Tag: David Porter

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We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Night Train Gala

Lionel and Angie Hollins, Kontji Anthony, and David Porter (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Guests boarding the “Night Train Gala” at Stax Museum of American Soul Music March 2nd shared passage with some of the greats in the history of music.

They got a chance to say hello to Grammy winner David Porter, whose legendary Stax songwriting includes “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’” for Sam & Dave. And they rubbed shoulders with Eddie Floyd, who recorded the Stax hit, “Knock on Wood.”

Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell
Valerie June

Guests might have stood in line for barbecue with other celebs. Grammy-winning Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell was at the party. Also performing and mingling with the guests was singer-songwriter Valerie June.

Eddie Floyd
Zoe Kahr and Daniel Shin
Cheryl Pesce and Avery Cunningham

Guests were presented a “Train Schedule” that showed who was performing where and at what time. When they arrived, Marcella Simien was the featured entertainer in the “Station Lobby.” Later, they stopped at other rooms to see performers, including the Charlton Johnson Trio (jazz) and 926, aka Stax Music Academy Alumni Band (soul).

Jeff Kollath (Stax Museum executive director) and Mary Helen Randall
Elizabeth and Joey Walser

A total of 290 people attended the event, says Stax director of communications Mary Helen Randall.

Proceeds benefit the Soulsville Foundation and its programming.

Pat Mitchell Worley, Kirk and Ruby Whalum
Jared Boyd, Miz Stefani, and Khari Wynn
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We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: All Aboard the Stax Night Train Gala

That's me and Stax legend David Porter at the Night Train Fundraising Gala at Stax (Credit: Kontji Anthony)

It was great being back at a Staxattraxion.

Guests rubbed shoulders with some of the people who personify Stax at the Night Train Fundraising Gala, which was held April 29th at Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Guests included music legends David Porter, Eddie Floyd, Lester Snell, and James Alexander of the Bar-Kays, and Larry Dodson, who was formerly with the group.

James Alexander and Eddie Floyd at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Larry and Marie Dodson at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Lester and Patricia Snell at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Deanie Parker with Nashid Madyun at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Yvonne Mitchell and Willie Mae Bland at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Karl and Gail Schledwitz, Kontji Anthony, and David Porter at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Andy and Allison Cates, Soulsville Foundation president & CEO Pat Mitchell Worley, and Carissa Hussong and David Lusk at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)

This is how the news release described the event, which celebrated the 20th anniversary of Stax Museum: “A celebration of African-American music and culture, it will feature the Stax Museum filled with live music, a silent auction, fantastic cuisine, cocktails, dancing, DJs, and more, all in our newly renovated lobby, gift shop, and mid-century modern lounge, as well as Studio A, Isaac Hayes’ gold-trimmed Cadillac exhibit, and other spaces.”

Geri and Hal Lansky at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Alfred and Sherita Washington at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Henry Turley and Wanda Shea at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Caroline and Troy Parkes at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Ryan Peel at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Chris Franceschi and Kirby Boyd at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)

I covered many Staxtacular parties at the museum. This was the one where you got to also rub shoulders with Memphis Grizzlies players. That is, if you could get your shoulder up that high. The Night Train event was, as the release says, “fashioned to replace our beloved Staxtacular event that raised over $1 million over 10 years.”

So, guests dined on Delta tamales while listening to fife and drum music by Rising Stars, which features Shardé Thomas, granddaughter of the late Othar Turner.

Rising Stars at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)

That fife and drum music brought back memories of Turner’s picnics held at his home near Senatobia, Mississippi. That was the first time I ever had goat barbecue. I also locked my truck with the keys inside and the truck running one year at the picnic. Nobody, including a Mississippi sheriff, could get the door open. So, I just walked around and enjoyed the party until a friend opened the truck door with his Ole Miss dorm room key.

But I’m digressing.

Night Train guests also ate shrimp and grits while listening to the great Joyce Cobb and Charlton Johnson perform jazz music.

Joyce Cobb at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Kimberly Weaver at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Elliot and Kimberly Perry at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Simone Alex and Dame Mufasa at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Michael Ivy and Nico Hatchett at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Lauren Berry and Logan Bennett at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Mary Haizlip, Ross McDaniel, and Caroline Cook at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)

They heard the Stax Music Academy Alumni Band play soul music, the Street Corner Harmonies perform a cappella tunes, and DJ Battle play music for dancing and/or relaxing. These were all held in different parts of the museum, so guests got a musical tour of the building. Which was appropriate.

About 350 people attended, says Tim Sampson, Soulsville Foundation communications director. They don’t have a total for the amount raised as yet, he says.

The format was changed this year because Staxtacular had run its course, Sampson says. This year’s format will be “the new one going forward.”

And, Sampson adds, “We definitely thought it was a success. People were very very happy with what we presented.”

It’s always cool to visit Stax, even if it’s just to run in and take a peek at the seemingly city-block-long gold-plated peacock blue 1972 Cadillac El Dorado that belonged to the late, great Isaac Hayes.

Estella Mayhue-Greer at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Courtney and Matt Weinstein at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Ari Morris and Alex Greene at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Asima Farooq and Molly Wexler at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Trip Trezevant at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Angela and Terrell Richards at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Martavious McGee at the Night Train Fundraising Gala (Credit: Michael Donahue)
We Saw You
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At Large Opinion

Hold On, He’s Coming

You know, I’ve really tried to avoid writing about the most-recent former president. I was the Flyer editor during his tumultuous four years in office, and I had to write about him a lot, mainly because a week seldom went by without some sort of outrageous, over-the-top, unprecedented presidential antics. We were in a continuous reactive mode. He did what??? I had to write the column at the last possible minute, just to keep up.

Emotions were high from the very beginning of his term. (You may remember the Flyer’s infamous “WTF?” cover, which led many people to call our office to tell us they would never buy another Flyer. Yes, we’re free, but you know …)

Now, as Congress’ January 6th committee finally prepares to hold public hearings on the remarkable attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, I suspect emotions are about to kick into high gear again. The cast of characters in the plot includes generals, cabinet members, several congressmen, a few senators, sleazy lawyers, crazy lawyers, a pillow salesman, the wife of a Supreme Court justice, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, and the former president himself. 

The supporting cast includes Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and other white supremacists, plus several thousand assorted idiots from around the country who actually believed they could get away with pillaging the U.S. Capitol because the then-president told them to do it. (Not to mention that some of them actually thought they were going to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence.)

The schism in American politics was always there, but Trump drove a thick wedge into it, widening the divide like never before. Healing is going to take a while. With any luck, the former president will resist the temptation to run again and just keep operating the ceaseless “fund-raising” grift he’s been pushing since he left office. It’s not as much work and there’s more time for golf, so I’m somewhat hopeful.

