Tag: Bar DKDC

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Music Record Reviews

Tyler Keith Throws Down with Hell to Pay

Though Tyler Keith is based in Oxford, Mississippi, he’s a well known voice among Memphians. That’s as a rock and roll singer, of course, though Keith has also cultivated an authorial voice with a noir novel, The Mark of Cain. But don’t expect any of the usual trappings of the author-turned-songsmith in Keith’s rock and roll records. They are not filled with intricate word plays or flights of verbal finesse. But he does have a way with a phrase.

Take the catchphrase of his new album, Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt). It rolls off the tongue in the title song as naturally as fallen fruit. And that’s what a big, pile-driving rock song needs. Right after that comes one of the album’s best, “Ghost Writer,” which steers clear of literary tropes even as he sings about writing.

“I tried to write my book/All by myself/I couldn’t find my hook/I needed somebody’s help/I need a Ghost Writer/I need you!” he sings with the perfect primitivism of the Ramones, and the simplicity of it allows the words’ meanings to breathe. Most importantly, it provides a chant-worthy chorus over an ace guitar riff.

Keith has been known to rock Memphis clubs for over 20 years now, and The Last Drag, his previous album, also reveled in guitar crunch. Yet this time around, the riffs are a little grittier, and one might say a bit more “seventies.” As opposed to the neo-60s rock of the last outing, this is neo-70s rock that borders, at times, on Stooges territory. Yet unlike that seminal group, it’s not drenched in guitar solos. It’s all about the riff.

Most of the album leans to the more thundering side of the guitar, sometimes complemented with ragged-but-right harmonies and swooping falsetto “oooohs.” The Apostles — Max Hipp (guitar, vocals), Van Thompson (bass, vocals), and Beau Bourgeois (drums, vocals) — can all carry a tune, and do so with gusto. Their playing is a perfect match for Keith’s songwriting, loose but on point.

One outlier is “Nothing Left,” which evokes the stomp of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. And like the best Young, Keith can philosophize regret and faith with a deft touch. “All I had were some words that washed away/Nothing left for me to do but pray.” Even then, the narrator isn’t sure what he’s praying to. “I don’t know if I believe in anything that I can’t see/For these times today have brought me to my knees/I’m asking someone to help me please.”

Tyler Keith and the Apostles celebrate the release of Hell to Pay at Bar DKDC, Saturday, May 6th, in an incredible lineup also featuring Jack Oblivian & the Sheiks and power pop adventurers Silver Synthetic.

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Music Music Features

Florence Dore: Packing Literature, History, and Rock-and-Roll in Her Tour Van

Florence Dore (Photo: courtesy Chart Room Media)

Singer/songwriter Florence Dore is stoked to be riding the rough-and-tumble roads of a band on tour, winding her way to Memphis, in no small part because of who’s backing her up. “The band is really good,” she says. “I’ve got the dB’s rhythm section. That’s my husband Will Rigby [drums] and Gene Holder [bass], who was pulled out of never touring again to do this, plus Mark Spencer [guitar] from Son Volt. They’re so good. It’s a little ridiculous, actually.”

Here’s something even more ridiculous: “We just played at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge for AmericanaFest in Nashville, and afterwards these two university librarians came up and said, ‘Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever seen university press books at a merch table!’” laughs Dore. Yet that’s just part of the touring life for Dore, who’s also a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of North Carolina. And she seems to relish wearing both her academic and musical hats at once.

“This is a traveling public humanities program,” she avers. “So I’m giving talks, like the one at the University of Memphis with Robert Gordon, and also performances, like our gig at Bar DKDC. It’s funny, the gigs are starting to resemble the public talks. I can’t help that I’m a lecturer! So I’m talking a little bit about this book that I have coming out on Cornell University Press, called The Ink in the Grooves: Conversations on Literature and Rock ‘n’ Roll. It’s about the history of the relations between literature and rock, and people are incredibly interested.”

Being back on the road underscores ideas Dore has pondered through much of her academic career, such as the importance of humans simply showing up for one another. “In my last book, Novel Sounds: Southern Fiction in the Age of Rock and Roll, I describe how John Lomax brought Lead Belly to the Modern Language Association meeting, the biggest language professor meeting in the country, in 1934. Lomax presented him as an example of living literature, on a panel called ‘Popular Literature.’ So this body of a folk singer was presented as somehow a magical conduit to the idea of poetry. And that is something you can track through the institutionalization of literature in American English departments since at least the ’30s. That’s the historical link that interests me. One thing about being out on tour and back in classrooms after Covid is, it does make a difference. Presence is something. Something happens in a room with bodies, with people, that actually cannot happen in other ways.”

