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Bob Mehr

Title: Memphis and national music writer and critic
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About Bob Mehr

Information

Biography

Bob Mehr has been a reporter and critic covering music for The Commercial Appeal since 2006. Born in 1975, the Los Angeles native began his career in Phoenix, working as a music editor at the flagship paper of the New Times’ alternative weekly chain, before going on to serve the same role at Village Voice Media’s Seattle Weekly. After several years as an award-winning columnist and critic at the Chicago Reader, Mehr arrived in the Mid-South where he’s reported on local institutions like Stax and Elvis, and produced a series of in-depth features on more obscure and unknown chapters in local music history. Mehr’s byline has also appeared in numerous national and international music magazines including SPIN, MOJO in the U.K. and German Rolling Stone, and his essays are regularly featured as part of CD reissues for labels like Rhino Records.

Position History

Memphis and national music writer and critic
10/02/2008 - current

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Recent Work

Stories

Dickinson brothers kick off Levitt Shell spring concert season Published 05/16/2013 at 2:04 p.m.
Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1963, Jim Dickinson became the first independent promoter to stage a show at the city-owned Overton Park Shell.
Salgado, late 'Iron Man' Burks big winners at annual Blues Music Awards Published 05/10/2013 at 12:32 a.m.
Soul blues shouter Curtis Salgado was among the big winners at the 34th annual Blues Music Awards, held Thursday night at the Memphis Cook Convention Center.
Better weather, strong lineup boost final day at Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis Published 05/05/2013 at 8:15 p.m.
Music once again triumphed over nature, as the curtain closed on the 37th edition of Memphis in May’s Beale Street Music Festival Sunday.
Beale Street Music Festival crowd pleasers: Patti Smith, Yoakam, Lewis turn up the heat Published 05/04/2013 at 10 p.m.
While the weather continued to be drudgery, the performances were inspired during the second day of the Beale Street Music Festival.
Night vibrates with music from great hip-hop hope to Sheryl Crow Published 05/03/2013 at 10:48 p.m.
The opening night of the Beale Street Music Festival at Tom Lee Park offered lots of mud following a day of hard rain, plenty of grousing about the unusually frigid temperatures, and, of course, a mix of music and big ...
Billy Gibbons having ball living in past, present, "La Futura" Updated 05/03/2013 at 7:32 p.m.
The first time Billy Gibbons and ZZ Top set foot in Memphis there was a good bit of confusion. Booked to play a blues festival at Overton Park in 1971, based on the strength of the still unknown Texas group’s ...
Music Fest proves unique melting pot of music, performers Updated 05/03/2013 at 7:27 p.m.
There are few places where a poetic punk icon like Patti Smith and a guitar-shredding metal maven like Yngwie Malmsteen would cross paths; fewer places still where they would share a stage, but the Memphis in May Beale Street Music ...
Mavis Staples continues her late career renaissance with a new LP Updated 05/03/2013 at 7:14 p.m.
For a moment, Mavis Staples looked around and felt like she had been transported to a different time and place. It was just like old days in Memphis at Stax, except the backdrop was Washington and the White House.
Selvidge was key contributor to evolving history of Memphis music Updated 05/02/2013 at 5:49 p.m.
Sid Selvidge, a long time Memphis musician and artistic force in the Bluff City since the 1960’s, died early Thursday morning.
Stax festival a showcase for community, students Updated 04/26/2013 at 5:04 p.m.
Community has long been a key watchword for Kirk Whalum and Mark Wender. In 2010, when the pair took over the operation of the Soulsville Foundation — the organization that oversees the Stax Music Academy, Stax Museum of American Soul ...