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Jerry Phillips Remembers J.M. Van Eaton

J.M. Van Eaton receives a Founder of the Sound Award from Jerry Phillips in 2020 (Photo courtesy Ameripolitan.org)

Last Friday, on February 9th, drummer James Mack Van Eaton, aka “J.M.” or “Jimmy,” passed away at the age of 86, and with him were lost some of the last first-hand memories of Sun Records’ early days. Any fan of Jerry Lee Lewis knows Van Eaton’s work, for on the day that Lewis showed up at Sun with his cousin, J.W. Brown, ready for his first proper recording session, producer Jack Clement called up Van Eaton and guitarist Roland Janes to fill out the band, and the rest is history.

As described in Peter Guralnick’s Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll, the ad hoc quartet cut over two dozen tracks that day. After they’d played themselves out, Janes took a bathroom break, then emerged only to hear Van Eaton and Lewis playing on as a duo, indefatigable. As it turned out, that stripped down drums-and-piano version of “Crazy Arms” was Lewis’ first hit for the Memphis label. And that was just the beginning, with Janes and Van Eaton going to to accompany Lewis on many of his hits. Ultimately, Van Eaton would record with several other Sun artists, including Billy Lee Riley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich.

To reflect on the passing of one of Sun Records’ giants, I called on Sam Phillips’ son, Jerry Phillips, to share his memories of the man and his music.

Memphis Flyer: Did you know J.M. back in the day, when he was most active at Sun Records?

Jerry Phillips: I’ve known J.M. pretty much all my life. He started young at Sun and was I was young too, and over the years I’ve played with him and he’s played with me. You know, I was in Spain a couple of years ago at the Rockin’ Race Jamboree, a rockabilly festival. I started listening to the drummers, and you know, every one of those drummers was either trying to play like J.M. Van Eaton or they were playing J.M. Van Eaton licks. It wasn’t J.M. Van Eaton, but man, they were trying hard to be him.

He had quite a distinctive approach, didn’t he?

At the 2020 Ameripolitan Awards, J.M. got the Founder of the Sound Award, and they asked me to present it to him. In my speech I said, ‘I don’t know that Sun Records would have been the Sun Records it became without J.M.’s drumming.’ There was a definite sound that he had, and that’s what gave Sun a lot of its personality. I just don’t think we would have had the same sound or the same legacy had J.M. Van Eaton not been playing drums.

Just as my dad would say, ‘If you’re not doing anything different, you’re not doing anything at all.’ And J.M.’s drumming was completely different from anybody else’s that I’ve heard — except for the guys that are trying to imitate him. You never knew if he was going to do a roll, or what he was going to do. And he had that shuffle beat.

J.M. left full-time music behind for many years before coming back to the stage. Did he still have it when he got back in the game?

Oh, he definitely did. Probably 20 years ago, he brought a gospel group into the studio. And he played sessions with different people, just from kind of hanging around at Phillips Recording. Those guys that came out of Sun liked to just hang around. That’s what they did at Sun, they hung around.

Of course, you can’t leave Roland Janes out of the equation, either. Because J.M. and Roland were like a team. When Roland passed, they did a tribute to him at the Shell, and me and J.M. and Travis Wammack all got together and played.

J.M. eventually moved to the Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals area and bought a house, and he always played quite a bit over there with different people. He played with Travis Wammack a lot. And I saw him and played with him more often there, since I was in the Shoals quite a bit because of our radio stations. We were better friends as adults, you know what I mean? And he just loved the Shoals area, and everybody there loved him.

He was just an extremely likable guy, wasn’t he?

I just can’t say enough about J.M.’s drumming, but also what a great person he was. I mean, I think he knew he was a great drummer, but maybe he didn’t. He never was one to say, ‘Hey, I’m a great drummer.’ But he just was. If you had J.M. on your session, you knew who was playing drums just by listening to him. And that was a signature Sam Phillips/Sun trademark, was that everybody over there sounded like themselves — and different. Tell me one drummer that J.M. sounded like!

Did you see or speak to J.M. soon before he passed away?

I did talk to J.M. the other day, I think it was a day before he passed away. We just had a little brief conversation. I told him how much I loved him and how important he was to everything. But he was pretty weak. He wasn’t really in the greatest shape, you know? Once his kidneys failed, he went downhill fairly quick. But up until that point, he was in pretty good health.

I’m gonna miss J.M. I really am. And I think J.M. was one of the most important people in the history of rock and roll music. I really do.

A celebration of life for J.M. Van Eaton will be held on Friday, February 23rd, at First Assembly Memphis, 8650 Walnut Grove Road, Cordova, from 6 to 8 p.m. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 2nd, at Cypress Moon Studios, 1000 Alabama Ave., Sheffield, Alabama. Call (256)381-5745 for details.

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Rhodes Hosts a Talk with Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell (Photo courtesy Rhodes College)

Dr. Charles L. Hughes, music historian and director of the Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College, vividly recalls when he first interviewed Jason Isbell. “It was during his first solo tour. This is when I was living in Madison, Wisconsin, going to grad school, and I was doing some some work for the alternative weekly newspaper there. That was back in 2007, right at the beginning. He was really thoughtful and articulate then and I’ve talked to him a few times over the years. He’s so good at articulating his own work and how he fits into to the rest of the world around him.”