And yet, even as she ponders the power of such communion and what it signifies, Dore is loath to dissect the music she loves in such terms. “I have an aversion to academic pop music studies generally,” she says. “I don’t want to overanalyze songs. I wouldn’t want to have to say what ‘Frankie and Johnny’ means. I’d rather talk about the fact that Lead Belly was at the MLA and just ponder that. The only way I could make it work for Novel Sounds was to observe the history of it.”

To be sure, there’s a sympathetic vibration between Dore’s two hats. “I wrote something kind of pretty, that sounded kind of traditional, and then the words ended up being about technology,” she says. “It’s a love ballad, ‘WiFi Heart,’ and it directly encapsulates some of these ideas from my books because it’s about bodies:

“‘At the end of our days/When we’re cold in our graves/And our love lives in voltage on high/In the wireless sea/Without you and me/I’ll sing to you out of the void.’

“The ‘wireless sea’ in that last verse is from Jeffrey Sconce’s book called Haunted Media about people’s experience of radio when it first happened in history. People thought, ‘Oh, that’s what a voice separate from a body is!’ It made people feel like they were being haunted, like they could talk to the dead. One person in the book talked about ‘swimming in a wireless sea.’ I think that’s such a beautiful line, so I stole it.”

Florence Dore will speak on Modernism, Music, and Memphis on Thursday, October 6th, at the Maxine Smith University Center Bluff Room, University of Memphis, 5:30 p.m. She and her band perform Friday, October 7th, at Bar DKDC.

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Music Music Features

The Return of Harlan T. Bobo

Harlan T. Bobo (Photo: Sarah LaReau)

Let no one accuse Karen Carrier of thinking small. When she opened The Beauty Shop Restaurant in 2002, she brought the legendary Wild Magnolias from New Orleans to celebrate. Five years ago, they were back for the 15th anniversary. For her brainchild’s 20th anniversary on Saturday, August 6th, she’s still thinking big and keeping that NOLA flavor with a second line and the Lucky 7 Brass Band, followed by Jack Oblivian. But Carrier really moved heaven and earth to get the night’s closing act, Harlan T. Bobo.

Some of us feared we’d never see the ragged-but-right troubadour play again. “When that last record came out [2018’s A History of Violence], we did a little tour, and that’s when I got sick,” Bobo recalls. Indeed, the singer and guitarist found he was losing the use of his left hand. Since then, he’s been riding it out in his adopted home of Perpignan, France.

“I had a lot of nerve damage in my hand from lupus,” says Bobo. “I pretty much thought I was done. I can’t do construction anymore, and I just assumed that I was done playing music. Even my physical therapist thought I was done.” And yet, it was through that very practice that Bobo kept the guitar in his life.

“A year ago, I was figuring out how to cut meat, how to use a knife and fork,” he recalls. “Then I started playing guitar as physical therapy. Just to see what I could do with my fingers. And it’s still a little weird, but I’ve got two fingers that work. By doing a lot of weird tunings I can get a pretty full sound.”

That in turn led him back to the craft of songwriting. “And through that two-fingered approach, I wrote new songs, with which I just finished a bunch of demos, and I’ll probably come back in the spring to record,” he says, sounding amazed that he can play again at all. “And then when Karen offered me that show, I said okay. But when I sat down to play the old songs, I realized, ‘Fuck, I’m only using two fingers!,’ so I had to completely change things and [learn] how to manage those songs.”

Reinventing his approach to his own music, Bobo did a trial run in France. “I just did a show in Perpignan as preparation for The Beauty Shop’s anniversary. God, it felt good to do that! I hadn’t done it in so long, but surprisingly enough, it worked. I think I played a kooky Halloween show three years ago, and I almost died doing that.”

He emphasizes that he’ll be playing his older material at Bar DKDC, complete with some familiar faces in his band. “I’ve got Bunny on guitar, Tim Prudhomme on drums, and possibly Jonathan Kirkscey on cello. I can’t resist getting together with all of my buddies. I’m just trying to do songs people will know. The new stuff is weirdly moody and super quiet and acoustic, and I don’t think it’ll be good for that night. It’s gonna be a party there. And we’ll still be super mellow for a party, but the new stuff would just be painful.”

