Tag: Stax Music Academy

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2)

Dr. James Gholson leads Craig Brewer’s ‘Our Conductor – Artists Only Remix’

 Let’s do this.

10. Kphonix “When It’s Tasty”
Director: Mitch Martin
What goes with disco better than lasers? Nothing.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2)

9. Hormonal Imbalance “That Chick’s Boyfriend”
Director: Jamie Hall
Rising Fyre Productions gives Susan Mayfield and Ivy Miller’s gross-out punk the no-holds-barred video they deserve. Not safe for work. Or life.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (2)

8. “Our Conductor – Artists’ Only Remix”
Director: Craig Brewer
When the Memphis Grizzlies hired Craig Brewer to make a promotional video to help persuade Mike Connelly to stay, he gathered an A team of Memphis talent, including producers Morgan Jon Fox and Erin Freeman, cinematographer Ryan Earl Parker, assistant director Sarah Fleming, Brandon Bell, and Firefly Grip and Electric. Prolific composer Jonathan Kirkscey was tapped to write an inspiring score, which would be performed by musicians from the Stax Music Academy and members of local orchestras, and the Grizzline drummers. Dancers from Collage Dance Collective, joined jookers from the Grit N’ Grind Squad.

After a shoot at the FedEx Forum, Editor Edward Valibus cut together a b-roll bed to lay the interviews on. His rough cut turned out to be one of the best music videos of the year.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (3)


7. Brennan Villines “Crazy Train”
Director: Andrew Trent Fleming
This unexpectedly poignant Ozzy cover was the second music video Villines and Fleming collaborated on this year, after the stark “Free”. Where that one was simple, this one goes big.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (4)


6. Lisa Mac “Mr. Mystery”
Director: Melissa Anderson Sweazy
There’s no secret to making a great music video. Just take a great song, a great dancer, a great location, and some crackerjack editing. All the elements came together brilliantly for Sweazy’s second entry in the countdown.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (5)

5. Marco Pavé “Cake”
Director GB Shannon
Shannon used the WREC building as the main setting in his short film “Broke Dick Dog”, and he returns with a cadre of dancers and a stone cold banger from Pavé. Go get that cake.

Marco Pavé "Cake" Music Video from VIA on Vimeo.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (6)

4. Chackerine “Memphis Beach”
Director: Ben Siler

This three minute epic keeps switching gears as it accelerates to a Jurassic punchline. Its sense of chaotic fun took the prize at the revived Indie Memphis music video category.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (7)


3. Yo Gotti “Down In The DM”
Director: Yo Gotti
It was Yo Gotti’s year. The Memphis MC racked up a staggering 101 million views with this video, which features cameos from Cee-Lo Green, Machine Gun Kelley, YG, and DJ Khalid. The video must have worked, because the song peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (8)

2. John Kilzer & Kirk Whalum “Until We’re All Free”
Dir: Laura Jean Hocking
Two things brought “Until We’re All Free” to the list’s penultimate slot. First, it’s a perfect example of synergy between music and image, where both elements elevate each other. Second is the subtle narrative arc; Amurica photobooth owner Jamie Harmon selling false freedom seems suddenly prophetic. The social justice anthem struck a chord with viewers when it ran with the trailers at some Malco theaters this spring. The parade of cute kids helped, too.

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (9)

1. Don Lifted “Harbor Hall”
Director Lawrence Matthews
Matthews is a multi-tasker, combining visual art with hip hop in his live performances and controlling his videos. His two videos from his album Alero feature his beaten up domestic sedan as a character. Its the total artistic unity that puts “Harbor Hall” at the pinnacle of 2016 videos. Because my rules limited each musical artist to one video, Matthews’ 11-minute collaboration with filmmaker Kevin Brooks “It’s Your World” doesn’t appear on the list. I chose “Harbor Hall” because of its concision, but “It’s Your World” would have probably topped the list, too.
Here it is, Memphis, your Best Music Video of 2016:

Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (10)

Keep those videos coming, artists and filmmakers! Tip me off about your upcoming music video with an email to cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Happy 4th of July from Music Video Monday

This week’s Music Video Monday falls on the 4th of July, and we’re here to instill you with pride. 

