Music Notes
edited by Mark Jordan
On the Move
Downtown visitors heading to 97 S. Second Street looking for vintage
guitars will be surprised to find a different kind of old wood
in the storefront. The former home of Rod and Hank’s Vintage Guitars
is now an antique store.
“We were just getting awfully cramped in that little corner,”
says Rod and Hank’s co-owner Hank Sable.
So a few weeks ago, he and partner Rod Norwood moved shop to 45
N. Main near Monroe. Located next door to the historic Brodnax
Jewelers Building in the old Mister Hats, the new store has allowed
Rod and Hank to stretch out a bit. Their impressive inventory
of vintage instruments dominates the downstairs, while upstairs,
renovations are under way for a 24-track digital recording studio
(“Not for hire,” Sable says. “Just for family and friends to use.”)
and a gallery, featuring the works of painter Lamar Sorrento,
a.k.a guitarist James Eddie Campbell.
With indefinite plans to have a grand opening sometime soon, the
move has not just been a boost to Rod and Hank but to the long,
ongoing struggle to bring businesses back to Main Street.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from other merchants
down here,” Sable says. “People are glad to see someone moving
in down here.” – Mark Jordan
On the Move II
In other relocation news, Elizabeth Johns, former owner of the
315 Beale recording studios, has set up shop in the old Sun Studio
facility inside the old Daisy Theatre. Last year, you may recall,
Johns was unexpectedly and unceremoniously booted from her former
digs on the site of the legendary Pee Wee’s Saloon when the Hard
Rock Cafe announced it was moving in there.
Since then, Johns’ search for another downtown home for her full-service
recording studio has been fruitless; she is currently drafting
plans for a built-to-suit facility to be located in the county.
Meanwhile, the old Daisy Theatre will allow Johns to keep working
(and almost as important, working on Beale), though the smaller
space will restrict its use to over-dubbing and recording small
bands. – M.J.
Happy Day for the Blues
Now it seems such an obvious alliance, that you wonder why the
parties involved didn’t think of it years ago. But, no crying
over the past. The new partnership between the Blues Foundation
and the Beale Street Music Festival seems to be paying off in
just its first year, especially for the financially strapped foundation
and its W.C. Handy Awards.
Last Thursday, officials with the Blues Foundation announced that
this year’s Handy Awards ceremony, which will be held Thursday,
April 30th, at The Orpheum, will be co-hosted by BSMF performers
Ruth Brown and Robert Cray. In addition, Handy performers will
include such BSMF performers as Keb’ Mo’, Johnny “Yard Dog” Jones,
Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, Rufus Thomas, and, in what is
surely its biggest coup, Bonnie Raitt.
“We’re very excited to have this great lineup of talent,” said
foundation executive director Howard Stovall. “And we’re very
grateful to Wes Brustad and Memphis in May for all their help.”
For years the Handy Awards show, which is held at the beginning
of the lucrative blues festival season, has had trouble attracting
big-name blues artists and their attendant crowds because it couldn’t
pay the big appearance fees they require. But with the BSMF in
recent years reemphasizing its blues roots – with the addition
two years ago of a blues tent and, this year, with the booking
of big-name blues artists like Cray and Buddy Guy on the festival’s
main stages – that has all changed. Now, the Blues Foundation
can lure artists with the promise of a paying gig at the festival
as well as a possible award. And the BSMF has a list of nominees
it can use to focus its booking and an added stature in the fiercely
loyal blues community.
It’s so simple. Why didn’t someone think of it before?
Tickets for the 19th Annual W.C. Handy Awards Show are still available.
For ticket and other information, call the Blues Foundation at
527-2583. – M.J.
Soul Review
The Bravo cable channel will debut a new documentary on the history
of Memphis’ Stax soul label this Tuesday, April 28th, with a free
screening at Border’s Books and Music Cafe.
The Soul of Stax, by documentary filmmaker Philip Priestley, does
more than follow the familiar arc of Stax’s rocky history, from
its first hit to the embarrassment of being auctioned off on the
Shelby County courthouse steps. The film also demonstrates how
Stax helped mold events in Memphis and the country, how it created
heroes and improved conditions. The previously unheard-of blend
at Stax – black and white making music together – reflected the
soul of Memphis better than anyone or anything before or since.
And it was a blend that resonated in the era’s civil-rights movement,
from the rise of leaders like Jesse Jackson to the creation of
the first black movie hero, Shaft, to the declarations of black
pride that dominated the legendary WattsStax concert.
The Soul of Stax documentary will air on Bravo in early June,
but since the cable station is not carried in Memphis, this may
be the only chance Memphians have to see it until its video release.