Yet we can still hear his weirdly moody, super quiet side, thanks to a new album, Porch Songs, arriving on August 5th via Goner Records. Bobo will be celebrating that release at an in-store show that evening at 6 p.m. Though recorded before Bobo’s battle with lupus, the songs offer a stripped-down version of his songcraft. “Around 2016, I went to see this guy in Perpignan who’s got an old 8-track set up,” he says. “It sounds very Sun Studio-y. I just sat down for a day and recorded, like, 20 songs I had around, but never knew what to do with. I think there’s 13 on the new record. It’s mostly just guitar and voice, and drums on a couple of takes.”

Now, on the verge of a homecoming, Bobo reflects on his recent show in Perpignan. “Before that, I hadn’t played any Harlan music in ages. It just felt good to know that I could stand up and entertain a crowd. It was something I had kind of forgotten. It was like, ‘Oh, I can do that!’ And I can still handle drunks from the stage.”

The Beauty Shop 20th anniversary show featuring the Lucky 7 Brass Band, the Jack Oblivian band, and Harlan T. Bobo will be at Bar DKDC August 6th, beginning at 8 p.m.

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Music Music Blog

“La Danse de Mardi Gras”: Marcella Simien at Bar DKDC

Bar DKDC has a long history of fostering the bonds between Memphis and New Orleans. In years past, they’ve hosted the Wild Magnolias, a wall-to-wall tribute to Dr. John (complete with street parade) and more. This Friday, February 25, they’ll carry on that tradition, but with a slightly different twist. Sure, there will be plenty of Second Line fever, courtesy of the Lucky 7 Brass Band, but when Marcella and Her Lovers take center stage, they’ll bring a lesser-known slice of Louisiana: Mardi Gras, country style.

I caught up with Marcella Simien, daughter of the Grammy-winning zydeco master Terrance Simien, to hear about her unique take on that time of year when you just have to “laissez les bons temps rouler.”

Memphis Flyer: I suppose Mardi Gras songs are burned into your brain, having grown up in Louisiana.

Marcella Simien: Yeah. When you grow up immersed in the culture, it becomes a part of your DNA. And it shows up in a little bit of everything I do. Like in the phrasing of things. I’ll notice little things I do that remind me of all the things I grew up hearing. In our household, dad was close with some of the Neville Brothers, so those voices informed so much of how I sing and phrase things. It’s really an honor to perform this music and carry on these great songs that are a deep part of my heritage. Art Neville was like an older brother to my dad. When dad was coming up, Art really was a mentor of his, and even played on dad’s second album. He played keys with him and gave him advice. Dad’s got some great stories about that time, when he was in his early 20s and kind of a country boy, not knowing the ropes of the business. Art really schooled him in a really kind way.

To be growing up in that environment must have been inspiring.

Yeah, it’s wild to think about being close to it like that. Because you don’t realize until you’re a little older and more educated what a profound effect that music — the Meters and the Neville Brothers — had on the world. It’s huge.

Where was the family home as you were growing up?

My dad’s from Mallet, Louisiana, which is a really small community outside of Opelousas. There’s a church and grocery store, and that’s about it. That’s where my grandparents’ home is and where my dad grew up. The Simien family’s ancestry goes back hundreds of years there.

It’s about two hours west of New Orleans, so it wasn’t like we were in New Orleans a lot, but I would spend time there, growing up. We would go several times a year.

For Mardi Gras?

No, not really! We did Mardi Gras in the country. Like the trail ride stuff, which is way different than the city Mardi Gras. And I was a little kid. It was more appropriate or safer for me to go to Mardi Gras parades in Lafayette. New Orleans was a little wilder! We mostly went to New Orleans during the festival season, for Jazz Fest or the French Quarter Fest in June. Like when dad would play, or people would come to town. I knew a lot about New Orleans, but I didn’t live there. But I still kind of came of age going there. I’d sneak away as a teenager. [laughs].

So your dad stayed in the community where he grew up. And Mardi Gras was celebrated a little differently there. What was that like?

Well, they call it a Mardi Gras Run. In the country, they start drinking really early on Mardi Gras day. People would be on horseback. There would be people in pickups with truck beds full of hay, and people with instruments on the truck beds, playing music. And you’d go down these trails out in the country and just party! You’d be outside and it was beautiful. And then there would be a part in the day, after people were pretty inebriated, where they’d chase the chickens — to catch some and wring their necks. And then they’d go cook a gumbo with the chicken at the end of the day. Everyone’s together, it’s a big tradition. That’s how the Prairie Creoles would do it. And it’s fun! It’s rustic! [laughs]. You dress up and make a day of it.

