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Sarah Simmons and Star & Micey Throw Benefit for Homeless Memphians

Sarah Simmons was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but she says she owes a big debt to the Bluff City. She got her music education at the Visible Music College, jumpstarting her career that led her to a national television on the 2013 season of NBC’s The Voice. Now that she’s off the road after a 7 month world tour, she has returned to Memphis with her guitarist, who also happens to be her fianceé. They have something special prepared for the Memphis audience.

“We want to give back to Memphis in anyway that we can so we decided to have a benefit at Minglewood 1884 to raise money for a shelter,” she says. “This is the first year but we want to do it one a year every year! We are calling it Rock for Shelter.”

Joining Simmons and the band for the show Saturday night at Minglewood Hall’s 1884 Lounge will be Memphis favorite sons Star & Micey.

Here’s a taste of Simmons’ work, with her latest music video “Staring at the Sun”:

Sarah Simmons and Star & Micey Throw Benefit for Homeless Memphians

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Music Music Blog

Q&A with Daley

The attentive music aficionado might recognize Gareth Daley — known in the R&B world simply by his surname — from the video for the 2010 Gorillaz single “Doncamatic,” in which the bespectacled British crooner pilots a tiny submersible between schools of fish and stacks of underwater wreckage. Daley co-wrote “Doncamatic” at the behest of Gorillaz founder Damon Albarn, scoring him the starring role in the single’s music video. He’s since gone on to record and release three EPs and a full-length album of his own.

The soulful singer has become known for his consistently excellent — and breathtakingly daring — vocal performances, and he is currently on tour in support of his newly released single “Until the Pain Is Gone,” which features Beale Street Music Fest performer Jill Scott as a guest vocalist. I sat down with Daley before his set at Minglewood Hall last week to talk about his new single, his current tour, and why he doesn’t have a Bucket List of potential collaborators.

The Memphis Flyer: Your new single, “Until the Pain Is Gone,” debuted in March, but you began writing it back in 2015. How does it feel to have it out?
Daley: Yeah, it’s great. It was one of the first ones I wrote for this album project, so, it was just there, waiting while I finished the rest of the album. I wrote the song kind of just self-contained at first, and then, further in to the process, connected with Jill Scott, and she loved it. So, we made it a duet-type thing.

Speaking of getting things out there, what inspired you to release your first EP for free?
To be honest, to release the first EP for free was kind of … It just felt necessary at the time, because I had been signed to Universal, and they were just basically holding up the process with all the label crap and the red tape and this and that. It was just like we had this music and people were kind of ready for something, and we were just like, we just have to put this out. And so we did it ourselves, me and my management did it. It was the right thing to do because it allowed things to keep progressing and moving. And then eventually the label jumped on once they saw things were picking up. It was just one of those things of getting over the label red tape and just keeping the momentum.

What inspires you to write? What inspired you to write your new single?
I just try to find little details that I want to talk about, or feelings. It just helps to get them down. It makes me feel like I’ve dealt with it and tamed it in some way. That was my initial reason, just to express, almost like a diary. But as I’ve gone on and I’ve done my first album cycle, and as I’ve seen how music affects the people who listen to it and I hear those stories of what songs mean to them, this time around I have another layer of meaning to it. Obviously, I still write for me, but I’m also aware that it’s stuff that people embrace and take into their own lives. So there’s also that thing of being able to connect to people and relate. … Especially today, when everything feels so bleak, especially in terms of connecting.

You mentioned that your newest single was completed before most of the rest of the album. When you write, do you typically try to write an album as a whole?
No, I don’t go into a studio for two weeks and try to write the whole album, … which a lot of bands will do. I had a bit of freedom with this album because I had parted ways with Universal. So I had some good time to just figure out what I wanted to do. I just started off by working with the people I like the most, my favorite producers who I have … and just going in with no expectations at first. It wasn’t that “Until the Pain Is Gone” was separate; it was just earlier in the process. It gets to the point when things start to feel like an album. The first year or whatever, it just felt like I was writing. Once themes start to recur, once it starts to feel like an album, I start thinking about which song can come after which. That’s when it becomes the album.

