Tag: Lafayette’s Music Room

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James McMurtry Can Really Sell a Song

James McMurtry (Credit: Mary Keating Bruton)

James McMurtry is a songwriter’s songwriter, rightly celebrated for his evocative compositions over the course of more than three decades. Stephen King called him “the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation,” and that highlights something unique about the Texas-based performer: writers of all stripes are among his biggest fans. And yet he doesn’t let such praise go to his head. Just listen to his song “Restless,” which begins with the lines:


She gets a little restless in the spring
She might follow the lines you sing
Bullshit though they are
‘Cos sometimes that’s just the thing
If delivered with panache and a certain grace

Perhaps when your father is novelist Larry McMurtry you have a certain perspective on any writerly talents you might possess, or accolades you might accumulate. Certainly that lends perspective on any similarities casual listeners might assume to exist between songwriting and prose-writing.

“I don’t take leads from any author,” he tells the Memphis Flyer. “I’m not a prose writer. My leads come from Kris Kristofferson, John Prine and people that write songs. It’s a whole different muscle. And you also have the melodic aspect, which we can’t really do without. People will compare my work to poetry but it’s not. I hear a couple of lines and a melody in my head and I chase it. If it’s cool enough to keep me up at night, I finish the song. With poetry, you don’t have to write for an instrument. Your voice is an instrument, so you write words that sing well. You don’t have to do that poetry — it doesn’t have to be sung, it doesn’t even have to be spoken.”

The key principle of songwriting, he says, it that “you don’t want to write words to tie your tongue. And I usually have to tweak it so I can sing it better. You want consonants that roll off the tongue, that drop in the pocket. That way you can talk it or sing it. If you study Kristofferson’s work, that’s kind of how he does it. He didn’t think of himself as a singer. You can sing the hell out of those words, or you can talk them. It gives you more options as to how to sell it. Roy Acuff talked about that. He said, ‘I’m not a singer. I’m a seller.'”

On Thursday, this consummate salesman and his band will be peddling their wares at Lafayette’s Music Room. And lest you think the lyrics, however singable, are the only thing going on with this artist, the music is just as carefully crafted. That makes for some very moving songcraft, as most critics have agreed. His albums Just Us Kids (2008) and Childish Things (2005) were hailed as milestones, with the former earning McMurtry his highest Billboard 200 chart position in two decades (since eclipsed by Complicated Game) and a few Americana Music Award nominations. Childish Things, a few years earlier, spent six full weeks topping the Americana Music Radio chart in 2005 and 2006, and won the Americana Music Association’s Album of the Year, with the politically charged “We Can’t Make It Here” named the organization’s Song of the Year. Still, he keeps evolving.

“I have explored more melodic approaches over time,” McMurtry notes. “The more I sing, the more my range increases. So two records ago I was writing some high stuff, high notes that I wouldn’t have tried earlier. And there’s one song on this record, ‘Blackberry Winter,’ that’s in a little bit higher range than I used to do. But I don’t know that it really matters. It makes it harder!”

That record, The Horses and the Hounds, released by New West Records in 2021, is classic McMurtry, spinning empathetic, wry tales full of the despondent feel of small town America on the skids. “That’s been a thread through most of my work for most of my so called career,” he admits. “I get my details through the windshield because we spent a lot of time going down the highway. But I know that feeling of wanting to get out of a small town. That’s kind of the culture I came from. My dad escaped from a small town in Texas and went to school, and most of his friends were first-generation-off-the-farm grad students. So that was kind of how I was raised. It instilled a skepticism of rural, small towns in me which I later saw firsthand from living in Lockhart, Texas. And I even wound up back in my dad’s hometown for some of the time. It was just like he said!”

James McMurtry and band play Lafayette’s Music Room on Thursday, September 28th at 7 p.m. $25 advance/$30 day of show. Click here for tickets.

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Music Music Blog

Maggie Rose: A Songbird with Sass and Soul

Maggie Rose (Credit: Nathan Leslie)

Some may think of Nashville as the city of country music, but that’s obsolete for this era. Consider the work of Maggie Rose, who appears at Lafayette’s Music Room on Thursday, March 30th. She’s a Nashville-based, genre-smashing artist whose publicity describes her music as a “collision of rock n’roll, soul, folk, funk, and R&B.” Note the absence of “country,” despite the fact that many have filed her under that tag since she began her career in 2009.

