Tag: Ardent Studios

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Music Video Monday: “Strange Child” by Kathy Zhou

Happy Halloween from Music Video Monday!

We’ve got a suitably spooky selection for Samhain, a tale of witchcraft and devilry from Memphis chanteuse Kathy Zhou. You’ve seen her on keys at Zebra Lounge, and now she’s ready to reveal her own music.

“’Strange Child’ is an upbeat, spooky, theatrical retelling of a nightmare I had as a child,” Zhou says. “The nightmare takes place on a movie-set-like landscape and features a mystical witch, innocent animals, and my younger self. 

“As the song progresses, chaos ensues when the witch gets a subtle eerily fiery attitude and decides to wreak havoc upon the poor creatures around her. The song is powered by my piano and vocal narration, and features a talented team of local artists — Alice Hasen on violin and flute, Victoria Dowdy on background vocals and electric guitar, and Dee Torrell on bass. It also features L.A.-based drummer Sarah Mori.”

The video filmed at Ardent Studios by director Nolan Dean. Take a look!

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

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Music Music Blog

Remembering John King’s Passion for Recorded Music

John King (Photo by Sherman Willmott)

This week’s cover story, The Vinyl Countdown, came out just as the city was reeling from the news of John King’s death at the age of 78. Sherman Willmott, who knew King well and helped create the Memphis Listening Lab last year on the strength of King’s thousands of records, CDs, and music-themed books, wrote on Facebook at the time:

Not going to lie. This one hurts. I’ve met so many great people in the music biz, but John King is Tops of the Pops. Huge loss for Memphis and a big loss personally. One of a kind person, always funny and so anti-cool, he’s too cool. Truly the Spirit of Memphis like Bowlegs Miller or Jim Spake — guys who get stuff done behind the scenes in a quality way and aren’t superstars but make things shake, rattle, & roll … defining exactly what people actually love about Memphis. Godspeed to the King of Memphis!

Indeed, King was a pivotal player in the city during its musical zenith, as a promoter, program director, and studio owner, having initially co-founded Ardent Studios with fellow teens John Fry and Fred Smith in 1959. I reached out to Willmott to hear more of his thoughts on the King of Memphis, the man who collected it all, John King.

John Fry and John King, experimenting with studio design as teens (Photo courtesy Memphis Listening Lab).

Memphis Flyer: John’s career was multi-faceted. He saw the Memphis music business from a lot of sides, wouldn’t you say?

Sherman Willmott: Oh definitely. From the little stories he would tell, his whole life was fascinating from the beginning, when they were kids, getting into rock and roll just as it was starting. He grew up with rock and roll, chasing the records. Whether it was him taking the bus downtown to Home of the Blues record shop on Beale, or later with Terry Manning and their buddies getting on the phone to call in mail orders of Beatles records from England. He was very aggressive and determined to get whatever it was he was searching for. And that paid off with his incredible collection.

His work as a record promoter also fed into that.

To me, some of the most interesting tales he would tell were from when he went on the road with the Stax PR people, or the radio people, and they’d go into mostly African American stations. John of course was the token white guy, pushing the rock and roll stuff, but he loved all the music. He particularly loved the hustle and working with the DJs and A&R guys and promo men. That to me is fascinating. It’s like that book, Hit Men. About how you actually got records played. John lived that life. And he lived a life of no regrets.

And one reason he did it was that [Stax president] Al Bell really took him under his wing. So he had an entrée into that world, because of Stax and their muscle. The Stax promotional team was great, with Deanie Parker and those folks. John may have not had an office at Stax, but he certainly knew everyone there. They were friends. There was a lot of overlap between John, Stax, and Ardent.

And he was like a kid in a candy shop. They had worked in radio as teenagers, but to visit stations in a city like Philadelphia was a whole other level. He was pushing records, but I’m sure it wasn’t “pushing” to him; he was just talking passionately about some record they were promoting. Of course, he also would have a tip sheet, and that was another way he had a reciprocal relationship. He would promote other people’s records, and that was a way for him to stay on top of things and get more records for himself, which was a perk.

His collecting covered a lot of genres, didn’t it?

He liked everything, and he had really good taste. So he was getting other people’s new releases, at a time when there was so much great music coming out in every genre. His timing in life couldn’t have been better, I think.

What had he been doing in more recent years?

He always had his hand in the music business. But once the Ardent label went on the shelf for a while (because it never really shut down completely), and Stax went out of business, people in the music business here either went to L.A. or Nashville, generally. Or they fought over the scraps that were left, in the “Disco Duck” era, when studios weren’t as busy. From 1967 to the early ’70s, when American and Stax were going, and Elvis was recording in town, and everyone from Paul Revere and the Raiders to Ronny Milsap to Dan Penn was here, Memphis was on top of its game. If you were there for that, and the rug got pulled out from under you around 1975, it’s like being at the club at three in the morning when the lights come on. It’s time to go somewhere else. I think there was a lot of that in general. And I think John moved around a bit, but he never completely got out of music promoting. It was his passion. He never stopped collecting.

In his collection, there’s a lot of stuff from the ’80s on 12″, when hip hop and dance music was starting to take off. And you wouldn’t think he’d be a big dance music guy, so that was a weird part of the collection. But I think he took whatever was happening in the music business.

