What’s fresh, free, and fun even after 49 years? How about the WLOK Stone Soul Picnic, which has become a Memphis tradition with a mix of gospel tunes and modern R&B. It’s happening Saturday, August 31st, from noon to 7 p.m. at The Coronet (formerly the Memphis Music Room), 5770 Shelby Oaks Drive.
It’s nonstop entertainment with giveaways, kids’ activities, and food trucks. Throughout the day, top musical groups will perform, including headliner The Canton Spirituals, an award-winning gospel group that pioneered the mixing of traditional gospel with modern R&B.
It continues a long tradition that’s even older than the Beale Street Music Festival (born in 1977). It was in 1974 that a couple of staffers at WLOK thought that the station’s listeners would enjoy some music and food. They didn’t know how right they were. They got the King Cotton company to provide some meat, Wonder Bread to bring the buns, and Coca-Cola to supply the beverages in hopes that a couple of hundred people would show up at Martin Luther King Riverside Park. But thousands of people turned out and it’s been going strong ever since.
Art Gilliam acquired the station a couple of years later and kept the picnic going. The station’s music was R&B but has since changed to gospel, but the event remains free and joyous. And WLOK — still under Gilliam’s leadership — remains a community station with not just music but programming that includes, among other topics, civic issues and health information.
Here’s the musical lineup for Saturday:
12:05 p.m. – Deborah Barnes
12:20 p.m. – Memphis Youth Arts Initiative
12:35 p.m. – Memphis Baptist Ministerial Chorus
1 p.m. – Cedric King & Restoration
1:25 p.m. – Tamara Knox
1:45 p.m. – The Mellowtones
2:15 p.m. – Patrick Hollis & United
2:40 p.m. – Vincent Tharp & Kenosis
3:15 p.m. – Roney Strong & the Strong Family
3:50 p.m. – Josh Bracy & Power Anointed
4:25 p.m. – The Sensational Wells Brothers
5 p.m. – The Echoaires
5:35 p.m. – The Canton Spirituals