Then there’d be parades in the city too. So in Lafayette, you would have a Mardi Gras break, where you’d get out of school for Lundi Gras, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday. It’s kind of like they’re living on their own time, down there in Louisiana.

Do you associate some different songs with Mardi Gras, that you wouldn’t necessarily hear in New Orleans?

Yeah. With that zydeco accordion, you hear a little bit of it in New Orleans, but that’s not the primary sound. It’s jazz and horns and pianos. But with the Prairie Country Creole kind of stuff, the French speaking Creoles play accordion, and maybe a fiddle and rub board as the main instrumentation. Maybe a full band with guitars and bass and drums. The French Creole stuff is unique to the area that I come from. Definitely different from the New Orleans Mardi Gras experience, although they nod to each other. They honor each other in different ways. It’s all soul music.

What are some zydeco songs that you’ll likely play on Friday?

I’ll do “Jolie Bassette” and “La Danse de Mardi Gras,” and probably a Meters medley to pay tribute to the New Orleans heritage. I’m definitely bringing some Mardi Gras beads to toss during my show.

And the Lucky 7 Brass Band will be playing as well?

Yeah. And it’s been amazing to watch what a following they’ve developed. Victor’s such a great band leader, and I’m so blown away at how tight they are, and so much fun to watch and so high energy. It’s the ultimate way to kick off a party.

Don’t some members of the group join your band sometimes?

Yeah, they’ll sit in with us. If they have their horns with them and they’re in the mood, I want them up there. I love it when they join in. Victor will sit in with us sometimes when we share a bill. He did that last June, when Karen [Carrier] reopened DKDC for the first time since the pandemic started.

Will David Cousar play guitar with your band this weekend?

Dave Cousar will be with us on March 3 and on April 2. But for the Mardi Gras show, we’ll have Steve Selvidge, Landon Moore, and Art Edmaiston. And usually we have Robinson Bridgeforth on drums, but he’s giving a master class at Georgetown — he’s a great drummer — so we’ll have Ryan Peel with us. He’s actually playing with the Lucky 7 as well, so it’ll be a cool merging of the two bands. It’s going to be a family affair!

Bar DKDC, Mardi Gras Party ft. Marcella & Her Lovers + Lucky 7 Brass Band, Friday, February 25, 9 p.m.

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Music Music Blog

Blast Habit Records Lifts Off This Saturday

Jared McStay, Graham Winchester, and Lori McStay of Blast Habit Records (Credit: Seth Moody)

Memphis has long been a city of independent record labels, and now a new contender is throwing its hat in the ring — or on the turntable, as the case may be. Blast Habit Records is the new project being launched by local musical scene makers Jared McStay (Shangri-La Records), his wife Lori McStay, and Graham Winchester. Tomorrow, they’ll hold court at Bar DKDC to celebrate this new chapter in Memphis music history.

Given the prolific and diverse musical output of all three, together and separately, the prospect of a label providing a platform for them is a promising one. I asked Jared McStay about the beginnings of Blast Habit recently, and he clued me in to what’s in store.

Memphis Flyer: You and Lori have been great collaborators around town for years now, forming ad hoc bands with other musicians, and generally following the path of fun. Is the new label an extension of that?

Jared McStay: A couple of years ago, I started a band called So Gung Ho with Graham Winchester and Seth Moody, and we did a whole record in 2019 with Andrew McCalla. We were going to put it out last year, and then the pandemic hit. But the record was finished, and I really liked the way it turned out. So, talking with Graham about wanting to put this record out, and not wanting to shop it around, we decided,’ Let’s just do our own label.’ And Lori is part of the label, too. I’m kind of a package deal with her these days [laughs]. The radio show, the label, married.

Seth Moody is also in So Gung Ho. Is he involved in Blast Habit?

Just the three of us. It’s me and Lori and Graham. The Moody’s [Seth and Coco] are going to be on the label, but they’re so tied up with other stuff. And it’s such a small thing right now, three people seemed like plenty. But we’re going to do a record with the Moody McStays, the group Lori and I have with the Moodys, and there are a few others we have in the pipeline. We all have other projects. Graham obviously has quite a few.