That wasn’t just a one-off opportunity. Indeed, Hughes has followed Isbell’s solo work closely ever since, and last year he wrote the liner notes for the deluxe ten-year anniversary reissue of Isbell’s album Southeastern. Hughes, who’s best known for his thorough and thoughtful history Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South, dives deeply into the music he loves and Isbell’s work is no exception.

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, February 7th, Hughes will be speaking with Isbell at Rhodes College’s McNeill Concert Hall. (The event is free, but registration is required). As the program materials put it, “Isbell also has become a crucial voice for change within the music industry and, beyond addressing the challenges of the past and present in his music, champions the voices of BIPOC and queer musicians in Americana and country music, participating in campaigns for LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights, voter registration, and racial justice.” That is a lot of territory to cover, so I spoke with Dr. Hughes recently to get a better idea of where his chat with Isbell might roam.

Memphis Flyer: Jason Isbell is especially adept at telling stories that express deep issues in our culture or even in our moral universe, yet he’s determined to steer away from the usual cliches and say something fresh in his songs. I imagine that his conversations have that same quality.

Dr. Charles Hughes: I think that’s really true. And I think part of that is his skill as a songwriter and how he draws a lot from literature and other things. And he’s always been very open about how much he tries to think of his work in that frame as well. It’s also about how he thinks about the world and where the world is. He’s become one of the most consistent voices both in his music and in the work he does, particularly in this kind of musical space. I think he’s someone who really offers a great model of how to be a musician in the world, and quite frankly, how to be a white guy doing music in this moment. And he’s very good about trying to avoid hero worship, but it’s very justifiable to look at him as a role model for how to try to interact with the world when you have the privilege that he has. And you hear that in the music, too. It’s great to hear him talk about his songs because of the thought and also the work that goes into his process, and he’s so good at talking about that. It’s so important, I think, for people to hear that because it’s easy to forget just how hard the work is. And he’s really committed to making that process transparent.

Dr. Charles L. Hughes (Photo courtesy Rhodes College)

Do you have specific songs of his in mind that you hope to discuss?

It’s hard to kind of narrow down, but that’s a really great question. One of the songs that, to me, really marks this crucial moment for him in terms of how he thinks about the world is the song “White Man’s World,” where he’s very much trying to kind of consider his own place within a history and the present moment, and trying to confront it and reckon with it.

On the new album, there’s a song called, called “King of Oklahoma,” which is very much in his kind of story song tradition, drawing very much on a single character, but he’s also talking about work, he’s talking about poverty, he’s talking about crime, he’s talking about addiction. He’s talking about all of these things. Yet it’s very place-based, and he’s always thinking about those things. So that’s another one.

But man, I mean, there are so many! I’ve always wanted to talk with him about a song he wrote way back for the Drive-By Truckers called “The Day John Henry Died,” which is this amazing song about work and life and history. And of course, I’m a historian, so a song like “TVA” — just on a personal level, I connect with it so much.

My granddaddy told me, when he was just seven or so
His daddy lost work and they didn’t have a row to hoe
Got a little to eat for nine boys and three girls
They all lived in a tent, bunch of sharecroppers versus the world

So his mama sat down, wrote a letter to FDR
And a couple days later some county men came in a car
They rode out in the field, told his daddy to put down the plow
He helped build the dam that gave power to most of the South.
– from “TVA” by Jason Isbell

Isbell is known for these trenchant, penetrating views across the cultural divide, and expressing that broad historical view, and yet some have noted that last year’s biographical film, Running With Our Eyes Closed, focuses so much on his marriage and seems quite removed from this more ‘cultural commentator’ role he takes on. What do you think of the tension between those two poles?

I don’t think it’s a tension. I think it’s true to who he is as an artist, but also because he is always centered on his work, especially since he got sober. That’s what Southeastern is all about. I keep bringing it back to work, but he’s always been centered on the idea that love takes work, and being a better person, in relationships to other people or whatever, takes work. Making better worlds takes work. Work is an important part of life. So I’ve always found those sides of him, in a sense, to be quite linked.

And also, one of the things that you hear on his stuff that might seem less overtly political, is the overarching spirit of not just empathy, but a real attempt to kind of understand what makes people do what they do and how people have to survive. For example, songs that are talking about personal struggles or one’s relationship to death. He writes a lot about the relationship of the living and the dead. And I hear the same kind of reckonings and the same kind of meditations through all that work.

And I think the other thing too, to be quite honest, is that it’s really a trap for any musician who offers those kinds of songs that are cultural commentaries to then be thought of as that person. And I think that one of the things that has been really valuable about him is that even in moments when he doesn’t make a political record or doesn’t foreground that stuff, he’s still speaking out. He’s still bringing people on tour with him to talk about how to make space for Black voices and LGBTQ voices in country and Americana music. And he’s showing up at rallies, he’s doing these other things. And I think that is a kind of a useful skill because it reminds us what he thinks, even if he’s not telling us with every record.