As you may have gathered from various billboards around Memphis, Trump is bringing the circus to town, or rather, to Southaven, Mississippi, where the “American Freedom Tour” is slated to play the Landers Center on June 18th. Opening acts include Donald Trump Jr., his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, former paintball salesman and now sheriff Mark Lamb, plus other as yet unnamed “Top American Conservatives.” Tickets start at $45. Cultists and other suckers are advised to jump on these before they drop to, oh, I don’t know, free? The “crowds” Trump has been luring lately are not his best people. He’s got the usual six Black guys who sit behind him, a couple hundred Trump-heads who travel and never miss a gig, plus whatever assorted moronic locals show up to feed their id. It’s a party.

And there’s a Memphis angle now. After his speech at the NRA convention last week, Trump read the names of the 19 victims of the Uvalde shooting (mispronouncing many of them). Then, as one does following such a somber moment, he broke into a dance. That was bad enough, but making it worse was the fact that the music Trump was dad-dancing to was “Hold On, I’m Coming,” the iconic Stax tune penned by David Porter and Isaac Hayes.

Porter was not amused. He tweeted: “Someone shared with me Donald Trump used the song ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ for a speaking appearance of his. Hell to the No! I did Not and would NOT approve of them using the song for any of his purposes! I also know Isaac’s estate wouldn’t approve as well!”

Such legal niceties will not stop Trump from using the song, and no doubt he’s doing so without paying royalties. But there may be a way to get a little payback. Memphis city council members Martavius Jones and JB Smiley have introduced a measure that would prevent the Memphis Police Department from escorting the Trump caravan from the Memphis airport to the Landers Center. They rightfully point out that Trump routinely stiffs local governments for any costs his visits incur, so why should Memphis put itself on the hook for those expenses? Trump’s a private citizen now. He’s got Secret Service protection. Let Mississippi take care of it.

I couldn’t agree more. When Trump lands in Memphis, let’s send him this message: Hold On, We’re Not Coming. 

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Music Music Features

Made in Memphis: MIME is a 2020 Success Story

CREDIT: Courtesy David Porter

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. championed civil rights, but he also had a proactive message for Black businesses: Build your own economic power. That’s why, in the last speech he gave before his assassination, he advised his audience “to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank,” a Black-owned institution. He also exhorted listeners to support Memphis’ Black-owned insurance companies. In this way, he suggested, “we begin the process of building a greater economic base.”

This message was echoed by Al Bell, the onetime chairman and owner of Stax Records, who marched with King. And the success of Stax and its investment in the local community put that message into practice. So it’s only fitting that that tradition is being carried forward by one of the label’s most active alums, David Porter. Co-writing so many hits with Isaac Hayes helped Porter learn the ropes of music publishing very early on, and nowadays he’s putting that knowledge to work as the CEO of Made in Memphis Entertainment (MIME). Porter co-founded MIME in 2015 with the business and legal veteran Tony Alexander (president and managing director), hoping to re-establish Memphis as a global music industry hub. And as the numbers from last year are being crunched, it’s clear that they’re well on their way.

Courtesy David Porter

David Porter

Key to this success is MIME’s diversification. It’s actually a family of companies that includes MIME Records, an independent record label; MIME Publishing, which handles Porter’s songwriting catalog, as well as young producers in hip-hop and R&B; Heavy Hitters Music, a film, TV, and ad sync company with an all-female creative team and Emmy-winning music catalog; Beatroot Music, the only Black-owned music distributor in the U.S. (not to mention Beatroot Africa, a strong presence on that continent); and 4U Recording, a state-of-the-art recording studio in Downtown Memphis.

Walking into MIME’s headquarters on Union Avenue, home to both its studio and offices, feels like you’ve time-warped into the future, or at least into Los Angeles. 4U is actually a complex of large and small studios, all interconnected and themed with ambient lighting and decor. Meanwhile, the offices bustle with MIME’s global business. The feeling of accomplishment in the air is palpable.

The numbers MIME reported on January 14th confirm that impression. Beatroot Music racked up over a million streams each across all major services for 14 of their artists, resulting in over 100 million total streams across its roster. Meanwhile, 4U Recording achieved its first gold-certified album with Moneybagg Yo’s Time Served, recorded at the studio. Two of the record’s singles, “All Dat” featuring Megan Thee Stallion and “Said Sum,” were both platinum-certified. Heavy Hitters Music also landed several major placements for its catalog of tracks, including placing “Said Sum” in multiple spots for the NFL and NBA.

As Porter observes, “In a challenging year for everyone, we maintained our mission of raising up not only artists but also our home city itself.” And that last point may be MIME’s most impressive achievement yet: its commitment to raising the profiles of local artists. That’s been part of MIME’s mission from the start, and one reason they’ve remained grounded in Memphis.

Even as MIME works with a global roster of artists, Alexander notes that Memphis brings a unique flavor to the table. “It’s the vernacular,” he says. “There’s an accent to a Memphis singer, or rapper. You can just tell by how they pronounce words that that’s Memphis. Also Memphis is known on the hip-hop side for the beats, the trap-type music. It’s very noticeable. It has a signature, just like the horns of the Memphis Sound before.”

But MIME’s support of the local economy goes beyond the artists, he says. “At MIME, we put our money where our mouth is, hiring people who may not get a chance elsewhere in the music industry and helping them gain skill and confidence. It is hard work, but it is also necessary to attain true diversity in the music industry. When you look at our successes in 2020, you can see that it is doable, worthwhile, and important.”

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Cover Feature News

Movie Music! Memphis Musicians are Getting their Songs in Films and TV Shows

CREDIT: Darnell Henderson II

“You picked up on this energy

I can see it in your E-Y-E

It’s like I’m fresh off the shelf, fresh off the lot, fresh out the pot.

It’s like I’m brand new … “

Cameron Bethany wrote and sang those words at a turning point in his life, when he was indeed feeling brand new. For the singer/songwriter and his colleagues in the Unapologetic collective, it marked one of those moments of reinvention that they all strive for, a moment of pure authenticity, unaffected by conventional demands. Like most such moments, it was intensely personal.

Darnell Henderson II

Cameron Bethany

That was more than three years ago, released on his debut album, YOUMAKEMENERVOUS, so it came as a bit of a surprise when that musical moment took on a new life this summer. In the Netflix series Trinkets, as one character confronts two others and then walks out of the scene in disgust, the track’s beats kick in, full of portent and tension, until the final credits and the song’s chorus roll out together.

It feels as if the music was designed for the scene. And while the licensing of his song for a major television series, known in the industry as placement, represented a hefty payday for Bethany and co-producers Kid Maestro and IMAKEMADBEATS, it was the way the show’s and the song’s aesthetics dovetailed that made it feel like such a triumph to the singer.

“When we were making the record, when I first brought it in, I had a small GarageBand track, and we talked about what I did as we remade it. We all agreed that it sounded like something that could be used in movies or commercials,” Bethany tells me. “But I couldn’t imagine it might be placed. So it’s almost like we predicted the future a little bit. Still, it ended up being better than anything I could have thought about.”