I think the big turn for him was in 2000, or the late ’90s, when he started getting into internet radio. I think at that point he was formulating a game plan for what to do with his collection, and that was to make programs for this station, Tiger Radio. And he collected all these yearbooks and phone books and old radio clips and ads. What he wanted to do was make each internet radio show focus on a specific date. Like, April, 1967. And he wanted to pick out people in the yearbooks and talk about them going to a specific dance to see a band. That’s how into it he was. He would play the ads from that year along with the songs. When I met John, that’s what he was into. He basically had his own massive radio station and library, and all the things you needed to do an old school radio show.

So he’d sit there with selections from his collection and digitally record internet radio shows?

Yep, he was one of the first into broadcasting music online. And he had all formats: records, CDs, cassettes, everything. But when I walked into his office the first time, it was like walking into a 1960s radio station. He had shelves and shelves of ’45s that are now in the listening lab.

Are those shows still archived online?

I don’t think they are. It was tigerradio.net. Obviously named after the University of Memphis. He was a big fan.

How did John end up giving his entire collection to the fledgling Memphis Listening Lab?

We’ll call it the collection, but I call it his life’s work. But it wasn’t about him, it was about placing that collection into the best situation possible. He was searching for the proper place for it to end up, where it would get the most public use. He wanted it to be used in the best possible way. And he and I would talk about various opportunities out there, and how much they were or were not what he was looking for. Inevitably each one was a disappointment.

And that’s why the Crosstown opportunity was so appealing to him. Before that, he had resigned himself to the fact that his collection was going to live somewhere outside of Memphis. And that would have been bad for Memphis, a missed opportunity, but also, he was concerned it would be put in the back of some university collection somewhere. One archive I visited had some amazing records, all stuck behind a cage. There was no interaction with the collection by the public. Everything was done by appointment. It was more like the records were in archival prison. At universities who take in collections, there’s usually a hierarchy. Your stuff gets put in the back because some other dude’s collection comes in. Things get lost in the university shuffle. At least in the Memphis Listening Lab, you can come in and see everything that’s available. Those records and CDs are there to be used.

You can have a ton of stuff, it doesn’t matter what stuff you have, but if no one gets to see it and the passion you put into it, what’s the point? John’s collection is really well curated stuff. It’s in great shape, and it’s also really eclectic. There was a method to his madness, and only people who go really deep into it will see that.

When we opened the MLL, he was very pleased. He took great satisfaction in seeing how it finally got built, how much care was put into the design of the space, just like he put into the design of the collection. One thing he said was, “They’re thanking me — but I’m thanking them!” Seeing him in there and enjoying the space was very positive. The last time I saw him was at the listening lab. We had a ball, sitting around listening to music, and he was at peace. The best thing was, he and his friend Tim Riley, who’d worked in promotions at Stax, went over there about a month ago. Attendance has been picking up more and more since Covid subsided. Saturdays can get pretty busy over there. So John and Tim got to see the full-on appreciation and usage of the collection. That’s the ultimate, from my point of view. That’s what really made him happy. He wanted the collection to be enjoyed by the public, with the radio station nearby and the space and the programming. It’s fulfilling the mission he desired, and he got to see it in action. That’s the payoff.

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Music Music Blog

Memphis Listening Lab: A Rare Music Collection Made Public

Sherman Willmott, Jim Cole and Matt Ross-Spang of the Memphis Listening Lab (Photo by Alex Greene)

Back in the ’50s and ’60s, John King was already a collector’s collector. Even as he went on to distinguish himself as a promoter, program director, and studio owner (having initially co-founded Ardent Studios with fellow teens John Fry and Fred Smith in 1959), he continued collecting all the while. But for years he pondered the question of where to safeguard that collection for posterity.

Teenagers John Fry (L) and John King (R) shared a fascination with radio, recording and records. (Photo courtesy Memphis Listening Lab).

Enter King’s kindred spirits and fellow music devotees, the folks at the Memphis Listening Lab. The newly minted nonprofit, launched on the strength of King’s donated collection, has taken up residence in a custom-built space on the second floor of Crosstown Concourse, and is set to open on June 15.

Listening room in the Memphis Music Lab. Art exhibits, such as the current display of photography by Pat Rainer, will rotate through the space. (Photo by Jamie Harmon)

“Open” is a good word for it, for the lab is reimagining King’s collection as a vast public archive, complete with listening stations, event rooms with state of the art speakers and turntables, and a podcast-friendly editing studio.

John King’s collection has become legendary in Memphis music circles. A recent talk with producer Terry Manning brought King’s collecting acumen to the fore. As Manning said, “In the very early Ardent days on National Street, and then later on Madison, we loved the Beatles. Not just the Beatles, but all of the British Invasion bands, the Animals and the Kinks, not so much the Stones, but especially the Beatles. The Hollies. I loved it, John Fry loved it, John King loved it.

“John King also loved radio, and he and John Fry went over to Arkansas and were working with a guy that owned a radio station there. John King started sending letters out to record companies in the name of this radio station, saying ‘please send the records to this P.O. Box in Memphis.’ So all the record companies, big and small, would send their records to the P.O. Box. We didn’t put ’em on the radio, we’d just sit and listen to ’em. We got free records!

“And we started ordering the English records from the John Lever Record Shop in Northampton, England. We would get it all before it was even released [in the U.S.].”

All of which underscores that King’s phenomenal collection — roughly 30,000 45s, 12,000 LPs, 20,000 CDs, and 1,000 music books — is not solely focused on Memphis. As board member Sherman Willmott notes, the collection includes “a lot of Beatles. Some really strangely rare Beatles stuff. Because they would mail order. They’d pick up the phone and mail order from shops in England, and have them shipped here, before there were record imports.”