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Memphis Wins Big at 66th Annual Grammys

(L-R) Mason Williams, Michael Graves, Cheryl Pawelski, Deanie Parker, Michele Smith & Robert Gordon, winners of the "Best Historical Album" award at the 66th GRAMMY Awards.(Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

As the 66th Annual Grammy Awards unfolded over the weekend, many names associated with Memphis and the Mid-South were among the winners, including musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, and writers.

If award-winning music creators are already a well-established Bluff City tradition, the music writing being done here is quickly becoming another of the city’s music industry exports. In 2021, the Commercial Appeal‘s Bob Mehr won the Best Album Notes award for the writings he penned for Dead Man’s Pop, a collection of music by The Replacements, and scored another win last year for his notes in the deluxe edition of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, co-produced by Cheryl Pawelski of Omnivore Recordings.

This year, it was Robert Gordon’s and Deanie Parker’s turn to take home the Best Album Notes prize — for yet another Pawelski project, Written in their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos, Craft Recordings’ seven-CD collection offering a glimpse into the the rare songwriting demos of Stax Records in its heyday. Profiled in the Memphis Flyer last summer, the collection is an intimate portrait of the men and women who wrote the songs of the pioneering soul label. The same box set, produced by Gordon, Parker, Pawelski, Michele Smith, and Mason Williams, also won the award for Best Historical Album.

It’s a subject that’s been thoroughly researched by Gordon, who also won a Grammy in 2011 for notes accompanying Big Star’s Keep An Eye on the Sky box set before penning the book Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion in 2013. But if Gordon knows Stax, co-writer Parker outdid him with her eyewitness accounts, having worked at Stax through most of its existence and even serving as a songwriter there herself.

Over the past 20 years, Parker has also championed the creation of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the Stax Music Academy, and the Soulsville Foundation, as celebrated in this 2023 Memphis Flyer story. Thus her Grammy win was an important tribute to one of the label’s key behind-the-scenes players, and as the co-producers of the set gathered onstage to receive the award, they naturally deferred to Parker to speak on their behalf.

Album note writers Deanie Parker and Robert Gordon on the jumbotron, accepting their Grammy Award. (Credit: Pat Rainer).

“Stax founders Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton gave the Stax songwriters a racially integrated paradise where they were encouraged to discover and develop their authentic talents by Al Bell,” Parker said while accepting the award. “This set highlights some of Stax’s and America’s most talented rhythm and blues songwriters: Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Steve Cropper, Homer Bates, Mack Rice, Bettye Crutcher, Bobby Manuel, and Henderson Thigpen.” After thanking the Recording Academy and her fellow co-producers, she also gave a nod to local artist Kerri Mahoney for designing the look and layout of the box set, before concluding with a warm acknowledgment of “the remarkable visionary and producer, Cheryl Pawelski.”

Another non-performing contributor to Grammy wins was Matt Ross-Spang, who engineered on Weathervanes, the Best Americana Album winner by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, and who co-produced and mixed Echoes Of The South, the Best Roots Gospel Album winner by the Blind Boys Of Alabama, at his Southern Grooves studio in the Crosstown Concourse.

Beyond the scribes, historical producers, and knob-twiddlers, musical artists from Memphis also made a strong showing at this year’s ceremony. While Memphis has always loved native daughter Julien Baker, it seems all the world loves boygenius, her band with fellow singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Their 2023 album The Record garnered six nominations, and ended up winning Best Alternative Music Album, with the group also scoring Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song wins for the single “Not Strong Enough” — featured in this week’s Music Video Monday.

boygenius (Photo courtesy Chuffmedia)

When boygenius, decked out in matching white suits, accepted their second award, Baker wore her heart on her sleeve. “All I ever wanted to do in my life was be in a band,” she said, visibly shaken with emotion. “I feel like music is the language I used to find my family since I was a kid. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who ever watched me play.”

Bobby Rush, based in Mississippi but with longstanding ties to Memphis (and awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Rhodes College), also saw his latest work celebrated, with his 2023 album All My Love For You winning Best Traditional Blues Album. He too was eloquent in his gratitude. “I treasure this, and honor Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Tyrone Davis, Johnnie Taylor, all the guys coming before me that I looked up to…thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Finally, while not winning as a performing artist, the legendary DJ Paul was a towering presence onstage as Killer Mike accepted awards for, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song. He co-wrote his track, “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS,” with DJ Paul (aka Paul Beauregard), Andre Benjamin, James Blake, Tim Moore, and Dion Wilson. In winning the latter category, Killer Mike and his collaborators edged out another Memphis talent, producer Tay Keith, who was among the songwriters for the Grammy-nominated track “Rich Flex” by Drake and 21 Savage.

Right out of the gate, Killer Mike acknowledged his colleague from Memphis as they stood together at the podium. “I’m from the Southeast,” he said. “Like DJ Paul, I’m a Black man in America. And as a kid, I had a dream to become a part of music, and that nine-year-old is excitedly dancing inside of me right now… I want that thank everyone who dares to believe that art can change the world.”