Although having music tracks placed in movies, television, and commercials is part of Unapologetic’s bread and butter, all agree that this moment was special. “When I first heard that [the placement] was happening, I went back and ended up falling in love with the show,” Bethany says. “Which I was hoping for. I was hoping it was something I could watch on a daily basis, something I gravitated to. Me liking it made me love that moment and made that moment so much more. I would have been grateful either way, whether I liked it or not. But it adds something, to be a fan of something that your work is featured in.”

It doesn’t always happen that way, of course, but placing a song in a movie, a series, or an ad, or scoring such media from scratch, can often be the one time an artist or group is paid a fair price for their music. Now, with live shows few and far between due to the pandemic, and streaming paying only pennies for plays, such placements, also called synchronization or “sync”-ing, have taken on a new importance.

David Patten Mason

Marco Pavé

Memphis rapper Marco Pavé, who has also enjoyed some success with music placements, including the locally made indie film Uncorked, notes that there are different levels of success in the game, but all of them tend to be more lucrative than live shows or album sales, at least for an independent artist. And they tend to offer more exposure as well.

“The placements that you’re really trying to get are the feature films in theaters,” he says. “TV is more of a mid-tier, that could be more high-tier depending on the network. That could range from $2,500 to $5,000 for one song. So it’s definitely a payday for a lot of artists. And it’s a huge discovery tool. A lot of people consider music supervisors to be the new A&R of the music industry. It’s a level of discovery that you really can’t beat because for one, you’re getting paid, but also you’re getting discovered in a way that labels are not suited to do.”

If music supervisors, in choosing the tracks that films and series use, are especially hands-on, they may indeed take on the de facto role of artist and repertoire (A&R) development. But just as often, tracks are lifted wholesale from albums or singles.

That’s been the case for a long time. One local example comes from the surf/crime jazz group Impala, whose love of such genres led them to self-release an EP cut at Easley-McCain studios in the early ’90s.

Billy Fox

Joe Restivo, Willie Hall, Lester Snell, and Michael Tolesore

Bassist and producer Scott Bomar recalls that the EP led to bigger things. “Then we put our first record on Estrus Records, Kings of the Strip, and that got distributed real widely. It seemed to get a lot of attention specifically in Los Angeles. That was the days of faxes, so I remember getting a fax out of nowhere from somebody at HBO, and they wanted to license a song for a Rich Hall show. Which we did. I didn’t know anything about licensing whatsoever. We’d been working in the studio with Roland Janes, so I asked Roland about it and he broke it down and explained the business part of it. And the information he gave me, I feel like I made a whole career out of it. He really gave me some good advice.”

The best was yet to come for Impala, thanks in part to serendipity. “The story that I heard is that George Clooney’s music supervisor for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, David Arnold, was in New Orleans for Jazz Fest and he bought our very first EP at a record store there. It had our version of Henry Mancini’s ‘Experiment in Terror.’ And we licensed that to George Clooney’s first film that he directed. It was probably the biggest placement we had.”

That such an obscure track could translate into a major placement many years after its release leads Bomar to conclude: “The best thing you can do to get your music licensed is tour and try to get airplay. The more exposure you get for your music, the more chance you have of a director or somebody hearing it. Of course, you can send the stuff to people, but it seems like as much as you try to get things licensed, a lot of times it’s just sort of blind luck. Random.”

It’s ironic that Bomar emphasizes the role of luck and fate, when in fact he has parlayed those early successes with Impala into a career in the ultimate “placement” — soundtrack production. Early work by the band first caught the attention of local underground auteur Mike McCarthy, who hired them to score his film Teenage Tupelo (remastered and reissued this year). This in turn caught the ear of then-burgeoning filmmaker Craig Brewer, who, after his The Poor & Hungry captivated filmgoers, contacted Bomar about his next project, a film called Hustle & Flow.

“He gave me a script for it,” Bomar recalls, “but it took another five years for it to actually get made. And when John Singleton came on board, he said I’ve got some great composers in Hollywood that could do this, but Craig really vouched for me. But, even though I’d been working with Craig on this thing for five years, he said to me, ‘You’re gonna have to sell John.’

“Now, Shaft was John’s favorite movie in the whole world. His email even had Shaft in the name. So I told him about [Bomar’s soul band] the Bo-Keys, with Willie Hall, and Skip Pitts who played with Isaac, and he got real excited about that. And then I realized I had a live recording from the night before in my pocket. So I put the CD in and the first thing on there was us doing the theme from Shaft. The first thing he heard was Skip doing that wah-wah guitar intro and Willie playing the high hat, and he said ‘Yep, this is it!'”

That 2005 soundtrack by Bomar, which complemented the pure hip-hop that won Three 6 Mafia an Oscar for the film, would take on a second life this year, as Brewer worked on another labor of love, Dolemite Is My Name. “Craig and Billy Fox were editing the film and trying out different music and having a hard time finding the right vibe,” says Bomar. “And Craig told Billy, ‘Put in the Hustle & Flow score.’ Craig said once they started editing with that score, it really started to come together. I think they really fell in love with that sound for Dolemite.”

The final result was a masterful, original genre study of blaxploitation scores in what may be Bomar’s finest achievement. Yet he still finds soundtrack work and placements to be elusive. “If that was the only thing I did, it wouldn’t be sustainable for me,” he says. “I’m thankful for those projects when they come around, but they’re not always there. For someone outside of Hollywood to get placements, it’s a little tricky. You’re not gonna get as much of it. You’re not in the middle of all the action.”

Though both Bomar and the Unapologetic artists have stoked interest in placements with frequent visits to New York and Los Angeles, an alternative approach, being pioneered by Made in Memphis Entertainment (MIME), is to bring L.A. to Memphis. With the legendary former Stax songwriter David Porter as a partner, MIME can turn some heads, but that’s also due to astute management by company president Tony Alexander.

“About two and half years ago,” explains Alexander, “as part of our overall strategy, we acquired a songs catalog, a sync business in L.A. called Heavy Hitters Music Group, that had been around about 25 years. And that business has continued to grow. So that’s our L.A. operation, and that has been very, very beneficial to us. Made in Memphis Entertainment has the label, but we also have the recording studios, the publishing companies, and our distribution business. Heavy Hitters Music Group is one of our publishing companies. They represent about 1,700 artists, and their business model, unlike many that sign the writer, is to sign the songs. And then they represent the songs for placement. They have a pretty amazing track record.”

While MIME develops local performing artists like Brandon Lewis, Porcelan, and Jessica Ray, they also quietly go about the business of placements. And yet, Alexander notes, “The vast majority of who we represent are not local to Memphis.” Rather, Heavy Hitters Music Group tends to work with L.A.-based producers, who are more savvy to the ways of placed recordings. Accordingly, one of MIME’s missions has been to educate local creators in the ways of placed tracks.