Such categories mean little in this post-Taylor Swift world, and Rose has clearly taken that message to heart. Case in point, Rose’s 2021 album, Have a Seat. Produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes, it was cut before the pandemic at the inimitable FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. That alone screams out soul and rock and roll, all the more so because the studio band included heavy-hitters like bassist David Hood of the Swampers (the session musicians who backed up the likes of Aretha Franklin and Etta James) and guitarist Will McFarlane (Bonnie Raitt, Levon Helm), not to mention Rose’s longtime bandmates/collaborators Larry Florman, Alex Haddad, and Sarah Tomek.

The Wurlitzer electric piano that begins Have a Seat sets the tone for the rest of the music to follow with a spot-on soul vamp. String and horn sections further establish the roots of Rose’s sound here. And then come the lyrics of songs composed by Rose and a small army of co-writers.

Notably, her genre studies aren’t always on the nose. “I diagnose myself with the internet, minor aches and pains, death is imminent, I think the twitch in my eye might be permanent, you got a cure for it?” she sings in “Help Myself,” and it almost sounds like Supertramp with it’s bouncy keyboards. Yet she returns to the land of soul for the album’s closer: “Don’t ya give me the floor and then leave the room/I know that I’m speaking for myself but I’m talking to you,” she sings in “You Got Today.”

The latter song underscores the strong streak of women’s empowerment in Maggie Rose’s career. And that goes beyond her music. She also hosts a podcast, Salute the Songbird, which features her conversations with fellow women artists about their lives in and out of music, not to mention music industry-adjacent women like music journalist Marissa Moss, whose book Her Country is an inside look at the world of women in country music. Other guests have included erstwhile Memphis artists like Valerie June and Shannon McNally.

This sensibility of solidarity is echoed in Maggie Rose’s music, which spans over a decade now, making her Thursday show at Lafayette’s (with a full band that includes Kaitlyn Connor on keys, Kyle Lewis on guitar, Judd Fuller on bass, and Tim Burkhead on drums) the perfect way to wrap up National Women’s History Month.

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Tommy Howell’s Cowboy Christmas Show

Tommy Howell (Photo: Judd Sather photography)

He was a Ponyboy; she was a Ponygirl. Can I make it any more obvious? Well, to be fair, I could probably elaborate. You know Tommy “C. Thomas” Howell, the guy who played Ponyboy in The Outsiders? He’s released a single “Ponygirl” last week. Sadly, Howell says, “There’s no relation to Ponyboy, apart from the fact that Ponyboy wrote it. It’s a lullaby that’s about a young cowboy looking for his love.”

And though you might also recognize Howell from his roles in E.T., Red Dawn, and even Criminal Minds, channelling the story of a cowboy within his music hasn’t been much of a stretch for the actor. “I grew up in a rural community,” he says. “My father was a professional cowboy and I rodeoed my whole life.” Music, however, is a relatively new creative outlet for the artist.

“I picked up a guitar for the very first time [when Covid hit in 2020] with the thought of wanting to write and star in a movie about a cowboy who had success with one album and walked away from the business,” Howell says. “So I started to pluck at the guitar hoping to fake my way through a movie production and I absolutely fell in love with it. I started playing and writing songs, and one thing led to another and all this just turned into a big old mess on accident.”

With three singles under his belt and an album set to release in 2023, Howell is ready to get back on the stage. “I went through kind of a quickening, I’d say, a little speed course over the past year and a half. I feel like I’ve been doing it for 10 years. It’s exciting to reinvent yourself and be open to something new.”

This Thursday, Howell will bring his Cowboy Christmas Show to Memphis, where he will perform his original country music and classic Christmas songs. Plus, he’ll share a tale or two about his life and career in Hollywood. Admission to the show is free, but a toy donation for the Salvation Army is strongly encouraged. “We’re just trying to put smiles on faces and hearts, including our own,” he says.

