Memphis Music & Heritage Festival Takes Center Stage
August 21, 2009 by Rachelandthecity
Filed under Memphis Events
Center for Southern Folklore transforms a two block area of Main Street Labor Day Weekend Street September 5th and 6th for its annual Memphis Music & Heritage Festival.
The festival runs from11:00 AM to 11:00 PM each day.
“The festival is a celebration of what makes the Memphis Delta Region so special…its music, arts and culture,” said Center for Southern Folklore Executive Producer Judy Peiser. “This 22nd Festival presents the musicians, artists, craftspeople, cooks, talkers, dancers and more who come together each year and show Memphians and tourists alike why Memphis is such a special place. There are five outside stages and two stages inside the Center for Southern Folklore. Best of all, admission to the public is FREE!”
At the heart of the festival is the music. From dynamic soul man Bobby Rush to the wild man of rock, Jason D. Williams the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival presents over 400 musical performers who made Memphis the great melting pot of America’s musical heritage and keep it cooking today.
The entire festival roster reads like a who’s who of both the traditional and contemporary Memphis music scene including: new South singer/songwriter Kate Campbell, rockabilly legend Sonny Burgess & The Pacers, insightful songstress Amy LaVere, neo-soul from Tonya Dyson & Green Onions, hip hop artist Al Kapone, the dynamic gospel sounds of Darrel Petties & SIP, country legend Eddie Bond, bluegrass jam band Devil Train; jazz-blues diva Joyce Cobb, authentic Delta blues from Blind Mississippi Morris and Brad Webb, jazz and swing with Johnny Yancey and the Sanctuary Jazz Orchestra, jazz-funk-and-fusion artists FreeWorld featuring Herman Green, reggae from Nathaniel Kent and Exodus; urban blues from The Daddy Mack Blues Band, jug band music from The Bluff City Backsliders, youthful jam band Tempeh Four, the energized Millennium Maddness Drill Team, and the list goes on and on.
Each year the Center celebrates the heritage of Memphis Music with the release of its annual Festival Poster and T Shirt designed by Tennessee artist Gray. This year the Center is proud to honor three legendary Memphis saxophone players Fred Ford, Evelyn Young and Sonny Williams who made their marks on Memphis Music and in the hearts of all of us at the Center for Southern Folklore, said Peiser. Throughout the Center’s history these musicians performed, assisted in educational programs and told and retold us stories of Memphis Musical History. These stories are archived in the Center’s Multimedia Archives and in films we produced like All Day & All Night: Memories from Beale Street Musicians. To learn more about the lives and careers of Ford, Young, and Williams, click on Festival Dedication.
The Festival will feature special workshops for aspiring musicians to learn from the masters. Blues/R&B/Rock performer David Bowen will perform a soul music set while talking about the guitar; Randal Morton will demonstrate his mastery of the five-string banjo; musician and noted ethnomusicologist David Evans conducts an impromptu seminar on jug band and blues music. In addition, there will also be two songwriting workshops – a joint venture by musical collaborators Mary Unobsky and Kim Richardson and one by acclaimed New South singer/songwriter Kate Campbell.
A special stage on Peabody Place will feature theatre, dance, drumline, and music for young folks and their families. They’ll be entertained by storytellers from The Voices of the South and musicians such as Joe Murphy’s Dandelion &The Raindrops and the Memphis chapter of Music for Aardvarks performing for younger festival-goers. The Trolley Stop Stage will feature two full days of cooks and chefs talking about making everything from Peach Cobbler to Fried Rice. And they’ll be plenty of time to hear artists and musicians talk about their work in the Heritage Hallway and the Center’s Folklore Store.
New this year will be the opportunity for festival goers to record their voices and music on 19th Century Cylinders. Martin Fisher, Manager of Recorded Media Collections at the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University will bring his old fashioned horn along so festivalgoers will have a chance to see how early recordings were first made. Even when he uses modern equipment, there’s nobody more retro than octogenarian Roy Harper who sings old time country tunes from the 1920s and 30s and talks about his long career and the history of real country music. The delightful Hattie Childress will show off the pillows and quilts she’s sewn from Crown Royal liquor bags as well as the homemade chow-chow and pickled peach preserves made from ingredients she grows in her garden.
