Bob Mehr

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.

In many ways, Big Bill Broonzy is the forgotten giant of the blues.

Music once again triumphed over nature, as the curtain closed on the 37th edition of Memphis in May’s Beale Street Music Festival Sunday.

While the weather continued to be drudgery, the performances were inspired during the second day of the Beale Street Music Festival.

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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 ...

Sid Selvidge, a long time Memphis musician and artistic force in the Bluff City since the 1960’s, died early Thursday morning.

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 ...

Boz Scaggs took it as a good omen, a kind of papal seal, when one of his childhood heroes, Bobby “Blue” Bland, showed up at his recording session last winter at Memphis’ Royal Studios.

Bob Dylan is returning to Memphis, and he’s bringing some friends along with him.

For music fans and collectors, it’s like Christmas, New Year’s and the Fourth of July, all rolled into one.

Victor Wooten has long been regarded as one of the world’s greatest musicians.

For a brief moment in the mid-90s Wally Ford was making a name for himself in Memphis. Along with his band the Lizzard Kings, Ford was getting play on local rock radio, earning notice for his manic stage show, and ...

Crooner Tony Bennett, rock god Robert Plant and fast-rising country stars The Band Perry are among the big names set to perform at the Memphis Botanic Garden’s “Live at the Garden” series.

Event, to air on PBS next week, showcased the "Memphis Sound" for President Obama and guests.

Paul McCartney has confirmed a May 26 concert date at the FedExForum, part of his 2013 “Out There” world tour.

Alt-country stars Son Volt, Texas tunesmith Ray Wylie Hubbard and Louisiana blues guitarist Sonny Landreth are among the performers set to play the free concert series at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park. The Shell has announced the lineup for ...

On Sunday, as The Royal Comedy Tour rolls into the Landers Center, Joe Torry will be filling a familiar role as host and emcee of the stand-up showcase.

The closing night of the South by Southwest music festival in Austin was touted as a night of giants.

Como Mamas was opening a showcase for the New York-based retro R&B label Daptone Records at South by Southwest.

The Western Crooners may not be the only traditional honky-tonk band from Japan made up of mostly sexagenarians, but they’re the only one that will be barnstorming America over the coming weeks.

By now, the journalist David Williams is familiar to most Mid-Southerners.

Whether he’s in Johannesburg, or his hometown of Charlotte, N.C., neo-soul singer Anthony Hamilton is a man with a sense of place.

Memphis in May will officially unveil the lineup for the 2013 Beale Street Music Festival on Thursday morning.

Back in the mid-1960s, Dan Penn was what you’d call an all-nighter. He spent his wee hours at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Sometime late Saturday night, or early Sunday morning, the music will finally end, and the Hi-Tone Café will be no more.

Tuesday, the group will be in Memphis to work up the LP, along with other favorites from its catalog, during a show at the Hi-Tone Café.

Black Keys, ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow, Flaming Lips and others appear headed to Memphis.

Hi Records alum Otis Clay, guitar greats Earl Hooker and Jody Williams, and pianist Little Brother Montgomery are among the musicians set to be inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame.

On Sunday, Mike Epps returns to the Mid-South to headline a show — also featuring an appearance by hip-hop legend Doug E. Fresh in Southaven.

The first time Shovels and Rope came to Memphis in 2011, they were little known outside their Charleston, S.C., home base; just a struggling band playing for tips on a cold, rainy Tuesday night at the P&H Café.

Atlanta musician Little G Weevil and Florida band Selwyn Birchwood Band took home top honors in the Blues Challenge.

This week, as hundreds of musicians compete to make history as part of the annual International Blues Challenge, A. Schwab is celebrating those who have already made their marks with its "Talking the Blues" series.

The Nashville roots outfit Wild Feathers blends their diverse talents harmoniously on the stage.

It's the 29th year for the Beale Street event, presented by the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, which also stages the Blues Music Awards each May.

After two decades the Blues Explosion continues to make music and move foward

After 10 years as leading neo-soul voice, Musiq Soulchild poised to defy expectations

The last 12 months have yielded an interesting and unusual crop of Memphis albums. Among the best were a number of long awaited and much delayed releases, records once thought permanently lost, and others that were shelved and simply forgotten.

This week, country traditionalist Dale Watson will help transform the Hi-Tone Café, as part of the JingleBilly benefit for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Country queen and American Idol winner Carrie Underwood is ready to blow away audiences with her high-wire stage show.

The nominees for the 2013 Blues Music Awards were announced on Wednesday, with rising star John Nemeth and veteran blues diva Janiva Magness leading the way with five nominations each.

The longtime Memphis music venue the Hi-Tone is closing. The owner announced his decision officially in an email to employees Monday night.

Adam Weiner and Dan Finnemore, the singer-songwriters behind the raw-boned rock-and-roll combo Low Cut Connie, look at their band as a second chance.

"Growing up, I listened to so much Memphis music; crunk, blues and soul ... I wanted to touch on all that," says Knowledge Nick.

Dallas-area native and longtime Austin resident John Wesley Coleman will conjure up some "hyperactive" tunes during a concert at the Hi-Tone Café.

25 Memphis music legends to be enshrined in Hall of Fame

Now, happy and healthy psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson is one of the more remarkable resurrection stories in rock and roll.

The Eric Goulden/Amy Rigby teaming is rare in pop music, a successful union of two distinct talents.