Cowboy Christmas Show, Lafayette’s Music Room, Thursday, December 15, 7 p.m., free with a toy donation.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow Brings Their Act to Lafayette’s

This Sunday, August 14th, the Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow is bringing its thrilling brand of entertainment to Lafayette’s Music Room. Championing themselves as the “world’s largest and last remaining troupe of sideshow freaks and circus performers,” this group of performers defies death every time they take the stage, from swallowing swords to eating fire to practicing foot archery and more — all in a two-and-a-half hour show. 

As seen on AMC’s Freakshow, Ripley’s Believe It Not, Guinness World Records, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, America’s Got Talent, and more, these performers hope to inspire audiences in conquering their fears and dwelling in anticipation. Lucky for us, the Memphis Flyer got a chance to catch up with performer Short E. Dangerously in a quick Q&A to ask him all about what it means to join the circus. 

Short E. Dangerously (Photo: Courtesy Great Scott Productions)

Memphis Flyer: What led you to being a part of Hellzapoppin?

Short E. Dangerously: After 15 years in the nightclub business as a DJ, I found myself looking for something different. I had no idea what direction I wanted to go. A mutual friend introduced me to [ringleader] Bryce “The Govna” Graves. He contacted me and offered to have me as a guest on an upcoming show Hellzapoppin had not far from where I lived. I had one skill — I could do an inverted handstand. Now, keep in mind, I don’t have any legs. So, I came out, gave a little speech, and went into a handstand, with the understanding of the audience that the louder they were, the higher up I would go.

What is your act all about?

My signature act is walking on broken shards of glass with my bare hands while it is on fire! It is a demonstration of pain tolerance and mental and physical toughness. I was born with a physical condition that does set me apart from other performers. In the sideshow world, I am considered a half-man. I am also considered a natural born performer, a natural born “freak” if you will. However, I trained and studied for over a year with the glass walking before even attempting it on stage. 

Most of the sideshow stunts are passed down from performer to performer as a generational thing. In order to do what we do, you have to have a knowledge of science, physics as well as anatomy. Whereas a musician plays their given instrument, our bodies are our instruments. For example, in order for Willow [Lauren] to learn how to swallow a sword, she had to know the anatomy and the science of what is going on with her body as well as controlling gag reflexes that are normally involuntary. She has to control those with her mind and suppress them.

Willow Lauren, one of the few women in the world who swallow swords and regurgitate razor blades (Photo: Courtesy Great Scott Productions)

Circuses have a layered history, often exploitative. How have y’all confronted this history? 

Bryce and I get asked this question all the time regarding exploitation. However, there’s no exploitation going on. I am in the show because I have a talent and I’m a performer. It’s not just because of how I look. I have a skill set. My background as a DJ helped me in this field. I run all of the music cues and the production during the show except for when I’m on stage. Then Willow runs my music cues.

Have you ever surprised yourself in being able to perform a certain act?

I can recall one time when I did surprise myself. The big finish to the glass walking act is when I jump down onto the pile of glass from an elevated ladder or stool. This one particular time, the only ladder that was available for us to use was approximately four-and-a-half feet high. I normally jumped from around two or two-and-a-half feet. When I got to the top of the ladder, Bryce came out to me and pulled the microphone away and said, “You don’t really have to do this.” I looked at him. I smiled. I said, “I’m either going to make history or be history.” I looked down, took a deep breath, and sent it! I landed safely with no problems. As I walked off stage, I thought to myself that it was really crazy, but I would love to do it again!

(Photo: Through the Eyes of a Queen/Courtesy Great Scott Productions)

Do you ever doubt yourself or get nervous before doing something that most people wouldn’t dare to try?

I get asked this question a lot and the best way I can answer it is I ask people a question: Do you get nervous before you go to work? This is my job. This is my profession. Ironically, there’s a calmness that comes over me before the show starts. Then, when I hit the stage, everything explodes! All of that fear and anxiety is gone and I am focused on my job, the task at hand.

What does it feel like when you’ve succeeded in performing a death-defying stunt, especially in front of an audience?

It’s the best! It’s an incredible adrenaline rush! There’s nothing like it anywhere! It’s the best drug in the world! I have defied death countless times in my life — injury not so much. A lot of times, audience members and average people fail to realize that we literally torture ourselves for their entertainment. However, when you’re on stage, you don’t feel any pain. We all tend to feel our pain off stage, after the show, when the adrenaline wears off and reality kicks back in. One thing I have learned is that sometimes our audiences are a little bit bloodthirsty. It’s like most of our audiences are the ones that go to a car race just for the crashes!

