My 30-somethingth time seeing 311 live;
thanks, BSMF! (Photo: Shara Clark)
There was something in the air last weekend in Downtown Memphis, and it wasn’t just the smell of funnel cakes frying or Pronto Pups roasting under heat lamps. It was the magic of Beale Street Music Festival — and its long-awaited return to Tom Lee Park. The weather was about as nice as could be for the fest’s three-day stretch — sun shining, a warm breeze, and, to the surprise of literally everyone, no rain. This was not Memphis in Mud. (And the new park was pretty cool, too.) Welcome back, everyone.
My earliest Beale Street Music Fest memory is of crowd-surfing for the first time at the 1998 Green Day show. I was a teenager, and, appropriate for the time — but not so much for a festival — was sporting a pair of clunky Doc Martens. My friends hyped me up, and some friendly fest-goers agreed to hoist little ol’ me into the crowd. I distinctly recall clocking an unsuspecting fan upside the head with a flailing boot (oops) and having a few creeps grope my nethers as I floated across strangers’ outstretched arms (eek). I also vaguely remember frontman Billie Joe Armstrong stripping down to leopard print skivvies and hollering profanities (punk rock!) — and supposedly getting banned from the fest forevermore.
Every year since, I’ve attended BSMF religiously. I’ve always lived for concerts, chasing my most-loved bands across the country from the time I had a car and a job. And festivals arguably offer the best of that world, a chance to fully immerse yourself in live music, from familiar favorites to new-to-you acts. The endurance test of it all just adds to the experience.
While the memories are somewhat beer-soaked, there are standout BSMF moments that have stuck with me. In 2000, our crew stood through the entirety of a Bryan Adams set to get close to the stage for Foo Fighters, only for me to be overheating — and stepping not on the ground but on other peoples’ feet, crammed in like canned sardines — once they started playing. As I scoured the area for an escape route through the crowd, the only way out, it seemed, was up and over, and a few fine audience members once again hurled me into strange hands that shuffled me over the security railing to safety. In 2002, Stone Temple Pilots opened with a beautiful rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” — epic. In 2006, I saw James Brown shimmy across the stage in an electric performance, just months before his passing — iconic. There have been some stellar acts through the years, too many to name. And if you’ve ever been, you surely have your own BSMF stories to tell.
After a two-year Covid hiatus and a temporary move to Liberty Park in 2022, it was a welcome return home for those of us who’ve loved the festival all these years. Were crowds smaller? Sure. Could the lineup have been better? Depends on who you ask. All in all, though, things appeared to have gone off without a hitch. The revamped Tom Lee Park was fun to navigate, with its winding walkways, hilly areas, and fenced-off newly planted landscaping. We still got that majestic river view, the notes wafting on the wind, and the energy of thousands of fest fanatics living in the moment.
I passed crowd-surfing age long ago, but I’ll never outgrow the magic of live music, the emotive nature of it. Did I dance like no one was watching? Absolutely. Did I jump around and scream-sing along until I lost my voice? You bet. (If you saw me, I apologize for nothing.) Am I still physically recovering on Tuesday? Yep, I’m definitely not a teenager anymore. Would I do it all again next weekend if I could? No doubt.
There’s something undeniably special about Beale Street Music Festival, made more so by its home along the Mississippi River. We’re incredibly lucky to have had this event here, at our back door, for so long, bringing not just our city but people from all over the world together for a big, beautiful time.
Hope to see you there next year. I’ll be somewhere up front living my best life.
The Friday night audience dances to Earth, Wind & Fire. (Photo by Laura Jean Hocking)
The question on everyone’s lips this Monday after the 2023 Beale Street Music Festival is “Well, how was it?” The answer, from my perspective, is “It was okay.”
After the pandemic disruption was extended into a construction delay which moved the festival to the fairgrounds in Midtown, BSMF returned to a Tom Lee Park that is very different than it was in 2019. I’ve attended the Beale Street Music Festival for the better part of 30 years, and this year was unlike any other I’ve experienced.
Tom Lee Park has been transformed from a flat flood plane to a modestly hilly area spotted with with copses of trees, split by winding concrete paths. The official opening of the park isn’t until Labor Day weekend, and things were still very much under construction. Several areas with freshly planted trees were roped off from public access, and people seemed to respect the restrictions for the most part. The paths were a welcome addition to many people I spoke with, but several pointed out that being on your feet for several hours on concrete is much harder on the joints and bones than walking on turf — or more accurately to the historical Memphis in May experience, mud.
Threatening clouds over Tom Lee Park never delivered heavy rains. (Photo by Chris McCoy)
The forecast called for rain all weekend, but nothing beyond the lightest of drizzle ever came down from the threatening clouds. The newly installed turf and landscaping seemed to hold up very well under the onslaught of tens of thousands of boots and flip flops. (Seriously, don’t wear flip flops to a music festival.) But the ultimate test, in the form of a rainy weekend, never came.
