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Calling the Bluff Music

Anthony Hamilton Talks “Home for the Holidays,” Memphis, and Christmas

The sound of Anthony Hamilton’s soulfully raw voice echoed throughout the Cannon Center Sunday night as he performed tracks from his latest album, Home for the Holidays.

But it didn’t stop there. The audience also got a chance to enjoy some of Hamilton’s classics like “Comin’ from Where I’m From” and “Charlene.”

The multi-Platinum, Grammy Award-winning artist is currently embarked on a 17-city “Home for the Holidays” tour, and Memphis was one of the scheduled stops. 

Following his engaging performance, I got a chance to talk with Hamilton backstage. He opened up about the initial struggle of recording Home for the Holidays, what it’s like to be a father of six during Christmas, his recent Grammy nomination, and Memphis’ influence on his music.

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To purchase Home for the Holidays, click here

This is your first Christmas-themed album. What inspired you to create this project?

Just real life. Living, and seeing what people go through. And the holidays brings about the feeling of wanting to love and to share and do all that stuff, yet in still, you’re still going through whatever’s happening in your relationship. And for the moment, it takes away all the pain and the hurt, or it reflects it. So what I did on this album was just speak about the real.

Listening to songs from the album, it sounds like you created the album primarily for the people who aren’t able to enjoy an extravagant Christmas.

Over half of the people have those struggles and have those unfortunate Christmases. I want to let them know that it’s not even all about that — spending your money. It’s about that quality time with the loved ones and doing something that means more to you than putting yourself in debt.

Is this going to be the first of many holiday-themed projects from you?

Yeah, well, I might even make an Easter album. Peter Cottontail; I like watching him. I might as well sing about him. (Laughs). You know what, this album will probably sell for years and years. And what I’ll do is try to take this album and recreate it, maybe add another feature on it, invite different guests to sing on it. You know what I mean? Just kind of restructure it. I don’t know yet, but it’s got me thinking about other things.

What was your frame of mind going into creating the project?

It was hot as hell, and it was summer, and I wanted to go outside and play. (Laughs). It took a while to get into that mode; it was the summertime. It was hard to stay in the physical spirit with everybody in biker tights and short shorts running around, going to the beach, and I’ve got to stay and finish this Christmas album. I wanted to get it done [and] out of the way. But once I started getting it finished and working diligently on it, it started to really become a beautiful peace of work. And all of the little interludes and things that we did on the whim became very special parts of the album.

Anthony Hamilton Talks ‘Home for the Holidays,’ Memphis, and Christmas


You’re a father.

Yes, I’m a father six times. I have six boys.

Considering that, what does Christmas mean to you? How important is it to be with your family during the holidays?

Christmas means I’ve got to spend a lot of damn money. (Laughs). Naw, Christmas is just a time to reflect and spend time with my kids and let them know, ‘Even though your daddy’s an entertainer, that stuff doesn’t really matter when it comes to being with you guys.’ That’s first and foremost. ‘But this is something that affords you some things that I didn’t have.’ I just want to let them know, ‘I can put this down and set aside time for y’all,’ because they’re that important.

On stage, you mentioned that you used to go to Isaac Hayes’ nightclub and restaurant. And you’ve collaborated with Al Green, which earned you both a Grammy. Can you talk about Memphis’ influence on you?

You’ve got all the greats that come from here; all of the good music that Memphis brings to the table. Even Nashville. You’ve got country. [With Memphis], you’ve got Stax, and just knowing that all of that stuff came out of here, you pay attention to it. Sonically, Memphis had a whole movement back in the day. I listen to it. It has influenced me, and I put it in my music.

Who are you listening to right now?

Who am I listening to right now? I listen to a little Ed Sheeran every now and again. T.I.’s album is banging. I’m a big hip-hop head. And Sam Smith, I like what he’s doing. Jennifer Hudson; she had a nice album. I like Young Thug.

I want to congratulate you on the Grammy nomination for “As,” your duet with Marsha Ambrosius. How did that come about?

I got the call to be in [The Best Man Holiday], and they were telling me about the song. I couldn’t really hear it in the way they described it to me. Once I did, I felt like it would be a great duet, but I didn’t know it would be Grammy nominated. But the movie was so powerful; just to be in it was incredible.

Anthony Hamilton Talks ‘Home for the Holidays,’ Memphis, and Christmas (2)


You’re also slated to star in an episode of Fox’s forthcoming musical drama television series “Empire” in January.

Yes. Hopefully, they’ll put that Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, [and] Denzel Washington light on me.

On another note, I like how you emphasized the importance of thanking the Lord during your performance. What motivated you to do that?

That’s what guides me. That’s what keeps me from going too far over the edge, and that’s just who I am. I’ve been loving the Lord all my life. I know what it feels like when I’m not spending time with Him. I know what it feels like when somebody doesn’t have Him. I know what those spirits are, so I try to keep a good balance, and try to put it out there for everybody else to feel comfortable with Him. Sometimes the church hurts people and makes people afraid to go back to it, so I just praise the Lord right here. I might be the closest thing to church they get, so I put it out there.