Last week, The Memphis Grizzlies released a video they commissioned from director Craig Brewer called “Mike Conley – Our Conductor“. The video was a tribute to the baller, who was up for contract renegotiation, and a plea to stay. It must have worked, because Conley signed a $153 million dollar, 5-year contract to stay in Memphis. 

To make “Mike Conley – Our Conductor”, Brewer enlisted a who’s who of Memphis film talent, including producers Morgan Jon Fox and Erin Freeman, cinematographer Ryan Earl Parker, assistant director Sarah Fleming, Brandon Bell, and Firefly Grip and Electric. Prolific composer Jonathan Kirkscey was tapped to write an inspiring score, which would be performed by musicians from the Stax Music Academy and members of local orchestras, and the Grizzline drummers. Dancers from Collage Dance Collective, joined jookers from the Grit N’ Grind Squad. The conductor is Dr. James Gholson. 

Editor Edward Valibus says the first step in assembling the video was to lay down the music bed and edit together footage from a shoot at the FedEx Forum. Before any of the interviews with Conley’s friends and teammates were added, a cut was circulated to the Grizzles PR team, who went bonkers for it. “The first rough cut got such a tremendous response, we wanted people to see it it so the individual artists could get some recognition,” Valibus says.   

So here it is, the “Artist Only Remix”, showcasing some of the best musical and filmmaking talent our city has to offer. Happy Independence Day! 

Happy 4th of July from Music Video Monday

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Dock of the Bay

CREDIT: Pierre Jean Durieu | Dreamstime.com

As I write this, on January 8th, 2016, it is the 48th anniversary of the release of the Otis Redding single, “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” recorded right here in Memphis at Stax Records. Cowritten by Booker T. & the MG’s guitarist and music legend Steve Cropper, the song made Redding a household name and further cemented Memphis’ position as being the real music capital of the world.

The song almost instantly became a global sensation, selling more than four million copies and garnering two Grammy Awards: Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. “Dock of the Bay” was the sixth most-performed song of the 20th century, was ranked by Rolling Stone as No. 28 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and the album by the same name was named 161 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. (It was the second-highest ranking of Redding’s songs on Rolling Stone‘s list. His “Respect,” which later ushered in international success for Aretha Franklin — also from Memphis — was named No. five of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.)

Pierre Jean Durieu | Dreamstime.com

Over the years, “Dock of the Bay” has been covered by the likes of Glen Campbell, Cher, Peggy Lee, Bob Dylan, Percy Sledge, Dee Clark, Sam & Dave, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Pearl Jam, and countless others. In 2013, when President and Mrs. Barack Obama hosted a special concert at the White House to honor Memphis soul, Justin Timberlake — also from Memphis (well, a suburb of Memphis) — sang it for the POTUS and guests with millions of television viewers watching.

Unfortunately, Otis Redding never got to hear the final version of the song. Shortly after recording it, with just some finishing touches left to be added, he was killed, along with most of the members of the Memphis band, the Bar-Kays, in a plane crash. Redding was just 26 years old.

You might be wondering why I’m writing about this. I’m wondering too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I work by day at the Soulsville Foundation, which operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Stax Music Academy, and the Soulsville Charter School, so, yeah, this is a little self-serving. I’ll take that even one step further and mention that we have our largest fund-raiser of the year, Staxtacular, on the 29th of this month. It’s hosted by Vince Carter and the Memphis Grizzlies, and you should all think about attending to help us help out the thousands of kids we work with, based on the legacy of Stax Records. We believe that if you give someone a chance to succeed, they just might succeed against all kinds of odds.

We’re in a neighborhood where virtually everyone lives at or below the poverty level, but they are, by and large, awesome people. One hundred percent of our Soulsville Charter School seniors have been accepted to college for the four years we’ve had graduating classes, all with some kind of scholarship or grant. There have been 207 seniors so far, and they’ve earned more than $30 million in scholarships and grants to schools, including Brown University, Tufts University, University of Pennsylvania, Wesleyan, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Middle Tennessee State University, and many, yes, right here at Southwest Tennessee Community College. Since 2008, every senior enrolled at the Stax Music Academy has been accepted to college. I’m not even sure how many have been and/or are now at Berklee College of Music in Boston on full scholarships.