However, the energy we get from the audience always gives us the energy to get it done. We literally feed off the energy the audience gives us some nights because it’s the only way that we can do it. You do this because you love it and you can’t imagine doing anything else in the world. Only a few people can do what we do, which is what makes us so unique.

Is there anything else that you feel is important to mention?

You can find us all on social media. Make sure to check out www.hellzapoppin.com for all of our tour dates and performer bios!

Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow, Lafayette’s Music Room, Sunday, August 14, 7 p.m., $20 /general admission, $35/VIP, 21+.

Purchase tickets here.

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Uncategorized We Saw You

We Saw You: Local Performers Honored at The Tommy Awards

Julien Salley, Lafayette's Music Room general manager, and Michael Donahue at The Tommy Awards

Tommy Peters probably would have vetoed the idea of having an awards show named after him.

The late businessman’s daughter Bethany Peters Stooksberry told me after he died, “He has a brass note on Beale he never wanted to accept. He never wanted to be in the media. He wasn’t very ostentatious.”

But I think Peters would have loved The Tommy Awards, a show honoring local performers, that was held March 20th at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Between 400 and 500 attended the event — a benefit for the Memphis Music Hall of Fame — that featured 15 acts and 22 awards, says Julien Salley, general manager of Lafayette’s, which Peters owned.

The awards show “was Paul Moreau’s idea,” Salley says. “I’m a marketing professional for FedEx now and I’ve been a musician since high school, so, I’ve always been doing both. I’m in three bands: Thumpdaddy, Led Zep’n, and Rock the Boat. I love marketing and I love music. So, the past several years I’ve started merging both passions.”

Shara Layne Matlock and Paul Moreau at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Shara Layne Matlock)

Moreau began doing Merry KISSMAS fundraising concerts two years ago. “We had 12, 15 bands paying nothing but KISS songs.”

He got the idea for the recent awards show after a reading a Facebook post. “A member from one band just made a post on his page out of the blue where he was giving kudos to a guy in another band.”

The post went along the lines of, “I always thought you were good. But you’ve really gone from good to great. And I just want to say that publicly.”

“I read that and it got me to thinking, ‘Hey, there really ought to be a forum, a way for us to celebrate all these hard-working bands in the Mid-South area. They bring so much happiness to others. They have so much talent and work so hard to do it.’”

I thought, “‘Why don’t we celebrate each other together?’ So, I noodled it around a little while. What would really be cool is if we did a Grammy-style awards show.”

He took his idea to Lafayette’s.

“When he came to us, we said, ‘Yes. We’d love to host this awards ceremony,” Salley says. “Paul was showing up at our weekly manager meetings. We were blowing up his phone, email, text. It was constant communication. We partnered with him. Our team and Paul were in non-stop contact for the last three months putting this together.”

“I wasn’t sure what we could call it,” Moreau says. And, he added, “I initially suggested, ‘What if we call it ‘The Julien?’ Like the Oscar.

“I made this silly little image of an Oscar body with Julien’s head on it. But then he kicked it around and he said, ‘You know what would really be cool? If we call the awards ‘The Tommy’ in honor of Tommy Peters, who basically brought Lafayette’s back to life.”

Moreau liked the idea. He’d heard stories of the old Lafayette’s, which opened in 1972 in Overton Square. “I’ve seen pictures from the heyday of Billy Joel and KISS. It must have been a magical place.”

Peters, who died September 5th, 2021, was founder, president, and CEO of Beale Street Blues Company, which includes Lafayette’s Music Room, B. B. King’s Blues Club, and Itta Bena and Moondance restaurants. In Orlando, he owned The Wharf and Lizzie’s BBQ. In Montgomery, Alabama, he owned B. B. King’s Blues Club, Lucille, and Itta Bena in Wind Creek Casino. He also owned B. B. Kings Blues Clubs in the Holland American Cruise Lines.