But the collection is also strong on psychedelia. “Probably the most surprising thing he has, that you wouldn’t expect, is psych,” says Willmott. “I don’t know what got him into it. It’s as if Dr. Demento grew up in Memphis and was into soul and psych. It’s very eclectic.”

Individual turntables with headphones grace the largest room, also slated for educational events. (Photo by Jamie Harmon)

Librarian and archivist Jim Cole, adds, “There are a lot of late ’60s, early ’70s promo copies that were probably mailed to him, and some of those are so obscure, they probably never went past the promo stage.”

Nonetheless, the collection’s relevance to Memphis should not be understated, especially regarding one studio in particular. As Willmott points out, “The Ardent archives in this collection are pretty extensive. It’s like John was the curator of the Ardent’s history. Especially the early stuff. There’s enough stuff to do whatever you’d want to do with it. Books, documentaries, or just casual fandom.”

Cole pulls out some boxes of Ardent artifacts: “We’ve got all the early Ardent 45s and other oddball things.”

Early Ardent singles from the Memphis Listening Lab (Photo by Jamie Harmon)

And it goes far beyond Ardent, as Willmott points out. “John’s got so much Memphis stuff in this collection. I mean, he’s deep catalog Memphis, ’cause what he didn’t collect back in the day, he went back and found on eBay or at the store. He’s got all kinds of obscure Memphis 45s, plus all the [CD] box sets that came out. He’s got it covered on so many levels.”

Indeed, the shelves promise hours and days and years of researching and listening to music. Soon there will be ladders as in floor-to-ceiling libraries of yore, not to mention lecture series and listening events where attendees can hear the various media on Memphis’ own high-end audio standard bearer, Egglestonworks.

Egglestonworks Loudspeakers at the Memphis Listening Lab (Photo by Alex Greene)

Amid the towering shelves of musical gems and speakers, it’s easy to miss the small door off to the side. As Cole explains, “We’ve got an editing room here. The public can come in and use it for free. It can be used for podcasting. The computer has Pro Tools and Logic, and we have good microphones. And we’re going to work with WYXR, so people who are trying to get shows can come up here and do a demo show on the podcasting station. Or the WYXR programmers can even pre-record a show, if they’re going be out of town or something.”

The editing room at the Memphis Listening Lab (Photo by Jamie Harmon)

While not all of the audio equipment is yet installed, it will be by July 10, when the lab will host its inaugural event, a tribute to John King. The man who made it all possible will be in attendance. Eventually other collections will be added, but for now, the staff and volunteers at the Memphis Listening Lab have their work cut out for them, as they begin to catalog King’s holdings.

As Cole reflects, “John started collecting in the ’50s, and never got rid of anything. And they started Ardent in ’59, when he was 15, he and John Fry and Fred Smith. And John King went on to work in radio. He wrote a radio programming guide for many years, and got tons of promos. So he got a little bit of everything, and he kept it all. Most people collect one thing. They collect blues or rockabilly. But John collected a little bit of everything. So it’s a great collection. From the most well-known to the most obscure stuff you’ve ever heard of.”

John King (Photo courtesy Memphis Listening Lab)
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Music Music Blog

Remembering Led Zeppelin III: Generations of Memphians Affected by Album

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Ah, to settle into these idyllic fall days, with Led Zeppelin ringing in the air. October 5th marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin III, mixed and mastered at Ardent Recordings, prompting many to reminisce about the impact of the album and the band on the Bluff City. Many a muso has dusted off an old copy with the spinning-wheel cartoon cover sleeve, so at odds with the album’s very autumnal mood, all bracing shrieks and riffs and crackling acoustics ’round the fire.

Terry Manning was the engineer for some of the album’s overdubs, and all its mixing and mastering, and when we spoke, he shared too many memories to fit in one article. Most of the tale can be read in Memphis magazine’s November cover story, taking you all the way from the Yardbirds in Kentucky to Jimmy Page having Manning inscribe messages onto the vinyl’s inner groove. But space did not allow for one bit of our conversation, concerning the interest in Led Zeppelin expressed by one Chris Bell. The founder of Big Star was himself a great fan, even known to spontaneously break out into the entire guitar solo of their song “Heartbreaker” (as described in Rich Tupica’s Bell bio, There was a Light).

When I spoke to Manning about mixing the album and the band playing in Memphis, he brought up Chris Bell:

Memphis Flyer: Did it create quite a stir around town, the fact that Jimmy Page was in town?

Terry Manning: You’d think it would create a stir like that, but it didn’t really. Jimmy wanted it kept quiet and we had work to do. There wasn’t any partying and meeting people and things. John Fry was not even there. He didn’t come for the session in any way. He stayed out. Once we were there, I locked the door and other people didn’t come in. It was very under the table. Kept quiet.  courtesy Terry Manning

Terry Manning at the Ardent mixing board, 1971

Now, Chris Bell did know about it, and I think he came in for a second once. But I know later, when they were on tour, and Zeppelin played in Memphis, Chris came over to my house. Because Jimmy and his then-girlfriend Charlotte came to my house for dinner after the Led Zeppelin concert. And I’d had an Indian meal catered by an Indian restaurant, which you couldn’t get in the U.S. on tour very much then. So I’d told Chris to stay away, but he couldn’t help it. He came by sheepishly, with a bottle of wine. So we let him in, and Jimmy and Chris and I hung out. We listened to Gimmer Nicholson all night. And Ali Akbar Khan.