But could the new Tom Lee Park handle a real crowd? On Friday before I headed down to Tom Lee for the first time, I said we’d find out the answer to that question about 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, when GloRilla took the stage. I was right on that account. Official attendance figures are not available as of this writing, but Memphis Travel’s Kevin Kane was pre-spinning low numbers to Channel 3 on Friday. But the Saturday night audience for GloRilla stretched the central Bud Light stage to its limits.
About a third of the crowd gathered for GloRilla on Saturday night of Beale Street Music Festival, as seen from the bluff. (Photo by Laura Jean Hocking).
It was GloRilla’s homecoming show after blowing up in popularity over the last year, and she got a hero’s welcome. Raw charisma is more important to a rapper than any other performing artist. There are a lot of people who can spit fire bars in a recording studio, but who wilt under the glare of the stage lights. GloRilla is a fighter. She will not be ignored in favor of your phone. Backed by a 30-foot inflatable gorilla which seemed to embody her fierceness, she surround herself with six of the best dancers in Memphis — and this is a city with a very, very deep bench of dancers. Dripping in jewels and a shiny gold outfit, GloRilla grabbed the crowd out of the gate and roared through bangers like “Internet Trolls.” When she paused to monologue about the difficulty of being a woman shut out of the hip hop boys club, and ended with “we kicked the door in!”, everyone in Tom Lee Park believed her.
GloRilla on stage. (Photo by Laura Jean Hocking)
From ground level, and later the bluff, the new park appeared to handle GloRilla’s horde of fans without much trouble. The biggest innovation in crowd movement turned out to be the walkway that now runs the length of the river bank, which served as a kind of freeway for people going from one stage to the next on the long, park. The weekend provided three great sunsets, and on Saturday, people were lined up along the path to take selfies with the river in the background.
Selfies with the sun on the new river walk in Tom Lee Park. (Photo by Chris McCoy)
The biggest challenge to the Beale Street Music Festival’s attendance may be simple timing. This year, the festival fell on the second weekend of New Orleans Jazz Fest, which, judging from its A-list lineup, is much better capitalized than Memphis In May. To make things worse, this was the weekend Taylor Swift made a three-night stand in Nashville. Since the Swiftie fandom is the closest thing we have to a monoculture in 2023, the vast majority of Memphis’ younger, musically inclined folks made the trip to the Music City this weekend rather than checking out The Lumineers in the new Tom Lee Park.
Earth, Wind & Fire. (Photo by Laura Jean Hocking)
They missed some good sets on Friday night, beginning with Memphis gospel duo The Sensational Barnes Brothers, then moving directly to The Bar-Kays. (One of my favorite things about being a long-term Memphis music fanatic is watching yet another audience lose their collective minds when The Bar-Kays remind them about “Freakshow On The Dance Floor.”) Earth, Wind & Fire paid tribute to Memphian Maurice White during their high-voltage vintage funk set. Then the crowd at the Zyn Stage swelled for 311, the ’90s cult band that has found the key to long-lasting success is just making sure you throw a great party every night.
311. (Photo by Chris McCoy)
Aside from GloRilla’s rapturous reception, BSMF ’23 never reached those heights again. The most puzzling addition to the bill was a band called Colony House who replaced White Reaper on the Volkswagen stage on Saturday. MIM had more than a week to find a new act after the lead singer of White Reaper broke his collarbone, but instead of picking up the phone and calling any one of the dozen of hungry Memphis rock acts who could kill on 30 minutes notice, they chose to spend the money on a mushy mess of warmed-over worship band music from the ritzy Middle Tennessee enclave of Franklin.
Living Colour. (photo by Laura Jean Hocking)
It didn’t help that Colony House followed Living Colour, the legendary ’90s prog-punk pioneers who haven’t lost their edge. Guitar god Vernon Reid and throat-ripping vocalist Corey Glover provide the band’s formidable one-two punch. Early songs like “Open Letter to a Landlord,” which takes on gentrification, and their smash “Cult of Personality,” which pretty much explains the Trump era of American politics in four minutes, are, if anything, even more relevant today than when they were written. The Beale Street Music Festival may have evolved, but some things never seem to change.
Allison Krauss and Robert Plant. (photo by Chris McCoy) AJRJazmine SullivanGary Clark, Jr.Lucinda WilliamsBeale Street Music Festival attendees rest on a new hillside in renovated Tom Lee Park.
Last year, it struck many as odd that the great Memphis in May tradition of celebrating the best music of our time by the banks of the Mississippi had suddenly been uprooted. Everyone presumably understood the reasoning, with Tom Lee Park still being reconstructed at the time, yet having the festival relocated in its 45th year induced a kind of transplant shock in some. Now, this May 5th through 7th, none of that applies, as the Beale Street Music Festival once again roots down by the river. In fact, having begun in 1977 at the corner of Beale and Third, it’s closer to its roots than ever. Let 2023 be known as the year the festival returned to Beale Street.