So Gung Ho (Credit: Lori McStay)

Blast Habit. What’s it mean? “Blast” sounds like a cyberpunk intoxicant or something.

Well, we fooled around, trying to think of a good name, and came up with Blast Habit. Like, “making a habit of having a blast,” I guess.

It grew out of So Hung Ho, but you plan to feature other artists?

It did, and hopefully there’s going to be more. Not just more people that sound like we sound, but diverse. And we’re going to focus on our own act at first, but then we’re hoping to branch out in Memphis, and then everywhere. I’ve had a lot of out of town people call me who are interested. So it’s kind of exciting. We’ve never done this. And Graham is so fun to work with. He’s so gung ho!

All of you are very prolific. Will you release some of Graham’s solo stuff?

I think we probably will do something or other. But Graham has so much stuff, and his group with Seth, the Turnstyles, are on Black & Wyatt Records. So he has other avenues.

We’re having a big party for it at Bar DKDC at 10 p.m. on Saturday. The Moody McStays and So Gung Ho are going to play, and we had t-shirts made up. And hopefully the So Gung Ho record will be out soon. Lori did all the artwork. She’s great with computers and formatted the cover. I’m excited about it!

Will Blast Habit mainly be focused on vinyl?

Yeah. Probably all the releases will be on vinyl. We might put some CDs out, but I kinda doubt it. I don’t know. Maybe if we sell out all the vinyl. But nobody’s figuring we’ll get rich from this or anything. We just want people to hear it, and what better way than to just bet on yourself?

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Music Music Blog

Bar DKDC Opens Saturday with DJ Matty, More in Store

DJ Matty (Photo courtesy DJ Matty)

Plenty of music venues that have reopened in recent months have done so with the caveat, “Masks are required.” But when Bar DKDC opens its doors again tomorrow night, they’ve added another condition: “Dancing is a must.” And that’s a given with their musical curator of the evening, DJ Matty from New Orleans, famous for his Mod Dance Parties in the Crescent City.

DJ Matty is especially appropriate to get the tiny venue hopping again, now that dancing is allowed, as owner Karen Carrier explains: “It’s funny, because Matty opened up DKDC’s first night in January of 2013. And now he’s reopening us after the pandemic.”

Karen Carrier (photo by Michael Donahue)

But there will be some precautionary measures, above and beyond the official mandates. “Our thing is, you have to be masked up to be in there, but you can dance your ass off,” says Carrier. “Even when the mandate changes, when the City of Memphis lifts everything, I’m not going to lift the mask mandate. I just believe people need to be masked. ‘Cos I don’t know if you’re vaccinated. We’re still going to take temperatures to enter. We’re going to have security outside. So we’re going to try to do our own thing, even as we reopen DKDC.”

With the cozy club having been used as an annex of sorts for Carrier’s Beauty Shop restaurant through the months of quarantine, when more spread-out seating was required, this is a big moment for Carrier and the many music fans who hold her club dear. But it’s not exactly going full blast just yet. “We’re going to do this Saturday night as a one-off, then we’ll close down, and then we’re going to figure this whole thing out,” she says. “So we’re getting ready to blow open pretty soon. Probably by the first of June.”

There are already shows planned for next month, notably a two night residence on June 23 and 24 by a group that includes Memphis’ swamp soul queen, Marcella Simien. Known as Gumbo, Grits & Gravy, the trio also includes guitarist Guy Davis, son of civil rights activists/actors Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis, and violinist Anne Harris.

They have been gaining fans and acclaim internationally, with several European appearances planned for later this year.

Meanwhile, Bar DKDC staff and regulars are eagerly anticipating this weekend’s event, starting at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. Carrier sees it as a therapeutic necessity. “We can only let so many people in,” she says, “but we’re going to shake your ass off for a while. I think people need to get out there and dance. And when Matty’s in the house, you can’t sit down, you know?”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Take a Seat at the Beauty Shop

The Beauty Shop Restaurant/Facebook

Seeing the doors open at the Beauty Shop restaurant is a beautiful sight for hungry patrons of the Cooper-Young restaurant.

“We’re ready,” says chef/owner Karen Carrier. “We opened up Sunday. It was wild. Monday night we had a great night. A lot of reservations tonight. I’m shocked.”

Some of the staff “are just coming back. They haven’t been in the kitchen for three months. They’re acclimating. They’re doing great.”

Carrier closed the dining room, but she never closed her business when the pandemic hit. She’s been doing takeout and delivery.

