Look for the cameo from our sister publication Memphis magazine in this video from Columbia, Mo. artist NicDanger. There are some great shots of Memphis.
Tag: Memphis
See our review of the new CD from Jeremy Shrader and Ed Finney. The duo has a release party Thursday night at their natural habitiat, The Cove. Here is Schrader leading a band through his original “True.”
Here comes a whole lotta trouble with some FIERCE guitar sounds:
Categories
Hall of Famers
The Memphis Music Hall of Fame will induct its latest class at a ceremony Thursday, November 7th, at the Gibson Showcase Lounge.
This year’s nominees include some glaring omissions from last year’s inaugural class: Johnny Cash and Carla Thomas. There are some well-reasoned picks who were recently lost to us: Roland Janes and Sid Selvidge. There’s a nod to the depth of the Stax roster with the Bar-Kays, David Porter, and Albert King. There’s a nod to Sun with Knox Phillips and to Elvis Presley’s gospel roots with the Blackwood Brothers. But there are four lesser-known inductees we will consider here. While they may not be as well known as the others, they left their mark on the sound of this city.
Kay Starr
Kay Starr may not ring the memory bell like this year’s other nominees, but Starr glowed brightly over the middle 20th century. Her work spanned several decades and included hits both on her own and with established greats.
The native Oklahoman was gigging before age 10, which helped her family during the Depression. Her dad was relocated to Memphis, where she took her talent to local radio station WMPS. The staffers at the station noticed her name was misspelled in her fan mail and added the second “R.” So, while she’s not a native Memphian, our civic-wide inability to spell “star” left a permanent mark on her nascent career. At 15, she took up with bandleader Joe Venuti and landed a job singing at the Peabody. She did a brief stint with Glenn Miller in 1939. Later, she joined a female-heavy roster at Capitol and got lost in the mix.
In 1950, Starr heard a version of Pee Wee King’s fiddle tune Bonaparte’s Retreat. She was so taken with it that she took it straight to Roy Acuff in Nashville. Acuff, the multigenerational master of the music-publishing game in Nashville, wrote lyrics for the song, which sold close to a million copies. Starr’s run through the 1950s netted more than 10 songs in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart with “Wheel of Fortune” and “Rock and Roll Waltz” hitting #1.
The rise of rock-and-roll music eclipsed her notoriety in the public’s mind. But Billie Holiday’s biographer quotes the jazz great saying that Kay Starr was the “only white woman who could sing the blues.”
Rev. Herbert Brewster
For the 57 years leading up to 1987, Rev. W. Herbert Brewster was the pastor of East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church. But through his compositions and his radio broadcasts, he reached a wide audience. Brewster was the first artist to sell a million copies of a gospel record with both “Surely God Is Able” and with “Move On Up a Little Higher,” Mahalia Jackson’s first hit. His works are staples of the gospel choir repertoire and were recorded by such masters as the Soul Stirrers, Queen C. Anderson, and Marion Williams.
Brewster is also known for his musical dramas. He wrote more than 15 plays and was noted by the Smithsonian Institution, which produced his Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy in 1982.
There’s lots of ink on Sam Phillips and Jim Stewart and their intrepid journey into African-American culture and the revolutions in popular music that followed. But it has to be said that Brewster, perhaps more than anyone, paved the way for that cross-pollination of American music. Sam Phillips was a regular listener to Brewster’s broadcasts. Elvis Presley was so enamored of the sermons and sounds he heard on his radio that he attended services at Trigg.
Phineas Newborn Jr.
The Newborn name is synonymous with jazz in Memphis. Phineas Sr. was a musician and his sons Phineas Jr. and Calvin would cement the surname into the annals of Memphis music greatness.
Two generations of Newborns were members of what may be the most important band in Memphis music history. Before the MGs or the Tennessee Two, there was the band at the Plantation Inn in West Memphis. Ask any Stax luminary where it all started. The answer is over the river. The house band included Phineas Sr. on drums, saxophonist Ben Branch, Tuff Green on bass, and a trumpeter named Willie Mitchell.
