by Jim Hanas
ell, it’s Beale Street Music Festival weekend, but you’ve probably
gotten all the advice about that you’d care to hear. It’s also
when clubs generally take a beating as the annual extravaganza
in Tom Lee Park drains off most of the city’s music fans to the
banks of the Mississippi. But, truth is, Memphis’ small rooms
have been showing real signs of life lately, from downtown to
the University of Memphis area. The Map Room has been drawing
more and more national acts, as has Automatic Slim’s. The Daily
Planet is back on the music train, and the Library and Diablo’s
are pitching in alongside Newby’s to provide compelling reasons
to head back to the Highland Strip. Things are good.
BSMF aside, this weekend provides evidence of a resurging club
scene as good as any in recent memory. If you’re not the festival-going
kind, here are four shows you might want to check out.
Ray Condo and his Ricochets (above) and Davey Williams (below)
are notable among the non-festival acts in town.
n At Barristers on Friday, there will be pop-a-plenty with a show headlined by Knoxville’s Superdrag, who went from zero to something with their MTV buzz clip “Sucked Out” off their 1996 Elektra debut Regretfully Yours. But don’t let that fool you; the band is actually a rare case of the hype-machine getting cranked up to motor a genuinely worthy band. Also on the schedule, and headliners in their own right, is the Denver branch of the Elephant Six Collective, The Apples (In Stereo), whose latest, Tone Soul Evolution, is a must-have for all self-respecting neo-popsters. Washington, D.C.’s Tuscadero rounds out the triple bill.
n Also Friday over at Automatic Slim’s, it’s the return of the Harry Dean Stanton of western swing, Ray Condo & His Ricochets. He picks guitar, he plays sax, and he can throw his voice a half-century into the past. What else could you want? Certainly one of the most credible revivalist combos to come through town in the last year, and there have been a few.
n Meanwhile, at Marshall Arts on Saturday, avant-garde co-conspirators George Cartwright and Davey Williams will play a couple of sets. The first will be an ensemble piece featuring a Cartwright composition with Williams as solo guitarist, and the second will be a duet featuring Williams with Cartwright on sax. Starts at 8 p.m. – this one’s not on bar-time. And if you really want to get a jump on things, at 3 p.m., Williams will hold an experiment/workshop on his “Mockingbird Method of Repetition for Free Improvisation.” The idea, according to Williams, is to see if he can “teach” his improvisational method to an ensemble whose membership he can’t control. If you’d like to be part of that ensemble, you can reserve a slot by calling Dan Mackta at 276-2225.
n And this one’s a bonus, just one of those things that comes across my desk from time to time. The Ditchdiggers of Marietta, Georgia, are playing the Daily Planet Saturday night. At first, I thought it was quaint that they still called themselves cowpunk, until I started listening to their record, Cow Patty Bingo. Sure enough, it was true. They’re somewhere in there between the Blasters and X, which is a pretty good place to be if you ask me.
So don’t say there’s nothing going on Saturday. If there’s nothing
here for you, I can’t help. n