Josh Reynolds

Terry Manning

I told him, do not come. And this was after the concert, not during the recordings. But he just couldn’t help it. And I can’t blame him. Of course not! Now, years later, I’m so glad he did. It’s a wonderful memory, to be thinking of, two o’clock in the morning, Jimmy Page, Chris Bell, and me sitting on the floor, listening to Ali Akbar Khan and Gimmer Nicholson. Acoustic and Indian music, mostly.

Another renowned Memphis guitarist, a generation or so removed from Chris Bell, also noted his connection to Led Zeppelin III last month. On October 5th, guitarist Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady, Big Ass Truck) celebrated his wedding anniversary with an online post and noted they had married on “the 32nd anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin III.” An auspicious day, indeed, and it prompted Selvidge to recall the profound effect the band (and guitarist Jimmy Page) had on his musicianship.

And the very different effect they had on his father, the late Sid Selvidge.  Rich Tarbell

Steve Selvidge

Memphis Flyer: Do you still have your old copy of the album?

Steve Selvidge: If you’re talking about Led Zeppelin III, that’s a piece of vinyl that I purchased when I was young. I think it was in fifth grade when it first seeped deep into me. I had just started playing guitar. Certainly by sixth grade, I was definitely way into it. I remember a friend’s older brother had The Song Remains the Same [the live soundtrack album of the film of the same name], and I remember playing that. Someone once said, “Zeppelin is nothing if not older brother rock.” I had lost my copy of Led Zeppelin III for years, but my brother was moving and found it. I bought it at Pop Tunes. Talk about the opposite of 180 gram vinyl pressing, this was just the floppiest disc. It did have the sleeve with the spinning wheel! And it had the Crowley quote, too [inscribed on the vinyl].

Do you think it holds up?

I’ve read all the press. I can almost see the words on the page, I’ve read it so many times. And I think they were unjustly criticized at the time, Oh yeah, Crosby Stills & Nash and Joni Mitchell had hits, so they jumped on that bandwagon. And Jimmy Page was like, ‘This acoustic music’s on all of our records. It’s not like we picked up acoustic guitars out of nowhere.’ I mean, ‘Ramble On,’ man! But the first two were released at the beginning and end of 1969. They’re companion pieces. One was born out of Jimmy Page’s initial plan, and one was born out of the road. But I do agree that III was where Plant was able to emerge more fully formed. And honestly I think that’s also when he had more of a sense of job security.

Because, from what I’ve read, even through the second record and touring, it was like, this is Jimmy’s band. Peter Grant’s laying down the law, like, ‘Dude, don’t think you can get comfortable.’ But with III, Robert started to assume this thing of the front man. The center piece, the Golden God. It was a crazy time. That was back when a guitar player could be famous just for being a guitar player. Not just famous, but people who weren’t musicians knew who he was, because they’d tracked his progress in the Yardbirds. It was this burgeoning underground scene. So there were people who knew Led Zeppelin because of Jimmy Page. But then Robert transitioned into that pop consciousness. And it was years, for me, before I realized that the average person takes a band on its front man. I was like, ‘Wait, there are people who know Led Zeppelin and don’t know who Jimmy Page is? Every guitarist in every band is just as important as the singer, right??’ It turns out I was mistaken about that..

And this is speaking to my middle-aged-ness, but I think that’s probably their best nighttime record. With technology these days, streaming music is daytime whatever, just put on something that’s rockin,’ get the dishes done. But for me, vinyl is the nighttime thing. It’s the kids have gone to bed, decompressing and talking about the events of the day, and what are we gonna put on? Zeppelin III is good cranked up, and it’s also good at low volumes.

‘Friends’ was the first time they used a tuning not based on British whatever folk traditions. It was more of a nod to Indian music. And Page was really into Indian music well before the Beatles were. He tells the story of going to hear Indian music and it was him and a bunch of old people. He was the only young person there. So, ‘Friends’ is a big one in terms of that.

The vocal on ‘That’s the Way’ is so gorgeous. As a lifelong Page disciple, as I get older, I get more and more fascinated by Robert Plant. Some say that his wail on ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ is when he started to lose his voice. His voice changed radically, because they toured so much. He didn’t have a vocal coach. He was just smoking and drinking and shouting. So by ’72 his voice had changed. And some say that shriek on ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ is the swan song, if you will.

It took me a long time to come to terms with that recorded version of ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You.’ ’Cause I was such a disciple of the movie, the Song Remains the Same, and that version of the song from ’73 at Madison Square Garden, I just loved it so much. It’s super stoney. For whatever reason, John Paul Jones didn’t have a [Hammond] B3 [organ] with him. On the ’73 tour, it was all Fender Rhodes [electric piano] with foot pedals. You know, the B3 is like, I’m gonna put you in a specific place right now. And for the longest time, I didn’t want to hear it. Because I was so in love with the Rhodes and the stoney vibe of Madison Square Garden. But now I’ve come to respect it for what it is.

And the guitar solo on that [album version]. That song is one of Zeppelin’s greatest moments. Plant will tell you that. That guitar solo is one of Page’s greatest moments for sure. And that’s what brought me back to that version. It’s the perfect mixture of his technique, which also changed, and his emotion. Of all the big three guitarists in his class, he wrought the most emotion. And that is right there.