Jim Dickinson and anyone else alive at the time not only heaps praise on the band that was out of Boss Crump’s reach, they go so far as to credit this band with the Memphis sound: the smaller horn section, the stompy, surly grooves, and the shout all come from West Memphis. At a time when the culture of Memphis was supposedly not ready for Elvis, plenty of Memphians crossed the bridge to have a drink and dance their crew cuts off.
Phineas Jr.’s influence stretched farther than East Parkway, though. He played with Charles Mingus and Lionel Hampton. He was on B.B. King’s first-ever recording and his first recording on Sun.
Newborn struggled with health problems and died in 1989. His financial difficulties spurred the creation of the Jazz Foundation of America, which still provides musicians with career support as well as emergency funds.
The Memphis Jug Band
The Memphis Jug Band should be honored for lots of small reasons: for adding the kazoo to the jug-band sound or for having a song called “Insane Crazy Blues.” But the big deal is their influence on this community’s musical culture.
The band started in 1926 under the leadership of Will Shade, a romantic rival to Furry Lewis. They were the subject of the first commercial recordings to be produced in Memphis, eventually cutting for Victor, Champion-Gennet, and Okeh labels. The band was rooted in the past and also more forward-looking than you might think. Musicologists have described the instrumentation of jugs, banjo, and fiddle as closely tuned to the African string traditions. The band’s repertoire reflected the onset of jazz as the musical language of the 20th century.
They were a favorite of Boss Crump and appeared with him in a photo in Life magazine in 1941. In the 1950s, they were documented as part of the field-recording movement that was the vanguard of the nascent folk explosion.
Memphis Music Hall of Fame 2013 Induction Ceremony, Thursday, November 7th, at the Gibson Showcase Lounge. Valet parking will be available. Reserved seating is $50 per person; tickets for premium seating and limited reserved table seating are $100 per person. Tickets are available by calling 205-2536 or by emailing pam@memphisrocknsoul.org.
A follow up to our post on Phish’s song about Darius Washington Jr.
“Darius Washington Jr.’s story was incredibly moving to all of us in Phish,” Trey Anastasio wrote in an email to the Flyer. Anastasio is the lead singer of the jam band Phish, which should in all probability have exactly nothing to do with Tiger hoops. But this is Memphis. Things get weird.
At a Halloween show in Atlantic City, Phish played a song called “The Line.” The song is about Washington’s infamous free throw attempts against Louisville in the 2005 C-USA tournament. The song is also about overcoming adversity. Darius Jr.’s Twitter handle is @Mr_Adversity. Following the emotional loss on national television, Washington’s father, Darius Sr., refused to let his son wallow in self-pity and led him on a walk up and down Beale Street to face the fans and to revel in their support.
We reached Darius Jr. by Twitter. He is playing basketball for Olin Edirne Basket, a Turkish team, and deferred questions to his dad. We spoke to Darius Sr. by phone yesterday.
Explaining Phish to Darius Sr. is not what one expects to do on a music-writing gig. But, again, this is Memphis. Initially confused by the news, the Washingtons have developed a sense of humor and perspective on the song, the event, and what it means to people.
“Is he a famous country singer?” Darius Sr. asked. “I don’t know them.”
Phish is somewhat famous for being a jam band, primarily a touring act that invests less time in the studio and in pursuing radio success than in playing live shows for its dedicated fans. It’s not for everybody.
“If the people that sit there and listen to this — if they don’t follow sports and don’t know that this took place — what are they thinking? What’s going through the fans minds?,” Washington Sr. wondered.
“It really spoke to me on a personal level, because I’ve gone through some difficult moments in public, too,” Anastasio wrote. “I’m sure most people have, in one way or another. Those tough moments can ultimately become gifts though.”
