And On The Seventh Day…

With an incredible week of events celebrating Memphis’ rich soul music heritage that included the United States Congress honoring Soulsville with a resolution sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-TN, “7 Seven Days of Soul” came to at the historic Orpheum Theater, the chosen venue for one of the year’s most anticipated music events: “50 Years of Stax,” a concert to benefit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

Hosted by rap legend Chuck D and American Idol’s Randy Jackson, the evening was broadcast live on XM satellite radio and featured a reunion of sorts of some of Memphis greatest soul legends, including Eddie Floyd, William Bell and Isaac Hayes. Throughout the year Concord Records and the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau have produced and promoted events featuring many of the men who made Memphis Soul, and though these artists have proven to all who’ve listened that they still got it, Friday night’s show brought together some of Memphis Soul’s most important women.

Mavis Staples marked an important return to Memphis belting out classic hits from her days with the Staples Sisters, as well as cuts from her recent critically acclaimed album, “We’ll Never Turn Back,” produced by Ry Cooder. Mable John, one of the few soul artists to have worked with both MoTown and Stax, brought back some of that old school groove with an inspiring performance of “Your Good Thing (Is About To End).” And newcomer Angie Stone gave the audience a taste of the future of soul as the first prominent contemporary artist to sign with the rejuvenated Stax label.

Other performances included Lalah Hathaway, N’dambi, The Soul Children and Booker T and the MGs, who earlier in the day were honored by the University of Memphis College of Communication and Fine Arts with the Distinguished Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts Award. Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn and the late Al Jackson Jr., along with the previously honored Booker T. Jones, enjoyed an informal celebration at legendary local barbeque spot, Rendezvous.

For a full recap of the night’s festivities, click on any of the links below:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/music/article/0,1426,MCA_505_5599524,00.html

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/music/article/0,1426,MCA_505_5596364,00.html

http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/003410.html

Things to do during Soul Week, Part 2

Soul Week represents a special time in Memphis music as it shines a white-hot spotlight on one of the city’s most unique and indigenous musical forms. In addition to the weeklong festivities throughout the city, we’d like to point out a few spots you need to check out when you hit town.

No Soul Week sojourn would be complete without spending a few hours at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. This 17,000-square-foot museum—on the original site of Stax Records— houses more than 2000 cultural artifacts, celebrating the music made famous by Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes, the Bar-Kays, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire and more. In addition to Stax music and memorabilia, you’ll also find exhibits dedicated to the artists of Muscle Shoals, Motown, Atlantic and Memphis’ own Hi Records. The multi-media format delivers countless hours of music and video, as well as a model Soul Train dance floor and Isaac Hayes’ gold-plated Cadillac. And bringing the music to life, the museum puts on live concerts in Studio A, a near-exact recreation of the famous studio where Booker T and the MGs recorded hundreds of hit records.
http://www.soulsvilleusa.com/

For a more complete picture of Memphis music and how Memphis Soul came to be you absolutely must pay a visit to the Smithsonian Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum. More than a sound, Memphis music is also about a movement. From the rural fields of the 1930’s, to the Sun and Stax era of the 1970’s, to its continuing influence today, the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum tells the story of the musical pioneers who overcame racial and socio-economic barriers to create the music that shook the world.
http://www.memphisrocknsoul.org/

An important aspect of soul music in Memphis was its connection to the Civil Rights Movement, and there’s no better place to engage in this part of the city’s past than one of our nation’s great cultural treasures, the National Civil Rights Museum. Housed in the Lorraine Motel, site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this exceptional museum brings the stories of civil and human rights to life in moving fashion. Interpretive exhibits and in-depth audio/visual displays focus on milestone events like the Montgomery bus boycott, the Memphis sanitation strike and much more.
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/

To further explore the city’s cultural and historical connection to the African-American experience, be sure to book a tour with Heritage Tours. Highlighting African-American sites and contributions to the city’s heritage, tours include locations that served as leading slave trading centers, plantations of the South, antebellum homes and the history of the Union occupation in Memphis, the Lorraine Motel, historic churches and the Burkle Estate, a pre-Civil War way station on the Underground Railroad.
http://www.heritagetoursmemphis.com/

Things To Do During Soul Week, Part 1

If you’re headed to Memphis during Soul Week, June 17th to t he 22nd, here a few things to do in Downtown Memphis:

BackBeat Tours
Orient yourself to the city and its rich musical history with one of the most entertaining music tours around. You'll ride in vintage style on "Miss Clawdy,” a vintage 1959 GM transit bus, climate controlled and fully restored all the way down to genuine naugahide seat covers, and learn the story of the "Memphis Sound.” From Beale Street's vibrant blues to the rockin' rhythms of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, from the stirring gospel heritage of the churches to the captivating grooves of Soulsville USA, you'll hear it all LIVE in a completely one-of-a-kind show on wheels. There's as much happening inside the Backbeat bus as outside - so get ready to shake, rattle and roll!
http://www.backbeattours.com/