When Mayor Jim Strickland announced businesses had to close, Carrier went to work. “I started a GoFundMe page for all my employees. That was the night I started it because I knew what was coming down the pike. That night I also called a meeting for Friday.”

Sixty-five employees — from all Carrier’s restaurants and Another Roadside Attraction catering company — came in, she says. “I had two computers set up at the bar. We basically made sure everybody applied for unemployment first right then and there. At that time, there was no stimulus. I wanted to make sure everybody was going to get unemployment. Some people didn’t have computers.”

She and chef Shay Widmer then were “the only ones cooking in the restaurant.”

And, she says, “We didn’t let anybody in.”

Shea Grauer and Scott Taylor did the curbside and deliveries. Dana Baldwin eventually went to work in the kitchen.

Those were the only staff members allowed in the restaurant for three months, Carrier says.

She didn’t rush into opening the dining room. “I didn’t want to open for the first phase ‘cause I didn’t think the city was ready. I wanted to wait for the second phase.”

They opened with Sunday brunch on June 7th. “The last week we decided not to do any to-go orders so we could get the restaurant open Sunday.”

Being closed “was insane is what it was,” Carrier says. “We did everything. We cleaned. We washed. I had a company come in and completely tear that kitchen apart. When we came back, it was like we had a new kitchen.”

Karen Carrier

They now are open for dinner Monday through Saturday with brunch on Saturday and Sunday.

Carrier isn’t ready to serve lunch. “I’ll open for lunch whenever I feel that everybody is back to some sort of normal. I don’t know what that means.”

She’s utilizing all of her space. She’s serving the Beauty Shop menu at the Beauty Shop as well as Bar DKDC, the Back Do at Mi Yard patio behind the Beauty Shop, and on the front patio. “That way, we can spread out and seat approximately what we could basically seat in the Beauty Shop if we didn’t have social distancing. It works out really well.”

They have a stand outside with an umbrella over it. “I have a thermal thermometer. I take everybody’s temperature. And we have X’s all the way down the sidewalk in yellow day-glow tape showing where everyone should stand apart.”

The dining rooms have been adapted. “We have on masks and gloves. We bring everything on trays. We don’t put anything on the table with our hands. All our silverware is in paper containers. They’re taped.”

Customers pick up their own plates from the trays. And they have “yellow tape on the communal table that shows six feet, yellow tape on the bar. People sit on the two ends of the bar.”

As to what it’s like to be a restaurateur during a pandemic, Carrier, who has been in the restaurant business since 1980 in New York, says, “I think you have to be resilient. And I think you have no other choice but to roll with the punches, unless you choose to say, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ My thing was I could have closed down and not dealt with anything, but I wanted to, first of all, keep cooking so people could come and get the Beauty Shop food. And I thought it also kept the Beauty Shop alive. I wanted to save my business the best I could.”

It was mandatory that all employees had to be tested before they came back to work, Carrier says, “I feel like if I wear my mask and my gloves and change them and be diligent, I’m doing the best I can.”

And, she says, “I respect everybody’s wishes. Everybody has to live their life the way they want to live it. I had to keep working ’cause I have to keep [the restaurant] for my staff. That’s all I know. That’s what I do. So they’d have a job to come back to.”

She eventually will open Mollie Fontaine Lounge, but for now she’s concentrating on the Beauty Shop. “I’m trying to get back on our feet.”

People will know where to find her, Carrier says. “I’m here every night. I’m not leaving. And we’re just going to make it work.”

The Beauty Shop is at 966 Cooper Street, (901) 272-7111.

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Music Music Features

Graham Winchester: ‘Round the Clock Rocker

Maybe there’s a Memphian out there who doesn’t know Graham Winchester, 31, the musical mainstay who drums for more than half a dozen bands, guides tours at Sun Studio, and has hosted a number of tribute benefit concerts, like 2016’s Memphis Does Bowie: Benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Oh, and that’s all when he’s not home with his wife, parenting two toddlers.

Winchester, whose groups dabble in bluegrass, punk, rock-and-roll, soul, and other genres, may not be the hardest-working musician in Memphis, but he certainly makes a case for himself as such. This spring, that hard work pays off, as the drumming dad hosts a songwriter series at Bar DKDC and releases two (two!) records — a self-titled solo 45 out on Madjack Records (with a release concert at Bar DKDC Friday, March 13th), and a full-length LP by Turnstyles, the duo of Winchester and multi-instrumentalist Seth Moody, out on Black and Wyatt Records in April.