The day’s festivities will begin with a live broadcast by WDIA-AM
1070 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The film screening will start at 6
p.m., and will be followed by a free concert by one of those who
played a big role in the Stax story, Rufus Thomas. Seating is
limited, so arrive early. n – Dominic Jesse
Music Notes
edited by Mark Jordan
On the Move
Downtown visitors heading to 97 S. Second Street looking for vintage guitars will be surprised to find a different kind of old wood in the storefront. The former home of Rod and Hank’s Vintage Guitars is now an antique store.
“We were just getting awfully cramped in that little corner,” says Rod and Hank’s co-owner Hank Sable.
So a few weeks ago, he and partner Rod Norwood moved shop to 45 N. Main near Monroe. Located next door to the historic Brodnax Jewelers Building in the old Mister Hats, the new store has allowed Rod and Hank to stretch out a bit. Their impressive inventory of vintage instruments dominates the downstairs, while upstairs, renovations are under way for a 24-track digital recording studio (“Not for hire,” Sable says. “Just for family and friends to use.”) and a gallery, featuring the works of painter Lamar Sorrento, a.k.a guitarist James Eddie Campbell.
With indefinite plans to have a grand opening sometime soon, the move has not just been a boost to Rod and Hank but to the long, ongoing struggle to bring businesses back to Main Street.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from other merchants down here,” Sable says. “People are glad to see someone moving in down here.” – Mark Jordan
On the Move II
In other relocation news, Elizabeth Johns, former owner of the 315 Beale recording studios, has set up shop in the old Sun Studio facility inside the old Daisy Theatre. Last year, you may recall, Johns was unexpectedly and unceremoniously booted from her former digs on the site of the legendary Pee Wee’s Saloon when the Hard Rock Cafe announced it was moving in there.
Since then, Johns’ search for another downtown home for her full-service recording studio has been fruitless; she is currently drafting plans for a built-to-suit facility to be located in the county. Meanwhile, the old Daisy Theatre will allow Johns to keep working (and almost as important, working on Beale), though the smaller space will restrict its use to over-dubbing and recording small bands. – M.J.
Happy Day for the Blues
Now it seems such an obvious alliance, that you wonder why the parties involved didn’t think of it years ago. But, no crying over the past. The new partnership between the Blues Foundation and the Beale Street Music Festival seems to be paying off in just its first year, especially for the financially strapped foundation and its W.C. Handy Awards.
Last Thursday, officials with the Blues Foundation announced that this year’s Handy Awards ceremony, which will be held Thursday, April 30th, at The Orpheum, will be co-hosted by BSMF performers Ruth Brown and Robert Cray. In addition, Handy performers will include such BSMF performers as Keb’ Mo’, Johnny “Yard Dog” Jones, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, Rufus Thomas, and, in what is surely its biggest coup, Bonnie Raitt.
“We’re very excited to have this great lineup of talent,” said foundation executive director Howard Stovall. “And we’re very grateful to Wes Brustad and Memphis in May for all their help.”
For years the Handy Awards show, which is held at the beginning of the lucrative blues festival season, has had trouble attracting big-name blues artists and their attendant crowds because it couldn’t pay the big appearance fees they require. But with the BSMF in recent years reemphasizing its blues roots – with the addition two years ago of a blues tent and, this year, with the booking of big-name blues artists like Cray and Buddy Guy on the festival’s main stages – that has all changed. Now, the Blues Foundation can lure artists with the promise of a paying gig at the festival as well as a possible award. And the BSMF has a list of nominees it can use to focus its booking and an added stature in the fiercely loyal blues community.
It’s so simple. Why didn’t someone think of it before?
Tickets for the 19th Annual W.C. Handy Awards Show are still available. For ticket and other information, call the Blues Foundation at 527-2583. – M.J.
Soul Review
The Bravo cable channel will debut a new documentary on the history of Memphis’ Stax soul label this Tuesday, April 28th, with a free screening at Border’s Books and Music Cafe.
The Soul of Stax, by documentary filmmaker Philip Priestley, does more than follow the familiar arc of Stax’s rocky history, from its first hit to the embarrassment of being auctioned off on the Shelby County courthouse steps. The film also demonstrates how Stax helped mold events in Memphis and the country, how it created heroes and improved conditions. The previously unheard-of blend at Stax – black and white making music together – reflected the soul of Memphis better than anyone or anything before or since. And it was a blend that resonated in the era’s civil-rights movement, from the rise of leaders like Jesse Jackson to the creation of the first black movie hero, Shaft, to the declarations of black pride that dominated the legendary WattsStax concert.
