The life of Booker T. & the MGs bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn — a key figure in Memphis music history and one of the rock and soul's signature sidemen — will be celebrated tomorrow, Wednesday, May 23rd, with a funeral procession on Beale Street.

Dunn died at the age of 70 on May 13th while touring in Tokyo. Following a private ceremony earlier in the day, the Stax sound cornerstone will be honored with a public funeral procession on Beale. Friends and fans have made plans to form a second line to follow the procession and will meet at Fourth and Beale at 4:30 p.m.

Earlier this year, local guitar player/collector and entrepreneur Geoff Albert quit his upper-level management job at a certain local music-retail superstore to fulfill a personal dream: owning his own musical instrument store. That dream became a reality in early April, when Albert opened Revolve Guitars and Music at 5238 Stage Rd. in Bartlett.

Albert spoke to the Memphis Flyer this week about opening the store and his career in the music industry.

Flyer: How did you get into music and the music business originally?

Albert: I have always been into guitar. I studied classical guitar in college and got a degree in music theory from the University of Memphis back in the 90s. I then went to grad school for a while for music history. At the time I was also working in a record store and was digging that, and left grad school to pursue it. I spent 18 years in that business with the last 7 years in multi-store management with stores all over the place.

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music will host a benefit concert on Monday, April 23rd for legendary Memphis guitar player Charles “Skip” Pitts, who is battling cancer and is currently in hospice care.

• Charles "Skip" Pitts

A former Stax session fixture, Pitts is most famous for his work with Isaac Hayes' ’70s band, including the iconic “wah-wah” guitar on Hayes' “Theme From Shaft.” In addition to Hayes, Pitts was a key player alongside such soul and R&B titans as Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, and the Isley Brothers. In recent years, he's best most visible as a core member of the multi-generational soul band the Bo-Keys, led by local producer/bassist Scott Bomar.

“It's been very long road that he's been on,” Bomar says of his ailing bandmate.

Bomar says that Pitts was diagnosed with kidney cancer roughly a year ago while on tour with Cyndi Lauper and had to leave the tour to have his kidney removed. He was better for awhile, but last year during a Bo-Keys tour, Bomar says, Pitts started to feel the same kind of back pain that had preceded his kidney diagnosis.

Now, Pitts, who recently turned 65, is dealing with what Bomar calls a “very advanced, aggressive” cancer that has spread to his lungs.

In order to help Pitts' family with medical bills and to assist with his arrangements, Royal Studio's Boo Mitchell, along with Bomar, “Elmo” Thomas of Elmo & the Shades (with whom Pitts also played), and Stax's Tim Sampson have organized a benefit show, which will take place inside Studio A at the Stax Museum on Monday, April 23rd. The show is scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is $20, with additional donations accepted.

Performers will include: The Bo-Keys, Elmo & the Shades, Susan Marshall, A440, Barbara Blue, Al Kapone, and Kirk Whalum.

“Beyond everything else, it will be good for people to show their support,” Bomar says. “I think it will be a special night, musically, with lots of interesting collaborations from people who don't usually play together. Skip has a lot of friends.”

Tomorrow night (Friday, April 20) at 7 p.m., two fixtures of the local music scene - blogger/publicist Rachel Hurley and audio engineer/booking agent Curry Weber - will celebrate the launch of their new artist promotion and booking agency, Kangaroo, with a launch party at Otherlands.

Kangaroo comes out of the gate with a robust list of well-known local musicians already on the company's roster, including Star & Micey, Lord T & Eloise and The Memphis Dawls. Friday's launch party offers an equally stellar line-up, with Jeffrey James Hulett, Joseph Lemay and DJ Buck Wilders joining the Dawls as the evening's entertainment.

Seattle rockers This Providence played Newby's on Tuesday night. Before the gig, they stopped by Ardent Studios to perform their track "You're Mine":

The unprecedented scope of this year’s Record Store Day is evident on a local level as well, with Seattle's Light in the Attic Records sponsoring the Memphis Record Store Day Crawl. To coincide with the label’s official Record Store Day release of Never To Be Forgotten: The Flip Side of Stax 1968 - 1974 — a lavish boxed set of 10 vinyl singles that collectively cover the final days of the legendary Memphis soul label and come packaged in a hand-numbered edition of 4000 — three DJ/meet-and-greet hours will be set up throughout the afternoon at Shangri-La Records (2-3 p.m. featuring DJ Buck Wilders), Goner Records (3-4 p.m. featuring DJs Zac and Eric), and then the finale at a satellite record shop located in the Stax Museum itself (4—6 p.m. featuring DJs Leroy and Jones, plus free admission to the museum for these last two hours). Keeping with the Record Store Day tradition/policy, this boxed set will only be sold at these three locations on Saturday.