That’s because, while the main festival stages will be spread across Tom Lee Park as in the past, what was formerly known as the “Blues Tent” will now be the Memphis Tourism “Blues Stage on Beale.” Best of all, this area of the festival is free. As Kevin Kane, president & CEO of Memphis Tourism, noted in a statement, “The blues will be exactly where they were born during Memphis in May, at Handy Park on Beale Street. This extends the entertainment footprint of the Beale Street Music Festival beyond Tom Lee Park, making great use of a public venue and stage, free and open to all.”
For any music lovers who’ve struggled to hear some wistful Delta bottleneck guitar over the pounding kick drum of a headliner on the main stage, this is a positive boon. And not only will the blues get the proper respect of plenteous peace and quiet, the festival’s programmers have invested in the Blues Stage lineup in a big way. Headliners Los Lobos, Keb’ Mo’, and the North Mississippi Allstars will be complemented by the likes of Cedric Burnside, Blind Mississippi Morris, the Ghost Town Blues Band, Mr. Sipp, the Reba Russell Band, and more.
Beyond Beale, this year’s festival is rooting down in another, subtler sense. It’s not in the usual sense of tipping its hat to local artists, though with everyone from hometown hip-hop queen GloRilla to The Bar-Kays, Jason D. Williams, Dirty Streets, Tyke T, Sleep Theory, The Sensational Barnes Brothers, and Mille Manny appearing, that cohort is well-represented. It’s more in the unseen threads of Memphis influence that run through the work of three of the festival’s headliners in particular: Earth, Wind & Fire; The Roots; and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Though it’s hard to say how that influence will manifest during their respective sets, the invisible strings tying these artists to Memphis are powerful and profound. As you watch, listen, and dance to the music, be on the lookout for those connections to reveal themselves.
☮
Earth, Wind & Fire
The threads binding Earth, Wind & Fire to Memphis are the most obvious of the bunch, for this is where group founder Maurice White grew up. In his memoir, Time is Tight: My Life, Note by Note, Booker T. Jones takes us back to that time: “I was a sixth-grader practicing in the band room one day when Maurice, an eighth-grader, walked in and said, ‘Hello, I’m Maurice White.’ We discovered we lived not far away from one another and started hanging out at his small LeMoyne Gardens apartment or in the den at my house, usually listening to music.”
Both were destined to become legendary musicians, and they wasted no time in getting started. “Maurice was the first person of my age group I’d met who was really committed to making music and had the skill to become a virtuoso,” Jones writes. “We ended up playing live or practicing together nearly every day for what seemed like years. He was usually on drums, and I was on piano or some other instrument. As a result, we became like soul brothers, neither of us having a natural brother our own age.” The day White left for Chicago was burned into Jones’ memory. “It was 1961, an early introduction to emptiness.”
Of course, Jones’ loss was the world’s gain, as White began to thrive in the Chicago music scene, working for the Ramsey Lewis Trio and playing on sessions for Chess Records. Eventually, he enlisted his half-brother Verdine White on bass for his new 10-piece band. As he later wrote in his autobiography, “Earth, Wind & Fire would have never become Earth, Wind & Fire without Verdine. A huge part of what built EWF was our live shows. Verdine, the ultimate Leo, had the energy to sustain us.”
The band, of course, had enough mega-hits in the ’70s to release The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 in 1978, while the compilation’s new single, “September,” became one of their biggest hits ever, propelling the album into quintuple-platinum sales. Moreover, the staying power of the band’s golden-era tracks has been undeniable; in 2018, “September” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry as a “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” work.
While White seemingly never identified with Memphis much after leaving (excepting the band’s one release on Stax), those years of hits made their impact right here in the Bluff City. That’s especially clear in the recent work of a self-confessed superfan and Memphis native, historian Trenton Bailey. His book Do You Remember? Celebrating Fifty Years of Earth, Wind & Fire (Univ. Press of Mississippi), just published this year, is a formidable compendium of the band’s every move. Reading it helps shed light on how the band can carry on despite White’s death in 2016.
As it turns out, the group has been touring without him for 30 years, for tragic reasons. Even as early as the late 1980s, White was dealing with the sporadic effects of Parkinson’s disease. By 1993, shortly after a galvanizing performance on The Arsenio Hall Show, he announced that he was retiring from touring. Before long, his longtime partner and co-singer in the band, Philip Bailey, along with brother Verdine, secured the rights to tour under the band name without White. As the disease inexorably took its toll on White’s health, the band carried on White’s legacy. To this day, Verdine still holds down the bass and Bailey still fronts the band, making for live sets that continue to stun.
♥
The Roots
Though it may not be obvious now that The Roots seemingly appear everywhere as the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, their ties to Memphis run deep, mainly thanks to the same man who was Maurice White’s childhood friend: Booker T. Jones. As Roots co-producer, keyboardist, and arranger Ray Angry puts it, “I did some shows with Booker T. and The Roots. He’s awesome!” And clearly it made an impression on the former head of the M.G.’s as well.
