Buckman Arts Center at St. Mary’s School

The New Buckman Arts Season: Frisell, Ailey, Blind Boys of AL

The Buckman Performing and Fine Arts Center has always curated world class seasons, but this one feels even more notable — perhaps at the relief that there’s any season at all, given last year’s shuttering of stages. Whatever the reason, this lineup gives one hope, as we turn to imagine a fall, winter, and spring filled with stellar music.

It all kicks off on August 13th with the Ghost Town Blues Band, hometown favorites who’ve made a name for themselves by using “an unusual array of curious instruments, including organs, cigar box guitars, harmonicas, electric push brooms, brass, and percussion.”

Other perennial favorites on the horizon include the Blind Boys of Alabama, founded in the 1930s, when all were students at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind; Bill Frisell, who’s floored Memphis audiences many times before with his subtle jazz guitar work; Nutcracker: Land of Sweets, a fresh take on an old classic (scheduled early, on December 3rd); and Ailey II, the celebrated younger company of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, as the season presents a geographically and stylistically diverse smorgasbord of music and dance. It all wraps up next spring, on a date to be announced, with Oleta Adams, whose debut album Circle of One went platinum thirty years ago, after her partnership with Tears for Fears.

Check out the Buckman Arts Center’s full calendar of events for more details.

Ghost Town Blues Band – Memphis Made
August 13, 2021, 8 p.m.
$30

The Secret Sisters
September 16, 2021, 7 p.m.
$35

Lucky 7 Brass Band – Memphis Made
October 15, 2021, 8 p.m.
$20

Blind Boys of Alabama
October 25, 2021, 7 p.m.
$45

Kaki King: Guitar Movement
November 5, 2021, 8 p.m.
$40

Nutcracker: Land of Sweets
December 3, 2021, 6 p.m.
$25/$20

Bill Frisell
January 23, 2022, 7 p.m.
$40

Matsuriza Taiko
January 28, 2022, 8 p.m.
$35

Jonathan Edwards
February 4, 2022, 8 p.m.
$45

Fairytales on Ice
March 24, 2022, 5:00 p.m. and 7 p.m.
$35

Ailey II
April 12, 2022, 7:00 p.m.
$45

Oleta Adams
TBA
$40

Swedish Jam Factory — formerly Swedish Gun Factory — will make its debut theatrical performance in Memphis at Buckman Performing Arts Center at St. Mary’s Episcopal School this weekend.

The duo, which consists of Thomas Bergstig and Isaac Middleton, tap dances while singing and playing musical instruments.

They formed the group four years ago, but this is the first time they’ve performed their more-than-hour-long show in a theatrical setting in Memphis, Middleton says.

Carla McDonald

He and Bergstig sing and play several instruments, including guitar, piano, banjo, and mandolin, and employ a range of musical styles from classical to punk rock while they’re tapping.

In 2016, they released an album, Chris Raines, which features their original music.

Describing the Buckman show, Middleton says, “The numbers are basically an accumulation of all of the material that we have made over the last four years.”

The show will feature their original material as well as covers, which range from The Beatles to the Norwegian band A-ha. They also will perform movie and Broadway standards. And classical pieces, Middleton says. “Taking a nod to certain composers like Mozart and Beethoven.”

Bergstig, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, got into musical theater when he was 21. He and some friends formed a tap dancing group called JEERK. Like Swedish Jam Factory, the members of JEERK played musical instruments while they danced.

In 2009, JEERK got a gig in Branson, Missouri. Bergstig stayed after he met Memphis singer Alexis Grace at the Andy Williams Theater. He eventually moved to Memphis, where he and Grace were married. Bergstig taught tap dancing and, later, he became Playhouse on the Square’s music director.

Middleton, who was born in Harlan, Kentucky, but grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico, became fascinated with tap dancing when he was 15 after seeing the movie Singin’ in the Rain.

He moved to Memphis in 2016 to appear in the Playhouse on the Square production of Kiss Me Kate.

After meeting Bergstig on a friend’s porch, the two began writing music and developing tap dance routines, Middleton says. Swedish Gun Factory was formed shortly after.

They wanted a name people would strongly react to. A “Swedish gun factory” was something that wouldn’t exist, Bergstig says. “Coming from a country where people don’t have guns, we do not have such a thing as mass shootings,” he says. “Of course, every now and then the shooting happens. It’s nothing like in America.”

In 2017, Bergstig and Grace moved to Los Angeles, but Bergstig and Middleton continued to perform in Swedish Gun Factory. Middleton moved to Los Angeles in 2018.

The duo appeared on Sweden’s Got Talent, a Swedish show similar to America’s Got Talent, in 2017. “Through that we got some steam going,” Middleton says.

About two years ago, they substituted “Jam” for “Gun” because of “the political climate surrounding gun violence,” Middleton says. “‘Jam’ felt like a good way to go. It best encompasses, more or less, what we do.”

Asked their long-term goal for the band, Bergstig says, “Las Vegas would be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be an ultimate goal. It could definitely be something that would be worth aiming at. I think we both are open to what might happen. I would love to do Broadway.”

“I definitely see us going that route,” Middleton says. “It’s funny ’cause we’ve been making all these short-term goals, but I don’t think I’ve even thought about long-term goals.”

Swedish Jam Factory will perform Friday, January 31st, at Buckman Performing Arts Center at 60 Perkins Ext. Tickets are $28.