The Soul of Stax documentary will air on Bravo in early June, but since the cable station is not carried in Memphis, this may be the only chance Memphians have to see it until its video release.
The day’s festivities will begin with a live broadcast by WDIA-AM 1070 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The film screening will start at 6 p.m., and will be followed by a free concert by one of those who played a big role in the Stax story, Rufus Thomas. Seating is limited, so arrive early. n – Dominic Jesse
A Fork In The Road
Crossroads ’98 reinvents itself as a cutting-edge music-industry convention.
by Mark Jordan
emphis and music may prove to be about the only two things Jenny
Gilles-pie and Max Cava-lera have in common.
Gillespie – a sweet-faced 17-year-old singer/songwriter from Springfield, Illinois, who has to turn down gigs when they conflict with school – sings quiet, sensitive songs to her own guitar accompaniment in the long tradition of Joan Baez and Jewel. Her fresh and youthful appearance (her publicity photo looks more like snapshot taken by dad right before the prom) belies her considerable talents: a full, mature voice; solid guitar work; and an impeccable ear for melody.
Cavalera, on the other hand, is a road-hardened music-biz veteran.
The former lead singer and guitarist for the the Brazilian hard-rock
group Sepultura, Cavalera recently struck out to form a new band,
Soulfly. The group’s eponymous debut, a raucous marriage of crunching,
distorted rock guitar and Brazilian percussion, was just released
on Roadrunner Records. (As for Cavalera’s publicity photo, well,
let’s just say that if this were the guy coming to pick up Jenny
for the prom, there would be serious trouble in Gillespie’s home.)
Jenny Gillespie (top) and Soulfly featuring Max Cavalera (bottom)
are among this year's Crossroads performers.
But despite their different worlds (Illinois versus Brazil, metal versus folk), Gillespie and Cavalera both share a passion for making music and a desire to make it for a living, though they each face very different obstacles in realizing those goals. Gillespie, who graduates from high school in a few weeks, has already been busy sending her tapes out to whoever will listen, and the gamble has been paying off. Besides winning her a slot in this weekend’s Crossroads, she has also gotten attention from several major labels. Cavalera’s situation is more complex. As the ex-leader of a successful act, he must now work to establish a new band in the shadow of the old one.
“Max Cavalera, though he has more resources than Jenny Gillespie, is in the same boat,” says Crossroads event producer Eli Ball. “He’s trying to start over; she’s just trying to start. They’re both here trying to make a name for themselves.”
For both, this weekend’s Crossroads Exposition will be a weekend of schmoozing and hand shaking and power lunching and, hopefully, winning over a few new fans. Their stories are indicative of what Crossroads is trying to become.
Once seen as little more than a unsigned band contest or a local music festival, this year’s Crossroads is trying to become, to borrow the title from similar event, more of a new music festival, with the best in unsigned, indie, and new major-label talent. And maybe a Cinderella or two, as well. In addition, organizers have a roster of industry professionals who will hold court both days of the exposition in a series of panels, workshops, mentoring sessions that will help musicians at all levels “make it.”
It’s all part of the effort to make Crossroads more relevant and more realistic. Despite the ads touting its “success stories,” bands just don’t come to Crossroads (or Austin’s South X Southwest or Nashville’s Extravaganza) from nowhere and get signed to a major-label deal after one show. Making it in the music industry is a long, grueling process that might involve all of those events and a lot more.
Which is why you’ll see so many artists signed to major or indie labels. After all, what better place to showcase your new artist than at a new-music festival? The trade-off, of course, is that artists with lesser stature get to piggyback on the buzz bands, getting audience and industry exposure.
But the problem with trying to turn Crossroads (and, by extension, Memphis) into something relevant to the national music industry is that so many in the Memphis music community have no interest in the national music industry. In fact, it is that disregard for national trends that many credit with being the key to Memphis’ music success to date.
True to form, the changes in this year’s Crossroads have done little to impress notoriously wary local bands. Most of the city’s better and best-known groups are staying away this year, either out of distrust for the organizers or disdain for the very concept.
“I really don’t have anything to say to those bands,” says Ball. “Crossroads in the past has done everything it could to accommodate local bands. But we can’t make Crossroads suit all their needs. They just have to realize it’s their tool. Its usefulness or irrelevance is totally dependent upon what they make of the opportunity.”
After this weekend, however, just what shape that opportunity will take becomes in doubt. Ball, a music producer who helped launch Crossroads and returned just last year to give the failing enterprise a boost, is once again making rumblings about getting out from behind the desk and getting back behind the recording console. Furthermore, when the newly established but yet-to-have-met Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission was formed, part of its mandate was to play some role in Crossroads. What that’ll be, no one knows. n