 “Tommy Peters wasn’t your typical leader,” Salley says. “He was a high-energy visionary that led from the front. Every day with him was exciting because we were always after something new. ‘How can we improve our live music program?’ ‘What new opportunities exist in the market?’ ‘What can we do to shake things up in Memphis?’ These were questions he was constantly asking.”

They used a few of the “guitar drop elements” from the Beale Street New Year’s Eve events at The Tommy Awards. These included the Sky Tracker, which flashed lights across the sky. Arriving guests were photographed on the black carpet runway. “Black is a little more rock and roll than a red carpet,” Salley says.

During one point, Loeb Properties president Bob Loeb introduced Peters’s daughters Bethany Peters Stooksberry and Sara Fay Egan, and Peters’s granddaughter, Grace Egan. 

Sara Fay Egan and Bethany Peters Stooksberry at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“We’re going to continue to carry on my dad’s commitment to Memphis,” Stooksberry said, “and his mission to support these musicians that are in this room tonight and this unique sound that can only be found right here.”

Six Feet Thunder did a tribute to Junior Grant, who recently died. They played Queensryche’s “Silent Lucidity.” That showed “just how united the band community in the Memphis area is,” Moreau says. “It was a beautiful moment.

Shawn Few and Shara Layne Matlock hosted the event.

Salley wore a glittering gold lame jacket, which also has a tie-in to Peters. Years ago, Salley had a Lansky Bros. jacket, which he was wearing the night when he had to break up a fight between two guys at Lafayette’s. One of the men left, but the other tried to fight Salley and also threatened to kill him. “I reached down to ball him up a little bit to drag him out,” Salley says.

That’s when the guy tore Salley’s jacket. “I felt it tear from top to bottom on my back. I was livid.”

The story ended when an undercover policeman arrested the guy and took him away. “Tommy felt sorry for me losing the jacket. The following Monday he shows up with this gold jacket.”

Originally Salley says he thought it was a lot of gold, a bit much. “Elvis, Prince, or the Bar-Kays could get away with wearing it, but not me. We wouldn’t be able to bring the lights down low enough for me to walk around in that thing.”

The Tommy Awards was only the second time he’s worn the jacket. Salley says he wore it to honor Peters.

 “I feel like at this point I’ve seen every shape, size, and temperament a boss can have. And Tommy Peters is the best of all of them. It stings that I’ll never be able to repay him for everything he did for me. Every single shift I miss him. The entire team misses him.”

Al Kapone performed at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Richard and Debba Ross and Pat Kerr Tigrett were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Bob Loeb, right, introduced Tommy Peters’s daughters at The Tommy Awards. With him are Jennifer and Jason D. Williams. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Chris Pietrangelo was at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Geri and Hal Lansky were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Cheryl Thomas and Helen Stewart were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Nicole Johnson and Marc Meredith were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Courtney Griesenauer and Justin Hodges were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
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Jay Farrar Brings Son Volt — and Hope — to Lafayette’s

Son Volt (photo by Ismael Quintanilla III)

Hearing Son Volt’s latest album, Electro Melodier (Transmit Sound/Thirty Tigers), is a cathartic experience, especially once you learn that it was written and recorded entirely under the conditions of quarantine. In a sense, Farrar, who’s always had a political edge to his lyrics, was the perfect scribe of the times, but this time around, he brings more than his trenchant eye for injustice.

The album’s mix of trepidation and optimism is still with us today, as the pandemic rages on, so it’s even more hopeful to learn that Jay Farrar, Son Volt’s founder, singer and songwriter, will bring the group’s unique blend of folk, country, blues, soul, and rock to Lafayette’s Music Room on Sunday, September 26. And to sweeten the deal, local favorite Shannon McNally will open the show with her latest, sultry-voiced take on the Waylon Jennings catalog, The Waylon Sessions.

I caught up with Farrar as he carried on with the group’s tour, and asked him about the unique experience of creating his latest work.

Memphis Flyer: I was surprised at how hopeful the new album is. It was composed in the quarantine era, so one expects the worst, but it’s surprisingly cathartic.

Jay Farrar: Yeah, the songs were written during the pandemic, so there was a lot of introspection going on. But I also wanted to focus on melodic structures, and I guess at the end of the day, it’s the same concept as singing the blues. You feel better just writing and singing these songs. So I guess there was some hope in there somewhere.