Did Lee Baker ever talk about Led Zeppelin?

I probably brought it up some. I knew that Lee Baker played a Sunburst Les Paul from the ’50s. A 1958-60 Les Paul Sun Standard … the significance of it. That’s what Jimmy Page was playing, and Lee Baker had the same kind of guitar. And it was rare. I know he knew Page was bad, but he was into other things.

Justin Fox Burks

The late Sid Selvidge, with son, Steve

Your dad, Sid Selvidge, was a pioneering performer of the blues, among other things. Did you listen to Zeppelin with him?

I played a lot of Led Zeppelin at my house when I was a kid. And my dad happened to be a pretty proficient singer in his own right, with pretty strong opinions about other singers. And he did not like Robert Plant at all! His thing was, ‘I know he can sing! I’ve heard him, he can sing! He just does all that puke music, man!’ That’s what he called it, ‘Puke Music.’ Like he’s straining so hard he’s gonna puke, you know?

But the final nail in the coffin was when it got to the last song, ‘Hat’s Off to (Roy) Harper,’ which is just Fred McDowell, ‘Shake ’Em On Down.’ And man, would that make him mad! He was just like, ‘This British motherf*cker!’ He was just mad about it, man! I remember him specifically zeroing in on it. I remember exactly where I was sitting, in front of the turntable, looking at this old decorative lamp. And he was just so pissed off at the way they were interpreting Fred McDowell. ‘Lee Baker could just smoke this kid!’ They were just defiling Mississippi Fred McDowell. I think it was the histrionics of Robert Plant that really did that. That’s just how he sings.

I will say, Robert Plant’s voice did change. And I kinda liked it, because, as a connoisseur of bootleg recordings, he had the power, and he wasn’t always judicial with it. So there’s a lot of him going over the top, screaming, getting super high, and wailing and stuff. That’s why, for me, ’73 is the peak year. His voice has changed, and he can’t just go high all the time. So it forced him to get creative with the melodies, and kind of lay his shit back a little bit. Which I like. ’Cause I do like it when he croons. And Jimmy Page’s tone was at its apex, and his playing had changed. He laid off some of his go-to things, and was stretching out a little bit more. Then by ’75 it just all goes to shit, in my opinion. But Plant’s another polarizing one. I don’t know, I’ll sit through a lot of bad singers to hear the guitar that I want.

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Music Music Blog

With Those Pretty Wrongs, Jody Stephens Does Everything Pretty Right

Those Pretty Wrongs

One of Jody Stephens’ most treasured possessions is a guitar once owned by Chris Bell, dating back to their years playing alongside Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel in Big Star. If you find yourself at Ardent Studios, the unassuming acoustic is easy to spot: it’s the only guitar repaired with electrical tape.

Chris Bell’s acoustic guitar

As Stephens explains, “Andy and Chris had a fight while we were practicing at Alex’s house, and Chris picked up Andy’s Thunderbird bass and broke it into three pieces. So Andy stalked Chris. When Chris parked his car in a friend’s driveway, Andy went up, opened the case and poked holes in it. So Andy wound up with the guitar, and then gave it to me. It’s on the song ‘Thirteen,’ and it’s an awesome sounding guitar. We used it with Those Pretty Wrongs in the studio. Back in the 70s, my brother covered the holes with electrical tape. Now I won’t take it off.”

It’s entirely appropriate that the guitar’s rich sound lives on in the new record by Those Pretty Wrongs, the folk/pop/rock duo comprised of Stephens and Luther Russell, onetime member of the Freewheelers and a solo artist in his own right. While the band’s latest, Zed for Zulu (Burger Records), is its own beast, the echoes of Big Star’s quieter moments are undeniable. Foregrounding acoustic guitar textures with the crisply recorded approach that has become a hallmark of Ardent Studios, Stephen’s vocals, surrounded by Russell’s lush background harmonies, carry that unmistakable blend of innocence and bookish enunciaciation that has marked his singing ever since the Big Star days.

With the new album released, the duo is now launching a series of tours, beginning with last week’s appearance at Americanafest, and headed soon to England and Scotland. Before they leave, they’ll have a special show with guest performers at the Green Room at Crosstown Arts on Saturday, September 21st. I spoke with Stephens recently about this, the duo’s second album, and the ways it echoes his past work at Ardent.

Memphis Flyer: Was your appearance at AmericanaFest the debut of material from the new record?

Jody Stephens: We actually debuted the new album live in Los Angeles for a autism benefit, for the Wild Honey Foundation. It was a smaller backyard thing for a great cause.

Do you guys assemble a band for your tours?

No, that’s unaffordable. We’re just a duo. Our load in is an acoustic 12 string guitar. Luther is an amazing guitar player. An acoustic 12 string and Luther is all it takes. He’s really good, and fun and playful. The record was, to an extent, recorded as a duo on stage. Even if I played drums on a song, I wouldn’t try to play like I was in a band, but just play to support the song.

When you do play them, you have a signature power to your drumming.

Thanks. I try to play in a real definite way. Sometimes kinda loose, but if I make a mistake, it’s gonna be with such authority that nobody’s gonna notice. And we’re lucky to have Mike Wilson as our engineer, and all the great gear we have here at Ardent. Great mics, and the studio rooms sound incredible. And then Luther and Jason Hiller mixed this stuff. And I think they did a brilliant job of it. Listening to those mixes, there’s a brightness to them. I’m excited about the new record.