Is there any advice you would like to provide for up-and-coming artists out there?

If you love it, do it. If you don’t, get out the way for those who do. And just find something you’re passionate about and let it become your brand. Let it become something that drives you to want to do better.

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Calling the Bluff Music

Jeezy Talks “Seen It All” Album, Tour

CREDIT: 13th Witness

13th Witness

“Me and Goldmouth in his jeep, we on the road/All I seen was red and blue lights, I thought he told/ Butterflies as we going through this roadblock/Ask yourself questions like, ‘Is this where my road stops?’”

On the track “How I Did It (Perfection)” off his latest album, Seen It All: The Autobiography, Jeezy reflects on a highway drug run that almost earned him football numbers in prison. This is just one of many life stories the Platinum-selling artist shares on his seventh solo album.

Jeezy is currently embarked on a two-month, 35-city “Seen It All” tour to promote the project. And Memphis is among the cities he’s making a stop in. On Wednesday, November 12th, the Snowman will perform Seen It All live at Minglewood Hall.

Jeezy took time out to talk about his latest album and tour, Bishop T.D. Jakes’ issue with his “Holy Ghost (remix),” growing both musically and as a man, and why he prefers Avión over other brands of tequila.

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For tickets to his show at Minglewood, click here

You’ve been on tour for almost a month now. How has everything been so far?

It’s crazy, man. It’s real personable and it’s real intimate. It’s an experience more so than a concert or a show. Just telling the story and watching the way records relate to different individuals. It’s almost like being in a small church, honestly.

Would you say this tour is more monumental than previous ones you’ve embarked on?

It’s more for them. You know, when I get on stage, I tell them, ‘This is y’all night. Whatever y’all want me to do up here, I’m going to do it and some more.’ But it’s more so, like, it’s really having a good time. It’s almost like being a pastor at one of those churches that holds 10,000, and then you just say, ‘You know what, I’m going to go back to my roots. I’m going to go to the local neighborhood churches, and I’m going to talk to the people and give them the same Sunday but better.’ I’ve been on tour with Jay-Z. I’ve been on tour with [Lil] Wayne, with Wiz Khalifa. I’ve been on great tours, but at the same time, it’s like this is touching people.

Prior to undertaking your latest journey, you co-headlined Wiz Khalifa’s “Under the Influence of Music” tour. How was that experience?

It was a great tour. This one is personal, but that was a real tour. That was probably one of the best tours I’ve been on. There were a lot of different types of people that I had never heard and seen live. It’s crazy because almost every night I got a standing ovation.

I would like to congratulate you on Seen It All. I thought it was one of the best projects I’ve heard from you. Explain how you think this project differs from your previous efforts.

What I did differently, I was just more honest, more personable about it, and more straightforward about how I felt. And the G’s, we don’t really get into that. We heard Jay-Z write, ‘I can’t see it coming down my eyes, so I gotta make the song cry.’ It was his way of saying, ‘I know that I could never do it, but if this song feels that way to you, then go ahead.’ With me, when I say, ‘Seen it all,’ that’s what I seen — the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I still stood the test of time, but when you get into records like “Holy Ghost” and “No Tears,” those are really records that are real sincere. And I don’t think I would sit down and have that conversation with anybody, but through my music I can tell that story. But at the same time, I never made songs that was that vulnerable or honest like that. With Seen It All, I was real honest about everything. Even with the title track, I never really talked about exactly how I did it and how I pulled up at Magic City and what my view was like. At the same time, you take records like “1/4 Block,” that’s how I really felt my first day when I got on the block and I was hustling. I felt like I couldn’t be stopped. Those are real records. They weren’t made for the radio. They weren’t made for the clubs, necessarily. They were made for this tour because I wanted to go out and perform the record to people who really understand and know what it means to struggle and to hustle and to go through adversity.

  

So you actually created this album with the tour in mind?

Yep. I start it from the top, and I go all the way through it. That’s what I wanted. I didn’t do it for the radio and the clubs. I’ve done that so much, it’s like … you hear so many things on the radio and in the clubs, it’s not a place for real message music. And it’s just like, I’ve got radio hits, I’ve got club smashes, and it’s like, ‘You know what, let me take it back to the basics and go in these venues where I know these people really love me in and love this. And I’m going to do these records, and they’re going to sing along.’ They sing all the records word-for-word.

If nothing else, what do you hope listeners take away from the album?