The Stax Museum is a beacon in the neighborhood, with visitors from every continent making the pilgrimage to Memphis and Stax and Sun Studios and Graceland every year. Yet, there are people in Memphis who know nothing about this organization. And there are those who truly get what all this means, and they love Memphis for what it is, despite the lists of fattest, poorest, most dangerous, and that other bull-roar that rears its ugly head when Forbes or some other source lays the crap on us.

And don’t get me started on Nashville. Ugh. I don’t hate Nashville, but I would hate Memphis if it started trying to be Nashville. We are not Nashville, thank goodness. And we are not Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, or, God forbid, Austin.

We are the city where Al Green recorded “Love and Happiness” and “Take Me to the River” and “Let’s Stay Together” and where Bruno Mars recently recorded the global sensation “Uptown Funk” in the very same rooms where Green changed the music world and where Ann Peebles recorded “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” We are the city where, 48 years ago, Otis Redding recorded “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” Why don’t we all make a New Year’s resolution in 2016 to stand up and stake our claim?

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Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (May 28, 2015) …

CREDIT: Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com

Finally, finally, FINALLY! The Memphis Flyer has had the good sense to curb the liberal writings of old men like Tim Sampson and Randy Haspel and change the back page of this paper to something more sensible by adding some female voices. Thank God — and I’m speaking of the God of Christianity who rules this nation and should rule the rest of the world, instead of these so-called prophets like Mohammed — that the paper has finally come to its senses and is now giving voice to women with some conservative values and extremely long necks like mine.

That Sampson guy has been writing his drivel for this paper for 26 years now, and it’s about time he gets limited to write just one piece of garbage each month from now on. I don’t know how you readers have put up with his left-wing musings for this many years. I hope that you will just skip over his soon-to-be monthly “Last Word” column and pay attention to writers like me, who really have something important to add.

Let’s take a look back: Most recently, Sampson verbally defiled pro-American-values crusader Pamela Geller, just because she had the audacity to host a pro-freedom-of-expression art show in which artists and normal God-fearing American citizens were invited to draw cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed at an art gallery in the great, GREAT state of Texas, which (thank God again) gives criminals the death penalty more than any state in the country. They know how to deal with heathens, and I say more power to them.

It’s still a shame that Texas Governor Rick Perry didn’t beat the communist Barack Obama in the last presidential election. Now look where we are: Our taxes are being used right and left to finance food stamps for poor people who are too lazy to get jobs that would allow them to buy their own food and not put the burden on those of us who need to stockpile our millions for when Obama finally destroys the country, which has been his plan all along, because he is a socialist who was not even born in the United States and is, in fact, a radical Muslim from Africa.

Thank God, again, for people like Sarah Palin and me who aren’t afraid to tell the truth about him. Oh, yeah, you’ll be reading much more about this when Sampson’s “Rant” business is sidelined. You better get down on your knees and pray that this new change lasts for a long, long time.

And, no more will you have to be besieged on such a regular basis with his “ranting” about how gay marriage should be legalized in every state or how he thinks voting rights for impoverished blacks and other Democrats are being jeopardized, or his ongoing babbling about how that Soulsville Charter School’s seniors have all been accepted to college for the past four years that it has had graduations — with their inner-city kids receiving more than $30 million in scholarships. To read his biased (because he works there) views, you’d think white kids from wealthy families, who attend Christian-based private schools, don’t achieve anything. It sickens me, and I know it sickens you.

And then there’s the way he goes on and on and ON about how much he loves Memphis and how it’s the coolest city in the world. Give me a break. Most of you reading this live there and you know what a hellhole Memphis is. There’s nothing but crime and people living on welfare there and one black mayor after another. You all know you live in the poorest, most dangerous, most obese city in the United States and that Memphis has nothing to offer upstanding, conservative people of virtue. He thinks places like Wild Bill’s, Ernestine & Hazel’s, Beale Street, and the Blue Worm are all so great, but he never talks about all the great things on Germantown Parkway or the gated subdivisions in the suburbs, where people exercise their God-given freedom to stay away from all that filth that goes on in the city. He and Haspel are just old, white liberal men who are stuck in their hippie days and don’t see the light of what really matters to true Americans.

