Freedom Of The Press
A particularly restrictive clause was included in the waivers that members
of the press were required to sign before being permitted to shoot any kind
of film at last weekend's Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival. Mincing
no words, the release read, "Absolutely no photographs or videotography
[sic] can be taken of the following performes [sic] AT ALL: Bob Dylan, ZZ
Top, The Wallflowers, Steve Miller Band. No cameras or video equipment should
be visible at all during these performances."
We must admit we're particularly bitter about the rule since it foiled our
fiendishly clever plans of making a bundle off bootleg snapshots of Steve
"Maurice" Miller.
Honeymoon In Palm Springs
We swear we're not obsessed with Elvis. It's the rest of the world.
Last weekend, members of Elvis-Friends Hollywood, a Burbank fan club, gathered
in Palm Springs, California, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the King's
marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu. The festivities were not without controversy,
however. According to the Desert Sun newspaper, two events planned
at the Presleys' "Honeymoon Hideaway" home were almost stopped
by the city, which claimed the festivities would violate zoning by holding
a commercial event in a residential neighborhood. A judge allowed the party
to go on by ruling against the city, however, explaining that the events
would not "cause a change of character of a residential zone."
Obviously, that judge has never been to Death Week.
TV-Land Tangle
With little college football or basketball news to talk about, sports talk-show
hosts in Memphis often struggle for topics during the late spring and summer.
Perhaps that explains the subject last week on "Out of Bounds,"
the WSFZ show hosted by Dennis Phillippi and Tony Brooks. The topic was:
Who could whup whose butt, Opie Taylor (Ronnie Howard) on The Andy Griffith
Show or Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) on Leave It To Beaver.
The consensus went to Opie since he led the rough-and-tumble life of a country
boy, while the Beave was, let's face it, a suburban wuss.
Backhand Compliment
The Economist of
London recently ran an article about Charlotte, North Carolina, which brought
up the controversy that surrounded a performance of Tony Kushner's Angels
in America there. So why did Angels go off at Playhouse on the
Square here without a hitch? Says The Economist, "The real point
is that Memphis theatre productions are more modest, and there-fore attract
less attention. The anonymity of being a low-budget operation in a low-profile
town like Memphis may give the Playhouse on the Square a freedom that the
more successful Charlotte Rep, in high-profile Charlotte, will never know."
Oh yeah. Like they've got a lot of big fancy culture in London, England.
Compiled by Jim Hanas
FAX: 521-0129.
MusicFest '97 Tops Last Year's
by Mark Jordan
hen this year's
lineup for the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival was announced,
there was a general consensus that the latest edition of the festival could
never match last year's.
It didn't; it probably surpassed it.
More
than 110,000 people squeezed into Tom Lee Park over three days last weekend
to see 60 acts, most of them blues-driven -- a marriage of acts and audience
that has helped make the BSMF one of the premier festivals in the country.
Of course, music is only part of the show, now in its 21st year, and missing from this year's lineup was last year's perfect weather. On Friday, dark clouds loomed all day, and rain finally hit just before the evening's final acts were scheduled to go on, delaying Bob Dylan and Blues Traveler by 20 minutes or so. Saturday was sunny, but that night saw the temperatures dip well into the 40s. Finally, on Sunday the weather was perfect.
But no matter how spotty, the weather didn't keep people away. Preliminary figures show this year's BSMF ahead of last year's in attendance, and at least one night, Saturday, was a sellout.
The festival kicked off Friday with performances by two promising young artists: teenage blues guitarist Johnny Lang on the River Stage and alternative rocker Nielson Hubbard in the Memphis Music Tent. The night also included notable appearances by Johnny "Clyde" Copeland and Luther Allison, who had won his second-straight Entertainer of the Year Handy Award the night before.
However, the highlight of Friday night (and perhaps the whole festival) was the appearance of Bob Dylan, playing his best show ever in Memphis. Backed by a a rocking honkytonk band, Dylan ran through an energetic set with plenty of crowd favorites, including "All Along the Watchtower" and "Everybody Must Get Stoned."
Saturday saw a number of choice acts peppered throughout the park. On the River Stage, Leftover Salmon impressed the ignorant and the devoted with their mix of folk music, including bluegrass, calypso, cajun, and zydeco. They were followed by the Staple Singers, featuring an 82-year-old Pops Staples still managing to wow the crowd.
The presence of national artists Garrison Starr and the Grifters made the Memphis Music Tent Saturday a must-stop for many, but it was a set by the Mudflaps that really had the crowd on its feet.
The Mega Blues Tent lineup Saturday was fine top to bottom, beautifully capped by performances by two patrician bluesmen: Jimmy Rogers (the father of Chicago blues guitar) and Big Daddy Kinsey (the father of the Kinsey Report). The Tom Lee Stage Saturday featured fine sets by Storyville, Los Lobos, and Boz Scaggs.
Sundays continue to be a revelation for many BSMF attendees, as more and more of them discover the Gospel Tent, which for its second-straight year continued to produce some of the festival's best music.
Once again, the Blues Tent shows were uniformly excellent, highlighted by the phenomenal Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. But Sunday was also modern-rock day, with K's Choice, Maypole, Modern English, Shawn Colvin, and the Wallflowers all making appearances.
On the Tom Lee Stage, War reminded many who only recall "Cisco Kid" what a good band they are. And on the River Stage, Bobby "Blue" Bland, the recent recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, showed he hasn't slowed a beat.
But the most interesting act on Sunday was the reformed Box Tops. The original lineup of the seminal '60s Memphis garage band appeared onstage, presumably for the first time since they parted ways in 1968. Fronted by an Alex Chilton who seemed for once to be genuinely enjoying himself, the group ran through a set composed of covers and hits like "The Letter" and "Cry Like A Baby."
There was so much music at this year's festival, in fact, that it inevitably spilled out of Tom Lee and into the rest of the city. Among the scattered reports of BSMF performers playing around town, some lucky music fans got to hear bluesman R.L. Burnside -- who turned the Mega Blues Tent into a sweaty, down-home juke joint on Friday -- play a small, private party that same night in a home up on the bluffs. And on Sunday, members of War and the Wallflowers showed up after the festival at B.B. King's Blues Club, where they jammed with members of California bluesman Chris Cain's band.
(Additional reporting by Jim Hanas, Jacqueline Marino, and Phil Campbell.)