DJ Paul, of course, has long been an integral player in the Oscar-winning Three 6 Mafia, and is an active solo artist and producer to this day, as profiled by the Memphis Flyer here. His old crew included the late Gangsta Boo, who was honored during the In Memoriam segment of the ceremony. Wayne Kramer of Detroit’s MC5, whose appearance on Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre’s Call Me Animal album was likely his last released recording before his death on February 2nd, was also remembered in the segment.

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Lawrence Matthews Comes Out Swinging

Lawrence Matthews at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts (Credit: Gabrielle Duffie)

If you thought Don Lifted concerts used to be rare, Lawrence Matthews shows are even more so, leaving all who attended last Saturday’s sold out performance at the Green Room feeling lucky. Of course, the two artists are one in the same, Don Lifted being Matthews’ stage name for many years even as he built a name and a reputation in visual art under his given name. Then, back in September of 2022, Don Lifted took his final bow during one last show at the Overton Park Shell. A few minutes later, out came Lawrence Matthews, rapper, spitting tougher rhymes than ever, flanked by Idi x Teco.

That announced a new direction in Matthews’ music, but it also turned out to be a hiatus of sorts. The one sign of action was Matthews’ release, last May, of the single “Green Grove (Our Loss),” the first cut from what is still the unreleased album Between Mortal Reach and Posthumous Grip. And while that track sported some very Don Lifted-esque atmospherics until its harder-hitting beat kicked in, it then featured Matthews’ new voice, full of grim determination yet mixed with a new playfulness that made it even scarier as he sang of “This blood, this soil, infused, this river …”

Last Saturday, after the pre-show playlist of classic soul wound down, that same tune was the first thing audience members heard as Matthews stepped into the center of the chairs in-the-round, mic in hand. In stark contrast to the often elaborate sets and multiple screens of Don Lifted shows, this show was stripped bare, the music’s auteur wearing the utilitarian garb of a mechanic or delivery driver in a single beam of light.

Meanwhile, some of the sounds were downright lush, as other prolonged samples of soul, gospel, and blues (most taken from the Fat Possum-owned Hi Records catalogue) often shaped the intros, sometimes drenched in effects like echoes from the past, before giving way to harder, more militant beats and Matthews’ angrier raps, almost reminiscent of classic KRS-One, delivered solo as he prowled the floor for most of the night (except for a brief, powerful cameo by Idi x Teco).

Lawrence Matthews in The Green Room (Credit: Gabrielle Duffie)

At one point, that lush soul threated to engulf the night, as Matthews turned one track’s prolonged intro of “(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow” by Tony! Toni! Toné! into a singalong of sorts. Ultimately, it always came back down to hard slamming raps and beats (often co-created on the upcoming album with Unapologetic producer C Major, who was low-key in attendance Saturday night).

“It’s been a year and four months since I performed,” Matthews noted. “All through 2023, I was just tucked away, not really recording music, not really practicing anything.” Indeed, the album he promises to release later this year was essentially finished in 2022. “And while I was away, it just seemed like shit kept getting worse and worse in the world. And in this city, too.” He noted how he began hearing people’s “weight, frustration, and tightness, until it turned into desperation.”

All of that came out in his performance, and even in one moment in which Matthews, like his audience, simply listened and grooved along. That was when Matthews the performer was set aside and the artist implored us to simply listen to a track, “An Acquired Taste,” from his upcoming album. He too became a fan as it played on, featuring a powerful cameo by the singer Uni’Q.

Then it was back to business, as the pounding beats and atmospheric samples ground on, ultimately providing background to one of Matthews’ latest tracks, a meditation on the murder of Breonna Taylor by police officers titled “Breonna’s Curse.” In that final moment, however, the militant, simmering rage of most of the night’s beats and raps faded away somewhat, and Matthews ended the concert with something unexpected: a profound sense of mourning.

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Justin Timberlake Brought the Heat With Classics, New Music at Orpheum Show

Justin Timberlake performs "What Goes Around ... Comes Around" near the close of his free January 19th concert at the Orpheum Theatre. (Credit: Owen Schatz)

If I wrote you a symphony …

Wild shrieks ring out through the Orpheum, the high-pitched, gleeful wails emanating from an audience brimming with barely-restrained enthusiasm.

Just to show how much you mean to me …

The woman two chairs over from me nearly collapses, heaving herself forward onto the railing, breathless. The lady sitting behind me is dancing so wildly that her cup of wine flies out of her hand and completely spills onto the back of my sweater. On stage, Justin Timberlake launches into the chorus of “My Love,” and the crowd bays out the lyrics alongside him. The hometown son had returned, and Memphis was ready to welcome him back with open arms.

That people were out at all last week rockin’ to hits from Justified, FutureSex/LoveSounds, and The 20/20 Experience was a bit of a surprise. The January 19th concert, surprisingly announced just a week prior, was threatened by freezing temperatures, snow and ice that the city was ill-equipped to handle, plus low water pressure and a boil water advisory that ultimately rendered the Orpheum bathrooms unusable for the evening. 