And speaking of the great Sarah Palin, it is almost criminal the way this paper has allowed Sampson to criticize her for her beliefs, her animal killing, her beautiful and intelligent children, and her stance on American values. She is a true American hero, but to read Sampson, you’d think she isn’t the genius that she really is, no matter what newspapers she reads. And when she says she can see Russia from Alaska, she is telling the truth. She always has and continues to do so on national Fox News, which Sampson also dismisses as right-wing propaganda, which you all know is not true.

So be very, very happy, people, that “The Rant” will be changing soon, albeit not soon enough for those of you who have had to put up with Sampson’s diatribes for so long. I say, so long to him and pay no attention to what he and Haspel write in their new monthly “Last Word” columns.

This column was actually written by Tim Sampson, of course. No conservative publicity whores were harmed in the writing of this column.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (April 30, 2015) …

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Memphis always seems to me to be on the brink of something. Sometimes it’s on the brink of something bad, like this insane and cowardly new mob attack trend. Sometimes it’s on the brink of something mediocre,like the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain opening a location here (did that ever happen?) and making front-page news.

And sometimes it’s on the brink of something very cool, like the focus now on development in Midtown between Overton Square and Cooper-Young and the possibilities being discussed to finally do something more productive with Mud Island, now that Bass Pro in the Pyramid is expected to draw a lot more people to the west entrance to the city and its surrounding neighborhoods.

Justin Fox Burks

Boo Mitchell at Royal Studios

And who can dispute the cool factor in Bruno Mars and company recording “Uptown Funk” at Boo Mitchell’s Royal Studios, one of the most hallowed spots in the world because, simply, that was the House That Al Green Built. And Ann Peebles and Donald Bryant and Otis Clay and so many others under the tutelage of the great Willie Mitchell. The fact that it is still a working, thriving recording studio is something of which Memphians from all walks of life should be immensely proud.

The other night, I had one of the coolest Memphis moments I’ve had in a long time. If you’ve never been to Itta Bena, the sign-less, almost hidden restaurant on the third floor of B.B. King’s Blues Club at Beale and Second, you are really, really missing out. It’s dark and clubby and has blue-tinted windows, through which the neon lights from Beale Street flood in once the sun goes down. It has a very special feel, great food, and great service. I was having dinner there the other night with someone from out of town (from way up Nawth) who is moving to Memphis pretty soon, and I couldn’t have scripted this one any better.

After we finished dinner, we made our way down the secret stairway that leads to the second floor of the club. When I opened the door, there was a singer on stage whose name, I think, was Angela Atkinson. I was appalled that I wasn’t familiar with her, because, well, you know how cool I think I am. Anyway, B.B. King’s was packed wall-to-wall (and this was a weeknight), and she was busting into a version of “Proud Mary,” much more along the line of Ike and Tina Turner’s version than the original by Creedence Clearwater Revival, not that there’s anything wrong with that version.

So I just stood there trying not to embarrass myself by dancing, and it was a surreal, spontaneous experience that made me think Memphis had passed the point of being on the brink of something cool; it had happened and couldn’t have been any cooler. And it couldn’t have been more “Memphis.”

I got separated from the people I’d been having dinner with and figured they were fine, as two of them were Memphians and they had the out-of-town guest in tow. So I just sauntered down Beale Street alone, smoking cigarettes and watching the Beale Street Flippers and all of the tourists and listening to music being played on outdoor stages and coming out of the windows of bars. All I could think was, Wow, why are there not any residential apartments upstairs from the clubs on Beale Street and how could I possibly get one? Yes, it would be kind of noisy, but that kind of noise would be fine with me. I’m a massive fan of the French Quarter in New Orleans, where people do live upstairs from the bars, restaurants, and clubs, and Beale was giving me that same feeling — at least on that night. No, it’s not perfect and I have no clue why some of the clubs play country music, but still, it’s a place I would like to live, or at least have an escape pad to shack up in from time to time.

And this weekend, I walked around the corner from my house to Overton Square, where there must be 10 patios that are regularly filled with people, chilling. I walked over there to see the Stax Music Academy’s Spring Concert. Yes, I am a little biased about that academy because I work there by day, but I gotta tell you that you could’ve cut the energy in the air with a knife. Hundreds of people came out to support those talented kids, and, again, it was just a pure Memphis thing.

