Memphis supergroup MEM_MODS are back with their latest funky good time. But this one from the dynamic trio Steve Selvidge, Luther Dickenson, and Paul Taylor is in a little more laid-back vein than the frenzied psychedelia of their earlier singles. “Knotty Pine Kitchen” sounds like a lazy afternoon at Stax, when the band was just messin’ around for fun. Marc Franklin and Art Edmaiston’s pillowy horns round out the sound. The video is a tour of Memphis’ beat-up glory. Happy Monday.
If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Bruce Newman is a lawyer and accountant specializing in small business and entertainment law. He’s also the host of Folksong Fiesta, airing Wednesdays at 8 a.m. on WEVL. A true polymath, when he’s not helping his clients navigate the difficult world of the music business, he’s writing songs of his own. Like most people nowadays, Newman is concerned about the state of the world, and in the best folkie tradition, he lays it all out in his new tune “Doing The Best We Can”. It’s a song of protest and solution which urges us all to listen to our better angels.
To help record the song and film the video, he gathered a crew of Memphis all-stars including vocalists Susan Marshall and Reba Russell, James Alexander of the Bar-Kays, blues guitarists Eric Lewis and Doug MacLeod, horn players Art Edmaistan and Marc Franklin, keyboardist Gerald Stephens, and multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor. Director Laura Jean Hocking combines footage of the musicians taken at Music + Arts Studio with extensive animation to create a lyric video which really gets Newman’s point across. Take a look, then make sure you’re registered to vote.
Music Video Monday: Bruce Newman
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Eric Hughes has been playing on Beale Street for 16 years. But he found his faith in the Bluff City shaken after his guitars were stolen last year. In response, he decided to do what does best—music. He got his friends together and recorded an album. Singers Reba Russell and Susan Marshall, keyboard player Chris Stephenson, saxophonist Art Edmaiston, and trumpeteer Marc Franklin, along with bassist Leo Goff and drummer Brian Aylor, got together to create this tribute to their hometown. The album Meet Me In Memphis was the first project created with the help of the Slim House Front Loan, a program of the Memphis Slim House that provides low-interest loans to fund projects by Memphis musicians.
This Saturday, October 21, Hughes and company will throw a record release party for Meet Me In Memphis at the Warehouse on 36 Patterson Avenue. Here’s the video for the title track, directed by Derrick Curran of Fifth Floor Productions.
Music Video Monday: Eric Hughes
If you would like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