I just hope they understand what it really means when somebody says, ‘I’ve seen it ll.’ It’s someone out there that’s seen the world, but when it comes to what we do and how we live, I think I’ve seen more than the average cat. I just hope they walk away with some type of gems, some type of jewels, understanding that, ‘Okay, when you get in situations in life, you can put this on and listen to it.’ I listen to Makaveli all the time. I listen to All Eyez on Me all the time because [2Pac is] pretty much the only person that understands where I came from. And he was ahead of his time when he was making those records. And I was just riding around listening to them. It was just cool, and I loved them because it sounded good. But now, I find myself picking up jewels and hymns out of his words, like, every other day. It’s like, ‘Damn, I just went through that. That just happened to me.’ So he was going through those things way before I was, but he was putting them in music form. So I hope that people can take what I’m saying and put them in music form, because it’s a different type of game out there now, a different type of hustle, and it’s a different type of world from when we came up, but the same rules always apply. That love and loyalty and that honor code, that G code. It don’t really apply because ain’t nobody really stressing it in their music and in their lifestyle.

You linked back up with Jay-Z on this project. Is it intimidating to go toe-to-toe on a song with one of the best to do it?

With me and Jay, it’s always been good. But I’ll tell you this, though, I feel like I’ve scrimmaged with him enough to be ready for that. Me and Jay got more songs than him and B.I.G. got. We’ve burned so many records and [rhymed] back-and-forth so many times, I feel like when it came around this time, I was ready for it. But it was perfect, though. We just performed it for the first time together in the Barclays for [Power 105.1’s Powerhouse 2014]. And to see that response, in front of 20,000, it was unreal. It was worth every minute of writing the record and waiting to perform it. 

Bishop T.D. Jakes recently expressed his disapproval of you placing an excerpt of a sermon he presented at the beginning of your “Holy Ghost” remix. What are your thoughts on the situation?

In all actuality, it wasn’t meant for that version of the record to come out, but I was actually incarcerated at the time, so I think it was a mistake on my engineer’s and my team’s part but nothing that was blatant. But I understand his position, so I wasn’t really tripping on it. I spoke to [Minister Louis] Farrakhan about it, and we both agreed that it is what it is. And we kind of let it go, but at the same time I can see him trying to separate hisself from what I do. But at the same time, it is what it is. I always say, ‘Give glory to God.’ And I really wanted him to know that his words reach people in all walks of life, too. And I really wanted them to hear that speech, because when I heard it, it touched me.

Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 served as your official introduction to the world. From that album up to this point, how would you say you’ve changed as an artist and as a person?

Thug Motivation, I feel like I’ve got that under my belt, so I would never try to recreate my first album, but I just think that’s a big platform to stand on. So with everything I do now, I just try to keep my message going. And I think now, I’m a lot wiser, I’m a lot smarter, I’m definitely a lot more calculated, and I’m evolving. If anything, I just feel like I’m evolving. When you think about B.I.G. and Pac, they weren’t in the position that they were five albums in and 10 years into the game, and they had to figure the dos and don’ts from a whole other perspective, because you’ve got to keep going with the times. I’m riding those waves and those currents and figuring it out as I go, and I just think that’s new. The only other person I ever saw do that was Jay. People don’t last 10 to 12 years in this game. It’s just like being on your shit and making sure you’re staying true to yourself and to the people that ride with you. But a lot of the people that was listening to me when Thug Motivation was out, they’re grown now, so they don’t wanna hear no ignorant shit. You gotta come with something with some sense.

In a recent interview, T.I. talked about you guys doing a joint-album titled Dope Boy Academy. What’s the current status of the project?

Right now, we’re just in conversation about it. We haven’t went farther than that. It’s just been some conversation back and forth, but we’re just going to see where that goes.

You’re the multicultural advisor for Avión tequila? How did that come about?

I’m sipping some right now. I’m at my favorite restaurant Spondivits sipping some right now. I’m a big tequila drinker. Right now, I’m drinking a margarita. That’s my favorite drink. But what it was, I was drinking Don Julio 1942, and one of my partners put me on Avión. And when I went over to Avión, I just talked to them about making my own version of 1942, and they were with it. And it just kind of started from there. And I really switched over brands. Instead of me drinking Don Julio, I just started drinking Avión tequila. And it went on to be a business venture. I met the owner, and we became friends. It just made sense for who I am, because that’s what I drink. Anybody [who] knows me, knows that I’m shots or some margaritas. Plus it’s good. It’s better than a lot of the other tequila brands that I’ve tasted.

What’s next for Jeezy?

I’m going to finish up this tour, and I’m going to get ready to hit these folks again. I’m ready for it.

A new album?

A new everything. A whole new look and everything. I’m ready.

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Music Record Reviews

A rap CEO and publisher’s poet on two very different musical memoirs

Dig, if you will, a picture: Rapper Dennis “Ghostface Killah” Coles skips out of his girl’s crib just ahead of a police raid, seeking refuge at the home of his friend and colleague Method Man. Busting in at Meth’s place unannounced, he finds his friend in mid-fuck. At the sound of someone coming through the door, Method Man tumbles out of bed, reaching for his gun on the nightstand, but stubs his toe in the process. The woman, who is asthmatic, grabs at the sheets, screaming and struggling to breathe. The previously rattled Ghost cracks up at this sight; Meth is pissed, his mood made worse because his dick keeps slipping through the slit in his boxers.