Eager fans were able to request up to two tickets through a Ticketmaster lottery, with demand far exceeding the limited supply of around 2,500 seats at the Orpheum. Many users on social media bemoaned their ill luck, blaming out-of-town sharks for snatching up most of the available stock for a show they may not even be able to attend thanks to the inclement weather. Other, more intrepid fans decided to show up to the theater anyway, spending a lengthy wait in the cold in the hopes of snagging any leftover spots. And many were rewarded with tickets.

In hindsight, any questions about the show’s potential turnout were foolish. By the time Timberlake took to the stage around 9:30 p.m. – his first show in Memphis since a 2019 stop on his second Man of the Woods tour, and first ever set at the Orpheum – the crowd was ready to party. And as the opening brassy synth waves of the live rendition of “SexyBack” cascaded from the speakers and over the audience, it lit the fuse on what would be an exuberant, pop-fueled hour-and-a-half performance.

Justin Timberlake speaks to the crowd between songs at his January 19th free Orpheum Theatre concert. (Credit: Mark Nguyen)

The Orpheum setting created a much more intimate environment than the floor tickets I’d nabbed for his last two tours, but the smaller venue didn’t sacrifice any of the verve or energy his fans are accustomed to. Timberlake, backed by his exceptional Tennessee Kids band, ran through the hits to a wild crowd, throwing it back to the slick call-and-response of “Señorita,” slowing things down with the pop ballad “Mirrors,” and luring everyone in with the moody, spiteful “Cry Me A River” (which really dials up the suspense live). He even paid tribute to Al Green with a rendition of “Let’s Stay Together.” Notably, not a single track from the somber, Americana-tinged Man of the Woods made it onto the setlist at any point.

Fueling the crowd’s anxious delirium was a sense that they’d get to see something new. In the days leading up to the concert, Timberlake’s label RCA Records posted a graphic teasing “Big News,” conspicuously made with the same design, color scheme, and fonts as the initial concert announcement. The announcement of subsequent Timberlake bookings with Jimmy Fallon (January 25th) and Saturday Night Live (January 27th) only added fuel to the fire, and sure enough, he teased a few snippets from his upcoming sixth album, Everything I Thought It Was, set for a March 15th release.

There was a full reveal for new single “Selfish,” a slowed-down R&B track that provided several minutes of calmer head-bopping.

Midway through the show, when Timberlake jumped off stage and danced through the crowd to various hits from both his catalog and other (some local) artists, DJ Hypes played about 90 seconds of a second track, “No Angels.” The pulsating, bass-thumping beat harkened back to Timberlake’s early-aughts pop roots, when every song he slung from his repertoire had people ready to rock their bodies on the dance floor. (Short snippets of a third song, “Sanctified,” can be heard over ESPN promos). It’s a welcome return to form for the pop star, whose output since 2018 has mainly consisted of his work on DreamWorks’ Trolls series and an NSYNC reunion track, “Better Place.”

All indications are that the rest of EITIW will showcase Timberlake embracing his charming, hip-hop-inflected pop chops that made his early albums so popular. “It’s fun Justin,” longtime Timberlake collaborator Timbaland told Variety last April. “It’s like FutureSex/LoveSounds but nothing too heavy, just giving you what you expect from us. Music is a young sport — of course, we’ve both seen a lot of life, but you have to bring out the 13 year old kid again, you know? We had songs that maybe were too complicated, so we said we want it to feel like FutureSex part two, so we did songs that will fit that.”

In between the singing, the dancing, and the grooving, Timberlake paused several times to thank fans for braving the inclement weather, and to muse on how much he appreciated being back in Memphis. There was even time to lead the crowd in singing happy birthday to his mother, who was in attendance, and to shout out former NSYNC member Chris Kirkpatrick (also in attendance, but alas, no duet). 

If the mixed reception to Man of the Woods saw Timberlake’s star fade a little bit, he looks poised to bring it roaring back brighter in a couple months. After my own Covid-induced break from live shows, this performance reminded me why I enjoy excursions like this so much, and it has me excited to see what local Memphis musicians have in store for the rest of the year. 

As for Timberlake: “See you on tour,” he quipped as the curtain dropped for a final time.

Justin Timberlake performs ahead of the Tennessee Kids at his January 19th Orpheum Theatre show. (Credit: Mark Nguyen)
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Piper & the Hard Times Top International Blues Challenge

Al "Piper" Green as featured on the self-titled EP by Piper & the Hard Times

The Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge (IBC) famously lives up to its name, drawing scores of ace blues artists to Memphis every year from around the world. Indeed, it was only two years ago that the winners of the Best Band prize were The Wacky Jugs from France. But if that proved that the blues have no nationality, this year’s tournament brought it all back home, as Nashville’s Piper & the Hard Times won in that same category last week. The event forged ahead through inclement weather in venues throughout the city and culminated in the final event at the Orpheum on Saturday, January 20th.