“One of the reasons why education is such an important component of what we do is that we wanted the local artists here in Memphis to understand what makes songs sync-able,” Alexander says. “These are the things that make them easy to clear. So we can create more opportunities for Memphis artists. Because historically, most of the time that Memphis artists were able to get placements, it was for things that were either produced here or had a Memphis theme. It was not access to global projects or projects that were not Memphis-oriented. And that’s what we’re really trying to do, is open up opportunities for Memphis artists to get placements in non-Memphis-oriented projects.”

As the manager of MIME’s 4U Recording Studio, Crystal Carpenter takes that educational role very seriously, showing artists who work there, for example, how important documentation, credits, and even file formats are. As Alexander explains, “One of the things that makes sync easier for an artist or writer is if it’s one stop. If the master and the publishing is controlled by the same individual, that’s really what a lot of music supervisors are looking for. Because if it’s too complicated, they’ll just move on to another song.”

Beyond impromptu teachable moments in the studio, MIME also sponsors workshops to confront such issues in a more focused way. Tuesday, October 20th, and on the 27th, they’ll host workshops covering “the nuts and bolts of music licensing and publishing, creating and pitching, artist branding and sync-writing for a brief vs. placing existing music.”

MIME is not alone in this pursuit. The local nonprofit On Location: Memphis was originally formed to produce the International Film and Music Festivals, but when entertainment attorney Angela Green took over, she changed directions. “I felt that the film screening space was getting crowded, and that there were a lot of organizations doing it quite well. There were other areas of film and music being overlooked. That’s what led to me coming up with the Memphis Music Banq.”

Margaret Deloach

Memphis Music Banq

The Memphis Music Banq, launched a year ago, administers music for placements, and now represents the work of nearly a dozen local artists. This Banq contains songs, not dollars, though its aim is to translate one into the other, and it offers workshops and networking opportunities for artists who seek knowledge about the world of placements. One lighthearted series they host is their “Mixer Competition,” wherein two or more music producers try scoring a single film, and viewers vote on the best score. Such opportunities for education and networking have already paid off, with Memphis Music Banq creator Kirk Smith having landed a soundtrack deal for Come to Africa, to be screened at this year’s Indie Memphis Film Festival. (The next such mixers are scheduled for October 15th and October 20th.)

And yet, with many of these educational opportunities focused on how to do things according to the established norms and expectations, it’s important to remember the fundamental philosophy of IMAKEMADBEATS, founder of Unapologetic: Be your most authentic, vulnerable self in all your work. “I feel like if people are looking for a hired hand, they’re not going to come to me,” he says. “They’re gonna come to me for what I do. They’re gonna come to Unapologetic for what we do. Because we’re daring and we’re bold. It would be hard to imagine someone saying, ‘Hey Cameron, we need you to do this Aretha Franklin thing here. Make that happen.’ We’d be like, ‘What?’ People are going to go to Cameron because he’s going to be who he is.”

Categories
Music Music Features

Soul Explosion: The New Stax Reissue

CREDIT: Wayne Moore, photographer; Stax Museum of American Soul Music

“I’m gonna have a hit if it’s the last thing I do!” exclaims Albert King. “Hanging around the studio for three days in a row now, I think ain’t nobody can get a hit outta here but Sam and Dave, Rufus Thomas, or Carla Thomas … I can play the blues myself! Yeah! Gonna get every disc jockey in business across the country. If he don’t dig this, he got a hole in his soul!” King is speaking over a song from half a century ago, but it sounds as urgent as this morning’s news. Such was the galvanizing spirit animating Stax studios throughout 1968 and 1969.

By then, the need for hits had become a matter of survival: Atlantic Records, which had distributed all Stax material through 1967, was enforcing the contractual fine print that made all Stax master recordings the property of Atlantic. Severing relations with the industry giant, Stax, guided by co-owner Al Bell, began cranking out new music at a furious pace.

Wayne Moore, photographer; Stax Museum of American Soul Music

Soul Explosion Summit Atendees with Covers

It was known as the “Soul Explosion,” and Craft Recordings has just re-released a two-LP set by that name that served as the capstone of this Herculean effort. Last year, the five-CD Stax ’68: A Memphis Story gathered every release from the first year of the label’s reinvention. The new double-vinyl reissue, identical in appearance to the original 1969 album, captures the time even more viscerally. Deanie Parker, former head of Stax publicity (and, more recently, president and CEO of the Soulsville Museum), recalls the time wistfully. “That was a time when people loved to read, to see pictures, to touch the album covers, singles, and labels, and have the artists autograph them.”

The vinyl reissue literally brings it all back home. As part of the label’s “Made in Memphis” campaign, the lacquers were cut by Memphis-based engineer Jeff Powell and manufactured at Memphis Record Pressing. And for Parker, the reissue transports her back to that time. “You’d hear something new and think, ‘Oh, this is fantastic! Look what these people did in the studio! Did you hear what they came up with last night?!’ Overnight, something dynamic could happen creatively, and it would modify the strategies that you had in mind earlier in the week, in terms of how we were gonna package it,” she recalls.

Package it they did, with an ever-refined sense of strategy. The Soul Explosion album assembled the biggest hits of 1968, with other diverse potential hits from that productive year. Johnnie Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love,” the label’s first big post-Atlantic smash, is followed in quick succession by Booker T. & the MGs’ “Hang ‘Em High,” Eddie Floyd’s “I’ve Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do),” and other chart-toppers and rarities. The LP was assembled for maximum impact, just before the label hosted a massive summit of industry players in May of 1969. As Parker recalls, “That album was the centerpiece.”

Al Bell recalls, “We were multimedia before multimedia was even a thing! During that one weekend in Memphis, we had large projections on the walls the size of movie theater screens, and we had video interspersed with live performances by all of our top acts. The energy during that weekend was like nothing the music industry had seen before.”

Beyond appearing 50 years after the original release, the timing of the reissue was especially poignant, coming only days after the death of John Gary Williams, the star vocalist of the Mad Lads. The LP’s two numbers from that group, “So Nice” and “These Old Memories.” In more ways than one, “these old memories” will “bring new tears.”
Editor’s note: Memorial services for John Gary Williams will be Saturday, June 8th, at the Brown Missionary Baptist Church, 7200 Swinnea in Southaven, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Peggy Brown: Queen of Memphis Soul Food

Peggy Brown was 7 when a pot of coffee fell off a table and severely burned her foot.

“My grandma was so upset,” Brown says. “She made me stay out of the kitchen.” But that didn’t stop her. “As soon as my foot healed, I was back in the kitchen. I got a whipping about being in the kitchen, but that didn’t deter me.”