How is the tour with Leela James going?
It’s really, really nice. It’s kind of a new experience for me. We’re sharing musicians, and we’re kind of splitting everything. I had never done anything like that before, so I was a bit nervous about that, but it’s all worked out really well. We’re on the road with great musicians. I think our audiences really compliment each other, so she’s gaining fans from my pool, and I’m gaining fans from her pool. It’s been a cool run — really easy and fun.

Are there any other artists who you want to collaborate with?
People ask me what my bucket list is, but I don’t really have one anymore. I mean … Prince was on my bucket list. Probably he was the only one really, and that’s not gonna happen now. But I think collaborations for me just happen quite naturally. I started off working with the Gorillaz. I did something with Marsha Ambrosius and Jessie J, who is a friend of mine. So, yeah, I don’t really have a list or anything. I just like to fall into place with people, like with friends or with artists who I have a connection with. No one’s on the list right now, but I feel like it will just happen.

When can fans expect your next album to be released?
It’s going to be this summer. It’s called The Spectrum. I think they’re locking in a date this week. I don’t know what it is right now, but it’s definitely going to be this year. And I’m so ready. I’m so ready for people to hear it.
Are there any tracks in particular you’re looking forward to getting out there?
Yeah, there are a couple of songs on there. The reason I call it The Spectrum is because I wanted to tap in to a range of different vibes. When I first started making the album, I felt like it was going to be quite a dark, kind of atmospheric, soulful album. And as it went on, I wasn’t in that zone for the whole time. That wasn’t all I wanted to do. … There are some moments that I think are really sonically interesting, where I really feel like I’m pushing my vocals and the combination of musical elements. I won’t name specific tracks, but there are definitely some really fun moments and some really emotional moments.

It sounds like you hit the whole array. Is there anything else you want fans to know?
Nah, I think that’s good. Just, you know, the album’s coming out this summer. The single’s out now. Please go and get it.

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Eric Krasno Band live at Minglewood Hall

Eric Krasno, the guitarist and founding member of Soulive and Lettuce, is bringing his new band to Minglewood Hall on April 26th supporting Gov’t Mule, and it may be a case of the opener alone being worth the price of admission.

Krasno made his name in the rock-and-roll business as a guitarist and producer, but Blood from a Stone, his first album as a singer and front man, makes a strong case that his place is behind a microphone. With Blood from a Stone, Krasno crafted an album that embraces the common ground between funk, soul, and the blues, and for good measure, he’s thrown in some cosmic gypsy-soul of the Van Morrison Astral Weeks variety.

Blood from a Stone has yielded some stellar singles so far, amalgamations of vital elements of soul, funk, and blues. On “Jezebel,” the drums’ syncopated shuffle, light on hi-hat hits, paired with a soul-style strumming pattern give the song a sultry, tropical feel that sets it apart from the regional blues styles more common in the Bluff City. This isn’t Beale Street blues or Delta blues. Though the song’s lyrics — with mentions of both heaven and hell and of the devil and the titular Jezebel — embrace blues themes of temptation and salvation, the Biblical language coupled with the desert imagery of Blood from a Stone and the recurring motifs of smoke, fire, and open eyes in the song’s music video call to mind visions of exotic locations and ancient mysticism.

As with “Jezebel,” the music video for “On the Rise” begins with a shot of an eye opening, set against a black background. The bass riff, pushed to the forefront, is a pulsing groove, propelling the song, and the funk and jazz influences from Lettuce and Soulive are suddenly glaringly obvious. Krasno pours his vocals over the track, a smooth stream of soulful melody, making it clear that this guitarist is equally comfortable behind a microphone.

Get to Minglewood early on Wednesday night for a taste of soul, funk, jazz, and six shades of the blues. Before Gov’t Mule tear the roof off with their Southern-fried rock, Krasno and his band are sure to bring the groove.