Graham Winchester

So how did Winchester get behind the drum kit for so many Memphis groups? He started early, when he was 10 years old. “When I started playing drums, I had to play pots and pans for at least a year,” Winchester remembers, explaining that his parents wanted to make sure he was invested before buying a drum set. “I don’t blame them. If you buy your kid drums, is it going to be annoying for two weeks and then collect dust?”

Before long, though, Winchester switched his pots and pans for a snare and toms, and he even began hosting band practices at his house. “My parents were cool enough to tolerate that.” His band mates would leave their instruments at Winchester’s house between practices, and while they were away, Winchester would play — anything he could get his musical mitts on. That gave the fledgling musician early experience with other instruments, which would serve him well years later when he began writing his own songs. Before that, though, Winchester had to get his first taste of the stage.

“I started playing in clubs in Memphis when I was 13,” Winchester laughs, remembering getting his cheeks pinched during ladies’ nights on the old Highland Strip. Because not all parents are as willing to let their kid learn to play an instrument without a volume knob, drummers are always in demand. “I’m probably the youngest person in just about every band I’m in,” Winchester says. “So there’s a lot of older experience shaping my playing.”

All those years, Winchester was getting a front-row seat in the class of songcraft, which, in turn, only increased his cachet in local circles. “If I’m singing and drumming, live or in the studio, I can pack a punch where I want to,” he says. “I can bring out that energy.”

That energy will be in high demand this spring, as Winchester juggles his Wednesday-night songwriter series at Bar DKDC with a series of record releases, from this Friday’s solo 45 release to Turnstyles’ Cut You Off at The Cove in April. Turnstyles’ debut was recorded in Moody’s basement in a single night. “We did 12 songs, with the vocals,” Winchester says. “We cut from 7 p.m. to 5 in the morning and got a whole record done in one night, Please Please Me Beatles-style.”

Whether Winchester’s ability to run on minimal sleep is thanks to his time playing late-night shows in the Memphis bar scene or helping out with the kids at home is anyone’s guess, but he finds inspiration whenever and wherever he can. “The kids really inspire me, and they make me want to go out and work, just in the most basic way, to bring home money to support them. I want them to have a great future,” Winchester says. “And their personalities inspire me. They remind me of the purest form of art, just the fun side of it.” Winchester laughs before adding, “And I try to sleep when I can.”

Graham Winchester releases his album at Bar DKDC on Friday, March 13th, 7:30 p.m. Winchester hosts his Songwriter Series at Bar DKDC, Wednesdays, through March 25th.

Categories
Music Music Blog

What’s In A Name? Wreckless Eric Brings Transience to Bar DKDC

Eric Goulden

“I’ve got this name, and it doesn’t fit. I don’t know what I can do about it,” sings Eric Goulden on the opening track of his new album, Transience. The lyrics to “Father to the Man” are, perhaps, a nod to Goulden’s stage name, Wreckless Eric. The English rocker released Transience in May of this year and is touring in support of the record with a concert at Cooper-Young’s Bar DKDC on Sunday, November 10th, with Memphis musician Alex Greene as his opening act.

Goulden broke onto the English punk and new wave scene in the ’70s. Though he is perhaps best known for “Whole Wide World,” released on Stiff Records in 1977, Goulden has remained consistently active. He won praise for both 2018’s Construction Time & Demolition and 2015’s amERICa, and Transience proves the songsmith is still capable of transfixing.

Transience


Goulden’s new record sparkles with the enchantingly mellow sounds of clean guitars, electronic burbles, and warm fuzz boxes. More often than not, Goulden uses distortion and dissonance as a bed for his vocal melodies. When paired with electric pianos and acoustic guitars, as on the sweetly sincere “The Half of It,” the overall effect is like that of a warm blanket on a bitingly cold night, or a cup of coffee spiked with bourbon. The bite of the temperature out of doors serves only to underline the comfort provided by the blanket and a warm house.

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“Strange Locomotion” has the bones of a 4/4 blues groove, but mutated and filtered through homemade fuzz boxes and burbling electronic noisemakers. “Indelible Stain” opens with a protracted groove that’s as long as the song that preceded it. Even on his own album, Wreckless Eric recklessly — and delightfully — bucks the rules. Still, for all the magic of the seven songs that come before it, the album closer “California / Handyman” is the standout track. Goulden’s refrain of “Californ-i-a” is hypnotic, and the electric piano and effects create an irresistibly dreamlike ambience that call the listener to drift into a trance.

