Go Memphis

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. Full story »

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.
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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. Full story »

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. Full story »

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. Full story »

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. Full story »

"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. Full story »

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. Full story »

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. Full story »

"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. Full story »

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. Full story »

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." Full story »

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. Full story »

An aw-shucks attitude and confident determination, show biz guile and genuine love; that's the essence of Charley Pride. It's Thursday night in Tunica, and Pride is in a reminiscing mood. He's returned to his old stomping grounds for a Grammy-sponsored celebration of Mississippi music at the Harrah's Horseshoe Casino. Even now, some 40 years after his ascent, it's remarkable to consider that one of the most successful country stars of all time is an African-American from Sledge, Miss. Full story »

Like a kid playing records for his friends after school, Memphis director Craig Brewer is trying to turn people on to some of his favorite music artists with his current MTV-backed multimedia extravaganza, "$5 Cover." "The initial hope was that the world could see them," Brewer says of the project, which tells the barely fictionalized stories of a diverse cross-section of local artists, including rapper Al Kapone and roots-rocker Amy LaVere. Full story »