Archive for the ‘Memphis Music’ Category
Hi everybody, it’s Kerry. As many of you know, next week is the South By Southwest Interactive, Film and Music conference in Austin, Texas. Every year, the Memphis Music Foundation and the Convention and Visitors Bureau send a delegation of Memphis musicians to the festival to play, meet people. and promote the city. I’ve got [...]
A few days ago, I noticed Ecko Records while driving to Graceland. Their sign promises a shop full of soul, blues, gospel, and old school music. They’ve got a sign in the window that says “Ecko Records now open. Get in 2-Day 4 your party later!!” It sounded like my kind of place.
I made a [...]
When I was driving back to midtown from East Memphis this afternoon, Jack O. and the Tearjerkers’ “I Live for Today” came up in my iPod’s shuffle. The sun was shining, the windows were down, and the electric hum of Jack Oblivian’s fuzzed-out guitar was totally making my afternoon.
“I Live For Today” is from the [...]
As a total sucker for a good female chanteuse, it’s not surprising that I own both Cat Power’s “The Greatest” and Dusty Springfield’s “Dusty in Memphis”. What is surprising is that I didn’t notice the connection between the two records before.
Both records feature their respective chanteuses backed by the Memphis Horns, which gives them both [...]
While I’m working, I tend to plug my giant green headphones into my computer and let shuffle decide what I’m in the mood for. Sometimes, iTunes gets it wrong (I am never, ever in the mood for Lady Gaga before 10 a.m.), but today, there’s been a heavy emphasis on “Spills and Thrills”, the newest [...]
Memphis is a city loaded with musical history, and as a result, if you want to immerse yourself in our musical past, you’ve got plenty of options. There are musical landmarks all over the city, great record stores, and fantastic music-related museums and attractions. The thing is, in a city with so many options, [...]
Mark another item off of the Memphis scavenger hunt list, everybody – I made it to a show at the Orpheum last Saturday night.
The Orpheum’s marketing coordinator, Thomas, hooked me up with tickets to see Rain, a Beatles tribute band that’s been described as the closest thing to seeing the real Beatles.
For a tribute band, [...]
This is the neon sign for WDIA radio, the first radio station in the country to be programmed by African Americans. The station that inspired many famous Memphis musicians (including Rufus Thomas and Elvis) is still on the air today.
Before it became the Levitt Shell, the ampitheatre in Overton Park was adorned with a rainbow mural. I dug around in my archives to find a photo of it with its original mural for the scavenger hunt. That’s me, standing on the stage in the fall of 2004.
Plenty of people way more famous than I [...]
Willie Mitchell was a musical legend, and not just on a local level. He ran Royal Recording studio in South Memphis and soul label Hi Records. In addition to releasing his own records, he arranged, recorded and played back-up on countless other recordings.