And speaking of the incomparable Ann Peebles, she was in the audience with her husband, the aforementioned Donald Bryant, and when the students and their music teachers brought Ann up on stage, the crowd went crazy. The “I Can’t Stand the Rain” icon had to be feeling all that love for her. And when the students performed one of her songs, she had to be thinking that she made a difference in the world that’s not going away any time soon.

I know sometimes I drone on and on about Memphis being the coolest city in the world, and every time anyone says anything to the contrary, I just wonder how they could be so miserable. They need to have dinner at Itta Bena and quit whining.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (January 8, 2015)

CREDIT: Courtesy of Stax Museum

Sigh, sigh, SIGH. I remember writing on this page not so long ago that I usually handle another person’s death pretty stoically, knowing that it’s just a natural part of life and that it’s going to happen to us all eventually. I was having a tough time reconciling the passing of Memphis singer and my much-loved friend Di Anne Price, because I knew the world would never be the same without her. It was really an odd and painful feeling.

And now, a few weeks after the passing of Ardent Studios founder John Fry, it’s a testament to him that so many others around the world still can’t seem to accept the loss. So much has been written about John in the past few weeks and shared on social media, and so many beautiful memories and thoughts about him have been included in donations made to organizations in his memory. The themes are universal: John was kind, talented, humble, the voice of reason, and, more than anything, someone who was always giving to others, sharing his knowledge and time, and always giving others credit and encouragement. All of that couldn’t be truer. 

Courtesy of Stax Museum

Huey Lewis with John Fry of Ardent Studios

I don’t know that I can add much more than what has already been expressed, except that John was a dear friend and a massive supporter of the Soulsville Foundation (where I work) and a member of our board of directors. For those who don’t know, the Soulsville Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Stax Music Academy, and the Soulsville Charter School. His past relationship with Stax Records is well documented, and John’s Ardent Studios was a sister studio of sorts to Stax back in its heyday, with many of the Stax artists recording at Ardent when the Stax studios were booked up, and for other reasons. And John loved the Stax Museum and loved bringing musicians, and producers, and others there to give them his unique tour.

Soulsville Foundation CEO Calvin Stovall said, “John served on our board of directors for many years and played an integral role in the Soulsville Foundation. He was emphatically committed to everything Stax — the music, the kids, and the Memphis community. His presence and contributions to our organization will be sorely missed. A couple of weeks ago, I had the fortunate opportunity to have John himself give me a tour of Ardent Studios. It was truly one of the most memorable learning experiences I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget it.”

Stax Museum Director Lisa Allen added: “I can’t imagine that anyone else has given a personal tour of the museum more times than John Fry. He was passionate about sharing the history of our music and making sure that current musicians from around the world experienced Soulsville. John became more than a music icon and board member to me; he transformed into a friend. He understood both my professional and personal struggles. Often he would email me with simple words of encouragement that meant more to me than I could ever express.”

But as much as he loved the museum, John probably loved our young people more than anything. It didn’t matter if it was Huey Lewis, or other high-profile artists recording at Ardent, or an up-and-coming young band from Belgium he brought for a tour, he didn’t bring anyone into the museum until he explained what goes on with the young people at the Stax Music Academy and the Soulsville Charter School. He would proudly reel off details about the students’ rate of improvement in mathematics and explain how studying music helped them achieve that. And this started long before he joined our board of directors. 

Another thing I loved about John was his very dry sense of humor and how hilariously cantankerous he could be at times. One of his pet peeves was getting caught up in an email thread about something usually pretty mundane, like a meeting date and time, and everyone chiming in by replying to all in the thread, thereby leaving dozens of messages in his email inbox. Drove him nuts. I laughed out loud at my desk so many times when he finally couldn’t take it anymore and relayed his feeling about that to everyone. In one of the last such threads, which involved lots of people congratulating each other on something that had gone really well, he finally conceded and wrote, “Okay, if everyone is going to keep ‘replying all’ in this, then Bravo Zulu! If you know what that means you’re way cool. If not, search it on Google.”

