Lucky for us that local musicians keep working over Labor
Day weekend. Dozens of the city’s bands are headed downtown this weekend for
the Center for Southern Folklore‘s annual
Memphis Music & Heritage Festival, now in its 17th year. Partygoers can
expect everything from traditional blues, rockabilly, and jazz to
fife-and-drum music, Latino rock, and Choctaw
Indian dancers on the festival’s four stages, as
well as a full schedule of food demonstrations inside the Viking Culinary Arts Center.
But it’s not all about heritage. As center director
Judy Peiser explains, this year’s festival draws on the city’s
contemporary music scene as well. “Over the years, we’ve showcased and celebrated
our rich history, which has given Memphis’ younger musicians a chance to
listen, learn, and create their own music.”
Neo-jazz groups such as Neptune’s
Army and FreeWorld — with saxophonist
Herman Green — will take the stage alongside rapper
Kavious, hip-hop collective The Iron Mic
Coalition, and garage-rock bands The Dutch
Masters and The Royal Pendletons. Piano
players Jerry Lee “Smoochy” Smith,
Jason D. Williams, and Adam Woodard
(The Tearjerkers‘ boogie-woogie man) will share an outdoor stage at the corner
of Peabody Place and Main Street, while one-man bands
Terry “Harmonica” Bean and King Louie
Bankston (from New Orleans) will battle it out in the
center’s Folklore Store and on the Trolley Stop Stage, respectively. Meanwhile,
9-year-old fiddling champion Ruby Jane
Smith will trade licks with octogenarian Roy
Harper, a mainstay at the festival.
Dutch Masters’ guitarist Eric
Friedl, who relocated to Memphis from the West Coast a decade ago, points out that
“playing on the same stage that so many great musicians — people like Rufus
Thomas and Othar Turner — performed on is gonna be amazing.”
When Sharde Thomas and The Rising Star Fife & Drum
Band perform in the Folklore Hall on Saturday evening,
it promises to be a poignant moment for Peiser and everyone involved with
the Center for Southern Folklore. “Othar Turner was one of our early sages in
the center’s development,” Peiser says.
“Making the Gravel Springs Fife &
Drum documentary in the early ’70s was a
catalyst for us. Now we’re passing the torch to
his granddaughter Sharde, someone who’s learned from a master and put her
own spin on the music she’s grown up with.”
Folk artists, always a big part of the festival, will also be explaining their
craft on the Trolley Stop Stage and inside the Folklore Store. Look for
puppeteer Jimmy Crosthwait, quilter
Hattie Childress, storytellers Annie
McDaniels, Lil Bukewicz, and Bobbie
Droebeck, and Alabama artists Butch
Anthony (who will be accompanied by his
fortune-telling chicken, Bob Ross) and John
Henry Toney, who will be selling their wares throughout the weekend.
The Memphis Music & Heritage Festival, a free event, will feature music
from 1 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, September 4th, and Sunday, September 5th. The
complete music schedule is as follows:
Saturday, September 4th
Peabody Place Stage: Ed Finney & Neptune’s Army, 1 p.m.; Equoia
Coleman, 2 p.m.; The Tearjerkers, 3 p.m.; Kelley
Hurt & The Chris Parker Trio, 4 p.m.; Billy Gibson & The David Bowen Band, 5
p.m.; Smoochy Smith & Hooch Morgan, 6 p.m.; Sensational Six, 7 p.m.; Jason D.
Williams, 8 p.m.; Kavious, 9:15 p.m.; Iron Mic Coalition, 9:45 p.m.; The Royal
Pendletons, 10:30 p.m.
Folklore Store: Dennis Jay, 12:15 p.m.; Leon Hardman & Lady G, 1:15
p.m.; Terry “Harmonica” Bean, 2:15 p.m.; Michaelyn Oby, 3:15 p.m.; Ruby
Jane Smith, 4:15 p.m.; Roy Harper & Johnny Bellar, 5:15 p.m.; Debra Pan, 6:15
p.m.; IQ, 7:15 p.m.; daDrum, 8:15 p.m.; The Bluff City Backsliders, 9:15 p.m.;
Jackie Johnson, 10:15 p.m.
Folklore Hall: Eric Hughes, 1:30 p.m.; Brown Sugar, 2:30 p.m.; Di Anne
Price, 3:30 p.m.; Felix Hernandez with Symbiosis, 4:30 p.m.; New Traveling
Harmonizers, 5:30 p.m.; The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, 7:30 p.m.; Eddie Bond,
8:30 p.m.; Joyce Cobb & Cool Heat featuring Matt Arnold, 9:30 p.m.; The Daddy
Mack Blues Band, 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 5th
Peabody Place Stage: Ron Franklin’s Natural Kicks, 1 p.m.; The Dutch
Masters, 3 p.m.; FreeWorld with Herman Green, 4 p.m.; Spirit of Memphis,
5 p.m.; Sonny Burgess & The Pacers, 6 p.m.; Jerry & Mike Kattawar, 7 p.m.;
Mr. Wiley & The Checkmates, 9 p.m.; Exodus, 10 p.m.
Folklore Store: Nancy Apple, 1:15 p.m.; Bella Sun,
2:15 p.m.; David Evans, 3:15 p.m.; Jorge Raul Sandoval & Voices of
the Romance, 4:15 p.m.; Kevin Gordon, 5:15 p.m.; Pam & Terry, 6:15 p.m.; The
Vance Ensemble, 7:15 p.m.; The Kenny Brown Band,
8:15 p.m.; Barbara Blue, 9:15 p.m.; Blind Mississippi
Morris & Brad Webb with Josh Roberts, 10:15 p.m.
Folklore Hall: Gospel Rejoicers, 1:30 p.m.; The Fieldstones, 2:30 p.m.;
Ace Cannon, 3:30 p.m.; Memphis Klezmer Orchestra, 4:30 p.m.; Mouse
Rocket, 5:30 p.m.; Melatones, 6:30 p.m.; Orange Mound Jazz Messengers, 7:30
p.m.; Darrell Petties, 8:30 p.m.; Billy Lee Riley, J.M. Van Eaton, and Jim
Dickinson, 9:30 p.m.
E-mail: localbeat@memphisflyer.com.