Category: Sing All Kinds

Laramie Gives Back at Lafayette’s Wednesday

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date October 28, 2014

Things are hopping at the Visible Music College, the private music and worship arts college that’s settling into some cool digs downtown on Madison. Ken Steorts, a contemporary-Christian artist, started the school in Lakeland in 2000 after touring with his band and seeing young musicians in need of career training and preparation for the market for religious music. Today, Visible is an accredited college occupying the former C&I Bank building on Madison across from AutoZone Park. The school has been established long enough that its graduates are starting to emerge as talented musicians.

[jump]

Laramie is a slickly produced pop group fronted by Laramie Renae, a singer and lyricist with a degree from Visible. Laramie released The Good Men EP in late 2013. Renae obliquely involves religion in her lyrics. Her songs do not advance any course fundamentalism, but rather a sobering assessment of character and its consequences. “Charlotte’s Waltz” depicts real world skullduggery in images of bleak apparitions, maybe ghosts or just soulless folks. Maybe both. “Whisper” invokes an old religious saw about renunciation of the world and its temptations but does so in a manner that shows a woman establishing boundaries for herself with a show of strength that is more Old Testament or apocryphal than the conventional take on the Good News. But existential dread remains a haunting presence in the lyrics. This is deeper material than you might expect to find. The backing band is very solid and features other Visible graduates.

Laramie will play Lafayette’s on Wednesday, October 29th. She has obviously learned a thing or two in her time at the Visible School. To express her gratitude, she is donating all of the proceeds from that performance to the Providence Project, a program that covers the tuition gaps faced by Visible students from foreign countries. Visible has attracted students from as far away as Nepal.

Tags Laramie, Visible Music School

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Today Is The Day, Lord Mantis, Crowlord @ Hi Tone Sunday

Post author By Severin Allgood
Post date October 23, 2014

Today Is The Day, Lord Mantis, Crowlord will play the The Hi Tone on Sunday, October 26th.

Steve Austin (no, not THAT Steve Austin, or that one of the six million dollar variety) has burned through more than a dozen members in the band’s twenty-two year existence. Metal fans everywhere can thank him for discarding Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher, who went on to form the massively successful Mastadon. Love them or hate them, the heavy music scene today wouldn’t have the exposure it does without Mastodon, and Austin gave Dailor and Kelliher their first taste of success. (More after the jump.)

[jump]

Today Is The Day, Lord Mantis, Crowlord @ Hi Tone Sunday

Austin started Today Is the Day (TITD )in Nashville in 1992. They released their debut EP How To Win Friends and Influence People and garnered the attention of esteemed noise label Amphetamine Reptile. TITD released three full lengths with AmRep before jumping ship in 1997 for Relapse Records. Austin relocated to Clinton, MA and rebuilt his studio, Austin Enterprise. Over the years Austin released covers of songs by everyone from Black Sabbath (“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”) to Chris Isaak (“Wicked Game”). The band is out on tour in support of their tenth album, and first on new label Southern Lord, Animal Mother. The album is a pummeling throwback to the band’s late-90s output like Temple of the Morning Star and In the Eyes of God.

On the road with TITD are Chicago purveyors of blackened metal, Lord Mantis. Their newest LP, Death Mask, came out last spring on Profound Lore. The album was recorded and engineered by Sanford Parker at Steve Albini’s famed Electrical Audio facility. Death Mask is a literal term as the record’s first track “Body Choke” could be the soundtrack to a torture and dismemberment. The album is creepy, disturbing, and intense. The live show is supposed to be insane. Sounds perfect for a show right around Halloween.

Local openers Crowlord might have rights to the distinction of heaviest band in Memphis. Boasting two bassists and zero guitars, the band nearly shatters the windows of the Hi Tone every time they play and multiple car alarms go off in the parking lot during the set. This Sunday the band will be previewing its next album in its entirety. The follow-up to 2013’s excellent Naked Chicks, Goats & Wolves, the LP should garner the band even more attention from outside the River City.