Was it a conscious move on your part to remain hopeful as you created these songs?

It gave me a singular focus, for sure, because live performance was taken off the table. So there was definitely a singular focus on these songs during the writing and recording. There were a few learning experiences along the way. We first tried recording via Zoom and different remote locations in different studios. And we did that song, “These Are the Times,” that way. But eventually we realized that some of the synergy was lost that way, so we eventually got together in the studio. Although Mark Spencer, who has his own studio in Brooklyn, added his parts from there. So there was a mixed approach to this recording. A little bit of the old, a little bit of the new.

What time during the quarantine period last year did you start the project?

Our last gig was a date in February, and I’d already done a fair amount of writing by February and March. And then we started recording in April, I think, digging deeper into recording through the summer. We had to have some heart-to-heart discussions. At that point, we didn’t know if masking up was going to be enough, you know? But we decided we had to do it together, to find that chemistry. But there was an eerie quality to it all. If you walked out onto the street, you’d wonder, “Where are all the people?”

I’m curious what you personally look to to find that optimism. Like when you say, “It’s gonna be all right, the worst will soon be over.”

That’s a good question. I think I was digging deep. In a political sense, I felt like things were changing at that time. They couldn’t go on the way they had been going. And as it turned out, at least from my perspective, the ship is headed in the right direction. I guess that deep introspection makes you think about what’s important. You just have to believe that things are going to get better.

You sing about looking at our times “more in sorrow than anger,” and I think that is telling. Is grieving a way to get beyond the anger?

Yeah, I mean, we’re still in it and there are still difficult decisions to make. Getting back to live performance has been important for Son Volt. We’re out on the road with a more flexible approach. Obviously getting vaxxed and wearing masks is the right thing to do, but maybe there are situations where people can’t get the vaccines or whatever, so we just have a flexible approach.

Obviously the band name itself screams out Memphis history. What does Memphis represent to you?

The list is long! The effects of Memphis music are profound. I think five or six years ago, Son Volt played the Levitt Shell, and just seeing the list of folks who had played there, from Elvis to Big Star, and many more, was amazing. Both Elvis and Big Star are huge, Charlie Rich, and obviously Sun Studio. I even took my kids there. They had zero interest when we went in, and a lot of interest when we walked out. [laughs] So that speaks to the power of Memphis music right there. And certainly I’d been into other really melodic bands, like Badfinger and the Beatles, before I discovered Big Star, but Big Star is someone I turn to for inspiration now, more than those other bands at this point. It’s a perennial favorite.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Almost Elton John’s Christmas Extravaganza at Lafayette’s

CREDIT: Ben Gibson

Anyone who missed Elton John’s final stop in Memphis on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour this October can almost see the Rocket Man play this Friday at Almost Elton John & the RocketMen: The Christmas Extravaganza at Lafayette’s.

The group, led by tribute artist Jerred Price, will play the annual holiday show as part of its monthly residency, blasting hits like “Tiny Dancer,” “Crocodile Rock,” and “Bennie and the Jets,” mixed in with a couple of Christmas songs and one of Price’s favorites, “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” an 11-minute rock ballad from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Ben Gibson

Jerred Price (left) and Elton

“It’s one of my favorites to perform because it goes from one end of the spectrum to the other,” says Price. “It goes from this dark, haunting-sounding song into a complete rock-and-roll jam session, and it’s just beautiful. So much fun.”

Price, who taught himself to sing and play Elton John covers at a young age, says he credits John for shaping him as a person.

“By far, he’s been my biggest influence as far as music, but also just as a human being with his humanitarianism and what he’s done for other people,” says Price.

Price has modeled his own humanitarian efforts after John, working as a commissioner for Memphis City Beautiful, a volunteer for numerous local organizations, and a fund-raiser for Elton John’s AIDS Foundation.

In addition to his philanthropic work, Price says he believes in giving back through his music.

“Music is the one thing when, at that moment, at least, people are smiling and they’re having fun,” he says. “And they don’t care if they’re sitting next to somebody that may not be the same color or political party as them.”