She’s been in one kitchen or another ever since. Brown, 69, is owner of Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking on Cleveland Street near Peabody Avenue in Midtown, and she recently opened another thriving restaurant, Peggy’s Homestyle Cooking, on Brooks Road. Brown has a reputation for putting out some of the best and healthiest soul food in town. But the road to success was long and difficult.

Until she had her own restaurants, Brown worked in many Memphis kitchens, including one at The Peabody, where she shared cooking tips with noted chef/journalist Burt Wolf.

“I think God gave us all a gift,” Brown says. “And I think my gift was cooking.”

But, she says, “Let me tell you something. I think the things that you go through in life — God shapes you. You don’t understand at that point in time when it’s all happening, but when you get grown and you look back, all these things served to make you strong. I’m telling you. I have survived stuff that would kill anybody else. Believe me.”

Brown grew up on a farm in Arlington. “My mom was part Indian … white, black, and I don’t know what else. My dad was black as these shoes I got on. When we got old enough, we’d go to the field and pick cotton and chop cotton. The sun didn’t like me. I would welt up and be at home at night crying.”

She made her kitchen debut at the age of 8, because her parents made her “stay at home and cook.”

Brown’s mother and grandmother — her father’s mother who lived with them — did the cooking. “My mom was a good cook, but my grandmother was a great cook. I don’t know what it was, but she could make anything taste good.”

Brown says her grandmother was “what you called a Mississippi cook. That’s old South. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas. All of it is going to taste similar because the recipes were passed down from one generation to the next generation.”

Cutting out biscuits with an empty jack mackerel can was Brown’s first kitchen duty. “It was like playing with Play-Doh for me.”

She progressed to making the biscuits and, finally, making lunch. “I knew how to make things because my grandmamma made them.”

Brown cooked lunch until she was 15, when her mother and father separated. “They went their separate ways,” she remembers. “And everything just seemed to fall apart. After that, I stayed with my grandmamma. My mom disappeared for about three or four years.

“My brother was a baby when my mother left. I was a child raising a child. My grandmother was a fantastic cook, but she was also an alcoholic. That’s who my mom left us with — my dad’s mother. She drank like a fish. And half the time I don’t think she knew if we were living or dead. Because the older she got, the more she drank.”

Brown’s mother finally returned, and she had remarried. At that point, Brown says, “Everything — as old people say — went to hell in a handbasket. Nothing was ever the same again. Everything was just different. Basically, we had a stepdad who wanted to be married to our mom, but didn’t want to be bothered with her children. It was just one of those things.”

Brown and her brother continued to live with their grandmother. Their stepfather “was very mean to us. My mom did not allow him to hit us, but, you know, words hurt worse than nicks sometimes. That’s the reason I tell people, ‘You have to be careful what you say to children. You can damage children by talking down to them all the time.’ That’s what he did. He always said, ‘Well, your children ain’t going to be nothing because their dad wasn’t nothing.'”

Brown was raped when she was 15. She refused to have an abortion and gave birth to her first child, Marvin Anderson. After he was born, she took a job washing dishes at the old Shelby Restaurant. But even then, she couldn’t resist the lure of the kitchen. “The frozen pies they would buy, they were just plain old pies to me. I would always take butter and sugar and everything, kind of dress them up and put them in the oven and make them taste good.”

After her stint at Shelby Restaurant, Brown worked at a Chinese restaurant and, later, at a doughnut shop. Then she got a job cooking at Shoney’s, where she “doctored on a lot of things,” including their meatloaf and soup.

Brown left home at 18. “For the longest time, I didn’t speak to my mother. I felt like she should have left that fool and taken her children. She shouldn’t have let us be abused and talked to that way.”

Brown had another son, named David Nelson, who has since passed away. She got married in 1972 and had a daughter, Tina Brown. But after her marriage didn’t work out, she moved to Indiana and began cooking for a division of Ford Motor Company. The company paid for her to take cooking classes at a local college.

But fate — and her family — intervened. “My mom got sick,” Brown says, “and I ended up moving back home.” By then, she had forgiven her mother, influenced by a woman at church who told her “hatred is one of the worst diseases you can have. It’s a disease that can destroy you.”

Then came a career change that would shape the rest of Brown’s life. In the early 1980s, Brown got a job as a cook in the employee cafeteria at The Peabody, where she met Wolf, who was then head chef. “I thought he was the most amazing person I had ever met in my life,” Brown says. “I still do. Because he knew so much about food. I knew things that he didn’t know. And he knew things that I wanted to know.

“He knew about filleting fish. He knew about pork chops. He knew how to marinate meats and everything to make them taste good, make them tender. He just knew so much, but he knew nothing about Southern cuisine. That was not his thing.”

After she got off work, Brown would stay and watch Wolf cook. He asked her what she was doing in the kitchen after hours. Brown said, “I’m up here hanging with the chefs because I want to know what y’all know.”

And before long, that’s what began to happen.

“[Wolf] started showing me things. He’d show me how to cut up this and how to marinate this and what to put in this. And we just started sharing things.”

There was the “turkey fiasco during Thanksgiving time,” Brown remembers. Wolf made “stuffing” for the employee holiday dinner. “I said, ‘Chef, what in the world is this? People in the South don’t eat this.’ It wasn’t anything but just dough. Dough rolls. People in the South eat cornbread dressing.”

Wolf told her to serve it anyway. “So, we wheel all this stuff downstairs to the employee cafeteria. Phones start ringing upstairs. ‘Chef, what’s this mess you sent down here?'”

Wolf, knowing when he was licked, told Brown to make her dressing. She made cornbread stuffing with sage, onions, celery, bell peppers, butter, and margarine. “I had to make my giblet gravy and everything. I don’t know what kind of gravy chef made, but it was a mess.”

She added some turkey meat to her dressing and took a cup to Wolf in his office. “I said, ‘Chef, here you go, dude. This is what you have in the South for Thanksgiving.'”

Wolf ate the dressing and then asked her for another cup, Brown says.

Wolf kept passing along his knowledge to Brown. “If you admire a person for what they know,” she says, “a lot of times they don’t mind teaching you.”

After Wolf left Memphis to open the Peabody Orlando, Brown stayed at the Memphis hotel another year and then went to work as the chef at Stonebridge Country Club. When the club was sold, the former owner wanted Brown to relocate to a club elsewhere in Tennessee, but she refused. “I wouldn’t because my mama was still sick and I wasn’t going to leave her.”

Brown briefly went to work for a diner, but says she “got tired of the racism.” At that point, she decided to open her own restaurant.

“I kept telling everybody I was going to have my own business and work for myself. I was serious as a heart attack. One of the other girls asked me, ‘Miss Peggy, what are you going to name your place?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but it’s going to be ‘heavenly’ something ’cause you have to put God first.'”

As for the kind of food she’d serve? Brown says, “I just wanted people to have a good, home-cooked meal. Because everywhere I went to eat food, most of it was out of a can and people can’t cook worth a crap.”