British singer-songwriter Marcus Foster played Minglewood Hall over the weekend. While he was in town, he stopped by Ardent Studios to perform:

Knoxville band the Black Cadillacs played the Young Avenue Deli last night. Before their gig, they stopped by Ardent Studios to perform their song "Classic Fool," off their upcoming album Run:

• Drake at FedExForum, June 5th.

Memphis-connected hip-hop heartthrob Drake, whose Too Far Gone was one of the genre's biggest records last year, headlines FedExForum on Tuesday, June 5th as part of his “The Club Paradise Tour.” Drake will be bringing along of an impressive warm-up crew of emerging rap stars: J.Cole, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz, and French Montana. (The last name on the list joined Memphian Don Trip on rap magazine XXL's recent “Freshman Class” list of 10 breakout rappers for 2012.)
Prices range from $42.75 to $93.75 and are availabe at the FedExForum box office, by phone at 800-745-3000, or via Ticketmaster.

Brad Paisley — easily one of modern country's major artists, on record and on stage — plays the Snowden Grove Amphitheater on Friday, August 17th as part of his “Virtual Reality World Tour.” Paisley will be joined by breakout — and crossover — stars The Band Perry and up-and-comer Easton Corbin.

Prices range from $45 to $69.50 and are available at the Snowden Grove box office, by phone at 800-745-3000, or via Ticketmaster.

Memphis rappers Don Trip and Skewby follow successful visits to SXSW with new, related videos.

I'd written about Trip's BET-sponsored showcase performance, where he was introduced by iconic producer Timbaland, but wasn't able to make it to that particular performance. The video evidence reveals that Timbaland's hyping-up of Trip was even more substantial than I'd heard [some NSFW language here]:

St. Louis/Oxford indie duo Water Liars played Otherlands Coffee Bar last week as part of the Fareveller Music Festival. Before their gig, they stopped by Ardent Studios to perform their song "$100":

K Records founder and indie-rock icon Calvin Johnson hits Memphis this week with his new band, Hive Dwellers, performing at Otherlands Coffee Bar.

He established K Records 1982 and formed the band Beat Happening the same year, early leaders in the indie rock and lo-fi movements.

Johnson moved on to create the Go Team, a project based around the core duo of Johnson and punk-rock feminist Tobi Vail (later of Bikini Kill and Kill Rock Stars), with a rotating cast of collaborators that included Kurt Cobain, Billy Karren, and Donna Dresch. He then started Dub Narcotic Sound System — named after his accomplished analog recording studio — with another collective that included Larry Butler, Todd Ranslow, and Brian Weber (members of hip-hop group Dead Presidents). Johnson has also previously worked with Modest Mouse, Beck, Heavenly, Jens Lekman, and the Gossip, among many others.

Chicago indie-rockers Maps & Atlases played the Young Avenue Deli last week as part of the Fareveller Music Festival. Before their gig, they stopped by Ardent Studios to perform their song "Winter":

Brooklyn band backwords played the 1884 Lounge at Minglewood Hall Tuesday night on their way back from Austin's South by Southwest Music Festival. Earlier in the day, the band stopped by Ardent Studios to perform their song "Best Kind":

If it isn't clear from the critical observations sprinkled in the profile, I think Women & Work is the band's best album yet. Having spent the past couple of weeks tracking back through the band's catalogue, Women & Work stands out for how well it captures the live sound of a band that has always excelled on stage and how fully they commit to a soulful, opulent Southern rock style that seemed a risky move a few years ago. With a virtuoso back line of Roy Berry (drums), John C. Stubblefield (bass), and Rick Steff (keys), this band now moves. There are other "Southern rock" bands I admire as much or more for their songs, vocals, or conceptual thrust — the Drive-By Truckers, the emerging Alabama Shakes — but those bands don't own the sound of the genre the way Lucero does right now.

And, happily, good things seem to be happening to such a good record. I'd heard hints in Austin last week that early sales were going really well, and, sure enough, Lucero's having their best debut on their first album after leaving a major label, with Women & Work debuting at #44 on the Billboard 200 album chart, # 8 among independent albums, and #7 on the "Tastemaker Albums" chart.

More on the band at their official site.