As Jones writes in his memoir, “Jimmy Fallon’s a great music supporter and a great guy. I just had to have his drummer is all.” That would be Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, of course, who, like Angry, has distinguished himself independent of The Roots, but continues to thrive on playing with the band. Not only was he a co-producer with Jones on The Road from Memphis, Jones’ Grammy-winning album from 2011, he supplied all the beats while his then-bandmates Owen Biddle and Kirk Douglas laid down the bass and guitar, respectively. “Questlove’s steady drumming is inimitable and unmistakable,” writes Jones, and the proof is in the pudding of that masterpiece of an album.
The Roots’ Black Thought and Questlove (Photo: Courtesy of BSMF)
That steady drumming jumped out from The Roots’ major label debut, Do You Want More?!!!??!, in 1995, and still forms the backbone of the group today, while Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought, continues to make the rhymes flow. From the start, they brought a jazz sensibility to hip-hop, first and foremost because they were a group of real players, making the music in real time, rather than relying on samples. Even as they embraced sampling more deeply, as in 2004’s The Tipping Point, that commitment to live playing has been a through line in the band’s long history.
Even as long ago as 2008, joining the group was a dream come true for Ray Angry. They were already legends. “One of the first sessions I did, with Joss Stone, was a gig I got through The Roots’ manager,” Angry recalls. “I was a classical pianist playing jazz, with so many different musical styles under my belt, and during this time The Roots were playing with people like Sting and George Clinton. Eventually I started co-producing songs, starting with the album How I Got Over. So on every Roots record from that point on, I was a producer, arranging strings and writing interludes. And one interlude I wrote, ‘A Peace of Light,’ Kendrick Lamar ended up sampling. So working with The Roots is pretty cool!”
Angry, best known for his 2021 single “Toyland” and with a solo piano album coming out in June, embodies the same eclecticism as The Roots generally, and he often augments his group work with individual Roots cameos. “I did just do a trio record with myself, Questlove, and David Murray. I’m really excited about that. I also work on film stuff with Questlove, and one year he and I did the music for the Oscars.” Meanwhile, he’s a secret weapon of sorts for the band’s residency on national network television. “When I first worked with them on The Tonight Show, they would have me write a bunch of cues; they call them sandwiches, because they’re short bits of music for commercial breaks.”
And speaking of sandwiches, Angry treasures his encounter with one Memphis barbecue expert in particular. “I worked on a record with Joss Stone that included Memphis legend Steve Cropper. He was telling me about his barbecue restaurant. People are really serious about their barbecue in Memphis!”
And The Roots are really serious about Memphis. Is it too much to hope for a reprise of their scintillating cover of Booker T. & the M.G.’s “Melting Pot”? Show up Saturday and find out.
🤘
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
While bluegrass star Alison Krauss is typically associated with Nashville, it’s her erstwhile collaborator, Robert Plant, who really embodies the invisible strings of Memphis. Naturally, with his supergroup Led Zeppelin having emerged from the British blues revival of the ’60s, he’s steeped in the music and lore of the Bluff City and Mississippi. That’s apparent in a story told on the band’s official online forum by former Atlantic Records promotional man Phillip Rauls about when Led Zeppelin’s tour came to Memphis in November of 1969.
“The lobby of the Holiday Inn was clearing as a parade of newscasters and camera crews packed up their equipment,” Rauls writes, “after the presentation ceremony awarding Led Zeppelin The Key to The City of Memphis. Standing at the elevator and waiting for a lift was Jimmy Page and Robert Plant when I casually approached the twosome.” And what did the celebrity rockers want most out of a visit to the Bluff City? “A few seconds passed when [Page] turned back to me and timidly asked, ‘Do you know anything about Sun Recording Studio?’”
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (Photo: David McClister
The group’s ties to the city were even more pronounced a year later, when Page settled on Ardent Studios as the place to complete overdubs and mixes for the album Led Zeppelin III. But Plant’s connection to the city went beyond musical obsessions or work. It was personal, as was revealed last year when Priscilla Presley was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. Who should appear to present the award to her but Plant himself, who called her “a lifelong friend.”
He used the opportunity to wax enthusiastic about the music of our region. “I’m British, and we have a fascination with the music of this specific city and its environs and farther down in the Mississippi Delta. … Here in Memphis, excitement and unparalleled expression rose above the constraints and the infamy of the times. Here in Memphis, the sounds of Clarksdale, Jackson, Tunica, and the Delta collided with unholy abandon, with the hillbilly two-step. Here in Memphis, where trailblazing Blacks and whites worked under cover of night at Sam Phillips to forge the beat that created a new world of music.”
As he wrapped up his introduction, Plant emphasized his personal connection to the place. “Like so many people from all walks of life, tonight I feel like a part of one big extended family. We’re bound together by the energy of the beat from long ago that was driven with stunning conviction and abandon by the man that you, Priscilla, knew so well.” And, for just a moment, as he looked out at the Memphis audience warmly that night, you could see those invisible strings plain as day.
Memphis Tourism Blues Stage on Beale Azmyl & the Truly Asia 4:30 Blind Mississippi Morris 6:00 Ana Popovic 7:35 Keb’ Mo’ 9:15 Ghost Town Blues Band 11:00
Saturday, May 6, 2023 Gates at 1 p.m.