Brown opened her first restaurant in 1996 — Heavenly Hash on Highway 51. She closed it three years later, after her mother died. “When I opened that restaurant,” she says, “it was because I wanted to buy my mom a house. She always wanted her own house. After mom died, it just didn’t have any meaning for me anymore.”

Brown then bought a restaurant in North Memphis and named it Peggy’s Just Heavenly Home Cooking. After a fire struck the restaurant, Brown briefly got out of the business. But it wasn’t long until her daughter asked her to cook at the restaurant where she was working. Brown eventually bought the restaurant, now called Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking. She serves meatloaf, chicken, and pork chops, but the emphasis is on healthy food, Brown says. And business is good.

Noted songwriter/producer David Porter is a big fan of Brown’s restaurant. “The consistency and the quality of the meals is just something you can be comfortable with,” he says. “You know if it’s good on Monday, it’s going to be good on Tuesday. It’s one of the best soul food restaurants in Memphis.”

Former Memphis Mayor A C Wharton is also a fan. “You might as well forget about the salt and pepper shaker,” he says. “It’s ready to eat. All you need to do is add fork and knife. It reminds you of back home, watching your mama cook in a small pan. And every morsel tastes the same way.”

Of Brown, Wharton says, “She’s always willing to sit down and talk a minute and catch up on the news. Just a lot of good common sense talk. So, it’s just like being home around the kitchen table.”

“I think God allowed me to go through all the hardships and all the hurt and all the pain and anger and stuff that I went through,” Brown says. “I couldn’t understand why it was happening then, but I think I understand it now. Because I feel like God has put me in a place where I was going to meet people that had been through the same things I’ve gone through.

“One day I was praying, talking to the Lord. I talk to God the same way I talk to you. I said, ‘Lord, just let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man. Because [there are] so many hurting people. And I think I know how people feel. Just give me a little house by the side of the road.’

“Well, he didn’t give me a house by the side of the road, but he gave me a restaurant by the side of the road.”

No Cook Banana Pudding from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Peggy Brown: Queen of Memphis Soul Food

Categories
Music Music Blog

David Porter and Friends: Bringing Memphis to the World, and the World to Memphis

CREDIT: Focht

Focht

David Porter

David Porter, who worked with Isaac Hayes to craft some of Stax Records’ most compelling songs, is a busy man. Though he’s not often seen onstage, this Saturday he will host a one-of-a-kind evening of conversation and performances, featuring a diverse sampling of his friends from over five decades in the record business. Here, he talks a bit about the star-studded event, and the community cause he’s hoping it will benefit.

Memphis Flyer: Tell me a little about the show you’ll be hosting. It’s a rather unique format.

David Porter: This is the second David Porter and Friends show that I’ve done at the Horseshoe Casino. The first one was a sellout. And I had Samuel L. Jackson, the actor, I had Julius Irving, the athlete. I had Isaac Hayes, and J. Blackfoot. And the casino had been actively wanting me to do this show again for several years. I just agreed to do it for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to create a bit more attention for a nonprofit that I was the founder of, the Consortium MMT. But the primary focus of it was me putting some friends of mine together. Included in that, I will have Stevie Wonder, who was the first recipient of the Epitome of Soul Award, present the award on this show to William Bell.

Alex Burden

William Bell

It’s a great opportunity to present the Epitome of Soul award to William. We were going to present the award a year ago, and we were working with Shelby Farms but we were not able. There was a storm that happened and kinda messed it up. It was flooded and all, and so we decided not to opt on that. And so because we did have the award, and had named William Bell as a recipient even before he won a Grammy, we wanted to be sure and not let another year go by. So this show was a great opportunity to do that.

But the show’s structure is akin to The Tonight Show, a talk show with entertainment. I have friends of mine that I sit on a couch with, on the stage, talk about their careers, we have videos of their lives, we have a fun discussion that’s in-depth. I’ll be doing that with Stevie Wonder. I’ll be doing that with William Bell as well. With Ray Parker, Jr. as well. With Richard Roundtree, the star of Shaft. It is that kind of event. The reason I call it “and Friends” is because I create a personal kind of connection for the audience, with people that they’ve certainly heard about and seen, but never had this kind of view of them, with them talking about their lives in such a candid way. Involved with that are performances by these artists as well.

I suppose you’ve assembled a select house band for the event?

Yes. Gary Goin, who has been associated with me for more than 20 years, who is a known musician here, and has bands of his own that tour to casinos in other parts of the country, is the house band for this show. It’s the Gary Goin Band. There’ll be a ten piece band on that stage.

Will you be performing as well?

I’m not gonna be performing. I’m the host of the event. I interview people, though I talk about my career, certainly. Some of my material is performed and showcased. But I’m just like Jimmy Fallon, except a lot of this involves friends of mine. For instance, Stevie Wonder is going to sing a tribute to William Bell. I’m gonna refresh people on the success and the magnitude of success that Ray Parker, Jr. has had in his career. People don’t know. People don’t know that one of the most accomplished songs in the songbook of America is “Ghostbusters”. They don’t know that. They have no idea how well this man lives. Conversationally, it becomes extremely entertaining and informative for an audience to experience that. But then also to see that he’s still performing is also special.

William Bell… very few people in this area know the magnitude of William Bell’s success. They don’t know that he had a record company in the 2000’s that had a number one major record on the label that he started. And then he just won a Grammy this year. To be able to see a guy talk about his life and career and go through all that and get up on a stage and be able to perform in a quality way is a special thing. And then, how many people can see Stevie just sit on a couch and talk?

It has that personal dimension because you’ve known all these folks for years now.

Yes. Exactly. And see I’ll also be showing them some information on a nonprofit that I started in 2012, and why I started it and why I wanted to give something back. And what it all means and why it’s impacting lives and that whole thing. And so it’s gonna be an entertaining show, I can tell you that.

Well darn, I was hoping to hear you perform something off [1974 Stax album] Victim of the Joke?

Porcelan

Ha ha! Well, I still could do that but no, this is not me performing. This is me just showcasing and talking about other talents. And also I have an artist who’s on my new record label, Made In Memphis Entertainment (MIME): Porcelan, who is doing very well right now. She’ll be performing. And she’s a knockout. I mean she’s a tremendous talent. She’s a local Memphis talent who was performing with some of the booking agencies around here that have bands playing in the circuit for colleges and private parties and the like. And I heard about her and I wanted to hear her. Then I met her and was blown away. She’s 26 years old, just a beautiful young lady and extremely talented. And so we created an artist development with her and now we’ve got a record, “The Real Thing Don’t Change,” that’s getting noticed nationally. She’s a Memphis kid, born here in Memphis, went to Westwood High School in Memphis.
 

David Porter and Friends: Bringing Memphis to the World, and the World to Memphis


So MIME is quite distinct from the Consortium MMT?