Almost Elton John & The RocketMen: The Christmas Extravaganza, Lafayette’s Music Room, Friday, December 20th, 10 p.m., $5.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Moondance Grill Slated to Open Early September in Germantown

Get ready for “Moondance Grill,” a new Germantown restaurant from Liz and Tommy Peters and the Beale Street Blues Co., which brought you Itta Bena, the restaurant above B. B. King’s Blues Club, and Lafayette’s Music Room in Overton Square.

Peters, president of Beale Street Blues Co., came up with the name. “After my favorite artist — Van Morrison,” Tommy says.

The new restaurant, slated to open in early September, is at 1730 Germantown Parkway. The restaurant actually is “on Neshoba off Germantown Parkway,” Tommy says. “In front of Germantown Performing Arts Center.”

“We wanted to have a nice, social bar in Germantown and a place for people to have fun,” Liz says. “We didn’t want it to be stuffy. We didn’t want it to be formal. We didn’t want it to be too casual. But somewhere in between.”

“We can’t ever duplicate Itta Bena,“ Tommy says. But, he adds, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It’s influenced by elements from four or five of our favorite grills across the country.“

The restaurant will feature an oversized bar area with a rectangular bar with 32 seats.

Moondance will have a grand piano, acoustic guitar, and “some saxophone,” Tommy says. “All background music. Quiet music. Everything we do has elements of music to it.”

It will feature an open kitchen, “which we’ve never done before,” Tommy says.


Food will range from “good seafood to steaks and great salads,” he continues.


And a “large small-plate menu,” Liz says.


Moondance will feature a raw bar with a jumbo shrimp cocktail and other items.


All the food is “classic-style” with “good quality,” Tommy says. “Food with simplicity. Real butter. Lemon.”


They don’t plan to change their menu, unless something doesn’t work, Tommy says.

Moondance also will include a 42-seat weatherized patio with air conditioning, heat, and a roof.


So why is Morrison Tommy’s favorite artist? “He is a true artist ,and he plays from his heart and soul for himself,” Tommy says.

Tommy, who’s seen Morrison in concert “probably 22 times,” says Morrison “plays how he feels.”


And why did Tommy choose “Moondance” over other Morrison songs? “If you put that song on, it’s the vibe that I want from this place,” he says, quoting the line, “What a marvelous night for a moon dance.”


“What I do is create subliminal moods through the music,” Tommy says. And, he adds, “If you listen to ‘Moondance,’ that’s the vibe I want every piece of this place to evoke. If you listen to that song and have a glass of wine and you’re seeing people talking around you, it’s sensual. Music is spiritual. And it’s the one medium that can take you back and make you feel.


“People will want to escape and feel great when they’re in our environment. And hopefully get away from their troubles.”


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Music Music Blog

ORUÃ: Brazilian Band Wows Lafayette’s, Backs Built to Spill

CREDIT: Karin Santa Rosa

Karin Santa Rosa

ORUÃ

Boise, Idaho, rockers Built to Spill released their fan-favorite album Keep It Like a Secret some 20 years ago, in 1999, which is why Doug Martsch, the maestro behind the band, is currently touring the album in celebration of the landmark anniversary. Hey, 20 years is a long time for a rock band. Built To Spill made a stop in Memphis at Overton Square’s Lafayette’s Music Room on Tuesday, July 9th, and Martsch proved that his riffs and all-along-the-neck runs are as crisp and fresh today as they were 20 years ago. One thing, however, was notably different. Martsch was supported, not by the usual cast of bearded and Fender-wielding Idahoans, but by rock trio ORUÃ, hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who pulled double duty as both members of Built to Spill and the opening band. And, to put it simply, they brought the house down. 

But first, some history: Martsch is Built to Spill. His idiosyncratic playing style, penchant for Fender gear, trademark high-and-lonesome vocals, and long instrumental digressions form the backbone of the band’s identity. What’s more, Martsch has stated in many interviews that his original plan for the band was to employ a constantly rotating cast of support musicians as his backing band. However, sometime between There’s Nothing Wrong With Love (1994) and Keep It Like a Secret, a permanent lineup began to coalesce — at least until 2015’s Untethered Moon brought in new members. Those members were absent Tuesday night, but their shoes were filled admirably by ORUÃ. 