Tags Crowlord, Hi Tone, Lord Mantis, Today is the Day

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Memphian Rules the Road for Widespread Panic

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date October 15, 2014

CREDIT: Joshua N. Timmermans

Joshua N. Timmermans

(L to R) Mike Smith (Production Manager), Jeff Duckworth (Merchandise), John Herman (Keys), Steve Lopez (Tour Manager), John Bell (Lead Vocals & Guitar)

Widespread Panic will play the Orpheum for two nights, October 18th and 19th. The Athens, Georgia-based jam band is in their 28th year of touring and still play from 70 to 100 dates a year, despite the members being in their 50s and older. None of that deters the new and long-time fans who follow the group and come to multi-night engagements.

Manning the helm of their nightly show is production manager and Memphian Mike Smith, who has worked with the band on and off since 2001, and who has done work for TCB Entertainment, the North Mississippi Allstars, and Big Ass Truck. I was a member of that last band and watched Smith learn the trade. He’s come a long way from being a bank teller (he counts cash like a machine) to our small van to managing a daily retinue of 50 people over 15-hour days.

“When we were doing Big Ass Truck, you had an AAA card and a pocket full of quarters,” Smith recalls of early tours in the 1990s before smart phones. “Now, everyone has everything they need to know on the phone. It was just riding through the night. If you broke down and something happened … It’s amazing.”

[jump]

“It’s shifted over the years for sure,” Smith said while on a break from setting up in the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “When I started for the Allstars, it was similar to my role with Big Ass Truck: a little bit of everything, helping load in, helping sell merch. But when it comes to the larger acts, they have a tour manager and a production manager. The tour manager just handles the artist and their needs on a day-to-day basis: making sure hotels, press, and things like that are covered. The production manager handles everything related to the show itself. My responsibility includes dealing with all the vendors we use: trucking companies, staging companies, pyrotecnics. I deal with all the vendors and work within the budget they’ve given me for the show. I advance the show in terms of production aspect. I determine the load in time and load out times. The number of personnel has changed over the years. When I was working for Big Ass Truck, there were one or two of us working for the band. When it was the Allstars, there were three or four of us. Now, we are a 26-person traveling crew, not including the band themselves. I manage 26 individuals on the road every day. Today we’re loading into the Von Braun Center in Huntsville and have about 26 stagehands that are working for us.”

Touring is Panic’s bread and butter. The job requires tremendous discipline and professionalism, even within the seemingly relaxed atmosphere of a Widespread show.

“When you work for Panic, who don’t sell a lot of records anyway, touring is their revenue stream; it’s how they make their money,” Smith says. “It’s amazing to see, with how elaborate a show we put on, how cost-effective it is. We keep everything in check cost-wise on a regular basis. It’s not like when we were promoting and doing shows like Foo Fighters, who are selling millions of records and using shows as a marketing tool to sell more records. They throw money at touring, but it’s really like throwing marketing dollars at selling a record. People who know me know that I don’t get mad very often. I don’t yell and scream. Some production managers have that stigma. We like to have a good time in a laid-back environment. But at the same time, we have to be very professional. So they know if Mike Smith is mad, there’s a major problem. Someone’s at risk of getting hurt or something.”

It’s a good gig that has more than it’s share of great nights and good feelings.

“The Panic guys do some outrageously cool things like Tunes for Tots. We play a benefit show in a city. And whatever city they play in, they donate the proceeds to a local high school band. Since 2005, they’ve raised $2.5 million for this program. So a little over $200,000 has gone in each year. It’s amazing. We’ve had band directors tell us they were expecting a few drum sticks and things like that and then how amazed they were when a semi-truck showed up full of everything. I never knew that they have to pay licensing on all of the sheet music they use. That’s an outrageous expense for a high school. This covers all of the licensing. It’s great when you enjoy what you do, and it’s a nice twist when it’s something good at the end. We do food drives at every show. Our management ties into the local food bank at every show. Since 2008, we’ve raise over $80,000 in donations. So at the end of the day, we feel like we had a great show and were able to do something positive.”

Tags Mike Smith, The Orpheum, Widespread Panic

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Stevie Wonder Honored at Epitome of Soul Awards

Post author By
Post date October 14, 2014

With literally thousands of songwriting credits, dozens of Grammys, and decades of musical experience assembled in one venue it’s hard to imagine that any single person would dominate the room with their mere presence, but despite his humble demeanor Stevie Wonder managed to do just that Saturday night at the inaugural Epitome of Soul Awards.