Without a doubt. MIME has a 16,000 square foot building at 400 Union. We have three recording studios, state of the art. We have a roster right now of four artists, we’re gonna have as many as ten artists on our label. We just released the first record on Porcelan in September, we’re getting ready to release her album, as well as two others, the first quarter of 2018. I’m very excited about this company. 

MIME headquarters

Additionally I’m just really really pleased about being able to do something as a give back with the Consortium. What we wanted to do, and I wanted to do, was give a significant give-back that could carry on well into the future. So I developed a nonprofit that dealt with giving aspiring songwriters, record producers and recording artists an opportunity to learn from many of us that have had success doing it, whereby they can incorporate whatever their natural instincts are into what they do with this additional knowledge, and use that part of it that complements what they’re looking for. And so I started the program with a clearly focused emphasis on three areas: songwriting, recording and performing. And inside of that I developed a curriculum, for lack of a better word, that follows processes from A to Z with that.

It was not a profit center for me, I make no salary from it. Matter of fact, I started it with my own money. I got many of my friends who knew that I wanted to do this for the right reasons, and they were comfortable with giving their time to participate. So what I got them to do, I have 135 plus videos of some of the biggest names out there, talking about the steps they use in their various processes. For instance, Valerie Simpson, her and her husband, Nick Ashford, of Ashford and Simpson, in addition to being great artists they were great songwriters. So Valerie is on film in our catalog, talking about her creative steps as a songwriter. Jimmy Jam, who produced Janet Jackson, is another example. I have him on video talking about his steps in producing records. And what he does in order to make that effective. I have Philip Bailey, of Earth, Wind and Fire, talking about what artists need to do not only to preserve their voices, but to reinforce their voices in a more credible way to last through a long career in this business.

And the talents in the program, they have to do independent studies to show what they’ve learned. And then I sit down and talk with them individually about how their progress has gone, and if we feel that they could be a credible reflection of the talent pool that’s coming out of our area, we then lobby other record companies and music publishers to come look at these talents. We don’t sign any artists, they’re free to do whatever they wanna do with their music, and who they associate with. But we just try to better prepare them to be more effective. And the program is really impactful on young folks. In a really emotional way. I don’t wanna sound like people crying and that kinda thing, but it’s really like that because it’s really impacting people.

David Porter and Friends takes place on Saturday, November 11, 2017, at Horseshoe Tunica’s Bluesville Showcase Nightclub in Tunica, 8:00 pm.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Porcelan

Today’s Music Video Monday is for all you folks out there who are keeping it together.

Porcelan has been performing most of her young life. She recently signed with Memphis music legend David Porter’s Made In Memphis Entertainment, catapulting her to the largest stages of her career. The theme of love and strength overcoming fear is prominent in her first video, “Real Thing Don’t Change”.

The video was produced by Hotkey Studios and Pigeon Roost Collaborative: Directed by Blake Heimbach, shot by John Paul Clark, with assistance from Jordan Danelz, Morgan Jon Fox, Aaron Baggett, and others. The result is one of the best looking videos we’ve had on MVM this year. Take a look:

Real Thing Don’t Change by Porcelan on VEVO.

Music Video Monday: Porcelan

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

Categories
Cover Feature News

Rockin’ the Halls

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

“I have gladly given my life to Memphis music, and it has given me back a hundred-fold. It has been my fortune to know truly great men and hear the music of the spheres. May we all meet again at the end of the trail.” — Excerpted from the last words of Jim Dickinson.

Justin Fox Burks

The ceiling of the hallway leading to the museum’s second-floor space is lined with guitars that point the way to the exhibits.

Jim Dickinson liked to “watch shit rot.” Those are Dickinson’s own colorful words, of course. The storied producer, musician, Memphis Music Hall of Fame inductee, and provocateur, always placed “decomposition” at the heart of his personal aesthetic. He believed you could hear the sounds of decay in the songs he recorded with Alex Chilton and Big Star. You could see it represented visually in the paintings he labored over, then left outdoors for nature to complete.

Until very recently, visitors to Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch recording studio, were encouraged to touch a broken-down piano decomposing in the yard. In its former life, the crumbling instrument, propped up on cinder blocks like some old jalopy and covered in filth and leaves, had belonged to the Stax recording studio. It was in the building when Isaac Hayes and David Porter were songwriting partners cranking out hits like “Soul Man,” and “Wrap it Up.” It was there when Booker T. and the MG’s was the Stax house band, and when Otis Redding wrote “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

Dickinson’s widow, Mary Lindsay Dickinson, says some people understood her husband’s fondness for decay. It also made a lot of people angry to see a beautiful piece of music history left out in the weather to fall apart.

Justin Fox Burks

Jim Dickinson’s piano detail.

Justin Fox Burks

Jim Dickinson’s piano

John Doyle, executive director of the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, describes what’s left of the old Stax piano as, “a piece of Jim Dickinson’s soul.” He says it’s a perfect example of the kinds of things a visitor can expect to find on display at the Memphis Memphis Music Hall of Fame museum, which opens for business this week at the corner of Second and Beale, in a cozy two-story space nestled between the newly relocated Hard Rock Cafe and Lansky Bros. Clothier to the King. The exhibits are primarily on the second floor, where the Lansky brothers once stored their formal wear. It’s the place where Johnny Cash was taken after he came to Bernard Lansky brandishing a Prince Albert tobacco tin, wanting to buy a black frock coat just like the prince’s. “That may be the beginning of the ‘Man in Black,”‘ Doyle speculates.
Justin Fox Burks

John Doyle, Executive director of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, shows off a few of the museum’s treasures including Jerry Lee Lewis’ Cadillac, Johnny Cash’s black suit, and an original Elvis jumpsuit.

Although the two museums share administrative staff, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame isn’t Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum Jr. The latter Smithsonian-affiliated museum, located in the FedExForum, has been telling the story of Memphis music for the past 15 years. The Memphis Music Hall of Fame has only been inducting members since 2012. Its new brick-and-mortar facility will give visitors a chance to spend some digitally interactive quality time with the legendary heroes of Memphis music.
Justin Fox Burks

A customized emblem on Jerry Lee Lewis’ Cadillac.

“I asked myself, if I had the opportunity to hang out with the musicians we’re inducting each year, what would that cocktail party be like?” Doyle says, explaining his vision for the Hall of Fame exhibit. “I’m pretty sure it would not look like the Smithsonian. It would probably be weird. So we’re positioning the Memphis Music Hall of Fame as a museum where our exhibits are as outrageous as our inductees.”
Justin Fox Burks

John Doyle, executive director of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, discusses the layout of a large case with Pam Parham, director of operations.

That explains decorative touches like a ceiling hung with St. Blues guitars and the full-sized piano suspended upside down and transformed into an enormous light fixture. That’s also the philosophy behind both Dickinson’s decomposing keyboard, and a lifelike python built to accompany Larry Dodson’s costumes in the eye-popping Bar-Kays exhibit.
Justin Fox Burks

John Doyle, executive director of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, stands art the top of the stairs where a glowing piano stands in for a traditional light fixture.