In addition to shopping for great folk art, books and CDs in the Center’s Folklore Store over 30 artists and craftspeople will be on hand selling their wares. In Heritage Hall Center Archives Staff and volunteers will be on hand to talk about the Center’s newest online exhibit featuring the photography, audio recordings and filmmaking of Rev. L. O. Taylor. Festival goers will have the opportunity to screen and help identify images and hear recordings.
On Saturday September 5th Memphis historian Jimmy Ogle will give three walking tours of Downtown Memphis. Festivalgoers can meet Ogle outside the Center’s Folklore Store for a tour of Union Avenue at 12:00 PM, Beale Street at 2:00 PM and Cotton Row at 4:00 PM. Festivalgoers can make reservations for the tours by emailing eric@southernfolklore.org or by signing up at the Folklore Store prior to the tours. Space is limited for each tour and reservations are encouraged. A donation of $5.00 per person is requested. The tours are free to FolkPass Holders.
Festivalgoers can purchase a CSF FolkPass. They become a VIP at the Festival and receive numerous benefits at the Festival and throughout the Year. Click here for FolkPass Details.
The Memphis Music & Heritage Festival is produced by the Center for Southern Folklore with generous support for the Tennessee Arts Commission, Arts Memphis, Center City Commission, Memphis Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, SunTrust, Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation, Southern Heritage Charitable Foundation, Blue Moon and MGD 64, The New York Times, How Sweet The Sound, I 55 Productions, Majestic Grille, Circa, Blue Fin, Shelton Clothiers, Arts on a Hot Tin Roof, Peabody Place, Mississippi Mud Coffee, Harkavy Shainberg, St. Blues Guitars, The Memphis Flyer, The Memphis Downtowner, Citadel Broadcasting, WRBO 103.5 Soul Classics, KIX 106, 98.9 KIM FM and many other individuals and businesses.
For More Information, Images and Interviews:
Tim Curry
901.525.3655
timcurry@southernfolklore.org
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Chris Bell’s I Am The Cosmos Remastered and Re-Released
August 19, 2009 by Daniel J Russo
Filed under Announcements, Ardent Studios, Artist Spotlight, Featured, In The Studio
“The first time I met Chris, I walked into my office and he was sitting in my chair, with his feet up on my desk, smoking a cigarette,” says Fry, laughing. “I thought: Now, who in the heck is this?”
At the end of a journey that has lasted more than 40 years, from that first moment until now, Rhino Records has announced that it will be re-releasing Chris Bell’s collection of solo material, I Am The Cosmos, via its Handmade division on September 28th. Bell was, of course, a founding member of Big Star, the second band to release a record (entitled #1 Record) on the Stax distributed Ardent Records in 1972. The record was a critical success (garnering praise from Rolling Stone, Fusion and Phonograph Record Magazine) and a commercial failure (amidst distribution complications with a sinking Stax Records label). Bell did not take the latter well.
Having poured his heart and soul into that first record, Bell became disillusioned with the band. He left Big Star and spent the next several years as a rolling stone, traveling all over Europe with his brother David, eventually returning to the states and settling into the family business. It was during those years that Bell would record his solo material, including the only material of his released during his lifetime (the I Am The Cosmos/You and Your Sister 7″, on Chris Stamey’s Car Records Label). His remaining solo work wouldn’t see the light of day until well after Bell’s death in a tragic car accident in 1978. When they did, it was on the 1992 Rykodisc CD release, entitled I Am The Cosmos.
The re-release will be the definitive collection of Bell’s work. It will of course include all the material on the original release, but it will also contain a second disc with previously unreleased alternate versions and mixes, as well as never before heard material from earlier Bell projects. The first 1000 units sold on Rhino Handmade’s Web site will be accompanied by a recreation of that very special 7″ Car Records release, remastered and recut on the very same record lathe as the original. In the picture above, John Fry oversees that very process with mastering engineer Larry Nix. Alec Palao, producer of the reissue, is seated in the background.