Held at the Cannon Center for the Preforming Arts and hosted by the Consortium MMT, a local nonprofit devoted to cultivating the Bluff City’s music industry, the event featured a lineup of celebrity singers performing lyrical tributes to Wonder while occasionally mixing in a few of their own songs that lead up to a performance by Wonder himself that brought the crowd to a thunderous roar at the intimate yet raucous venue.

“[We’re] recognizing the one who is the personification of the greatness that all artists inspire to be,” Consortium MMT founder and Songwriters Hall of Famer, David Porter said while presenting the award. “His lyrics and his messages are so powerful and profound that it is something not only to live by, but to love by.”

Close friend and 10 time Grammy winner, “Queen of Funk” Chaka Kahn was also on hand to present the award.
“He has been like a brother to me since I first started singing,” Kahn said. “I love him so much he’s like a guardian angel to me. He’s one of the few people in the world that can make me actually blush.”

But it was Wonder who, upon receiving the award, summed up the night in manner that only he could have.
“When we think about soul, we have these various categories,” Wonder said. “When they say R&B soul it normally means black, when you hear pop it normally means white, and it’s all funny to me because I’m not looking at either one of them.”
The first artist to preform was former “American Idol” winner and R&B singer, Jordin Sparks who opened with Wonder’s “Superstition.” The house band, which remained stationary during the flux of artists was anchored by former “The Tonight Show” bandleader, Rickey Minor.

Sharon Jones of Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, was next up and preformed “Signed, Sealed Delivered, I’m Yours” and “Isn’t She Lovely.” Jones, who recently battled with pancreatic cancer, expressed her gratitude to be able to perform at the show cancer-free.

Ledisi had the crowd singing along to “All I Do,” and Eddie Levert of the O’Jays brought everyone to their feet when he performed his song “Backstabbers.” Next was BeBe Winans who sang “I Wish.”

The last act to perform before Wonder was Kahn, who at one point responded to an audience member’s profession of love with a coy “You don’t want none of this, honey” that reminded the crowd of her status as a preeminent diva. The atmosphere was electrifying during her rendition of “Tell Me Something Good,” which was actually penned by Wonder.
However, it was Wonder’s finale that truly demonstrated why he was chosen as the pioneer recipient of the award. The 64-year-old, 22-time Grammy winner captivated the crowd while seamlessly transitioning between different keyboards and harmonicas and performing hits like the crowd favorite “My Cherie Amor” before being joined on stage by several of the other artists to sing the Porter-penned tune “Soul Man,” and finally ending with the uplifting “Higer Ground.”

Tags Cannon Center, Consortium MMT, Eddie Levert, Jordin Sparks, Sharon Jones, Stevie Wonder

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Stevie Wonder at the Cannon Center Saturday

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date October 9, 2014

“We have to be proud and start acting on that pride,” songwriter and performer David Porter says of Memphis and its soul music. “This music, and the brand value that soul music has for this city should be embraced and acted upon. I’m happy to see that many in this community are doing just that. That’s what I’m doing here.”

Porter, a fundamental Stax luminary whose songwriting with Isaac Hayes created the Memphis sound, founded Consortium MMT, a developmental effort to foster Memphis soul talent locally and to create connections with industry operators and performers at the national level. Porter partnered with the Memphis Chamber of Commerce and other sponsors to create the Consortium as a bridge between Memphis and big-time talent. There have been similar efforts. Where those lacked credibility, this effort is on another level. Witness the Consortium’s inaugural Epitome of Soul award ceremony honoring Stevie Wonder at the Cannon Center on Saturday, October 11th. Wonder will perform, along with Chaka Khan, Jordan Sparks, Sharon Jones, and others. The band will be led by Rickey Minor, bandleader for the Tonight Show and American Idol.

People may associate Wonder with Detroit and L.A. But he is an example of how Memphis soul reaches beyond the borders of Shelby County.