“In Europe, they’re protecting Rembrandts,” Doyle says. “In Memphis, we’re protecting a pink shorts set with a cape that Rufus Thomas wore at WattStax. It is the funkiest-looking thing ever. But in Memphis it becomes an art museum treasure.”

Additional treasures collected in the Hall of Fame include an acoustic guitar that belonged to Memphis street sweeper and blues legend Furry Lewis. The well-documented guitar is on loan from a North Dakota collector, as is the original guitar case on which Lewis painted his name.

The seeds that grew into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame were planted in 2007, when Doyle asked his Rock ‘n’ Soul board to brainstorm new ways for the museum to enhance its mission to tell the Memphis music story and grow beyond the walls of the FedExForum. It was Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau President Kevin Kane who first suggested the idea of opening a hall of fame. The concept was an immediate hit, although nobody seemed to know for sure what form such an entity might take. “It could be a chicken dinner we have every year, with special performances and trophies,” Doyle says. “It might be a public art installation somewhere downtown. Or a comprehensive website with music and pictures.” Doyle thought a new off-site exhibit would be cost-prohibitive. Then, about a week after the hall’s first induction ceremony, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton approached the Rock ‘n’ Soul director with news that Beale Street’s Hard Rock Cafe was moving from its original location on the eastern stretch of Beale, into the old Lansky’s building. The club, Wharton said, was looking to partner with a museum.

“As the executive director, my heart sank,” Doyle jokes. “I could tell this was going to mean a lot of work.” With nearly six million visitors annually, Beale Street is Tennessee’s largest tourist destination, and although it’s home to the W.C. Handy House and Museum, there’s no visitor center where people can find out about the Memphis Zoo or the Stax Museum of American Soul Music or the newly opened Blues Hall of Fame on South Main or anything else.

“We felt like we could assist in doing all that by having a presence here,” Doyle says. Between the licensing appropriate music and photos and the hiring of top-notch music writers and designers, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame’s website was costing the Rock ‘n’ Soul museum $90,000 a year. “That’s a good-size burden for a not-for-profit museum,” Doyle says. “Fortunately, because of our relationship with the Memphis Grizzlies and because of our location at the FedExForum, we’ve been able to sustain that and grow our mission outside the walls they provide for us.”

Even in a tourist-rich zone like Beale Street, that kind of “assist” might not sound like a big deal. But Memphis music tourism is already on the rise and Elvis Presley’s Graceland Public Relations Director Kevin Kern thinks the new Hall of Fame will only help to promote that upward trend. “[It] will add to our story, while expanding the list of options for the traveler to keep them in town,” Kern says. Memphis, he adds, has finally grown into something “more than a long weekend destination.”

More than 600,000 tour Graceland annually, making it Memphis’ second largest music-related destination after Beale Street, and the second-most-visited residence in America after the White House. More than 150,000 people visit Sun Studio annually, and another 60,000 tour the Rock ‘n’ Soul museum and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.  

Tim Sampson, communications director for the Soulsville Foundation, agrees with Kern. “Our attendance at Stax is way up,” he says. “We’ve got people here in the museum from every continent every single day.”

Sampson welcomes the new Memphis Music Hall of Fame, just as he welcomed the Blues Hall of Fame, which opened in May. He credits the recent boom in music tourism to the fact that music-related destinations are more collaborative than competitive. He also believes that additions to the landscape such as music-related murals and an increasing number of historical markers and museums also help the Memphis tourism industry.

Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul hit 60,000 tourists annually in 2013, and had its best month ever in April. Each subsequent month has broken previous records. Doyle thinks this is strong evidence that the stage is perfectly set for a facility like the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

“There is no other city in America that can host its own music Hall of Fame,” Doyle boasts. “Some states can. Alabama has one. Texas has one. But Memphis is the epicenter of American music.

“When we first sat down and started coming up with the names of potential inductees it was so easy,” Doyle says. “There was Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, and on and on. In that first evening, we listed 300 well-known performers from different musical traditions — jazz, blues, rural field-holler-type music, jug bands, rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, gospel, R&B, rap, hip-hop. In a very short time, our list of potential inductees became enormous.”

On the morning before his latest documentary, Best of Enemies, was scheduled to screen in Los Angeles, author and Memphis music historian Robert Gordon offered some perspective regarding the potential of a Memphis Music Hall of Fame compared to other music towns.

“Lots of cities can say they’re home to a star,” he said. “Buddy Holly’s from Lubbock, Texas, for example. And so is Waylon Jennings.  So they can make a little Buddy Holly shrine in Lubbock. But Memphis? What decade do you want to talk about? What musical genre?

“People ask how can it be possible that Carl Perkins wasn’t selected until the third year of the Memphis Hall of Fame?” says Gordon. “He’s the first guy to have a number-one record on the pop, country, and R&B charts at the same time,” Gordon says. “And that frustrates some people. It’s something we should celebrate. Our music history has been so rich that we can not induct Carl Perkins until the third year, because each year we’ve wanted to recognize our musical diversity.

“What I want to know is, when will Booker Little get into the Hall of Fame?” Gordon asks, rhetorically. Even though Little died young and his name isn’t a household word, his contributions were significant. It may be next year or 10 years from now, but the Manassas graduate and hard-bop trumpet innovator who performed alongside John Coltrane will eventually be enshrined alongside the better known heroes of Sun, Hi, and Stax.

The answer doesn’t matter, Gordon finally concludes, because the Hall of Fame isn’t a popularity contest.

In a telephone interview, Mary Lindsay Dickinson remembered the day the big truck with “Amro” painted on the side pulled up to the family’s Zebra Ranch recording studio in Coldwater, Mississippi. It had come to take her late husband’s special piano to its final resting place in the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. “There are no better piano movers in the world, I don’t think,” she said. But in spite of their expert handling, the wooden portions of the once-fine instrument fell into shreds as the movers lifted it from its resting place. “It had rotted completely,” Dickinson said, unable to conceal her delight that her late husband Jim had gotten exactly what he wanted.

Spooner Oldham, the great keyboard player, known for his work with Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, described Dickinson’s piano as the perfect metaphor for both mortality and immortality. He told Mary Lindsay that even when the wooden bits on the outside had returned to ashes and dust, “there will still be a harp inside.”

“And a harp is what was left,” Dickinson said, reiterating Doyle’s desire to collect edgy artifacts. “The harp was left. And when it finally goes up in the hall of fame it will be the oddest, ugliest, and most unique exhibit in any museum anywhere in the world.”

The Memphis Music Hall of Fame opens to the public on July 27th at 126 Second. Hours of operation will be 10 a.m.-7 p.m. 205-2532 memphismusichalloffame.com/