Gov’t Mule with Eric Krasno at Minglewood Hall, Wednesday, April 26th at 8 p.m. $30-35.

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Conor Oberst’s Return to Memphis


Conor Oberst first met The Felice Brothers 10 years ago at the Gibson Guitar Factory. It was the last time he played Memphis, and the first time they opened for him.

Last Saturday, Oberst returned, playing songs from 2016’s Ruminations, debuting tracks from this year’s forthcoming Salutations, and digging into a number of well-knowns from Bright Eyes’ discography.

The Felice Brothers joined him once again, opening the show (note: They were the first band to ever play Minglewood Hall), and serving as his backing band.

Overheard behind me:

“He’s getting old, man.”

“Everyone is getting old, man.”

“You’re right, that was a f****d up thing to say. I’m getting old, man.”

Peep Sam Leathers’ slideshow below.

[slideshow-1]

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Music Music Features

Country Outsider at 60

Not many popular musicians, regardless of genre, remain consistently prolific for over three decades behind a body of work defined by its unique balance of artistic veracity and success of the household-name variety. Even rarer is such an artist who frames his 60th birthday with one of the highest profile, most creatively relevant as well as critically acclaimed years in said career. But that’s exactly how 2016 has played out for Dwight Yoakam, perhaps mainstream country’s longest established purveyor of rugged individualism who hit the big 6-0 less than three weeks ago on the 23rd of October.

Just a month earlier, Yoakam released his 20th studio full-length, Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…, which features 11 bluegrass reinterpretations of songs from his back catalog with one rather notable exception: a similarly styled cover of “Purple Rain” that was recorded as an impromptu gesture of mourning as Yoakam and band received the tragic news on April 23rd (their third day in the studio) of this year.

Per an interview with Rolling Stone, Yoakam was originally made uncomfortable after the fact by his band’s cover of the Prince classic, but he was encouraged to include it on the album (it’s the closing track and was released as the second promotional single) by former Warner Bros. Records president Lenny Waronker.

Yoakam’s resume as a respected TV and film actor was also bolstered this year by roles in Amazon Studios’ eight-episode, straight-to-web legal thriller Goliath (reuniting him with his Sling Blade costar Billy Bob Thornton), the “Bar Fights” episode of Drunk History that aired just a week prior, and a second-billed turn in the feature-length oil field drama, Boomtown.

Dwight Yoakam has been a country music outlier from the start, when his organic honky tonk and country-rock stylings were considered commercial kryptonite against the ultra-slick, post-Countrypolitan urban cowboy sound and aesthetic with which the industry was enamored during the early ’80s (essentially responsible for country’s first true wide-scale acceptance into mainstream popular culture). Yoakam’s understandable disenchantment with Nashville took him to L.A., where he focused on playing venues favored by that scene’s underground roots-rock and punk bands, sharing bills with the Blasters, Los Lobos, and X before self-financing his debut album.

Yoakam has also regularly displayed pretty good taste in non-country covers by releasing versions of the Clash’s great pop moment, “Train in Vain,” as well as Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me.”

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Yeasayer Tonight at Minglewood Hall

Yeasayer.

Brooklyn’s Yeasayer has released four full-length albums, two EPs and two live albums since debuting with 2007’s All Hour Cymbals. Depending on one’s preferred source of biographical information, Yeasayer formed in 2005 or 2006. Within a year or so the band (static core trio of co-founders Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton and Anand Wilder) were among the many beneficiaries of the blogosphere’s omnipotent kingmaking era when large fan-bases materialized out of thin air, as did prominent placement on the national/worldwide mainstream indie landscape of the day.

If this larger phenomenon seems so far back on the cultural timeline it might as well have occurred on a different planet, keep in mind that the particular decade (or just under a decade in this case) that has passed since Yeasayer’s emergence is one that frames an especially tenuous and fluid musical climate.