This happens on “Yolanda’s House,” one of the best tracks on Ghostface Killah’s new album, The Big Doe Rehab, and it’s typical Ghostface: vulgar, funny, so vivid and in-the-moment you can practically smell the residue of pot smoke and sex in the room.

Lots of rappers — most of them these days — work the same terrain, spinning tales of drug deals, gun violence, casual sex, and conspicuous consumption. But few of them are great artists. Ghostface is the best since the late Notorious B.I.G. at turning underworld/underclass vignettes into gripping and witty musical cinema and at giving these stories moral gravity without speechifying. If any modern rapper should have been a scenarist for The Wire, it’s Ghostface.

You can hear it again on Big Doe Rehab‘s “Walk Around,” a first-person account of shooting someone that goes places contemporary so-called gangsta rap rarely does: The protagonist, so rattled by what he’s done that he vomits in the getaway car, freaks out at the blood and tissue on his clothing. (“Y’all niggas would bug out too if you had somebody’s flesh on you.”)

The Big Doe Rehab is Ghostface Killah’s third full album of new material since March 2006, following his masterpiece Fishscale and the better-than-anyone-could-expect extras disc More Fish. It’s a run that marks him as one of pop music’s most productive artists though one who’s a particularly specialized, even rarefied taste.

On The Big Doe Rehab, Ghostface surrounds his sharp storytelling with the deep-soul samples and off-kilter humor that are his trademarks. The single “We Celebrate” is a blaring paean to the good life, gangsta-style: “Like my baby’s first steps, ya heard!” or “Like one of my goons just came home!” “Supa GFK” is stream-of-consciousness rap over Johnny Watson’s “Superman Lover.”

Still, The Big Doe Rebab is a lot closer to More Fish than Fishscale — a little too heavy on guest stars and posse members and not as coherent. Fishscale came at you in what felt like orchestrated movements; More Fish was, by definition, just a bunch of songs. The Big Doe Rehab is more the latter. Still, Ghostface’s minor work bests a thematically similar major work from his Def Jam benefactor Jay-Z.

With his mature CEO’s album Kingdom Come falling on deaf ears, Jay-Z’s American Gangster feels less driven by personal expression than by a desire to give the people what they want. It’s an album of Jay-Z reminding everyone that he used to deal drugs. And, like the overblown movie that inspired it, American Gangster isn’t thoughtful enough to be great.

There are defensive childhood remembrances (“No Hook”: “I’m so fo sho, it’s no facade/’Stay out of trouble,’ mama said as mama sighed/Her fear, her youngest son bein’ victim of homicide/But I gotta get you outta here, mama, or I’ma die, inside”) and thrilling evocations of the amoral indulgences of drug-trade triumph (the “black superhero music” of “Roc Boys”). But, for the most part, Jay-Z is not a storyteller of Ghostface’s caliber. His primary gift isn’t conceptual or even lyrical, but vocal: the illusion of effortlessness in his honeyed flow. He’s the purer MC — the best since Biggie in his own way — and American Gangster peaks when Jay-Z sounds most relaxed, as on “Success,” where he raps over a spare track of vampy organ and scattered beat, rewriting an old Eminem lyric before discarding his crime-boss persona: “I used to give shit/Now I don’t give a shit more/Truth be told I had more fun when I was piss poor.”

Jay-Z rarely sounds so free on American Gangster, and that’s part of the problem. Ghostface Killah’s lower profile and more modest expectations may be what allow him to be the better artist. The superstar Jay-Z has no choice but to reach for significance, while Ghostface digs deeper by just telling stories and cracking jokes.

— Chris Herrington

Grades: The Big Doe Rehab: A-; American Gangster: B+

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Music Record Reviews

The Knee Plays

The mid-’80s was the pinnacle of David Byrne’s weirdness. Recording an album based on the indigenous music of a made-up tribe (In the Bush of Ghosts) was weird. Breaking up a successful group like the Talking Heads wasn’t normal. And The Knee Plays, his 1985 collaboration with playwright Robert Wilson, was an exercise in sustained weirdness. Reissued now on a 1 CD/2 DVD set with eight bonus tracks, The Knee Plays features compositions for reeds and horns, primarily holding and shaping chords to form a backdrop for Byrne’s meditations on working and traveling. “I thought that if I ate the food of the area I was visiting,” Byrne explains on “Social Studies,” “that I might assimilate the point of view of the people of that region.” He’s neither ironic nor satirical but simply fascinated by human behavior. (“Tree [Today Is an Important Occasion],” “In the Future”) — SD