As someone who’s often jokingly referred to as “The Other Al Green,” I can sympathize with the band’s leader, Al “Piper” Green, who wisely foregrounds his nickname when fronting his band. But don’t let mere monikers distract you from this talent, who grew up closer to Memphis than Nashville, in Bolivar, Tennessee. In his youth, he sang in a gospel choir even as he absorbed soul, pop and rock influences from the radio. Ultimately, his biggest influence came from his own family — his uncle. “Every 4th of July he’d come down to visit us from Chicago and he’d be riding in this grand blue Fleetwood Cadillac,” Green recalls on the band’s website. “He’d be decked out and have a bunch of folks with him playing the blues. I wasn’t old enough just then to really get the full impact of what I was seeing, but I knew this guy had style and flair and really represented the essence of the blues. I think that’s where I got a lot of my vocal approach from.”

Piper & the Hard Times receive their award at the International Blues Challenge (Credit: Roger Stephenson)

Green’s been playing around Nashville with the same core group since 2000, and now they’ve grown into a powerhouse ensemble fueled by rock-tinged guitar and horns. And while Nashville is not especially well-known as a blues town, the presence of Piper & the Hard Times is a significant milestone for the revitalized non-profit Nashville Blues and Roots Alliance, which hosted a competition of some twenty bands for the right to represent the city at the IBC.

Beginning last Tuesday, January 16th, the IBC was much more than just a competition, hosting master classes on various blues instruments, workshops for young blues artists, a health fair, and a screening of Augusta Palmer’s film, The Blues Society, among other events. And of course, there were other winners than just the “Best Band” champions.

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up:

BAND DIVISION
Winner: Piper and The Hard Times
2nd Place Band: The Stephen Hull Experience
3rd Place Band: Mandalyn & The Hunters

SOLO/DUO DIVISION
Winner: Joe Waters
2nd Place: Drum & Dye

BEST GUITAR AWARD
Winner: Stephen Hull

MEMPHIS CIGAR BOX GUITAR AWARD (BEST SOLO/DUO GUITARIST)
Winner: Bill Dye

LEE OSKAR HARMONICA AWARD (BEST HARMONICA PLAYER)
Winner: John Paul

BEST SELF-PRODUCED CD
Winner: Sister Lucille – Tell the World

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Inside John Michael McCarthy’s Teenage Tupelo

Over the past 30 years, Memphis comic book artist, sculptor, and filmmaker John Michael McCarthy, aka Mike McCarthy, has taken self-mythologizing to a level few others have matched, often weaving elements of his compelling personal history into fantastic scenarios drawn from the B movies, comics, and pop icons of his youth. That’s especially true of what’s arguably McCarthy’s greatest work, the film Teenage Tupelo, released in 1995 by Something Weird Video. 

Ostensibly telling the tale of a young, buxom single mother’s odyssey through Tupelo’s underground, circa 1962, as she comes to terms with an unwanted pregnancy, it’s chiefly an homage to the low-budget flicks (think Roger Corman or Russ Meyer) that captivated young McCarthy as he grew up in Elvis Presley’s hometown, echoing those films’ visceral impact via Darin Ipema’s pitch-perfect, mostly black-and-white cinematography and a sizzling soundtrack by surf rock-crime jazz kings Impala. 

The film became a cult favorite in the ’90s, championing the burgeoning garage aesthetic of that era. No prior knowledge of McCarthy’s personal history was needed to savor the raw shock of the film’s visuals and sounds. Its staying power was confirmed in 2020 when Portugal’s Chaputa Records revived Impala’s soundtrack on vinyl, then again last May when the film was remastered and released on Blu-ray. But if the latter’s bonus director’s commentary hinted at the many layers of influences behind the film, that was nothing compared to what came next: a coffee table tome which publisher Fantagraphics Books describes as “a mammoth volume dedicated to one of the last underground sexploitation films of the 20th Century.”

With more than 300 generously illustrated pages, this would be a monumental tribute to any film, yet in this case, beyond honoring McCarthy’s vision, it’s a tribute to the entire Memphis scene of the ’90s. The fact that it’s a compendium of “essays, reviews, articles, and interviews” rather than a single narrative is actually a strength, as the book offers many voices, some from the era, some looking back in hindsight. Impala’s Scott Bomar, for instance, writes movingly of recording with the legendary Roland Janes. There are also reminiscences by the star of the film, D’Lana Tunnell of Texas, and the three supporting actors from Memphis, Kristen Hobbs, Sophie Couch (Christine Gladney), and Dawn Ashcraft (who most Memphians know as McCarthy’s wife at the time, Kimberly Ashcraft). These essays — and accompanying photos — are especially “revealing” as the four women describe McCarthy cajoling them into performing topless, and the spirit of gonzo transgression in which they did so. One might thus consider both the film and this book as bold shots across the bow in the “free the nipple” movement. 

The introduction by the Commercial Appeal’s John Beifuss sets the context perfectly, and the Memphis Flyer is well-represented with writings by Greg Akers, Chris Davis, Susan Ellis, John Floyd, Andria Lisle, and yours truly. Also on display is a letter by McCarthy’s biological father, Terry Blair Carr, published by the Flyer in 2008, though no one knew of that connection at the time. 