The record will release on September 28th, shortly after the Big Star Box Set, Keep an Eye on the Sky. The tracklisting is below. Click here to read the re-release announcement at Pitchfork.
The album is available for pre-order now at http://www.rhinohandmade.com/.
Disc 1
1. “I Am The Cosmos”
2. “Better Save Yourself”
3. “Speed Of Sound”
4. “Get Away”
5. “You And Your Sister”
6. “I Got Kinda Lost”
7. “Look Up”
8. “Make A Scene”
9. “There Was A Light”
10. “I Don’t Know”
11. “Fight At The Table”
12. “Though I Know She Lies”
Disc 2
1. “Looking Forward” – Icewater*
2. “Sunshine” – Icewater*
3. “My Life Is Right” – Rock City
4. “I Don’t Know” – Alternate Version*
5. “You And Your Sister” –Alternate Version*
6. “I Am The Cosmos” – Extended Alternate Version*
7. “Speed Of Sound” – Alternate Version*
8. “Fight At The Table” – Alternate Mix*
9. “Make A Scene” – Alternate Mix*
10. “Better Save Yourself” – Alternate Mix*
11. “Get Away” – Alternate Version*
12. “You And Your Sister” – Acoustic Version
13. “Stay With Me” – with Keith Sykes*
14. “In My Darkest Hour” – with Nancy Bryan*
15. “Clacton Rag” – Instrumental*
*Previously Unissued
Memphis Legend Jim Dickinson Dies at 67
August 17, 2009 by Daniel J Russo
Filed under Announcements, Ardent Studios, Featured
Memphis producer, musician and legend Jim Dickinson died on Saturday morning at 4 AM. Jim was an integral part of the beginning of Ardent and had been involved with us for four decades. Our hearts go out to his family and all those that he touched through the years. (In the picture, L to R: John Fry, Jody Stephens, John Hampton, and Jim Dickinson)
From Mr Bonzai’s piece in Pro Sound News:
Ardent Studios founder John Fry and the extended family of musicians who were touched by Dickinson mourn the loss of a man whose career spanned more than four decades.
John Fry recollects the influence of Jim Dickinson on Memphis and Ardent Studios, “Our friendship and professional relationship spanned 45 years. Jim was the first independent record producer I ever worked with while I was still recording in the home studio I had built as a teenager. When Ardent opened as a commercial studio in 1966, Jim joined the staff as a producer/engineer and was instrumental in building the business during those first few years. The projects he worked on at Ardent over the decades are too numerous to mention, but two that stand out for me are Big Star’s third album recorded in 1975 and the Replacements’ ‘Pleased To Meet Me’. Jim was a treasured friend to the Ardent family, and he will be sorely missed.”
Read Bob Mehr’s piece on Jim Dickinson
Read an article on Dickinson’s death from The Associated Press
Read an article on Jim Dickinson from The New York Times
Read Bob Lefsetz piece on Dickinson’s passing
Read Mix Online – Memphis’ Ardent Studios Mourns Loss of Jim Dickinson
Born Again Hippies: Thoughts on Jim Dickinson
Big Star Boxed Set Announced
August 5, 2009 by Daniel J Russo
Filed under Announcements, Ardent Studios
Rhino Records has announced the release of the long awaited Big Star boxed set, entitled Keep an Eye on the Sky. From the Rhino Web site:
Big Star inspired a fevered allegiance among fans of power pop, giving rise to a cult of believers who spent decades spreading the gospel. Their enthusiasm turned this obscure Memphis pop band-one that got little airplay, sold few records, and only played a handful of times- into a remarkable rock and roll resurrection story. Big Star’s trek from obscure Memphis band to standard bearers for an entire genre of music has never been fully mapped-until now. Rhino presents the definitive look at the definitive power-pop band with a four-disc boxed set divided between key cuts from Big Star’s three studio albums and unreleased music. KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY will be available September 15 from Rhino Records at all retail outlets, including www.rhino.com, for a suggested list price of $69.98 (physical), it will also be available as a digital release the same day. A Deluxe Edition release of Chris Bell’s solo album I Am The Cosmos is due September 29 from Rhino Handmade.
KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY spans 1968 to 1975 and shows the progression of Big Star through selections from such studio precursors as Rock City and Icewater; music from Big Star’s acclaimed recordings (#1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers); and relevant solo work by group principals Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, who formed Big Star in 1971 with bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens. The collection also uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis.
In these 98 tracks you can hear what turned artists as diverse as Cheap Trick, R.E.M., and The Replacements into Big Star fans. Spotlighting the band’s roots, the boxed set opens with several songs recorded before Big Star formed, including “Try Again,” one of the first songs Bell and Chilton wrote together. Those early cuts are followed by Big Star’s 1972 debut #1 Record, reimagined here using a mix of album tracks and unreleased alternate mixes of favorites like “Thirteen,” “When My Baby’s Beside Me,” and more. Among the disc’s rarities are “Country Morn’” (issued as a flexi-disc single by a Big Star fanzine), the demo for “I Got Kinda Lost,” and an unreleased acoustic demo of Chilton singing Loudon Wainwright’s “Motel Blues.”
Ardent Records, the band’s label, experienced problems with distribution that hindered any chances at success for #1 Record. Its failure was a major blow to Bell, who quit the band to go solo. In 1974, the Alex Chilton-led Big Star regrouped and released Radio City, an album more attuned to the band’s live energy that featured the power-pop confections “September Gurls” and “Back Of A Car.” The second disc of KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY opens with a trio of unreleased demos: “There Was A Light,” “What’s Going Ahn,” and “Life Is White.” The original song sequence for Radio City follows, combining album versions with unreleased alternate mixes (“Way Out West” and “You Get What You Deserve.”) The disc features unissued versions of “She A Mover” and “Mod Lang,” several unreleased demos for Big Star’s third album, plus Bell’s acclaimed 1978 single “I Am The Cosmos” and its B-side “You And Your Sister.” Sadly, Bell died in a car accident a few months after the single’s release.
When Big Star reconvened in 1975 to record Third/Sister Lovers, only Chilton and Stephens remained (Hummel left shortly before Radio City’s release). Famed Memphis maverick Jim Dickinson was enlisted to supervise the recording, which languished on the shelf for years before its release in 1978. Despite its bleak timbre, wild dynamics, and fragility, the music possesses a startling grace. KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY’s third disc opens with seven demos (most previously unreleased) for songs that appear on Third/Sister Lovers, including “Jesus Christ,” “Take Care,” and “Holocaust.” Among the album’s 19 songs collected here is “For You,” “Kizza Me,” and “Kanga Roo.” Also featured is “Lovely Day,” an early, unreleased version of “Stroke It Noel” with different lyrics; Chilton vamping with photographer Bill Eggleston at the piano for Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy” and a raucous cover of The Kinks’ “Till The End Of The Day.”
The collection’s final disc contains unreleased highlights from three sets Big Star performed at Lafayette’s Music Room in Memphis in January 1973. It is the best live recording ever of the band. The show captures Chilton, Hummel, and Stephens playing many of the songs on #1 Record, which had just recently been released. The set list includes a retooled version of “ST 100/6” lengthened by both guitar and drum solos (with a middle eight heisted from the Rock City song “The Preacher.”) Also in the repertoire are “There Was A Light” and “I Got Kinda Lost.” In addition, the concert includes fully formed versions of several songs recorded later for Radio City: “Back Of A Car,” “Way Out West,” “O My Soul,” and a particularly rocking “She’s A Mover.” Those originals are mixed with a selection of covers: Todd Rundgren’s “Slut,” T. Rex’s “Baby Strange,” The Kinks’ “Come On Now,” and The Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Hot Burrito #2.”
The lavish packaging for KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY includes extensive liner notes, rare and never-before-seen photos, and insightful essays about the cult of Big Star and the band’s history. In the notes, Stephens reflects on the band’s belated triumph. “Sure, it would’ve been nice to have been huge at the time. But, here we are, 30 years later, and Big Star is still playing, our music is turning up in movie soundtracks, and young people are still excited to discover the records. I mean, if that isn’t success, I don’t know what is.”