Eric Goulden

Goulden has plenty of history with Memphis. The punk and power-pop icon has played Gonerfest, the Galloway House, Burke’s Book Store, and the River Series at Harbor Town Amphitheater. He told the Flyer in 2018 that he grew up loving Stax Records, Otis Redding, and Booker T. & the M.G.s, and it shows. When Transience swings, it does so with the old-time feel of blues and soul. But the album is by no means retro or a nostalgia trip. It warbles and hums, deconstructed power-pop for the 21st century. Transience shows an artist confident and brave enough to take his time and take chances. With his hallucinogenic soundscapes, Goulden has crafted an aural landscape worthy of many return trips.

Wreckless Eric and opener Alex Greene perform at Bar DKDC, Sunday, November 10th, 8 p.m.


Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Karen Carrier to open new Cooper-Young dining space, Back Dó at Mi Yard

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Karen Carrier’s new ‘Back Dó at Mi Yard’

Karen Carrier is ready to open her back door to an oasis where movie lovers and lovers of her signature cuisine can enjoy themselves in an outdoor Jamaican-style paradise filled with palms and bamboo in the heart of Cooper-Young.

She’s opening a new space, Back Dó at Mi Yard, sometime in October.

And it’s literally in her backyard. It’s behind her restaurant, The Beauty Shop Restaurant, at 966 Cooper.

“It’s a hidden Oasis in Midtown behind The Beauty Shop,” says Carrier, a veteran restaurateur who also owns Mollie Fontaine Lounge, Bar DKDC, and Another Roadside Attraction caterers.

And, like her other restaurants, it’s something completely different.

“I get bored every six or seven years,” Carrier says. “I want to create something. I was painting for so long. I like creating little places.”

She came up with the idea 10 years ago. “I wanted to open a place called ‘Back Do’ and it would be a place outside. We’d show movies and have food and have a bar.”

“Mi yard” means “my home” in “patois,” which is Jamaican slang. Carrier is saying, “Meet me at my back door at my home.”

She discussed her idea with her long-time friend, the late Ron Shapiro, who owned the legendary Hoka theater in Oxford. “I told him I wanted to show movies every night. But Ron was going to be a big part of it. He was the movie guy. We talked about all these movies we were going to show. Then he got sick and passed away. It’s an homage to him as well.”

Musician Harlan T. Bobo built most of the deck before he moved back to France, Carrier says. A neighbor named “Cowboy” then offered to help her finish it. “Man, he has helped me build all this stuff. It’s unbelievable.”

Artist Wayne Edge put wood from a mill Carrier found in Eads, Tenn. over the cinder block building, where Carrier keeps her walk-in cooler.

Allison Furr-Lawyer helped paint the black-and-white checkered deck as well as the planters and some of the chairs.

They transformed the area. “This place was just a hole. It was where we hung out. It used to fill up with water. And it was a problem. We put in all this gravel and sand.”

They put up a fence and a gate so people can enter “Back Dó” from Young.

“I just kept coming up with ideas. I wanted it to be like a Moroccan jungle. My son, Austin, went to Morocco and kept sending me photos. I was like, ‘Oh, my god. This is what I want.’ I went to Millstone Nursery. They had all these amazing tropical plants. Everything. We planted tons of bamboo, palm trees. All kinds. It’s like a jungle.”

They also have a thatched roof bar.

As for the food, Carrier says, “it’s all done on a rotisserie. That’s what’s really fun.”
The menu will consist of grilled meats, which will be served sliced on platters with different nut dusts, salsas, and “a different bread every week. You can slather up those hot meats coming off the rotisserie. A couple of fresh crudos. Really simple and really good.”

Austin got her an outdoor projector. Carrier also got waterproof speakers. She hasn’t decided on the first movie to show.

Customers will be able to enter from Young or from inside the Beauty Shop.

Carrier isn’t sure what she’ll do if it rains. As for winter weather, she says, “I’m going to get a fire pit. I’m doing all this shooting from the hip.”

Back Dó at Mi Yard probably will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays. When it does open, Carrier plans a big blowout. “I don’t do soft openings,” she says.

Michael Donahue

Karen Carrier’s new ‘Back Dó at Mi Yard’

Michael Donahue

Karen Carrier’s new ‘Back Dó at Mi Yard’