Go Memphis Stories: Music Reviews

Concert review: John Mayer delivers a smooth but mediocre show

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:57:00 -0000

Singer-songwriter John Mayer has been garnering more attention for his loutish public statements than his music of late. But the 17,000 people who turned out to see the Grammy winner and his band play the FedExForum Friday night seemed in a forgiving mood, more than willing to let his tabloid transgressions pass in exchange for two hours of mellow pop rock.

Concert review: Clapton sedates, Daltrey invigorates Forum crowd

mehr@commercialappeal.com (Bob Mehr) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:38:00 -0000

Friday night's Eric Clapton/Roger Daltrey concert at FedExForum was touted as a teaming of rock legends. When all was said and done, however, only one man came off as legendary, while the other simply seemed lethargic. It was an expectant, near-capacity crowd that packed the Downtown arena to watch the two British icons run through musical catalogs that have come to define classic rock.

Concert Review: Strait from the heart country

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:23:00 -0000

The all-star teaming of George Strait, the Academy of Country Music’s recently crowned Artist of the Decade, with fellow Nashville superstars Reba McEntire and Lee Ann Womack did not disappoint Thursday night as the trio delivered in a marathon, four-hour-plus concert before a crowd of 15,000 at the FedEx Forum. The pairing of Strait with two female openers offered a fascinating contrast, with the women providing a softer, more emotional counterpoint to Strait’s stoic honky-tonk.

Local Disc Reviews: The Warble and Seeing Red

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:05:00 -0000

On their first collection — the infuriatingly lo-fi (probably for some higher artistic reason) Live @ Indian Camp — the Warble’s genuine musical gifts struggled to break through amateurish playing and recording. Its follow-up, Spacetime Breakfast, was an incremental improvement. But with The Green Ghost the band has made a quantum leap forward.

Concert Review: Harry Connick Jr. shows playful, humorous side in Memphis

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:18:00 -0000

Almost two weeks late, perhaps, but Memphis celebrated Mardi Gras — and the New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl win over the Indianapolis Colts — on Saturday night as Big Easy jazz singer and pianist Harry Connick, Jr. performed before a crowd of 2,000 at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.

Concert Review: Songs were the stars at Kristofferson, Haggard show

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:14:00 -0000

Early in their joint set before a sold-out crowd of 1,400 at Horseshoe Casino’s Bluesville Saturday night, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard took a moment to single out another music legend in the audience, Jerry Lee Lewis. “Imagine, all three of us out of jail at the same time,” joked Haggard, referring to the trio’s rowdier days. Now both in their 70s, those days are far behind Kristofferson and Haggard, but they live on in the remarkable body of songs the two have produced.

Concert Review: Bridgewater's homecoming a Valentine's Day treat for GPAC crowd

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:50:00 -0000

Dee Dee Bridgewater traded Valentines with an audience of approximately 600 at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre Sunday night as the Grammy-winning jazz vocalist returned for the first time in more than a half century to the city of her birth. “Memphis, I’m home,” said Bridgewater, 59, as she took the stage, her four-piece band percolating an African-inspired groove behind her.

Disc Reviews: "Home Sweet Home" is home run for String Band

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:58:00 -0000

Home Sweet Home" by the South Memphis String Band: Swapping around acoustic guitar, Dobro, mandolin, and banjo, singing into a shared microphone, with only the occasional foot stomp or hand clap to pound home the beat, the trio tear through reverent, deep-felt renditions of public domain tunes like “Jesse James” as well as classics by bluesman Blind Willie Johnson (“Let your Light Shine On Me”) and country forefather A.P. Carter (“Dixie Darling”) that illustrate the common threads in the two genres.

Concert Review: Jackson Browne shines in solo show

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:00:00 -0000

Friday night, Jackson Browne made a compelling case for his artistic worth with a powerful, sold-out solo acoustic show at the Orpheum theater. The 2 1/2 -hour concert was an electrifying survey of Browne's entire career, with popular hits, cult favorites and the artist's personal favorites thrown into the mix.

R&B's 'First Lady' Candi Staton takes career full circle

mehr@commercialappeal.com (Bob Mehr) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:05:00 -0000

In 1968, Candi Staton found herself at a crossroads. "I was getting ready to go to college and become a registered nurse," recalls Staton. "That's what I really wanted to be." But, as fate would have it, the music business intervened, and Staton would instead launch one of the great careers in R&B music. Forty years later, Staton is still singing her songs, and will perform Saturday at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

Concert Review: Loaded R&B concert with Maze is amazing

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:03:00 -0000

Rhythm-and-blues fans also had plenty to be thankful for Sunday at the Pre-Thanksgiving Music Festival at DeSoto Civic Center, featuring Maze and fellow genre standouts Babyface and Charlie Wilson along with newcomer Arika Kane. More than 7,000 people turned out for the five-hour-plus concert, which, musically, may have been the best pop music experience the Mid-South has experienced all year.