Yeasayer Tonight at Minglewood Hall

Similarly, the four years between 2012’s Fragrant World and this April’s Amen & Goodbye could also mean curtains for many bands, so not only are Yeasayer survivors, but they also possess a respectable skill at continuing to pull something ambitious and unique out of their original sonic patchwork of world-beat, dance-friendly prog-pop.

Their formula also features complex takes on electronica and synth-pop, and myriad other elements that together should not work at all, much less result in such an accessible and relatively successful end product with each album. Get to Minglewood Hall tonight by 8 p.m. to check out Yeasayer and opener Lydia Ainsworth. The show is $20.00.

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Music Music Features

Melissa Etheridge at Minglewood Hall

This Friday night, Melissa Etheridge will perform at Minglewood Hall in support of her Stax tribute album, MEmphis Rock and Soul. Released earlier this month on Stax/Concord Music Group, MEmphis Rock and Soul features 12 Stax classics, including “Hold On, I’m Coming,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Born Under a Bad Sign,” and “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember.”

Recorded at Royal Studios with Boo Mitchell and the Hi Rhythm section, MEmphis Rock and Soul sold 14,000 copies in its first week and made an impressive showing on the Billboard 200 chart, earning the No. 1 spot in the Blues category and No. 9 in Rock. The tour in support of MEmphis Rock and Soul kicked off last week, and this is Etheridge’s only Memphis appearance this year.

It’s been a busy year for Etheridge, who in June penned a benefit song for the survivors of the shooting in Orlando at the gay nightclub Pulse. The song — also called “Pulse” — saw all of its benefits donated to the Equality Florida Project. Etheridge has long been a voice for the LGBT community, and her message of equality has reached hundreds of thousands throughout her long career.

Initially recognized as a top-tier songwriter in 1988, Etheridge played the Grammys that year before winning one herself for the song “Ain’t It Heavy” in 1992. Her 1993 album included the chart-topping hits “Come to My Window,” and “I’m the Only One,” the latter of which won her a second Grammy in 1995.

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Music Music Features

Mac Miller

Mac Miller returns to Memphis this Friday night, bringing his Divine Feminine tour to Minglewood Hall. A native of Pittsburgh, Miller first gained mainstream attention with his 2011 album Blue Slide Park, an indie-tinged hip-hop record that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Miller swapped the independent label Rostrum Records for Warner Bros. following the album’s success, and has since released Watching Movies with the Sound Off, GO:OD AM, and most recently The Divine Feminine — released last month.

The Divine Feminine doesn’t stray from the quirky, R&B-influenced rap that Mac Miller has built an empire on, but the album does boast a bevy of some of the biggest names in hip-hop, including Ty Dolla $ign, Kendrick Lamar, and Ariana Grande, the singer who Miller is reportedly in a relationship with, even though Grande has recently refuted that claim (awkward). So what’s so special about a rapper who can proudly release a single simply titled “Dang” with a straight face? That’s a question that his cult-like fan base will gladly answer for you. Miller has created a “relatable, nice-guy-next-door” vibe with his music, and his comparisons to Drake aren’t entirely unfounded. He’s also become a complete YouTube sensation and a verified star — perhaps through his close friendship with fellow Steel City stoner Wiz Khalifa. Between Minglewood Hall and the New Daisy Theater, Memphis has been getting a fair share of top-tier rap concerts, and Friday’s gig should reflect the growing mainstream rap scene. Lakim and Clockwork DJ open.

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Reformed Whores at Minglewood Hall

Marie Cecile Anderson and Katy Frame met at a party in Brooklyn. When it was discovered that Anderson plays the ukulele and Frame plays the accordion, they decided to form a band. Throw in their background of improv and some vintage dresses, and Reformed Whores was born. They perform Monday at Minglewood Hall.

Described as “If Tenacious D and Dolly Parton got drunk and had a baby,” Reformed Whores — the name comes from a roommate’s Spotify list — perform such songs as “Girls Poop Too,” “Eating Out,” and “Douchebag,” all with a pleasing country twang.

“Our songs are about relationships, dating boys. We wrote from our hearts,” Anderson says. “They’re based on our sad, sad lives,” Frame adds.