Grade: B+

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Music Record Reviews

Let’s Stay Friends

Les Savy Fav have allayed fan fears of a break-up with Let’s Stay Friends, their first album of original material in six years. “Let’s tear this whole place down and build it up again,” Tim Harrington sings on opener “Pats & Pans.” “This band’s a beating heart and nowhere near its end.” Following that, the songs hide adult sentiments about disappointment and frustration within the band’s signature pop melodies, shout-along choruses, and indie-punk guitar noise. As the album proceeds, the band makes its ambitions clearer with guest vocalists, varied song structures, a larger sound, and self-aware lyrics that recall Propeller-era Guided by Voices. In so eloquently examining the trials of playing in a cult band, Let’s Stay Friends suggests that Les Savy Fav should have long ago transcended cult status. (“Patty Lee,” “What Would Wolves Do?”) — SD

Grade: A-

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Music Record Reviews

Levon Helm mines his Arkansas roots for a great comeback album.

The story leading up to the making of Levon Helm’s first album in 25 years is filled with so much triumph over adversity that you might think it’s made up. In the late ’90s, Helm, who played drums and sang for the Band, was diagnosed with throat cancer, and the radiation treatment robbed him of his voice. Pretty soon he was forced to declare bankruptcy. His home studio in Woodstock, New York, burned, and his friend and Bandmate Rick Danko died in his sleep.

Yet Helm worked to recover his voice. He rebuilt his studio and gradually began playing and singing again, launching a popular concert series called the Midnight Rambles. And, with friends and daughter Amy Helm of Ollabelle, he recorded Dirt Farmer, a stirring collection of old family songs and covers of new songs.

Helm, who grew on the family farm near Marvell, Arkansas, dedicates the album to his parents, who taught him songs like “Little Birds” and “The Girl I Left Behind.” He turns these traditional ditties into lively acoustic numbers whose mix of folk, country, Cajun, bluegrass, and even jazz echoes Helm’s work with the Band. “Poor Old Dirt Farmer” leavens its dire story about a failing farm with potent shots of grim humor: “Well, the poor old dirt farmer, how bad he must feel/He fell off his tractor up under the wheel,” Helm sings. “And now his head is shaped like a tread/But he ain’t quite dead.”

Helm sounds strong and confident on Dirt Farmer. His voice is weathered but not weak, and his drums still pop agilely around the beat. On Paul Kennerley’s “A Train Robbery,” with its period details and dramatic chorus, he sounds sinister, the choir of voices behind him like a gang of thieves. The Carter Family’s “Single Girl, Married Girl” and the Stanley Brothers’ “False Hearted Lover Blues” get dramatically new arrangements that bolster Helm’s alternately soulful and playful performance.

His best moment, however, is his cover of Steve Earle’s “The Mountain,” which loses the bluegrass lilt of the original for Appalachian gravity. Helm sounds defiant and convincingly outraged as he laments the mining industry’s toll on his home, and his delivery of the verse melody is one of many moments that prove Dirt Farmer doesn’t need its back story to be powerful and moving. — Stephen Deusner

Grade: A-

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Music Music Features

Holsapple at Otherlands

Great news for audiophiles and fans of classic guitar pop: Peter Holsapple is on his way to Memphis to play an intimate show at Otherlands Coffee Bar on Friday, December 14th.

Holsapple’s name may not be a household word, but it should be. In the 1980s, as the bed-headed and bespectacled singer/songwriter for North Carolina’s The dBs, Holsapple bridged the gap between Big Star’s lush power pop and the Replacements’ thoughtfully ragged barroom rock. Cliché terms like “jangle pop” and “jangly guitars” were practically invented to describe Holsapple’s sound, as well as the sound of his kindred spirits in R.E.M.

The dBs’ commercial success never matched the band’s influence, and when the group broke up in 1988, Holsapple hooked up with R.E.M., whose career was just beginning to take off. In addition to playing guitar and keyboards, he helped to write several songs on the band’s major commercial breakthrough, Out of Time.

After parting ways with R.E.M., Holsapple worked as a sideman for Hootie & the Blowfish and played with The Continental Drifters, an underappreciated superband featuring Vicki Peterson of the Bangles, as well as Robert Mache and Mark Walton of the Dream Syndicate.

Holsapple returned to North Carolina after Hurricane Katrina, and in recent years he’s regrouped the dBs for a handful of shows. Hopefully, his Otherlands set will include some vintage material as well as a sneak preview of what the dBs will be doing next. Locals Van Duren and Dan Montgomery open the show, which starts at 8 p.m., with Holsapple scheduled to perform at 10 p.m. Admission is $5.

— Chris Davis

The most underrated local album of the year? Probably World Wide Open, the second album from hip-hop trio Tunnel Clones — DJ Redeye Jedi and MCs Bosco and Rachi. Rather than just a nice change of pace from the standard-issue style of most Memphis rap, World Wide Open (like the band’s debut, Concrete Jungle, only more so) is a strong, confident record — densely musical (opening with Steely Dan, closing in Africa, supplying considerable funk in between) with smart, grounded flows and terrific backing vocals. Tunnel Clones play a Christmas show at the Hi-Tone Café Friday, December 14th. Doors open at 9 p.m.; admission is $10.