I’m assuming that the arrangements came together when Luther did overdubs in LA. Is that how it evolved?

Pretty much, except for when we used Chris Bell’s 335. On ‘You and Me.’ That was here at Ardent: Chris’ guitar run through a Hi Watt amp that belonged to Big Star. It was either Andy’s or Alex’s. And there are some organ parts that he did here. Most of the arrangements are his, but I would say things like, ‘Do you have a synthesizer for “Hurricane of Love?”‘ He said ‘No, but I could use the bass pedals on an organ.’ Then I came up with using clarinet and brought Jim Spake in. And what he did was so far beyond what I’d hoped for. Just so incredible. You can picture a butterfly tossed around by the wind. But all those guitar lines ad solos, the guitar tones, most of the arrangements, are all by Luther.

I’m primarily the lyricist and write a lot of melody lines, though Luther does contribute some pretty brilliant lines as well. Like on ‘Hurricane of Love,’ Luther came up with those chords and that was so haunting. He’s great at cool changes.

I was imagining you strumming Chris Bell’s acoustic guitar.

Luther is strumming it! It’s on pretty much everything except maybe ‘Time To Fly.’

Chris Stamey, who worked with Alex Chilton, and has participated in the Big Star Third concerts, arranged the strings on the first track. That’s a beautiful touch, with echoes of ‘For You’ from Sister Lovers.

Chris offered to do strings for us and we selected that song. It was so easy, ‘cos I knew he would put a lot of heart and care into it. And we both love those string arrangements. And he sent the arrangements to Jonathan Kirkscey, so we’ll have a string quartet at the Green Room this Saturday. And we’ll do ‘For You’ and ‘Blue Moon’ as well. Jonathan’s going to write string arrangements for songs that don’t have them already, possibly adding strings to more songs with drums. I’m thrilled about that. And Jenny Davis is a pretty remarkable flautist, and she’s gonna join us on ‘A Day at the Park.’

Just for the record, it is you singing lead on all the tracks?

It is, ‘cos I wouldn’t have anything else to do. Luther sings all the harmonies. Luther’s got his solo career. It started out with Luther saying, ‘Why don’t we get together and do some writing, and you could do a solo record.’ And the more we got into it, the more I realized how far from being a solo record it was. It’s such a collaborative effort.

Has your sound changed much since the debut?

They’re pretty sympathetic records. With this second one, we have a bit more of a sense of who we are and what we wanna do. Though that is pretty much defined by our musical influences. I think Luther’s talented enough to do anything, and adapt. But I’m not that clever, so whatever I do is what it is.

Luther and I are certainly like-minded in that we both like melodies. He would send me a message saying, This is what I did today, and it would be like a Christmas present, because I couldn’t imagine anything better, ‘cos he’s just that creative with sounds. On ‘The Carousel,’ that guitar break is like, Wow! The sound is kind of biting and digs in a little bit, without being rock.

I believe we are building an audience, and the more we play live the more we’ll be able to do that. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re in it for, the connection to people. Other than that, you’re just sitting around in your living room. 

With Those Pretty Wrongs, Jody Stephens Does Everything Pretty Right

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Music Music Blog

Keith Sykes Leads Ardent Into a New Era

CREDIT: Alex Greene

Alex Greene

Keith Sykes in Ardent’s Studio B

The legendary Ardent Studios was dealt a major blow over three years ago, when John Hampton, one of Ardent’s chief producers, and John Fry, the studio’s founder and owner, passed away within five days of each other. Nancy Apple, Ardent’s night/weekend manager and director of social media, puts it this way: “Everybody was stunned. It wasn’t just John Fry who we lost, it was John Hampton too. Those are the two key figures of Ardent, with the exception of Jody [Stephens]. I think Ardent really needed that team feeling.” Then, mulling over the past few weeks, she adds, “And we finally have that feeling again. It feels like the old days. Even though we all miss Mr. Fry, it’s feeling like Ardent again.”

John Fry and John Hampton.

One reason may be the recent hiring of a longtime Ardent-associated artist, Keith Sykes, as the new chief manager. As a songwriter’s songwriter who’s had his work covered by the likes of John Prine, Jimmy Buffet, and Rosanne Cash, Sykes has traveled the world with his music, but has kept his home base in the Memphis area nearly all his life. His closeness to the Ardent “family” over the past four decades makes his new official post a very good fit indeed. I sat down with Sykes to hear how things are going today at the fabled studio.

Memphis Flyer: It must be a big change for you to move into a desk job like this.

Keith Sykes: You know, it’s like in 1986 I when quit playing. I was building up my publishing company, and I did that for fifteen years, from 1986-2001. But then, I went out and did a tour with Todd Snider, just opening his shows. We were just having fun, basically. But I got to thinking, “This is fun, the publishing companies are up to where they’re doing their own thing. It’s pretty level.” So I thought, “I’m gonna go back to playing and just end out my days doing that.” And I did and I had a great time. I’ve been doing it 16, 17 years now.

So, my wife is [studio owner] Betty Fry’s personal assistant, and Betty’s been asking me to do this job since last summer. But I just said, “I’m happy, I’m good.” Well, after listening to my wife and Betty talk, and just getting a feel for things, I realized I could help out here and still do my gigs that I wanna do. The nicer ones of the bunch. I think I can manage the studio about as well as anybody. And we’ve got great recording engineers and great staff.