Karin Santa Rosa

ORUÃ

The first opening act was keyboard player/comedian Wet Face, whose arpeggiated piano runs and electronic beats were a vehicle for his charismatic antics and rapid-fire witticisms. Wet Face is worth checking out, but ORUÃ, who played next, was the break-out star of the evening.

Don’t get me wrong — Built to Spill put on a wonderful show as they played Keep It Like a Secret in its entirety, albeit out of sequence and with welcome additions from other albums. (“Time Trap” and “Broken Chairs” were highlights, as was “I Would Hurt a Fly” from Perfect From Now On.) But the boys from Brazil surprised me. I had no idea what to expect, so my defenses were nonexistent, leaving me open to be obliterated (in the best possible way) by their psychedelic, jazz-influenced onslaught. They put me in mind of California-based party rockers Oh Sees (formerly Thee Oh Sees), but any comparison fails to do ORUÃ justice. Including myself, there were three WEVL DJs present at last night’s show, and we all shared one takeaway: “This band is incredible! What was their name again? Could you understand them?”

The vocalist sang in a high lilt, in what I assume was Portuguese. Language barrier or no, I was transported. Their set passed by all too briefly, making Built to Spill’s — by any reckoning the main course — feel like dessert. Adding to the impressive feat of their live show, the members of ORUÃ (sans drummer, who, I assume was icing himself down after his set) played a game of musical chairs with their instruments when it came time for Martsch to take the stage. The Brazilian band’s guitarist and vocalist climbed behind the drum kit; their bassist proved himself to be equally proficient with guitar and glass slide guitar.

All in all, the concert, from start to finish, was a treat. And yes, Built to Spill still rocks pretty dang hard. 


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Music Record Reviews

40 Watt Moon’s Ghost From the Stone

In his 1980 absurdist-romance novel, Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins says that the light of the full moon, seen through a window set high in a lonely bedroom, is almost equal to the brightness of the light of a 40-watt light bulb hung high from a lonely bedroom.

While the science behind Robbins’ claims probably doesn’t hold up, the image has stuck with me a long time, and I’ve long wondered if veteran Memphis rockers 40 Watt Moon are fans of Robbins as well. Whatever their reading tastes, though, last month, the group released their new full-length album, Ghost From the Stone. They will continue the promotion of the release with a concert at Lafayette’s Music Room this Wednesday, July 10th, at 8:30 p.m.

Ghost From the Stone


The album pays homage to ’70s and ’80s power pop (think The Posies) and ’90s Britpop. The guitars, played by vocalist/guitarist Kevin Pusey and lead guitarist Chip Googe, are crisp and bright, and Vince Hood beats on the drums as if he’d just heard them insulting his mother. Bassist Michael Duncan rounds out the band and keeps the low end grooving in sync with the drums.


The tracking was done at Young Avenue Sound with engineer Scott Harden and at American Recording with in-demand Memphis mixmasters Toby Vest and Pete Matthews.


The album opener, “Venus and Mars,” is an excellent example of what’s to come, all jangle and melodic vocals. The refrain is infinitely hum-able: “Venus and Mars and runaway cars on the skyway.”


On “Lazarus,” Pusey sings about an old friend returned from the brink of oblivion. The relief is palpable in the singer’s voice as he welcomes an old friend he never expected to see again. The song is made especially poignant by the ranks of Memphis musicians who have fallen prey to overindulgence of their more hedonistic appetites.


“Liz Phair,” a personal favorite, opens with blues licks in a crunchy, rock guitar tone. The song is a tribute to one of rock’s leading ladies, who last year celebrated the release of her landmark debut album Exile in Guyville with a vinyl reissue. The 40 Watt Moon song is replete with references to Phair’s oeuvre (including her sophomore release, Whip-Smart): “Whip-smart right from the start … Liz Phair, I don’t care if the whole world stares.”
       
The closing track, “Nine Muses,” is quieter and more contemplative, with arrangements that give the song room to breathe and marinate in the atmosphere it creates. Fittingly, the final lyrics on the album are, “She has trouble with goodbyes.” 40 Watt Moon will have CDs available at the upcoming show at Lafayette’s. So fans who are similarly afflicted with farewell-difficulties never have to say goodbye.

40 Watt Moon performs at Lafayette’s Music Room, Wednesday, July 10th, at 8:30 p.m. $5.