Zyn Stage Myron Elkins 2:25 Jason D. Williams 3:55 Gov’t Mule 5:30 Mike. 7:10 Halestorm 8:40 Hardy 10:20
Bud Light Stage Tyke T 2:00 Phony PPL 3:20 Big Boogie 4:50 Cameo 6:00 Finesse2Tymes 7:30 GloRilla 8:45 The Roots 10:00
Volkswagen Stage Sleep Theory 2:45 Mac Saturn 4:15 Living Colour 5:50 White Reaper 7:30 The Struts 9:10 Greta Van Fleet 10:45
Memphis Tourism Blues Stage on Beale Mark Muleman Massey 1:30 Will Tucker Band 3:00 Azmyl & the Truly Asia 4:35 Mr. Sipp 6:15 Cedric Burnside 8:00 Bernard Allison 9:45 North Mississippi Allstars 11:30
Sunday, May 7, 2023 Gates at 1 p.m.
Zyn Stage Beach Weather 2:20 Moon Taxi 3:55 Andy Grammer 5:30 Young the Giant 7:00 AJR 8:40
Bud Light Stage Mille Manny 2:15 Eric Benet 3:45 Yola 5:15 Dru Hill 6:45 Jazmine Sullivan 8:25
Volkswagen Stage Dirty Streets 2:15 Shovels & Rope 3:45 Lucinda Williams 5:20 Gary Clark Jr. 7:00 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss 8:40
Memphis Tourism Blues Stage on Beale Ollie Moore 1:30 Reba Russell Band 3:00 Selwyn Birchwood 4:35 Colin James 6:15 Los Lobos 8:00 Rod Bland Members Only Band 10:00
There is about to come a true reckoning for Memphis, and for the two organizations — the Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) and Memphis in May (MIM) — who’ve been wrangling for years over the fate of the 30 acres of land along Memphis’ Mississippi waterfront that comprise Tom Lee Park.
MIM, the ever-whinging predictors of doom for their annual events because of the new park’s facilities and landscaping, and MRPP, the ever-optimistic promoters of a “world-class reimagined riverfront,” will soon see their competing visions encounter a real-world test.
From May 5th through May 7th, the Beale Street Music Festival will return to the still-uncompleted but thoroughly reconfigured terrain along the river. Tens of thousands of music fans will stream into the park searching for music, which for the first time ever will not involve merely wandering around in a big field and stopping when you see a band on a stage.
According to MRPP, the new Tom Lee Park is 80-percent completed. There are new trees, sodding, bushes, and grasses, plus landscaped ridges, moguls, and walkways and partly completed shelters and playgrounds, plus natural spaces and trails, including a “riffle area.” In other words, music fans are going to have to walk around the plantings and landscaping and new construction — or on it and over it.
In the past, after Music Fest, with its seemingly inevitable rainy day or two, the park was almost always a disaster area — a muddy, gross morass littered with discarded tennis shoes, boots, clothing, food and drink detritus, and dozens of ever-aromatic porta-potties. How will it go this year?
I don’t know, but I’m trying to imagine, say, Keith and Travis, two young music fans from Jonesboro, a little stoned, a lot drunk, meandering through the park. Then let’s say they hear the raucous sounds of Low Cut Connie in the distance and head in the direction of the music. It’s dark, and Keith stumbles in some monkey grass, drops his beer cup, falls to his knees, then climbs up on a mogul of earth to get a better view. Travis, who is a more sensitive type, says, “Dude, you probably shouldn’t be up there. You’re trampling the liriope.”
Multiply this action over three days and 30,000 people, plus a probable rainy day or two, and you’re reimagining some serious damage repair. Or at least, one would think so.
Then two weeks later, the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest settles in for four days of nonstop partying and carousing, including the building of often-massive ramshackle temporary shelters for teams to boogie the days and nights away while tending their world-class smokers. Lumber gets hauled in; muddy pathways form between team shelters and sites. Booze gets drunk, trash gets thrown, pigs get smoked, and a good time is had by all. Except the clean-up crews.
Memphis in May has complained that it hasn’t been given enough acreage to carry out its events in the new park. MRPP responded with a document clearly showing that it has in fact provided more space than MIM asked for. Even so, MIM has disinvited 35 barbecue teams to this year’s contest, claiming a lack of space. In addition, the Blues Tent is being moved to Beale Street, also because MIM says the new park configuration isn’t big enough for it. So it goes. If you get what you ask for, it’s difficult to justify the complaints.
But enough theory, enough predicting, enough sniping. Events are in the saddle now, and we’ll soon know for sure whether MIM can succeed — financially and otherwise — in the new park.
And we’ll also soon know how much MIM events will damage the area and its new landscaping. One assumes that both sides will learn a lot from 2023, and that both sides may have to make adjustments for future Memphis in Mays.