The party spills over the next night at the Hi-Tone, when Shangri-La Records will throw its annual Christmas party. Garage-rock heroes Jack Oblivian & the Tennessee Tearjerkers will headline the show, which will also feature a performance from Those Darlin’s, a female bluegrass trio from Murfreesboro. Resident Shangri-La DJs Buck Wilders & The Hook-Up will keep things moving between sets. Admission is $5 with a nonperishable food donation to the Memphis Food Bank. The Shangri-La Christmas party is at the Hi-Tone Saturday, December 15th. Showtime is 9 p.m.

— Chris Herrington

Riffs: On December 10th, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music opened a new exhibit, Otis Redding: From Macon to Memphis, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Redding’s death. Culled from the personal collection of Redding’s widow, Zelma, the exhibit will run through April 30th. … Congratulations to Kirk Whalum and Three 6 Mafia, who were among the Memphis-connected artists to receive Grammy nominations last week. Saxophonist Whalum, currently artist in residence at the Stax Music Academy, was nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Album for Roundtrip. Three 6 Mafia was involved in the writing and producing of UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You),” which was nominated for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. … The dates have been announced for the seventh annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which will take place June 12th-15th in Manchester, Tennessee. … Congratulations to frequent Flyer contributor Andrew Earles, whose prank-call comedy discs Just Farr a Laugh Vol. 1 and 2, which he produced with New Yorker Jeffrey Jensen, will be re-released by venerable New York indie label Matador Records on February 19th. It’s been awhile since I’ve listened to any of this stuff, but I still recall with great glee such sublime moments as the attempt to book a Jermaine Stewart tribute band (“Bedroom ETA”) on Beale Street and a post-Bonnaroo call to a Birkenstock vendor of some sort (“You’re Harshing My Trip”). More on this in February. — CH

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Music Music Features

Reigning Sound Returns

Reigning Sound ringleader Greg Cartwright played an impromptu acoustic set at Goner Records Friday, November 30th, in part to celebrate the completion of the band’s most recent album. The former Memphian, now comfortably ensconced in Asheville, North Carolina (asked before his set if he were tempted to move back, he charitably responded that he loves visiting Memphis), played with his band at the Gibson Beale Street Showcase over Thanksgiving weekend, then spent the following week holed up at Ardent‘s Studio C, with Doug Easley engineering.

The newly bearded Cartwright said during his Goner set that the new album would be released via the In the Red label in late spring. After spending time in the past year backing up (and, in Cartwright’s case, producing and writing for) former Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss and keeping the Reigning Sound section of record-store racks stocked with outtakes (Home for Orphans) and live (Live at Goner, Live at Maxwell’s) discs, this will be the band’s first album of new material since 2004’s Too Much Guitar.

The Reigning Sound isn’t the only high-profile Memphis-connected band that’s been in the studio working on an early-2008 release. The North Mississippi Allstars have announced that their next album, titled Hernando, will be released on January 22nd. The band’s first studio album since 2005’s Electric Blue Watermelon, Hernando will also be the first released on the band’s own label, Sounds of the South. The album was produced by Jim Dickinson in September at his Zebra Ranch studio.

If you missed ambitious local rock band The Third Man‘s record-release party for its new album Among the Wolves at the Hi-Tone Café, you can make up for it this week, when the band plays an early-evening set at Shangri-La Records. The Third Man is set to play at 6 p.m. Friday, December 7th, and it’ll be interesting to see how the band’s epic, guitar-heavy sound translates to a more intimate setting.

The Memphis Roller Derby will take over the Hi-Tone Café Saturday, December 8th, for their second annual “Memphis Roller Derby Ho Ho Ho Burlesque Show.” In addition to skits featuring the Derby gals, there will be plenty of musical entertainment as well. Longtime local-scene drummer/commentator Ross Johnson, fresh off the release of his “career”-spanning Goner compilation Make It Stop: The Most of Ross Johnson, will be backed by an “all-star” band he’s dubbed the Play Pretteez. Johnson also will retreat back behind the drum kit alongside Jeff Golightly, Lamar Sorrento, and Jeremy Scott in a British-invasion style band called Jeffrey & the Pacemakers. Rounding out the music will be electronic dance act Shortwave Dahlia and DJ Steve Anne. Doors open at 9 p.m. Admission is $10.

Australian Idol winner and MemphisFlyer.com celebrity Guy Sebastian has released his Ardent Studios-recorded debut The Memphis Album, crafted with MGs Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn headlining a terrific Memphis studio band. Sebastian clearly loves Memphis soul, but his take on the genre is too respectful and too unadventurous for his own good. He sings only the most identifiable hits (“Soul Man,” “In the Midnight Hour,” “Let’s Stay Together,” etc.) and mimics the original recordings too closely. Still, it’s a better Memphis tribute than actor Peter Gallagher’s. Sebastian will be taking the core of his Memphis band — Cropper and Dunn along with drummer Steve Potts and keyboardist Lester Snell — on an Australian tour starting in February.