Bravo Zulu is, of course, an old navy signal for “job well done.” Bravo Zulu, John. You’ll be missed.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Stax’s Heart Full of Soul Dinner at Napa Cafe

napa_0017.jpg

The third annual Heart Full of Soul dinner, benefiting the Stax Music Academy, is set for Sunday and Monday, November 16th and 17th at the Napa Cafe.

Each course for this six-course dinner is paired with Stax hits performed by students at the academy.

The dinner features a decidedly Southern menu and wines from Sleight of Hand and beers from High Cotton. The evening will include a silent auction, and guests will receive a vinyl record with songs recorded by the students.

Tickets are $175 and must be reserved in advance: 683-0441.

Full menu below …

[jump]

HEART FULL OF SOUL 2014

NAPA_DINNER_LOGO.JPG

FIRST COURSE
WILLIAM BELL, Everybody Loves a Winner
Pan seared scallop, sweet potato puff stuffed with braised ox tail, pineapple & orange zest, umami broth
SLEIGHT OF HAND CELLARS The Magician, Evergreen Vineyard, Riesling,
Columbia Valley, Washington, 2012
HIGH COTTON BREWING CO., Belgian IPA

SECOND COURSE
OLLIE & THE NIGHTINGALES, Don’t Do What I Did
Caramelized Lake’s local catfish apple & cumin scented Brussels sprouts, goat cheese hush puppies
MABLE JOHN, Your Good Thing (Is about to end)
JOHNNIE TAYLOR, Who’s Making Love
SLEIGHT OF HAND CELLARS The Enchantress, French Creek Vineyard, Chardonnay,
Yakima Valley, Washington, 2012
HIGH COTTON BREWING CO., Bier de Garde

THIRD COURSE
DELANEY & BONNIE, Pour Your Love on Me
DELANEY & BONNIE, Just Plain Beautiful
Homemade spaghetti casserole, warm Yukon Gold potato salad,pickled okra
SLEIGHT OF HAND CELLARS The Spellbinder, Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Cabernet Franc-Syrah-Grenache, Columbia Valley, Washington, 2012
HIGH COTTON BREWING CO., Oktoberfest

INTERMISSION
THE MAR-KEY’S, Whot’s Happenin’

FOURTH COURSE
OSCAR MACK, Dream Girl
OLLIE & THE NIGHTINGALES, Girl You Make My Heart Sing
Country fried ribeye, pecan gravy, chorizo bread pudding, collard green cole slaw
SLEIGHT OF HAND CELLARS Levitation, Syrah, Columbia Valley, Washington, 2011
HIGH COTTON BREWING CO., Scottish Ale

FIFTH COURSE
SAM & DAVE, Soul Man
Braised beef brisket, stone ground grits, black berry pan gravy, oven roasted tomatoes
SLEIGHT OF HAND CELLARS The Illusionist, Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Washington, 2011
HIGH COTTON BREWING CO., Stout

DESSERT
SAM & DAVE, It’s A Wonder
Lemon Ice Box Pie “Four Ways”

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (October 8, 2014)

CREDIT: Reinhardt1981 | Dreamstime.com

Reinhardt1981 | Dreamstime.com

I am revolting. Not any more so than usual, but I am revolting. I just got back from my first overseas trip in a couple of years, and I am revolting because I’d wiped from my memory the grueling things you have to go through to be a broad … er, abroad. Getting out of the country is not so bad, but getting back in? You are immediately a suspect in a major crime ring or terrorist organization, even though you’re a 55-year-old man who has never shot a gun. I had to fly through Chicago on the way back to Memphis and it went something like this:

Plane lands — remarkably, almost on time. Then you go about 100 miles to go through immigration. There is one — count him, one — person to check every single passenger coming through immigration. But even before that, you have to deal with the checked bag vs. non-checked bag issue. There are separate lines for each, and the woman “greeting” everyone at that checkpoint was like a loud, obnoxious robot. One poor guy who couldn’t understand her kept saying he had no checked baggage, but he wasn’t toting a carry-on of any kind so she kept telling him he had checked baggage. This went on and on and on, until finally the man realized that checked didn’t mean “plaid.” So they got that worked out.

The entire time, another robotic voice was booming over the intercom system about “foot and mouth disease.” The voice was telling us that we needed to report it to authorities if we had been around livestock, visited the countryside, or “stayed at a bed and breakfast.”