The good news is that, after much wrangling, the contract between MRPP and MIM has been signed, with the city agreeing to pay for any repair damages above $500,000. That’s an open checkbook for taxpayers, with the amount to be determined, one would assume, after the last barbecue smoker trailer leaves the grounds. It’s also another reality check, literally, and another learning opportunity.
Call me Pollyanna, but I think that after all the smoke clears this May, both organizations, and the city, will know more about how to create a win-win for Memphis: namely, a great annual festival held in a world-class river park that also serves the populace year-round. That’s the reality we should all be hoping for.
Music lovers at the 2018 Beale Street Music Festival (Photo courtesy Memphis in May)
Memphis In May will officially return to Tom Lee Park this year.
Memphis in May International Festival (MIM) signed a contract with Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) on Friday, according to an image posted to MIM’s Facebook page Tuesday.
The two agencies have tangled publicly since MRPP’s plan to renovate the riverside park was unveiled in 2019. That $62 million plan includes adding contours, built amenities, trees, and landscaping to what was a flat, open plain.
The plain was an empty canvas for MIM’s big festivals, the Beale Street Music Festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. MIM has been vocal for years now that the new park amenities would shrink the size of the festivals and their crowds. However, MRPP contends it will not.
(Credit: MRPP)
However, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland entered the two groups into mediation to hammer out a plan. The plan ensured the park could be renovated and have spaces big enough for MIM’s festivals.
Both signed the agreement, though MIM president and CEO Jim Holt has continued to complain about the park plan, as recently as last month when he told Memphis City Council members the plan put his festivals “in jeopardy.” At the time, the MRPP and MIM contract was snagged on insurance provisions and council members asked the groups to work together for a resolution.
MIM president and CEO Jim Holt
On Tuesday, the council approved a resolution to use up to $500,000 in taxpayer money to pay for damages done to the park. Anything above that amount will be paid by MIM.
(Credit: MIM/Facebook)
“Signed, sealed, and delivered!” MIM posted (above) on Facebook Tuesday. “Memphis in May has a signed lease for Tom Lee Park. There was never a doubt we’d be back home on the river in 2023.”
However, Facebook commenter Eric Groff said, …“except for all the doubts you folks expressed in the media…”
In a statement on Facebook, MRPP said park construction is now more than 80 percent complete.
“Memphians can now look forward to the opening of a great park at the edge of our nation’s most storied river,” read the statement. “An unforgettable civic celebration will mark the opening this Labor Day weekend.”
Music lovers at the 2018 Beale Street Music Festival (Photo courtesy Memphis in May)
City’s longest-running music festival will be back in Tom Lee Park this year, May 5th to 7th, and as of today we know what artists will be performing. As usual, the diversity and quality of artists represented is staggering.
For starters, the headliners will include The Lumineers, Greta Van Fleet, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Earth Wind & Fire, HARDY, Jazmine Sullivan, The Roots, AJR and 311. For Memphians, Earth Wind & Fire’s appearance will be especially meaningful, given that the band’s late founder, Maurice White, was born and raised here.
“This year’s lineup reflects the broad musical tastes of our festival goers with a diverse lineup of some of today’s hottest artists as well past festival favorites and stars of tomorrow,” said James L. Holt, President & CEO of Memphis in May. “At the Beale Street Music Festival, we endeavor to offer something for almost every musical taste, and we have a few more surprise additions to come.”
To that end, many other delights are in store, such as chart-topping hometown hip hop queen GloRilla, blues guitarist extraordinaire Gary Clark Jr., reggae icon Ziggy Marley, and others such as Young the Giant, Live, PJ Morton, The Struts, Gov’t Mule, mike., Andy Grammer, Yola, Dru Hill, Toadies, Lucinda Williams, Living Colour, Cameo, White Reaper, Shovels & Rope, Marcy Playground, Phony Ppl, Low Cut Connie, Beach Weather, Myron Elkins, Mac Saturn and more.
As always, Memphis area talent is well represented at the festival with hip-hop stars Finesse2Tymes and Big Boogie making their BSMF debuts. Legendary soul stars The Bar-Kays will be returning to the BSMF stage. and other featured Memphis area talent includes Jason D. Williams, Dirty Streets, Tyke T, Sleep Theory, The Sensational Barnes Brothers, and breakout Mille Manny.
Best of all, the Blues Tent, a mainstay of the Beale Street Music Festival, will be presented in Handy Park in the Beale Street Historic District as the Memphis Tourism “Blues Stage on Beale,” featuring major headliners such as Los Lobos, Keb Mo, and the North Mississippi Allstars.
Ana Popavic, Bernard Allison, Colin James, Cedric Burnside, Selwyn Birchwood, Blind Mississippi Morris, Ghost Town Blues Band, Mr. Sipp, Reba Russell Band, Will Tucker, Rodd Bland Members Only Band, Mark Muleman Massey,and Ollie Moore will also be featured in the Blues Tent, which will be offered free of charge to local Memphians so they can “experience the festival and the musical genre born in our city,” according to organizers.