“Stevie loves what was being done at Stax Records,” Porter says. “About six years ago, when Stevie was in Memphis, he wanted to do a tour of the museum. Everybody knows who Stevie Wonder is. So the museum was closed down for a minute, and Isaac Hayes and I personally took Stevie Wonder through a tour of that museum. We explained to him everything that he was not able to see in such a way that it was an emotional experience for all of us.”

[jump]

Wonder will be the first recipient of the Epitome of Soul Award, an annual award to honor those who shaped soul music.

“The Epitome of Soul will be an award that we will present every year to someone of high credibility,” Porter says. “There is no greater example to launch this than Stevie Wonder. The fact that Stevie Wonder is the first recipient of this award sets the bar quite high. It also sets the bar for credibility of soul associated with Memphis. The award is the Epitome of Soul. Why not take it to Soulsville U.S.A.? Hi Records, Stax Records, American Studios, and all the great music that has out of this city, why not take it here?”

Memphis music once employed thousands of Memphians, and not just musicians, but recording, warehousing, pressing, and promotion folks as well. Industry consolidation and the Internet did a number on the music business. But Memphis’ identity is inextricably linked to music and influenced many musicians. Even Stevie Wonder.

Stevie Wonder at the Cannon Center Saturday

“We talk about what [ideas] we get from each other,” Porter says of Wonder. “He said, ‘Listen to ‘We Can Work It Out’ [from 1970s Signed Sealed & Delivered]. The bass pattern and the pattern of that was motivated from what I was listening to you guys do on Sam & Dave.’ He has a tremendous love for people. Anyone who knows Stevie knows that. Additionally, he loved the concept that I was putting together here in Memphis. So much so that he agreed to come here to support this. In order to appreciate that, you have to understand that Stevie Wonder does not work in 1800-seat venues. That’s not what he does.”

Well, he’s doing that for the Consortium MMT. And a Motowner isn’t the only counter-intuitive force behind Porter’s effort. The infamously private Southeastern Asset Management signed on as title sponsor of the Epitome of Soul Award. The Memphis Chamber of Commerce allocated office space in its building at 22 North Front to host the Consortium’s production and artist development tools. Those tools include audio-production equipment and another essential element: mentoring from those who have succeeded in the past. We are losing those eminences all too quickly, and the Consortium is working to preserve their insights and legacies with video interviews.

“Valerie Simpson, writer of ‘I’m Every Woman,’ and ‘Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.’ She’s just one person who deals with the songwriting. Jimmy Jam, producer of Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey … The list goes on and on. Recording artists: Earth, Wind & Fire, Phillip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, and Eric Benét. Bobby Womack. These are individuals we have on film. Even when Bobby was not well, he wanted to do this, and he filmed this. He gave some of his thoughts and ideas that we can use for as long as this program exists. So that is an example. We have 130-plus video vignettes of artists talking about the creative processes in songwriting, recording, and record production.”

Porter is aware of the earlier efforts to accomplish this and says he’d be on the golf course if he wasn’t convinced it would work.

“The thing that needs to be expressed is that there are a lot of wonderful people who want to support the arts. And I’m talking about private citizens, just people. They want there to be meaningful outcomes when they do support it. What I wanted to see happen was not just to come up with an organization that would encourage young folks and all of that, but also to come up with some deliverables at the end for all of their hard work. A component of what we are doing is putting together a pool of credible talents in songwriting, record producing, and recording and having that focused. So when we go talk to industry assets that are serious about looking for talent, we have at least one place that they can go to and hear and see a pool of vetted talent by credible industry professionals. That way, there is credibility in Memphis that they can easily see.”

Porter had a pivotal role in shaping Memphis’ musical legacy. But he is focused on the role he can play in shaping the future.

“You can’t keep living in the past,” he says. “You’ve got to deal with the future. My answer to that is that, one day, the future will be the past. If you are wise, you will take advantage of all that was in the past to set an even more solid foundation for your future. Having the energies that caused success to happen in years past, integrating that with young people who have ambitions was something that could be done. I felt that I could be one of the facilitators for that.”

Stevie Wonder at the Cannon Center Saturday (2)

Tags Consortium MMT, David Porter, Stevie Wonder