The Stax Music Academy‘s SNAP! After School Winter Concert will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, December 8th, at the Michael D. Rose Theatre at the University of Memphis. Stax Music Academy artist-in-residence Kirk Whalum will be performing alongside the kids, as will soul singer Glenn Jones. Tickets to the SNAP! concert are $5 and are available through the Soulsville Foundation development office. Call 946-2535 for details.

Finally, congratulations to the New Daisy Theatre‘s Mike Glenn, who is the only Memphian receiving a Keeping the Blues Alive award from the International Blues Foundation this year. The awards will be presented February 2nd during International Blues Challenge weekend.

Categories
Music Music Features

This Is the End

The 62-year-old Bob Frank was born and raised in Memphis, where he attended East High School. He was also a cohort of Jim Dickinson and others on the city’s underground folk scene in the Sixties. After a high-profile eponymous album for Vanguard Records in 1972 went awry, Frank moved to Oakland, California, and basically retired from the record business, re-emerging with a few obscure, self-released albums earlier this decade.

The 27-year-old John Murry was raised in Tupelo, relocated to Memphis as a teenager, and made a name for himself on the local music scene via first-rate alt-country bands the Dillingers and his own John Murry Band. Murry was quickly recognized as a major talent but never lived up to his promise while in Memphis. He followed his new wife to San Francisco in 2003.

Though separated by a generation, these two musical underachievers and kindred spirits came together in California, making a mark this year with World Without End, an album of original murder ballads that received a positive notice in Rolling Stone and has garnered rave reviews, particularly, in British music magazines. This week, the duo returns home to perform songs from the album in Memphis for the first time.

“He came out here, and a friend of ours from back in Memphis, Don McGregor, told him to look me up,” Frank says, explaining the roots of this unlikely musical tandem.

McGregor was an old acquaintance of Frank’s from his days on the Memphis music scene and had befriended Murry in recent years.

“Don used to play a bunch of Bob’s songs, but I didn’t know that they were Bob’s songs,” Murry says. “When I got [to California], Don told me that this was where Bob lived. So I gave him a call, and we got together.”

The idea to do an album of murder ballads came from Murry, but after recording a few covers of traditional songs at Frank’s home studio, the duo decided to go in a different direction.

“When we started singing [those songs], they sounded too old and corny and moralistic,” Frank says. “So we decided to write new songs in the same tradition. They would sound like old songs and be from stories that happened or are part of legends.”

To do this, Murry and Frank drew partly from their own knowledge and experience. “Tupelo, Mississippi, 1936,” a tale of a black man who was abducted and lynched on the town square, is a story Murry remembers learning about as a kid. The murder took place in 1926. The “1936” of the title refers to a tornado — one of the deadliest in recorded history — that ravaged the city a decade later and, according to local lore, was predicted by the lynching victim before his death.

Similarly, “Madeline, 1796” is a Mississippi story that Murry already knew. It takes place at King’s Tavern in Natchez, which Murry visited as a child. In the story, which is believed to be true, the tavern owner’s wife finds out her husband has been having an affair with the teenaged Madeline. She hires two men to kill the girl, then poisons the men and has them all entombed in the tavern’s fireplace. In the 1930s, the fireplace was opened up, and the remains of three people were found.

Frank’s Memphis-set “Bubba Rose, 1961” is even more personal, recounting an event from Frank’s own teen years: “We were sitting ’round the table when Uncle Bud goes/’It’s a shame what happened to old Bubba Rose,'” the song begins.

“We were sitting in my grandmother’s house, over on Vance,” Frank says. “And Bubba Rose had actually grown up right next door to my uncle. We were sitting around the table eating dinner, and my uncle says, ‘That’s too bad what happened to old Bubba Rose.’ Then he told us about how [Rose had] gone to work and shot his boss and was in jail. This was the day or so it happened. I was in high school and didn’t know anybody who would shoot someone, but there’s this guy who lives next door to my uncle and who’s in jail for killing his boss with a shotgun.”

Bob Frank

Other stories came from research, usually by Murry, usually on the Internet. “Wherever we could find a good story,” Frank says.

On the album, Murry and Frank alternate lead vocals, with the songs Murry sings typically in first-person — sometimes in the voice of the murdered, sometimes the murderer — and Frank’s performances mostly third-person. In the CD’s liner notes, Murry and Frank include quotes from source materials referencing the stories behind the songs — from newspaper and magazine articles, letters, wanted posters, and other sources. In concert, the duo has fashioned these materials, as well as photos and other visuals, into a slide show that accompanies the songs.