“Music just sounds better in Memphis, and there’s nothing like experiencing the Beale Street Music Festival in its home in Tom Lee Park next to the Mississippi River with the Memphis skyline and lighted bridges as the backdrop,” said Memphis in May 2023 Board Chairwoman Leigh Shockey in a statement today. “We are so pleased to return the festival to its long-term home downtown on the riverfront at the foot of historic Beale Street.”
It has been division for amateur barbecue teams for years, offering smaller sites and lower costs for teams during the Memphis In May (MIM) World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
Patio Porkers was cut in 2021 when the contest temporarily moved to Liberty Park. The division came back, though, during last year’s contest.
MIM made no announcement that the Patio Porkers division had been cut. But a Friday statement from the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) characterized the division as “formerly part” of the MIM barbecue contest.
This year’s inaugural Patio Porkers on Beale event will be organized by the DMC and Beale Street Management. The event will bring 30 teams to Handy Park on Saturday, May 20th for a single-day, ribs-only competition.
“We can’t wait to welcome 30 of the best backyard barbecue teams to world-famous Beale for the ultimate amateur title,” said DMC president Paul Young. “Bringing the Patio Porkers competition to Beale just feels right.”
The competition is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society competition. The winning team will take home $1,000 in prize money, a trophy, and bragging rights.
The contest will be free and open to the public. But — as any MIM barbecue vet will tell you — that doesn’t mean it’s free to eat. Teams usually cook for themselves, their friends, and judges and are not obligated to share any food with the public.
However, the DMC noted that Beale Street has 10 restaurants that all serve barbecue. They include:
Alfred’s on Beale
BB King’s Blues Club
Blues City Cafe
Jerry Lee Lewis Cafe & Honky Tonk
Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grill
King’s Palace Cafe
The Pig on Beale
Rum Boogie Cafe
Silky O’Sullivan’s
Tin Roof
Applications for teams are now available with a deadline of April 3rd. Click here for more details.
An exasperated Memphis City Council urged Memphis In May (MIM) and Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) to put aside “bad blood,” act like “grown ups,” and get a lease deal signed to bring the festivals back to the Tom Lee Park this year.
Eighty-three days before May, the festivals are “in jeopardy,” according to MIM president and CEO James Holt. Some other contracts cannot be signed — like those securing artists for Beale Street Music Festival — until the lease deal for Tom Lee Park is in hand, he said.
(Credit: City of Memphis)
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has long had the groups in mediation to hammer out details. Holt described hours of meetings recently with Strickland and his team directly. Still, one detail has stymied the lease deal.
MIM wants a cap on payments made to repair any damages done to Tom Lee Park during the festivals. MRPP wants no cap on those payments, in a sort of you-break-it-you-buy-it situation.
MRPP president and CEO Carol Coletta said renters are likely responsible for any damage done to government-owned facilities like the Renasant Convention Center and the new Memphis Sports & Events Center.
”Jim Holt — after all the conversations over the last one, and after the mayor his [Chief Operating Officer] Chandell Ryan worked so hard to get the final pieces of this deal — walked away and said, ‘We can’t live with being responsible for our damages, the expense of our damages. We cannot do it. So, we walk away from the negotiations.’”
Holt said MIM agreed to up its average restoration fee of $50,000 a year to $500,000 for the 2023 festivals. Strickland added another $500,000 of city funds. That $1 million would be ready to clean up the park after the festivals.
(Credit: Memphis River Parks Partnership)
The additional money is needed this year as Tom Lee Park is undergoing a major, $60-million renovation. The renovation will include new landscaping, new sidewalks, new buildings, new play and recreation infrastructure, and more.
“We feel that [MRPP is] effectively attempting to shut down our festival,” Holt told council members Tuesday. “Now, the government contractor that the mayor and the city pays … is dictating the terms and has told the mayor and MIM, ‘no, $1 million is not enough. I only accept MIM to take unlimited responsibility for any damage.’”
With MIM being on the hook for damages — even with $1 million in funds to fix any — it would incentivize the group to not damage the park, said council member Worth Morgan. Should the liability fall to MRPP, Morgan said they likely fear MIM “might damage the park unnecessarily as getting back” at MRPP.
Tension between MRPP and MIM rose almost immediately after MRPP unveiled the new look of Tom Lee Park in 2017. MIM officials quickly pointed out that the new design would shrink the size of the festivals, which would also shrink its revenues, and taxes into city coffers. MRPP has defended the park design as a place for all. All of it has made for a tension between the two that even the public can feel.
(Credit: City of Memphis I Memphis City Council member Worth Morgan)
Morgan said the situation was like “the Greensward issue.” There, a similar tension was publicly felt between the boards of the Overton Park Conservancy and the Memphis Zoo. That issue flamed, roiled, and simmered — and included an arduous council-led agreement process — from 2014 until a final agreement between them was inked last year.
“There’s some bad blood between the two and that is really what is inhibiting this [lease deal] rather than dollars and cents.”