It seems like the place is really bustling with activity. New chairs, new ceiling tiles…

We’re doing everything we can to get the place pretty again. The atrium is pretty again, the fountain started working again on Monday. The new roof, that’s the first thing Betty did when she took control. We’ve got Nancy down to doing the things that she does best. But we all three, Jody and Nancy and I, trade off answering the phone. We’ll do whatever it takes, clean up the place, whatever. We just want it to be a great place to record.

You go way back with Memphis and Ardent, don’t you?

I lived here in Memphis from 1957 to 1966, when I was just a little kid. I moved away for eight years, but then I passed back through; I was going to California, but I saw Jerene Rowe, who’s been my wife since then, and that was that. We’ve been together ever since. In 2001 we moved to Fayette County.

So I moved back to Memphis in 1974 and did the first record after that at Shoe Productions. And that did pretty good. I cut the first record that I ever cut at Ardent back in 1979. I’d done demos over here several times before, and it never really gelled until July of ’79. I cut I’m Not Strange, I’m Just Like You here and everything seemed to work with that. Everybody in my band had quit ‘cos I was on tour with Jimmy Buffet that year. So they took the core of the band and named it Uncle Tom’s Jam Band. It did good back then. But it left me with zero band to come over here and record with. And I was talking to John Fry and he said, “Well, you know Joe [Harding] plays bass, and the night guy plays drums.” And the night guy was John Hampton! So I ended up with two great musicians. I didn’t mean to, it just worked out that way. And they were both fabulous engineers and Grammy winners and all that stuff. Courtesy Jerene and Keith Sykes

Jerene Sykes, Keith Sykes, Joe Hardy at Ardent in the 1970s.

So you had a very personal experience of Ardent in its heyday. Has that informed your move to manager?

One thing that everybody told me when John died was, “What we’re gonna do is exactly what we’ve been doing.” I’m convinced that if we concentrate on it, and everybody uses their best intuitions and connections, we can make our mark again.

We’re getting the place together physically, going through the gear, making sure everything’s top notch, going over every microphone, every console switch. Everything. And hopefully we’ll get the kind of clientele that appreciates all that. ‘Cos one thing we can do that you can’t do in your bedroom is get a good band in a great room and get creative. That’s the magic in a bottle. You can get some great stuff in your computer, but we can still do that thing, where people get together and you just play it live.

There’s nothing like the air of a great room.

I consider us a Golden Era studio. Everybody’s got computers. Well, we’re in a lucky position where we’ve got this great old gear too. And it’s maintained really well. So many people are into the analog sound now. We’ve got three beautiful 24 track Studer [tape decks], ready to go.

What about other aspects of Ardent, like the label?

I’m not concentrating on the label, for the next few months at least, until we can really have our routine down. Right now, we’re promoting the studio. Now, John Fry really did great with the Christian music. They were selling millions of records. I’m not in that. I’m not opposed to it, it’s just not what I do. What I wanna do is get some great singer/songwriters in here and work around those people.

So I’m trying to use my connections. And you know, Jody’s a gold mine. He knows everybody in the business. I sit here with him at least thirty minutes to an hour every day, trading Rolodexes. Just call the people you haven’t talked to in a long time and say hello. One thing will lead to another after a while. And you may only get three or four big ‘uns, and have to throw some back, but that’s the way it goes, if we can get to fishing again, you know?

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Music Music Features

Dawn Patrol Release new album

The metal band made up of brothers Tommy and Kyle Gonzales are back with a full-length follow-up to 2014’s Police State EP. Recorded by Alan Burcham (the same producer behind Police State) at Ardent Studios and at his home, Democracy Delivered is a nine-song album that is “85 percent metal and 15 percent experimental,” according to frontman Tommy Gonzalez.

“We started mixing in elements of ska and punk on some songs, but overall it is still a metal album,” Gonzales said.

Since forming in 2012, Dawn Patrol have gained a strong local following, performed regional tours, and opened for national touring acts that found their way to Memphis. Through the help of venues like the Hi-Tone and Rock 103’s “Memphis Made” show, the band has become one of the mainstays of the “new Memphis metal scene,” alongside bands like Reserving Dirtnaps and Ritual Decay. The artwork on Democracy Delivered was created by Benjamin Velasco, and the album’s title comes from something that Gonzales saw at a concert.

Dawn Patrol

“I saw someone wearing a shirt that said ‘Democracy Delivered,’ and there was this image of a plane dropping bombs from the sky,” Gonzales said.

“That image stuck with me, so when I got home that night, I wrote a song with that phrase in mind. I looked it up and there wasn’t already a band called Democracy Delivered, so we just stuck with it.”

To celebrate the release of Democracy Delivered, Dawn Patrol will play a local show at the Hi-Tone with locals Klaxxon and Process of Suffocation, along with touring act Cryptic Hymn from Louisville, Kentucky. Democracy Delivered will be available for the first time at Friday’s show.

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Music Music Blog

Press Play: A Tribute to John Fry and John Hampton

John Fry and John Hampton.

The Levitt Shell’s summer concert season starts tomorrow night with a tribute show honoring John Fry and John Hampton. Ken Stringfellow, Jon Auer, Jody Stephens and guests will be playing classic Big Star songs, and Tora Tora and Gin Blossoms will also be performing. Fry and Hampton worked on some of the biggest albums recorded in Memphis over the last few decades, and both passed away last December.