And that is where the personal, emotional heart of the book resides. Most of the essays are by McCarthy himself, and while many of them, bursting with wordplay, concern the process of indie filmmaking, the director, an adopted child, also delves deeply into the private family history that obliquely inspired the film. As he ruminates on the parents who raised him as well as his search for his biological parents, the book becomes a profoundly moving detective story. A further essay by Tunnell, in which she reveals that she too was adopted, resonates with this, marking both the book and the film as expressions of very heartfelt histories. 

Part of the mystery and allure of these histories is where they overlapped with the mythic realm of Elvis Presley, and his presence throughout the book lends the proceedings an epic glow. The result is a rich tapestry woven from the families, friendships, fetishes, and fandom of the last century in the land that McCarthy calls “Mythissippi,” but also in Memphis itself. And, as a celebration of the latter, the milieu in which McCarthy’s vision took root, this volume is unparalleled. Far from being mere vanity projects, the film and the book are emblematic of an evolving community. As Bomar writes, “if I were to stumble upon a time machine, I would dial in Mike McCarthy’s Memphis, TN, in the ’90s.” 

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Music Music Blog

Violinist Basil Alter To Release Album

Violinist Basil Alter (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“Two Children’s Songs” on violinist Basil Alter’s album, Mooncat, may be unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

It’s “not exactly classical music,” Alter says. “It’s not exactly jazz music. And it’s not exactly somewhere in between, either.”

The selection features two instruments: violin and electric bass. “Two unlikely instruments to be paired together.”

Alter, 24, a Memphian now studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London, will release Mooncat January 30th on all streaming platforms.

“Two Children’s Songs” was written before he began to think about compiling an album, says Alter, who has performed around the country, including Carnegie Hall in New York. “It was originally this piece I wrote. Just one piece for violin and electric bass as a duet.”

The two-movement work, which also features Michael Manring on electric bass, is “like a song, but no words.”

Jazz pianist Chick Corea’s collection of children’s songs was an inspiration for the piece.

Alter later decided to include his “Two Children’s Songs” on an album to be released in 2020, but the project ended up becoming a single. “I held onto these and then added another piece called ‘Mooncat.’ And then, eventually, I decided to add ‘Laika,’ the fourth track on the album.”

His “Two Children’s Songs” is “more about the interplay between the violin and the bass.” He originally wrote the piece for one of his professors to perform with him in a concert. “He didn’t end up playing it, but it kind of led to this all working out in the way it has. Which has been really lovely.”

Alter doesn’t want to write the type music people have heard before. “I think the reason I write music is because I wanted to play something that wasn’t there already. And I’m pretty firm about that with myself because I think it takes a lot of time for me to write something that makes me really happy. So, I haven’t written a lot for that reason.”

And, he adds, “I want to express an idea I haven’t seen before.”

Basil Alter (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Alter, who recently began his second semester at the Royal Academy of Music, says, “What’s wonderful about being in London, specifically, is at the school here they really try to do away with all barriers and boundaries. All guidelines.

“So, when we have work to present, they barely give us any specifications on how it should look. I’ve known people in America who are kind of the opposite of that. If they hear a piece of music, they want to know if it’s jazz or classical music. How would we label it? It’s a very important thing to label it.”

Alter questions the purpose of labeling music at all. “If the label is prescribed by an artist, does that mean that’s what it really is? Who gets the right to label something? Should it be the listener or the artist? It can go on and on.”

He wrote “Two Children’s Songs” in 2019. “I already had a melody in mind. I had an idea. I knew the characters I wanted to portray within the music. I was trying to get it on paper as quickly as I could.”

The music also was inspired by the type art Memphis artist Sean Winfrey used for the cover of the album. “Sort of like a comic book, but not really. When I was a kid, I really liked picture books. I loved to see the drawings. Music often gets tied to a visual thing. For me, it’s really specific. I have very specific ideas sometimes about what I’m hearing and what that looks like.”

Unlike “Two Children’s Songs,” Alter’s selection, “Mooncat” is “more of a straight-ahead jazz tune. But it also is jazz that is written for violin and electric bass. Normally, you’d have a rhythm section or pianist or something for a typical jazz chart.”

“Mooncat” is “just a regular old tune, but perhaps not one someone would be humming down the street. But it’s a lighter fare than the ‘Children’s Songs.’”

Alter plays solo violin on “Laika,” which, he says, has more of a cinematic and movie style than the other works on the album. The title came from Laika, the dog the Soviets put into space in 1957.

He began putting the album together during the pandemic lockdown in 2020. “I was kind of losing it. Looking for something to do. Looking for a project. It was a really rough time. The world in Memphis in 2020 was not a great place.”

Alter thought, “I need something to work towards.”

People didn’t know if they were going to live through it or die when the pandemic began. “I felt a recording would stay if I didn’t last the year. A recording would outlive me. That’s kind of what sparked the intention. Life can disappear in a moment. A recording is something that sticks around.”

Mooncat isn’t a “children’s record,” Alter says. It’s not like Gustav Mahler’s musical collection of poems for children, Kindertotenlieder, or Robert Schumann’s three sonatas for young people, he says. “Those were for children. But I think there’s a level of simplicity at the same time. I think some things are more easily graspable. Maybe some things are not.”