Concert Review: Lambert keeps party going in Tunica

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:40:00 -0000

Singer Miranda Lambert has carefully cultivated an image as a hard-partying, straight-talking, buck-shooting, taking-no-guff-from-anyone honky tonk thrush. That empowering point of view is undoubtedly what attracted the large contingent of women -- dressed to the nines, dancing in the aisles, and singing along to every song -- to Lambert's sold-out concert Saturday night at Gold Strike Casino's Millennium Theater.

Concert Review: Maxwell melts the crowd at FedExForum

mehr@commercialappeal.com (Bob Mehr) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:12:00 -0000

Maxwell’s “BLACKsummers’snight” tour brought him to the FedExForum Tuesday night to face a somewhat light, but wildly enthusiastic crowd. Emerging in dark suit and looking GQ slick, Maxwell proceeded to deliver a nearly two-hour set that blended his neo-soul sound with an air of old-school elegance. From the silken curtained backdrop to the stellar 10-piece big band backing him, every element of the show was designed to highlight the sophisticated cool at core of his music and persona.

Concert Review: Don McLean covers hits and then some

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:58:00 -0000

"I've never been here before," Don McLean told the sold-out audience Saturday at the kickoff concert of the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center's 11th season. "And since it's been 40 years, the odds of my returning are nil, so we're going to play lots of songs tonight." The singer-songwriter best known for the song "American Pie" performed a wide-ranging show that highlighted both his deep knowledge of the American songbook and his own remarkable compositions.

Concert review: Steely Dan in retrospect

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:00:00 -0000

Memphis has never been much of a jazz town. Even our blue-bloods have a collar to match, a down-home egalitarian streak that favors a more proletarian soundtrack of country and blues and rock-and-roll. So it's surprising when a group with such strong jazz proclivities as Steely Dan sells out the 5,000-seat Mud Island Amphitheater like they did Friday night.

Concert Review: Blondie, Benatar give high-energy show

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:27:00 -0000

Despite the lingering threat of rain, a small, hardcore contingent of the 4,500 or so people at Saturday night’s Blondie/Pat Benatar show in Memphis decided to play up the nostalgic vibe established by the presence of two ’80s vintage hitmakers by sporting appropriately retro outfits. They wanted to hear two of rock’s most successful female-fronted acts crank out their considerably lengthy lists of best-loved hits, something they did with varying degrees of success.

'American Idols Live!' concert proves viewers' votes correct

blank@commercialappeal.com (Christopher Blank) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:36:00 -0000

"American Idol" fans, from grandmothers to teens, packed FedEdForum in Memphis on Sunday night to see the Top 10 from the show perform. As to the great national debate over who should have won this year — Adam Lambert or Kris Allen — the stadium tour settles it. Adam gets props for glam-rocking the house with a David Bowie medley, and Kris Allen, the winner, brought something for everyone, of every age.

Concert Review: Versatile Jamie Foxx charms crowd, commands stage

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:33:00 -0000

Jamie Foxx kicked off his concert Friday night in Memphis with a video montage celebrating his resume, including acting, comedy and, last but not least, singing. Part smooth R&B love fest, part comedy show, part house party, the concert seemed designed to showcase Foxx's astounding versatility. The crowd, roughly 3,000 people this night, seemed paltry, though, to be fair, in other markets Foxx has been playing small theaters -- not cavernous arenas like the FedExForum.

Concert Review: Joe Cocker rocked the Garden

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:00:00 -0000

The 40th anniversary of the Woodstock festival is near, and one of the biggest stars of that legendary concert made an appearance on another rolling green Saturday night. Grammy- and Oscar-winning vocalist Joe Cocker performed before a crowd of 6,000 at the Memphis Botanic Garden's "Live At The Garden" concert series, offering a career-retrospective approach that gave equal weight to his lightweight Top 40 fodder from the '80s, such as "Shelter Me," and classic blues-rock jams such as "Feelin' Alright."

Concert Review: Keyshia Cole turns on the power at DeSoto center

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:49:00 -0000

Organizers postponed the "A Different Me Tour" at the DeSoto Civic Center on June 12 due to a power outage, but at Monday's rescheduled show, headliner Keyshia Cole gave an electrifying performance. The R&B songstress took the stage rocking ripped, fitted jeans. Her boundless charisma filled up the three-level set that resembled an apartment building complete with fire escape and garbage cans with simulated flames. The R&B songstress took the stage rocking ripped, fitted jeans.