The set is available on Amazon.com right now!
UPDATE: There is now a video unveiling of the remarkable packaging for the boxes set available here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m2VV5AGJ3C6M70
Rock for Love 3 benefit August 21-22 at the Hi Tone, Shangri-La
August 3, 2009 by Rachelandthecity
Filed under Memphis Events
Rock for Love 3, the third-annual concert to benefit the Church Health Center, is set for Aug. 21-22 at the Hi-Tone, 1913 Poplar Ave. There will also be a free day show from 1 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22 at Shangri-La Records, 1916 Madison Ave.
Rock for Love, a benefit concert founded in 2007 by Makeshift Music’s J.D. Reager and the Center’s PR Manager, Marvin Stockwell, will not only raise vital funds for the Center, but it will also celebrate the diversity of Memphis music with performances by some of the city’s best bands and artists.
Friday, Aug. 21 at the Hi Tone (music starts at 9 p.m.) - John Paul Keith & The One Four Fives, The Warble, Pezz, The New Mary Jane, Blair Combest (emcee: Gary Parrish)
Saturday, Aug. 22 at Shangri-La – Sounds of Memphis Rock for Love 3 Day Party (free day show, 1 to 7 p.m.) - The Simpletones, Snowglobe, J.D. Reager & The Cold Blooded Three, The Bulletproof Vests, Organ Thief (emcee: Chris Vernon with 730 Fox Sports live remote broadcast)
Saturday, Aug. 22 at the Hi Tone (music starts at 9 p.m.) - River City Tanlines, Two Way Radio, The Magic Kids, Jeffrey James & The Haul, Jason Freeman (emcee: Al Kapone)
Tickets for each night are $10, or tickets for both nights are $18. Cost to get in each show will be $10 at the door. Tickets will go on sale at Shangri-La and Goner Records on Aug. 1 and will also be for sale online at HiToneMemphis.com.
Admission to the day party at Shangri-La Records will be free, though donations will be accepted. Twenty percent of store sales during the show will go to the Church Health Center.
Doors at the Hi Tone open at 8 p.m. and each show will start at 9 p.m. Memphis Roller Derby will host a silent auction, and there will be a variety of CDs and other merchandise available for purchase, all to benefit the Center. The Hi Tone will also have a beer garden in the back.
Rock for Love 3 is presented by SunTrust, Elvis Presley Enterprises and Makeshift Music. Other sponsors include the Hi Tone, Shangri-La Records, Live From Memphis, Rocket Science Audio, 730 Fox Sports, Traphix Entertainment, Center City Commission, Ardent Studios, Sasha Barr / The New Year, 2 Chicks and a Broom, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, Garland Company Real Estate, Bluff City Sports, St. Blues Guitar, Memphis Flyer, Music Memphis, B.B. Kings Blues Club, Memphis Roller Derby, Goner Records, Street Savvy Unlimited, WEVL, Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop and Tsunami.
J.D. Reager, one of the concert’s organizers, says that it’s fitting that Makeshift Music and the Memphis music community as a whole are coming together to support the work of the Church Health Center. After all, the Center has provided quality, affordable healthcare to thousands of uninsured working people in Shelby County – many of whom are working musicians. “Memphis and Memphis musicians need the Church Health Center,” says Reager, who will pull double duty this year, playing in his own band and Two Way Radio. “Rock for Love has been an amazing experience these past two years, both in terms of the support we’ve been able to give the Center, and the unifying effect it has had on the music scene. It’s great to see that musicians and artists really do care deeply about the community that supports them, and they’re willing to use their talent for something bigger than self-promotion.”
Makeshift co-founder and Snowglobe front man Brad Postlethwaite, said it’s an honor and a pleasure to support the work of the Church Health Center. “I’m in medical school and see people in need everyday,” he said. “The Church Health Center is and should be a model of healthcare across the nation.” For ticket information, call the Hi Tone at (901) 278-TONE or visit HiToneMemphis.com. For general information about Rock for Love 3, call (901) 272-7170 or visit www.churchhealthcenter.org or www.makeshiftmusic.com.
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