Worth Morgan
“You have two boards and there’s distrust, there’s some bad blood between the two and that is really what is inhibiting this [lease deal] rather than dollars and cents,” Morgan said. “That’s why we’re here trying to arbitrate this. So, I would strongly encourage the boards to put down their pitchforks that are pointed at one another and simply agree to the terms that we’ve talked about.”
(Credit: City of Memphis I Memphis City Council member Martavius Jones)
MRPP officials were present at Tuesday’s council hearing on the matter but were not given a chance to speak by chairman Martavius Jones, claiming the hearing was bumping against the council’s full meeting at 3 p.m. Jones invited MRPP back to speak at the next council meeting in two weeks but urged them to have a deal in hand.
Memphis In May (MIM) attendance fell to a 20-year low this year, yielding a record-setting financial loss, officials said Wednesday, “as a result of being held outside of the traditional riverfront home Downtown in Tom Lee Park.”
Combined attendance for Beale Street Music Festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest fell below 115,000, officials said. The figure was 178,478 in 2018, and 175,330 in 2019.
Low attendance brought a record-setting financial loss of $1.9 million for 2022 festival operations. The previous record loss of $1.8 million was set in 2020 when the festival was canceled due to Covid. Smaller festival events were presented in 2021 due to ongoing concerns on Covid.
“Our fans were pleased we presented the full-scale festival in 2022, for the first time in three years,” said James Holt, MIM president and CEO. “We knew we would experience a significant decline in attendance because of our displacement from Tom Lee Park.
“The ongoing Covid pandemic, inflationary environment, and artist cancelations at Beale Street Music Festival also partially contributed to the decline in attendance.”
However, MIM said its 2022 programs were a “boon” to local hotels. Occupancy rates across the city peaked at 88.8 percent during Music Fest and Barbecue, according to MIM.
The 46th edition of MIM is slated to return to Tom Lee Park next year.
I ran into Bobby White, Greater Memphis Chamber Chief Public Policy Officer, at Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
Of all the tents, booths, and lean-tos I’ve been inside during the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, SMOKE wins first prize in my book as the most over-the-top barbecue location.
And I was at the very first Memphis in May barbecue contest back in the day. Behind the Orpheum Theatre, as I recall.
The SMOKE tent’s furnishings included a 12-foot S-shaped couch that could seat 18 people, two crystal chandeliers, and four electric fireplaces, which had the flames flickering in the 80-or-something-degree weather.
Part of the SMOKE tent decor during Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
A large photo of pro golfer John Daly hung on the wall.
John Daly?
“It used to sit over our bar,” says SMOKE team member Andy Lamanna. “He was our homage. That’s why the bar lights up with rows of stacked Titos going all the way up. The bottles change colors. We have lights in them.”
Drew Harrison and Mike Thannum at the 2021 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. (Credit: Shelly Thannum)
The team has a connection to Daly, says Drew Harrison, the team’s head cook. He purchased equipment for their team’s tent “from a restaurant auction of John Daly’s old restaurant in Conway, Arkansas.”
Their tent included five refrigerators, a beer cooler with “50-case-plus capacity,” a cold table food server, hot table food server, a 125 gallon water tank with 1.5 horsepower water pump, three-compartment kitchen sink, a dishwasher, and a “military grade smoke machine.” They also had 100 amp electrical service.
Harrison, who is with Harrison Energy Partners in Little Rock, says, “I’m a nerd engineer.”
He bought the outer furnishings on Facebook Marketplace, among other places. It was an “anywhere-I-could-buy-something-I-bought-something kind of deal.”
In addition to the sofa and the fireplaces, Harrison also brought an armoire that was converted into bar shelves with custom LED under lighting. “The bar shelves, liquor shelves, two chandeliers, and two back-lit LED signs are all controlled by a single DMX controller so they change colors in unison to the beat of music.”
Another look at the bar inside the SMOKE tent. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Daly’s photo that was over the bar was moved to another spot this year, Lamanna says, “We replaced it with our team photo when we won. We got 10th in shoulder last year.”
Their tent, by the way, was “30 by 30,” Harrison says. “The front porch was 20 by 30. And the kitchen was 20 by 30.”
Mike Thannum was this year’s team captain. Team members come from “all different places. We come from different states,” Harrison says.
But what brought them all together is “barbecue and Memphis.”
SMOKE didn’t win anything this year, but the team still celebrated the experience by indulging in their annual Saturday-of-the-event tradition, Harrison says. “Watching Top Gun on our 65-inch television.”
Around and About MIM World Championship Barbecue Co0king Contest
Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is a family event. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Memphis Grizzlies weren’t forgotten by the People’s Republic of Swina team during the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Grilled chicken anyone? (Credit: Michael Donahue)You could also BUY barbecue at MIM World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Memphis in May president/CEO James L. Holt visits Ghana’s barbecue team at the MIM World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. Ghana was this year’s MIM honored country. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Michael McCaffrey and Ben Prudhomme bring in the reinforcements for the Cadillac Grillz team at MIM World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. (Credit: Michael Donahue) We Saw You