I didn’t know staying at a bed and breakfast was so potentially fatal. Annoying, yes, because you are trapped at breakfast with strangers who are usually very chipper about being on holiday, and to me there is almost nothing worse than being around chipper people early in the morning before I’ve had a pot of coffee and taken my crazy medicine. The airport voice was talking about hoof and mouth disease, which I wasn’t sure about since I don’t have cloven feet, so I looked it up. I didn’t have time to research it thoroughly, but as best I can figure, you contract it, not from animals, but from other people who have the virus.

Maybe they get it from being around animals or staying in a bed and breakfast? I don’t know. But what I do know is that you can also contract the pesky illness from touching “the stools or the fluid from blisters of an infected person.” So why did the airport robot not warn travelers about this possibility. I would have given my autographed Bettye LaVette photo to have heard the airport robot voice boom, “IF YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE STOOL OF A PERSON INFECTED WITH FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE, PLEASE NOTIFY THE AUTHORITIES!” But who the hell would do that and how would he or she explain that?

Which brings me back to the immigration checkpoint. The man at this particular checkpoint — the one person checking everyone who was flying into that terminal in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport — was a stereotypical, comically punctilious, pasty little government worker-bee with just enough power to make everyone completely miserable. Each time a person walked up to his little domain, he stared at the person’s passport photo, then back at the person, then back at the passport, then back at the person, with his brows furrowed and a very serious look on his face, like he was deciding whether to sentence each person to death. One poor British guy on his way to Memphis for a business conference had to stand there and talk with him for 10 minutes and was finally escorted away by some kind of security guard. So by the time I got up there I was a) about to wet my pants and b) not in the mood for his antics. So he did the staring at the passport and back at me several times and finally asked why I had been to England. It went something like this:

My spoken answer: “I was on business.”

Answer going through my mind: “It’s really none of your business, you troll.”

Next question: “What kind of business?”

My spoken answer: “I work at a music museum and music school for inner-city, high-school students. Some of them performed at a concert in London after the premiere of a movie about Memphis music.” (It was the ultra-fabulous new documentary Take Me to the River.)

Answer going through my mind: “You probably wouldn’t understand it, so please let me out of here before I urinate on the floor.”

Then he actually asked me this with a smirk: “You didn’t ‘babysit’ any of them did you?” He was actually implying that I might have done something inappropriate with them.

My spoken answer: “No, they were graduates of the Stax Music Academy and they are adults now.”

Answer going through my mind: “No, I didn’t babysit any of them. And have you, sir, by any chance, been fondling the feces of a person infected with foot and mouth disease? Because it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if you were into scat, you lowlife, creepy, miserable excuse for a human being.”

But I held my tongue to keep from being hauled away by the security guards. It might have made me miss my flight that was five hours late leaving Chicago.

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Stax Academy WEDNESDAY at the Shell – Bettye Crutcher Playlist

CREDIT: Ronnie Booze

Ronnie Booze

Bettye Crutcher

[It rained. You may have noticed. The Grand Finale Concert will be on Wednesday, July 2nd, at the Shell.]

I’ve spent the past week sort-of embedded in the Stax Music Academy as the Summer SNAP! season comes to a close. That program brings 60 kids together and runs them through the rigors of being a professional musician. They perform, they write, record, and produce under the tutelage of established master like Steve Cropper and Bettye Crutcher.

Crutcher wrote “Who’s Making Love …” — Johnnie Taylor’s breakout hit — and had her work recorded by the Staple Singers, Joan Baez, Delaney & Bonnie. See the playlist below. She’s been teaching a songwriting course, and the students will perform a new song of hers on Sunday, June 29th, the Stax Music Academy Grand Finale Concert at the Levitt Shell.

“It has been very gratifying to come back to the home of Stax Records and work with this new generation of soul music musicians,” Crutcher says. “They have so much energy and talent and they absorb so much that it reminds me of what it was like back in the day at Stax when we were all just learning from each other and supporting each other.”