Press Play: A Tribute to John Fry and John Hampton (3)

As the founder of Ardent Studios, Fry created a hub for artists ranging from Bob Dylan to B.B. King to create some of their most memorable work. Fry joined the music business at the young age of 14 when he decided to operate a radio station in his bedroom, and later would go on to produce three albums for Big Star. John Hampton was also a hit-maker at Ardent Studios, and worked with the Gin Blossoms and Tora Tora, in addition to winning two grammy awards for his work with Jimmy Vaughn and The White Stripes. The show is free and all ages, so get to the Shell early tomorrow evening to honor two legends of Memphis music.

Press Play: A Tribute to John Fry and John Hampton (2)

Press Play: A Tribute to John Fry and John Hampton

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Music Music Features

We Prefer The Blues


Various Artists – Beale Street Saturday Night (Omnivore)

Originally released in 1978, Beale Street Saturday Night was produced by Jim Dickinson in an attempt to take back the reputation of the downtown street as the place where both the blues and rock-and-roll originated. Dickinson gathered up past and present Beale Street legends for the recordings, and everyone from Furry Lewis and Teenie Hodges to Sid Selvidge and Mud Boy and the Neutrons (Dickinson’s own group) got in on the action.

Recorded in artists’ homes, Ardent Studios, and even the Orpheum Theatre, Beale Street Saturday Night was originally created as a fund-raiser for the Memphis Development Foundation to help restore the Orpheum. This reissue serves a similar purpose, as a portion of the proceeds will go to the Beale Street Caravan radio program.

The reissue of Beale Street Saturday Night was approved by the Dickinson family and features a cover photo by William Eggleston, plus all new liner notes from producer Jim Lancaster who worked on the original release. In his new notes, Lancaster recalls what the Furry Lewis recording session was like:

“It was bitter and cold in 1977 when we went into the Orpheum on Main and Beale with our trusted group of soldiers. In 1890, the Grand Opera Palace was built on this site, the classiest joint outside of New York City! Vaudeville shows were the main attraction there until it burned down in 1923. The building we are in now was built in 1928 with the addition of the mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ. It had been sitting empty overlooking the decay and decline, but today we went to record Furry Lewis for the Beale Street Saturday Night project. Furry had performed in this building, on this stage in the 1930s. The Orpheum, just recently purchased by the Memphis Development Foundation, had no heat either. Poor ole Furry in his 70s was cold, sipping on a pint, and explaining that you couldn’t hardly tune a guitar when it was cold. When he exhaled, you could see and feel his breath. Furry had worked out a way to sip whiskey and smoke a cigarette while playing “Furry’s Blues” and keep a running joke all the while.”

That’s just one of many amazing stories inside the first official reissue of Beale Street Saturday Night, out April 14th on Omnivore records. A limited version on clear vinyl will also be for sale.

Leo Bud Welch – I don’t Prefer No Blues (Big Legal Mess)

I Don’t Prefer No Blues is the follow-up to last year’s Sabougla Voices, a gospel album that marked Welch’s debut as both a recording artist and a songwriter. “I don’t prefer no blues” is apparently what the preacher at Welch’s church said when he found out the 82-year-old guitarist was making a blues album. Up until last year, Welch had only performed in church and at big tent spirituals, but after signing with Big Legal Mess and releasing the acclaimed Sabougla Voices, Welch has performed all over the United States and ventured into Europe. He’s also playing this year’s Beale Street Music Fest.

When label owner Bruce Watson first signed Welch, the two agreed that the first album they made together would be a gospel album and the second would be a blues album. While it certainly is a blues record, there’s more than a little bit of rock-and-roll going on in I Don’t Prefer No Blues. From the opening track “Poor Boy” (produced by Jimbo Mathus) to the buzz saw riffs on “Too Much Wine,” it’s evident that Welch’s time in church sure didn’t spoil his ability to drag a song through the Mississippi mud.

By not recording his first album until he was over 80 years old, the Sabougla, Mississippi, native still has plenty of stories left to tell on I Don’t Prefer No Blues. Welch’s long history as a blue collar worker (he worked as a farmer and a logger for 35 years) is recalled on “So Many Turnrows,” a song about plowing behind a mule in the hot Mississippi sun. Even when he’s doing blues classics like “Sweet Black Angel” and “Cadillac Baby,” Welch has a way of playing them as if his listeners were hearing the songs for the first time. I Dont Prefer No Blues is available now.

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Music Music Blog

Rest in Peace Pat Taylor

Memphis Musician Pat Taylor passed away Wednesday after a long battle with cancer.  A Memphis songwriter for more than five decades, Taylor played in the influential bands Village Sound, The Breaks and The Highsteppers, among others.  

The Breaks were Taylor’s most successful project, landing a deal with RCA records and a top forty hit with the song “She Wants You.” The Breaks were also named the “Best Local Rock Band” by the Commercial Appeal in 1982. Taylor went on to work at Ardent Studios as a recording engineer and frequently performed around town with his family. Read an old interview with Taylor in which he discusses The Breaks and the Memphis music scene at the time.

There will be a memorial service for Pat Taylor Friday afternoon at St. Johns United Methodist Church in Midtown at 3:00 p.m. Those wishing to donate to the Taylor family in their time of need can do so here.

Rest in Peace Pat Taylor (3)

Rest in Peace Pat Taylor

Rest in Peace Pat Taylor (2)