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London celebrating music from Memphis

By Bill Ellis
ellis@commercialappeal.com

Memphis switches to Greenwich Mean Time in April when a series of London shows salutes the music that made our region famous the world over.

Organized by local award-winning author/filmmaker/ musician Robert Gordon, the monthlong showcase, dubbed "It Came From Memphis" after his landmark 1995 book, will take place at premier arts venue the Barbican beginning April 3 with an Ardent Studios-themed concert. Others to follow are a Muscle Shoals tribute on April 9; Delta blues on April 10; the Sun studio and label on April 18; Hi Records on April 22; and Stax on April 25.

"The Barbican had previously done a festival called ’Beyond Nashville’ and it was a success, so they did a follow-up the next year, and then they decided to move on down the highway," says Gordon, 44, who answers to the tag "curator" for the series. "My phone rang and I was interested."

Gordon plans to videotape the proceedings for an "It Came from Memphis" documentary he has been making the past few years (a 10-minute trailer will be shown at the event to interest potential investors in the unfinished project). He’ll further screen his new film, "Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement’s Home Movies."

Panels with the artists precede each show, which promise as much homegrown star power as one month away from Memphis could provide. And Gordon hopes to invite a barbecue chef.

"This is all about bringing as much Memphis feel to London as possible," he says. "It’s not the bands from Memphis who need the barbecue, it’s the poor deprived Londoners."

The kickoff concert will gather living members of underground institution Mud Boy & the Neutrons -- Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge and Jimmy Crosthwait -- joined by a trail of proteges as heard in Tav Falco & Panther Burns and the North Mississippi Allstars. Jack Oblivian and the Tearjerkers also garage-rock their way into a preshow with Monsieur Jeffrey Evans.

Muscle Shoals night pairs members of its famed rhythm section with Mavis Staples, Tony Joe White and others, while the Delta blues fete offers the diverse trio of Olu Dara, Little Milton and T-Model Ford.

The Sun revue should be a highlight with Ike Turner, Sonny Burgess, Billy Lee Riley and Jack Clement sharing the stage. The same goes for a Hi salute featuring Ann Peebles and Syl Johnson accompanied in classic fashion by Hi Rhythm Section members Teenie and Leroy Hodges and Howard Grimes along with Stax session great Marvell Thomas.

The capper, close to sold out in the Orpheum-sized venue according to Gordon, is a star-studded Stax lineup (arguably the best since the legendary Stax/Volt tours of Europe in the 1960s) to include Booker T. & the MGs, Eddie Floyd, Mable John and William Bell along with those session vets who now go by the Bo-Keys.

In related events, the book "It Came from Memphis" will be available soon overseas in a Secker & Warburg reprint followed by a double-CD companion in April on UK label Union Square Music that doesn’t duplicate tracks from the two American releases.

For Gordon, this British convergence of activity is but the latest reward in his ongoing celebration of all things Memphis, something that has informed him from day one growing up in our history-laden town.

"When I was a kid, all my friends would talk about how boring Memphis was and how they couldn’t wait to get away," he says. "And I would look at them in astonishment because I thought (Memphis) was the greatest thing to me. It’s been an honor and a thrill to continue to have that sense of wonder and share it with other people."

For those wanting the coolest ticket going, check out barbican.org.uk/Memphis.

Blues Challengers bumped up

In blues news, Texas act Diunna Greenleaf & the Blue Mercy Band, who captured second place in the band portion of the recent International Blues Challenge, have been promoted to first place after winner Joey Gilmore was disqualified due to a past album of his that had national distribution (an entry rules no-no).

Also, Beale Street stalwart (and fine guitar picker) Eric Hughes has begun hosting an acoustic blues jam through the Memphis Blues Society. The weekly get-together happens 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays at Sleep Out Louie’s, 88 Union.

And drummer/singer Phillip Dale Durham of Moloch fame has a CD release party for his smoking new record, Everything I Need, 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Neil’s.

-- Bill Ellis, 529-2517

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