Beale Street
Once the heart and soul of Memphis’ African-American culture with its banks, beauty salons, dance halls, barber shops and other black-owned establishments, today’s Beale Street has re-emerged as the city’s focal point for live blues, R&B, jazz, soul and rock, as well as sizzling soul food and exotic gift shops. Home to several live music clubs, including B.B. King’s Blues Club, King’s Palace, Alfred’s, Rum Boogie Café, The Black Diamond, Hard Rock Café and more. See why they call this street the “Home of the Blues.” http://www.bealestreet.com/home.html

Gibson Lounge @ the Gibson Guitar Factory
The smell of freshly carved tonewoods. The incandescent flutterings of abalone and pearl inlay. Classic details of a Gibson, arguably the most famous guitar brand in music. Gibson’s Memphis factory offers tours of its state-of-the-art production facility, home of the revered ES series guitars, which have been played by the likes of B.B. King, Scotty Moore, Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry. But that’s just the beginning. At the west end of the Gibson complex sits the Gibson Lounge, one of the most intimate venues in Memphis. Be sure to check out the Stax 50th Celebration of Soul - After Party featuring live performances by Stax artists on Friday June 22nd. Doors Open at 10pm, show starts at 11pm.

Tickets $27 can be purchased in advance at www.musictoday.com or in Gibson Retail Store.
http://www.gibson.com/Products/Places/Showcases/Gibson%20Beale%20Street%20Showcase/

Soul Week is Just Around the Corner

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Soul Week here in Memphis, and if there’s a holiday to celebrate this summer it’s on June 22nd.

The newly rejuvenated Stax Records is throwing down in Memphis at the Orpheum Theater with “50 Years of Stax” benefit show that unites some of the greatest legendary soul stars onstage for the first time in years.

The show will feature, among others, Isaac Hayes, Booker T & the MGs, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Mavis Staples, Mable John, the Soul Children, and Angie Stone.

Available through Ticketmaster, tickets are going for $25, $50 and $100, but for those who want premium seats in this beautiful venue consider the limited number of $1,000 Golden Circle tickets. It’s all for a good cause as proceeds from the show benefit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, located at the site of the old Stax headquarters on Memphis’ historic McLemore Avenue.

Golden Circle admission will include VIP orchestra seating at the Orpheum, VIP parking and shuttle service, a pre-show private party at the Orpheum Broadway Club, a gala after party at the Gibson Lounge featuring performances by Stax artists and friends, a private celebrity tour of the Museum, the 50th Anniversary Stax CD box set, a lithographed poster, and a commemorative Stax T-shirt.

Sounds like a steal. For more information on Golden Circle tickets, please call Deanie Parker at 901-261-6385.

But those are just the details. It’s the music that counts and this show will deliver some of the best live soul sounds since, well, probably March, when Booker T and the MGs played the SXSW music festival in Texas. That was a small show, with fans young and old, lined up around the corner waiting to get in. Not so this time, though we still expect lines for tickets and fans of all ages. But this event is bigger and better as StaxRecords has brought in a slew of superior soul artists. Here’s a little bit about them:

Booker T. & the MGs
Booker T. & the MGs began accidentally, but became, arguably, the most important group in the history of soul. Organist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, drummer Al Jackson, Jr., and bassist Lewie Steinberg were randomly scheduled to back Billy Lee Riley at a Stax recording session in summer 1962. While warming up, the group came up with the song “Green Onions,” their biggest hit. By 1965, former Mar-Key member Donald “Duck” Dunn had taken over the bass from Steinberg, and the group went on to define the Stax sound, releasing records under Booker T. & the MGs, and backing up hits by Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Albert King, Wilson Pickett, and Sam & Dave. The group, along with songwriters David Porter and Isaac Hayes, formed the “Big 6” producers pool who, in various combinations, artistically directed Stax recordings. Cropper later mused: “For me it was like going to church every day. You walked in those doors at Stax, you left everything out there behind you. I’d work eighteen hours a day and never even thought about being tired.”

Mavis Staples
Though known for her lead vocal work in the legendary Staples Sisters and on songs like “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There,” Mavis Staples has been recording solo work since 1969. Singing everything from gospel to folk to soul and disco, Mavis’ talents are unquestioned, but it is her ability for lyrics and phrasing that makes her unique. An almost direct connection to the Staples Sisters socio-political inspiration, Mavis reemerged with one of the year’s best albums, Never Turn Back. Produced by Ry Cooder and featuring guests like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the record asserts Mavis’ commitment to the civil rights struggle.

Angie Stone
Though the revitalization of Stax Records has largely revolved around remastered reissues of classic Stax records, the label is determined to take classic soul music into the future. As a result, one of the first artists to sign with the label was Angie Stone.
Breaking into the business as the lead vocalist on Vertical Hold’s urban dance track “Seems You’re Much Too Busy,” an R&B Top 40 hit in 1993, Stone has been recording solo since 1999. Taking a classic old-school approach to her music, Stone cut songs like “No More Rain (In This Cloud),” which featured samples from Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye”). But she also had a hip, contemporary edge to her music and worked with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, former Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad, as well as D’Angelo.