Reformed Whores

The songs are crude and rude. “Girls Poop Too,” for example, includes a break of the girls farting. The video for “Eating Out” involves a stunning array of lesbian food allusions.

Reformed Whores will open for Weird Al in August, but it’s Amy Schumer who has given them their ultimate goal. Schumer recently performed at Madison Square Garden. “Millennial women are having their moment,” Frame says. “We’re trying to put it out there.”

The duo says that the material works with all audiences because it’s relatable — “even if they don’t want admit it,” Frame says. “Like my dad and my mom,” pipes in Anderson.

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Music Music Features

All Hail the Purple One

This Friday, the two most prominent music venues in town will hold tribute concerts honoring the late, great Purple One. The New Daisy will host an evening of “Catalog Sessions” documenting the music of Prince with a performance of three different sets of his music, while Minglewood Hall will be hosting a “Memphis Does Prince” benefit with all the money going to St. Jude. Much like the Minglewood show, “Memphis Does Bowie,” curated by Graham Winchester, the “Memphis Does Prince” benefit this Friday features a ton of local musicians covering Prince’s music. On the other side of town, the New Daisy will have Larry Springfield along with Chris McNeil and friends on hand to perform Prince covers all night long. I caught up with Winchester to learn more about his tribute concert at Minglewood Hall this Friday. — Chris Shaw

The Memphis Flyer: How will this be different than the “Memphis Does Bowie” benefit?

Graham Winchester: The band lineup is very different, which I’m excited about. Through these “Memphis Does…” benefits, I want to incorporate as many local artists as possible. The music itself is also very different stylistically. Bowie definitely had some party tunes in his catalog, but not to the extent of Prince. I think this show will be one for the dancers.

Prince, much like Bowie, had a pretty unique, instantly recognizable style of music. Did that factor into how you picked the bands?

I definitely tried to pick bands that have an upbeat, funky vibe. There is also a strong need for great vocals and guitar work with this benefit. I didn’t get every band I wanted, but I got the main ones, and I’m happy with the results.

How appreciative was St. Jude about the Bowie benefit?

They were extremely appreciative and have been so helpful the second time around. I’ve had several meetings with employees at the hospital about not only this benefit, but how they can help with future shows as well. Everybody at St. Jude has been incredibly enthusiastic, appreciative, and even surprised at what is going on.

The Bowie benefit was a huge success. Do you expect a similar turnout?

I feel like the turnout may even be slightly larger than last time. I think there’s a lot of momentum and expectation going into this second benefit. My goal is to raise $25,000 this time.

Talk about the after party that’s 21 and up. What’s that going to be like?

My good friend Graham Burks is going to play the after party with his band mars HALL. It’s in 1884 Lounge, connected to the main room of Minglewood Hall, so it’ll be a great way to continue the Prince party without having to drive anywhere. There may be some impromptu collaboration involving all the musicians after mars HALL is done.

How will the show be formatted? How many songs does each band get to play? Will there be deep Prince cuts or solid hits all night?

Most bands will be playing three or four songs each. Toward the end of the night, my band is going to play seven or eight songs, and we’ve incorporated several special guests into our set.

After that Hope Clayburn plays for about 45 minutes, then Steve Selvidge plays the final 45 minutes. This time around I wanted to get a few headliners to play some solid, full sets so the night ends with a good flow. Overall, there are over 60 songs being played, so there is a good mix of hits and deep cuts.

“Memphis Does Prince,” featuring Steve Selvidge, Hope Clayburn, Winchester and the Ammunition, the Incredible Hook, Southern Avenue, Clay Otis and the Addults, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, Lightajo, the Erotic Thrillers, Marcella Simien, Another Green World, Kitty Dearing, Jesse Davis, and more Friday, June 10th at Minglewood Hall. 8 p.m. $15-$17. All ages.

“Catalog Sessions” with Larry Springfield and Chris McNeil, Friday, June 10th at the New Daisy Theatre, 8 p.m. $30.00.