 Yesterday, I sat in on a workshop in which Steve Cropper led four young guitar players and me through some of his most iconic parts. He talked of the music that led him to play his classic parts, of Ben Branch and the 5 Royales. We traded solos over changes, which was terrifying until you pulled it off. Then it was one of the most rewarding things ever. And that’s what music teaches you: how to use your skills to master a difficult and sometimes scary task. These kids have done just that all summer and deserve the adulation they’ll receive Sunday night at the Shell.

Stax Academy WEDNESDAY at the Shell – Bettye Crutcher Playlist

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Music Music Features

Reigning Sound Returns

Reigning Sound ringleader Greg Cartwright played an impromptu acoustic set at Goner Records Friday, November 30th, in part to celebrate the completion of the band’s most recent album. The former Memphian, now comfortably ensconced in Asheville, North Carolina (asked before his set if he were tempted to move back, he charitably responded that he loves visiting Memphis), played with his band at the Gibson Beale Street Showcase over Thanksgiving weekend, then spent the following week holed up at Ardent‘s Studio C, with Doug Easley engineering.

The newly bearded Cartwright said during his Goner set that the new album would be released via the In the Red label in late spring. After spending time in the past year backing up (and, in Cartwright’s case, producing and writing for) former Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss and keeping the Reigning Sound section of record-store racks stocked with outtakes (Home for Orphans) and live (Live at Goner, Live at Maxwell’s) discs, this will be the band’s first album of new material since 2004’s Too Much Guitar.

The Reigning Sound isn’t the only high-profile Memphis-connected band that’s been in the studio working on an early-2008 release. The North Mississippi Allstars have announced that their next album, titled Hernando, will be released on January 22nd. The band’s first studio album since 2005’s Electric Blue Watermelon, Hernando will also be the first released on the band’s own label, Sounds of the South. The album was produced by Jim Dickinson in September at his Zebra Ranch studio.

If you missed ambitious local rock band The Third Man‘s record-release party for its new album Among the Wolves at the Hi-Tone Café, you can make up for it this week, when the band plays an early-evening set at Shangri-La Records. The Third Man is set to play at 6 p.m. Friday, December 7th, and it’ll be interesting to see how the band’s epic, guitar-heavy sound translates to a more intimate setting.

The Memphis Roller Derby will take over the Hi-Tone Café Saturday, December 8th, for their second annual “Memphis Roller Derby Ho Ho Ho Burlesque Show.” In addition to skits featuring the Derby gals, there will be plenty of musical entertainment as well. Longtime local-scene drummer/commentator Ross Johnson, fresh off the release of his “career”-spanning Goner compilation Make It Stop: The Most of Ross Johnson, will be backed by an “all-star” band he’s dubbed the Play Pretteez. Johnson also will retreat back behind the drum kit alongside Jeff Golightly, Lamar Sorrento, and Jeremy Scott in a British-invasion style band called Jeffrey & the Pacemakers. Rounding out the music will be electronic dance act Shortwave Dahlia and DJ Steve Anne. Doors open at 9 p.m. Admission is $10.

Australian Idol winner and MemphisFlyer.com celebrity Guy Sebastian has released his Ardent Studios-recorded debut The Memphis Album, crafted with MGs Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn headlining a terrific Memphis studio band. Sebastian clearly loves Memphis soul, but his take on the genre is too respectful and too unadventurous for his own good. He sings only the most identifiable hits (“Soul Man,” “In the Midnight Hour,” “Let’s Stay Together,” etc.) and mimics the original recordings too closely. Still, it’s a better Memphis tribute than actor Peter Gallagher’s. Sebastian will be taking the core of his Memphis band — Cropper and Dunn along with drummer Steve Potts and keyboardist Lester Snell — on an Australian tour starting in February.

The Stax Music Academy‘s SNAP! After School Winter Concert will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, December 8th, at the Michael D. Rose Theatre at the University of Memphis. Stax Music Academy artist-in-residence Kirk Whalum will be performing alongside the kids, as will soul singer Glenn Jones. Tickets to the SNAP! concert are $5 and are available through the Soulsville Foundation development office. Call 946-2535 for details.

Finally, congratulations to the New Daisy Theatre‘s Mike Glenn, who is the only Memphian receiving a Keeping the Blues Alive award from the International Blues Foundation this year. The awards will be presented February 2nd during International Blues Challenge weekend.