There’s lots of music this weekend beyond the standard concert.
Here’s a guide:
Friday, June 26th: The monthly South Main Trolley Tour
is Friday, and the Memphis Music Foundation is taking advantage
of the foot traffic to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its
Memphis Music Resource Center with an open-house “birthday
party” from 6 to 9 p.m. Visitors can catch some modern Memphis music as
well as take a look at the center, a free information center and
workspace available to local musicians and others involved in the music
industry. There will be two performance spaces set up for the night
with confirmed acts Black Rock Revival, Sore Eyes,
Teflon Don & Young Producer Kriss, Good Luck Dark
Star, Queens of Zion, and Battle Victorious. …
Though not music-related, another “Trolley Night” event you might want
to take note of is the debut of the trailer for the local feature film
Daylight Fades. A vampire-themed film from Old School
Pictures and director Brad Ellis (who are two-time Indie
Memphis winners for “best local feature,” most recently for Act
One), Daylight Fades is an unusually ambitious local
production, and the clips look great. You can see the trailer at 506 S.
Main, where it will debut at 7 p.m. and be shown on a loop until 9
p.m.
The two-day North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic kicks off
Friday at Potts Camp, a 1,100-acre site in the Holly Springs area. The
picnic is the brainchild of blues guitarist Kenny Brown, a
longtime protégé of R.L. Burnside. For ticket
information, directions, and instructions about what to bring or not to
bring, see NMSHillCountryPicnic.com. The
music runs from noon to midnight each day, and the lineup Friday
features chitlin-circuit icon Bobby Rush (4:30 p.m.), heirs to
the throne the Burnside Exploration (6:30 p.m.) and the
DuWayne Burnside Band (8:30 p.m.), hill-country survivor
T-Model Ford (7:30 p.m.), and a midnight ramble of a jam session
featuring Jim Dickinson (11 p.m.).
Saturday, June 27th: Shangri-La Records is having a big sale,
dubbed Purge Fest 2009, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., which will
feature live music from J.D. Reager & the Cold-Blooded
Three, Memphis punk institution Pezz, and one of the city’s
most highly regarded up-and-coming bands, young rockers the Dirty
Streets. … The North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic continues
with, among others, Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm (3
p.m.; the duo also will play the Levitt Shell Friday night), the
Rising Star Fife and Drum Band (5 p.m.), Robert Belfour
(5:45 p.m.), Hill Country Revue (8:15 p.m.), the North
Mississippi Allstars (9:30 p.m.), and a closing jam led by Brown.
… The Stax Music Academy SNAP! Summer Music Camp will present
its grand finale performance at 7 p.m. at the Buckman Performing
Arts Center. The theme is “At the Corner of Soulsville and
Hitsville: Stax Celebrates Motown” and features Terron
Brooks, who has done The Lion King on Broadway and played
the Temptations’ Eddie Kendricks in a television movie. Tickets are $10
in advance and $12 at the door. For more information, call
946-2435.
Sunday, June 28th: The Memphis Belles burlesque troupe
and Shangri-La Records will team up for a “Rock and Roll Car
Wash” from noon to 3 p.m. in the parking lot of the Midtown record
store. The event is being held to raise money for the Belles’ costumes
for their Hi-Tone Café show in July.
Monday, June 29th: Local “holy hip-hop” artist Mr. Del
celebrates the launch of his new Memphis-based “urban” and hip-hop
label Dedicated Music Group (DMG) with an event at
Café Soul in the South Main Arts District. The event also
will serve as a release party for Mr. Del’s third album,
Thrilla. The album is the first release for the label,
which inked a distribution deal with Universal last August. In addition
to Mr. Del, DMG artist Mali Music will perform. Showtime is 8
p.m. Thrilla hits the streets on Tuesday, June 30t