In the past, when he worked with elementary school children, Alter played music and then asked, “How does that make you feel?”

As for Mooncat, he says, “I would be interested to see what actual children think.”

Basil Alter (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Alter, who moved to London last September, says, “It’s a very, very different culture here.”

And, he says, “I’m meeting people not just from England but from all over Europe and the rest of the world. I wasn’t sure how many people would be from where, but it just appears there’s students from everywhere here.”

Schooling is different in London than in the United States, Alter says. The English system of education is “very hands off.” Their philosophy is, “We’ll help you, but we’re not going to hold your hand.”

“They try to see just how far off on a deep end you can throw yourself. They don’t want to have any type of structure. They want us to be completely creative and find a new way to do things or ways to think about the world and music. It’s very different.”

Since he’s been in London, Alter has been performing in concerts in and around the city. “What’s nice about being here is classical music is part of the national identity.”

He accepts most offers to play. “Because I wanted to see the whole country. I wanted to see the rest of the world.”

Alter doesn’t limit himself to classical music. He has played jazz on occasion with Joyce Cobb. He played rock on two albums with Jesse Wilcox’s band, Daykisser, as well as Ben Callicott’s album, Late, and forty thieves’ (Ali Abu-Khraybeh) single “sweet state of mind.”

Alter will be back in Memphis April 7th to perform at a Memphis Chamber Music Society event at the home of Larry Edwards.

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Music Music Blog

Justin Timberlake to Play Free Orpheum Concert

(Credit: Alexandre Paes Leme Durão | Dreamstime.com)

Yes, you read that right.

Fans of both Tennessee son Justin Timberlake and free concerts should be licking their lips at the chance to see the pop star at a free, one-night-only show at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday, January 19th.

The Orpheum shared details of the event with a link to sign up for tickets on its website. Fans can get in a queue to request up to two tickets for the concert via Ticketmaster. Tickets are not guaranteed, and requests must be made by Monday, January 15th, at 10:59 p.m.

There have surely been plenty of requests made already, but it’s still worth throwing your hat in the ring. You can request tickets here.

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Music Music Blog

Blues Hall Of Fame Class Of 2024 Named

Jimmy Rushing (Credit: William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress)

Every year at this time the world is reminded that the epicenter of the blues is in Memphis, Tennessee, with both the International Blues Challenge looming ahead and the announcement of the year’s inductees to the Blues Hall of Fame. The latter happened today, in anticipation of the induction ceremony taking place at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, May 8th.

As usual, the list is a compelling cross-section of both the brilliant past and the vital contemporary heartbeat of the blues in all its permutations. This year’s inductees include Memphis’ own soul powerhouse, O.V. Wright, who died young in 1980; pioneering blues shouter and jazz singer Jimmy Rushing, also known by one of his greatest Count Basie-backed hits, “Mr. Five By Five”; Odetta, hailed as “The Mother Goddess of Folk Blues” by The New York Times; early twentieth century guitar virtuoso, Scrapper Blackwell; small-but-mighty vocalist Sugar Pie Desanto; Chicago guitarist Lurrie Bell; and one of Chicago’s leading bluesmen, fez-wearing Lil’ Ed Williams, nephew of J.B. Hutto, who’s toured relentlessly for decades with his Blues Imperials.

On the more writerly side, author, folklorist, professor, and lecturer William R. “Bill” Ferris will be honored in the Business, Production, Media, Academic category, and the book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Davis (Pantheon, 1998), is slated for recognition as a Classic of Blues Literature.

This year’s induction will mark an important recognition of Wright, who has not yet been recognized by the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, despite being a prolific hitmaker with Willie Mitchell on Hi Records. And many will cheer the inclusion of Odetta Holmes, a unique figure in the folk world, having been classically trained. Ultimately her repertoire spanned blues, spirituals, jazz, and songs from various folk and popular traditions, not to mention many original topical songs reflecting her commitment as a civil rights activist.

And Jimmy Rushing would be a must in any music hall of fame. Though best known for his years with the Count Basie Orchestra, the Oklahoma City native began his blues journey in California in 1923, where he played piano with Jelly Roll Morton before returning to Oklahoma. He also worked with Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and others through his career and was still going strong by the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival. Yet he’ll chiefly be known for his hit records with the Basie band, starting in 1935, such as “Good Morning Blues,” “Going to Chicago,” and “Sent for You Yesterday and Here You Come Today,” which showcased his commanding vocal presence and made him a leading figure in the big band era, bringing blues to a broader audience.

The inductees include classic records as well, including the album Here’s the Man!!! by Bobby “Blue” Bland (Duke, 1962), and the singles “Driving Wheel” by Junior Parker (Duke, 1961), “I Ain’t Got You” by Billy Boy Arnold (Vee-Jay, 1955), “Key to the Highway” by Jazz Gillum (Bluebird, 1940), “Okie Dokie Stomp” by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (Peacock, 1954), and the stone classic “Why Don’t You Do Right?” by Lil Green (Bluebird, 1941).