“I wanted to do the record because of a personal fear of dying and of death in general,” Murry says of his interest in such morbid material. “I don’t intend to be that way. It has far more to do with fear than it does with a ‘costume.’ This isn’t like Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads record, which I’m not knocking. Okay, maybe I am in a way. I thought it was kind of silly.”

“John thinks like that,” Frank says. “Even his love songs come out like that. That’s how he is.”

Frank’s attraction to the concept was more about craft than compulsion.

“To me, it was an interesting way to write songs,” Frank says. “It’s fun to write songs like that, and it’s fun to sing them — to get into those roles. To me, that’s what it was, the art of it.”

Frank and Murry initially bonded, in part, over the contrarian impulses they shared as expatriate Southerners in California.

“I still hate California,” Murry says, more than four years after making the move. “I never wanted to come here, and I don’t like it at all. I’d much rather be [in Memphis]. But it eases it a lot to have Bob here. And I’ve certainly done more musically here than I ever did in Memphis. But I really hate California.”

Murry says that his liberalism has been challenged by the more strident variety California offers.

“I started reading a lot of [French philosopher Michel] Foucault when I got out here, and fascism exists on all sides of the political spectrum,” Murry says. “Just walk down the street in Berkeley and try to put a cigarette out on the sidewalk and see what happens. People [shouldn’t be] treated with dignity and respect because of a political stance. It [should be] about a whole lot more than politics. That’s something I’ve learned since I’ve gotten out here.”

Frank, who relocated to California full-time more than 30 years ago, is much more settled in his new home, but he identifies with his younger partner’s sense of dislocation.

“I remember back in the Sixties, I’d go back and forth between Nashville and California, and it was like two totally different cultures,” Frank remembers. “Nashville had that country music culture, and California was all the hippies. When I was in California, I’d think, I guess I’m not really a hippie. I don’t fit in here. I guess I’m more of a country musician. Then I’d go back [to Nashville] and think, I don’t fit in here. These guys are too slick. I think I’m more like a hippie or something. Wherever you are, you don’t think you quite fit in.”

World Without End has taken Murry and Frank on two brief European tours this year and will finally bring them back home this week, where the pair will perform at the Hi-Tone Café and at Two Stick in Oxford with an “all-star” backing band, including Tim Mooney of the San Francisco band American Music Club and Memphis-based friends and mentors Dickinson and McGregor. Local band J.D. Reager & the Cold-Blooded Three will open the Memphis show.

Up next could be a sequel that features original murder ballads written about contemporary stories, such as slain American journalist Daniel Pearl and American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in Gaza a few years ago by Israeli troops.

But taking the same approach to such immediate material could be risky.

“If we were to take modern stories and look at them with the same amoralism that we did with the older stories, I don’t know how pleased people will be,” Murry says. “But I think it’s more powerful to leave something completely open-ended, to the point that the listener is forced to think about it.”

Murry says he hopes World Without End taps into listeners’ fears rather than manipulating their emotions. “I hope that’s what this record does,” he says. “I hope it haunts people.”

John Murry and Bob Frank
The Hi-Tone Café
Friday, December 7th
Showtime is 9 p.m., admission $5

Categories
Music Record Reviews

John Fogerty

Practically every old god who’s ascended into the heaven known as classic rock radio — Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton (whose autobiography is already on The New York Times bestseller list) — is coming back around this fall. John Fogerty is back too, and it’s pretty clear he will see the least amount of media and critical attention, even though he might have the best new CD of the lot.

You have to start with the title, Revival, which not only describes his return but also hints at Fogerty’s classic band. That is significant because Fogerty was forever embroiled in a bitter feud against Creedence Clearwater Revival’s label, Fantasy, over royalties. He has avoided playing CCR songs live and even put “Zanz Can’t Dance,” his shot at Fantasy head Saul Zaentz on his 1985 album Centerfield. (A lawsuit did force Fogerty to change the title to “Vanz Can’t Dance.”) But now that Zaentz is no longer associated with Fantasy, Fogerty has returned to the label and is clearly at peace with the past.

That is evident on “Creedence Song,” a celebration of the old band that is one of the highlights of the CD, and from the energy that Fogerty brings to the entire album. The material isn’t a departure. Fogerty’s guitar and voice remain as distinct and familiar as ever. The sound is bare — guitar, drums, and bass — but it’s played so tight and bright that it comes across like the DNA of rock-and-roll.

Perhaps it helps that Fogerty has a new target for his angst: George Bush. “A Long Dark Night” and “I Can’t Take It No More” spell out Fogerty’s case against Bush and the Iraq war in bold letters. “I Can’t Take It No More” is particularly furious, coming on as fast and angry as any punk song pounded out by twentysomethings.  

Of course, Fogerty is long past his 20s, but on Revival he has captured a bit of the magic that put him on top in the first place. Ears old and young should rejoice. — Werner Trieschmann

Grade: A-