The Washingtons were not immediately sure of the musicians’ motives when they heard about the song on CBS Sports.
“We had to sort through and figure out which rout to take. I’ve got rap artists — people that could have just blasted him out,” Washington Sr. said. “I had a lot of scenarios going through my head about how I would respond if it was something that I felt that he was trying to pour salt on a wound or something like that. Maybe I can get one of my rap guys to rap something about it.”
But the awesome possibility of a musical standoff between Phish and the Washingtons was quashed as Darius’ Sr. again demonstrated the character that led him and his son out onto Beale to face the music.
“They show it on ESPN,” Washington said. “They talk about it on March Madness and at the beginning of the year. It’s been following us forever. But it’s not a bad thing, though. There’s something that people fail to realize. Yeah, that was a history making moment, but we got up off the floor and we’re still doing what we do.”
Anastasio was among those moved by the display of family, character, and civic goodwill that went on display.
“You learn a lot about what’s really important in life when
something like that happens,” Anastasio wrote.
“This is the question I pose to people,” Washington said. “If he would have just walked off the court after missing those free throws and sat on the bench like it was nothing, then people have said, damn that kid didn’t even care. But being that he is so passionate — and he hated to lose — that was the main issue. That wasn’t a national championship game. That was a freaking conference game to get into the big dance. That should show the world the passion he has for winning. The kid was always and still is a winner. He’s not a kid anymore, he’s a man. He did that in rec league. If he missed a shot, it bothered him. To this day, that’s how it stands,” Washington said.
In an even more conciliatory gesture, Washington laid the groundwork for what could become Phish’s masterpiece.
“If he decides to do a video, tell him to call us.”
Is this town big enough for two bad-ass classic country bands? This could get interesting!
Dude has an acoustic bass. That’s a sin we can live with.
It’s pretty scary. Just to be safe, check yourself into that abandoned college in Holly Springs before you listen to this Halloween Jam from Clay Otis and and the Dream Sheiks.
Categories
Grifters Reunion
As Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution premieres November 2nd at the Circuit Playhouse as a part of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, fans of recent Memphis music history will have a triumph of their own.
Directors Robert Allen Parker and Nan Hackman’s biggest coup may have been convincing local indie-rock godfathers the Grifters to reunite after more than a decade of inactivity. The band was both one of Memphis’ biggest local draws and most successful exports of the 1990s, releasing several LPs, EPs, and singles (the 1994 full-length Crappin’ You Negative received rave reviews from publications like Rolling Stone and Spin) and touring extensively until around 2000, when exhaustion and the emergence of new projects and opportunities led the Grifters to slow things down and ultimately disband.
“We toured a lot,” the band’s singer/guitarist Scott Taylor says. “When we first took a break from all the touring, we weren’t in a hurry to get back in the van. The musical atmosphere had changed, and the stuff we were doing people weren’t as interested in — it got harder to get good shows. And we were all excited about our new bands.”
So the members of the Grifters went out on their own — Taylor with the Porch Ghouls (“We toured with Kiss and Aerosmith for almost two years,” he says) and Chopper Girl/Memphis Babylon; singer/guitarist Dave Shouse with Those Bastard Souls, the Bloodthirsty Lovers, and, most recently, >mancontrol<; and the rhythm section of Tripp Lamkins (bass) and Stan Gallimore (drums) with Dragoon.
Earlier this year, however, the group received an intriguing offer from the directors of Meanwhile in Memphis, who were looking to book bands for an after-party for the film’s premiere.
“Nan and I decided to make them an offer, even though we knew that the odds of it happening were slim to none,” Parker says. “There were even some people in the Memphis music community who told us that it could never possibly happen. I sent letters to each of the Grifters proclaiming how important they are to our documentary, to their fans in Memphis, and to the legacy of Memphis music altogether.”
