. And honestly, he hit home runs with those. He just really knew his background. He was really from that era that I was talking about, the early- to mid-aughts, punk, hardcore, metal kind of stuff. And so he really gets the hi-fi, big rock album thing.”

Those singles, like “Visions” and “Tell Tale Boys,” come on hard and heavy with angular riffs that give way to lighter, sparkling guitar textures and background vocals. That continued into last year’s tracks, collected on the Modern Scripture EP, a collection that strikes a perfect balance between heavy slabs of riffage and shimmering pop flourishes. Now, about to open for ’90s hitmakers Third Eye Blind, Beatty sees them as kindred spirits. 

“Third Eye Blind are icons because their music is just baked into the psyche, at least the hits, right? That first record is really interesting and chock full of bangers, dude! That was a super hi-fi, well produced record, but it was just really interesting, too. They’ve got hooks. They’ve got thick, really interesting guitar tones. I salute bands that are able to do something without being super flashy, and it just delivers in a catchy way.”

In other words, they pair well with Joybomb, though the local band’s love of heavy riffs may well surpass Third Eye Blind’s — a predisposition which should fit a major stage like the Radians Amphitheater to a T. “I love rock, right?” Beatty notes. “So I like anything that throws down, whether it’s ’80s thrash and hair bands or, I mean, like Black Sabbath, one of my all-time faves. I’m informed by decades of that. If it rips, then I’m about it.” 

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Stuntarious, Vol. 5: A Communal Hip-Hop Pop Manifesto

The cover of Stuntarious, Vol. 5, the fifth compilation from the Unapologetic crew, and their first post-Covid entry in the Stuntarious series, puts the emphasis on the word “stunt,” and it foretells the moments of production wizardry and vocal daring within. Yet the greatest stunt may be how this fiercely indie label/artist collective/media workshop/garment factory/studio has ultimately produced what may be the playlist of the summer.

Your typical summer playlist for joyriding around town or taking a road trip getaway would be full of hits that stream in the millions. But there’s a reason that this year’s collective Unapologetic album starts with a skit’s opening words, “I’m at the radio station”: The whole thing plays out like a broadcast from some dreamland antenna in, well, “Outerspace” — which just happens to be the group’s home base and studio. Most importantly, that means the flow of skits and sounds rolls out hooks, hip-hop, and harmony in constant waves, flavors changing, big beats dropping, and melodies soaring in just the way a blasting summer radio broadcast should. It’s a parallel universe playlist.

In this universe, the summer hit, which should be booming out of passing cars right and left, would be “Say Hello,” an irresistible jam by Sequoia Gray and Eillo (produced by Kid Maestro) blending rapid-fire rap and captivating vocal lines to tell a meet-cute tale from two perspectives. As with almost every track here, the singing is half the draw. For while these artists are all steeped in hip-hop, they blend it with a melodicism and harmonious funk that’s all soul.

Sure, there are many moments here where the rappers come hard with onslaughts of verbal daggers, including the first musical number, “FWII,” the initials referring to the very non-melodic chorus/chant, “I don’t give a f*ck what it is!” in a tale of friendship gone wack. Featuring PreauXX, AWFM, IMAKEMADBEATS, C MaJor, Kid Maestro, and Nae9ne, it’s an all-star shot across the bow that doesn’t play nice yet somehow avoids all the cliches of thug life that permeate most major label trap.

Speaking of catchy chants and major labels, you might think “Expresso,” the collaboration between C MaJor, Project Pat, Spookyli, and AWFM, would be the hardest-hitting rap here, but it’s a disarmingly restrained, nay, contemplative track, albeit backed by slamming beats.

What comes through all the tracks, including the one featuring Project Pat, is a willingness and even striving to represent the whole of human experience, from flirting to fighting, from the crib to the street.

That’s partly expressed by the intriguing moods and atmospheres set by the various Unapologetic producers here, evoking alien cityscapes and eerie half-lit alleyways at every turn, yet which can erupt into radical beauty and inspired chord flourishes.

That’s especially true of the more melodic tracks here, of course, and that’s where the talents of guitarist and singer Aaron James also shine. “A Million Needles” kicks off with a strong rap by R.U.D.Y. before James joins in with the very singable chorus. “Say Hello” keeps things rolling on the melody and harmony tip, as does rheannan’s “I Know,” complete with a contemplative rap worthy of Digable Planets. And then Cameron Bethany kicks those qualities up a notch with “Magic Wand,” which shimmers with jazz flavors, as intricate vocals (and background vocals) weave among each other in dazzling display. When you hear him sing, “Turn the lights off,” you’ll swear this is hit radio from … somewhere. And then AWFM adds to it with his usual rugged humor, even as the platinum harmonies continue their weave.

The melodic string continues with Jai Musiq’s “Nowadays,” another bid to represent the full spectrum of human experience. “Nowadays I’ve been trying to figure out how I can spend the rest of life just writing songs,” go the lyrics, as if speaking for the entire collective and the art it lives for. It’s clear that sentiment is shared when the quietest moment of all arrives, with James, Nubia Yasin, and Rachel Maxann trading verses in classic folk ballad style, albeit with a bit of that inimitable Unapologetic humor thrown into the solo.

There are a lot of trademark Unapologetic moves here, as these artists have jointly mined certain themes and sounds repeatedly over the years, exploring “where vulnerability becomes art,” as their masthead proclaims. It’s wrapped up neatly in the closing banger, “Unfortunate,” by LJ1S and Tangela, whose voices ring out strong and proud like, yes, another hit on that parallel universe radio. And since I’ve repeatedly claimed the album works for that purpose, I recommend that you take it out for a spin and see for yourself. Roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair, play this, and you’ll find the sound of Memphis — all of it — in the summer.

On Saturday, June 14th, at 6:30 p.m., AWFM and PreauXX return to the stage in the alley outside of Java Cabana, teaming up with Unapologetic producers Kid Maestro and C MaJor, and joined by General Labor, Big Clown, and Uncle See’J.