“None of us were particularly interested in reliving the past,” Taylor says. “We were more into moving forward in our own directions. With a few exceptions, I’m not really into the ‘cool ’90s band goes back on the road’ thing. It didn’t seem cool to be like, ‘Hey, look at us. Look at what we did in the ’90s.'”
“Never say never,” Parker says.
“The reason we’re doing a reunion now is the documentary,” Taylor says. “The movie talks about our role in the Memphis scene of the ’90s. We all felt it was appropriate to play the show in conjunction. Over the years, we’d get these phone calls from out in the wilderness,” Taylor says. “Some guy would call and say, ‘You guys were my favorite band. I want you to play my wedding.’ It was never anything serious. Of course, we are hard to get in touch with, so maybe that was it too.”
Whatever reluctance the Grifters may have felt at one time about getting back together, the band is definitely enjoying the experience of reviving the project now — at least for one night.
“Practice has been really great. The songs sound better than ever, I think,” Lamkins says.
“It’s amazing,” Taylor agrees. “It’s been refreshing to come back to some of the songs. We’re all pleased that the material doesn’t sound too dated. We were always a band that tried to write timeless songs, songs that weren’t stuck in a particular genre.”
“I expected, at some point (but not knowing when), the Grifters to play again due to the sheer awesomeness and intensity of the band as a unit,” says Sherman Willmott, founder of Shangri-La Records, which released Grifters records through the ’90s until the band signed with Sub Pop.
The Grifters will perform this Saturday at the Warehouse for the Meanwhile in Memphis premiere after-party, along with local heavy-hitters the Hi Rhythm Section, Al Kapone, and Hope Clayburn. What happens with the group after that, though, is anybody’s guess.
Willmott sees the band getting much-deserved recognition.
“Because the Grifters’ hiatus dovetailed with the explosion of the internet (circa 2000), the post-Napster generation knows nothing about the power of this band,” Willmott says. “Given the intensity of today’s digital word of mouth, if the Grifters Mach II is one-fourth as good as their first go-round, there is no doubt in my mind that they will have thousands of new fans overnight.”
“We’re not ruling out doing more shows,” Taylor says. “Nothing is off the table as long as we’re enjoying ourselves.”
One recent highlight is a series of videos based on recordings from their album One Sock Missing. Each song is directed by a different person. One is directed by bassist Lamkins.
“It’s been fun,” Taylor says. “Sherman came to us and said he was tired of seeing our songs on YouTube without any real videos, just stills or homemade stuff. I’m glad we’re doing it. A lot of local filmmakers have done amazing jobs on the videos so far, and the project is moving along very organically.”
www.shangrilaprojects.com/the-grifters
Meanwhile in Memphis After-Party With The Grifters, The Hi Rhythm Section, Al Kapone, and Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage The Warehouse, Saturday, November 2nd, 9 p.m.
“When you’re a kid, your parents are like, ‘You want to do WHAT?'” Alvin Youngblood Hart says of going musical. “My parents said, ‘You need something to fall back on.'” Hart took their advice, sort of. He has two jobs: playing rock-and-roll with a band and playing solo, acoustic roots music.
“I’ve got the solo thing to fall back on for now. There’s playing rock shows, and there’s the day job. It kind of works out like that. I like playing it all.”
Hart also plays in the South Memphis String Band, and he was part of a recent session for John Kilzer’s upcoming album. The personnel on that session amounted to a pantheon of Memphis greats, including three guitarists: Hart, Luther Dickinson, and Steve Selvidge.
“Having me, Luther, and Steve on the same session could sound like a disaster, but we’re all old enough at this point in time — particularly me — to exercise some restraint. And I think me and Steve have a new career as harmony singers.”
Hart is looking forward to his Hi-Tone show this weekend.
“Memphis is pretty important to all of us. It’ll be a good Memphis rock show.”
— Joe Boone
Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Muscle Theory with Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition, Saturday, November 2nd, at the Hi-Tone