Photo credit: Mike Harding (American Photo Blog) Pictured to your left is Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studios, which is a tiny little building tucked away on a tiny little street just south of Stax and just north of South Parkway here in Memphis. It also just happens to be the place where one of the biggest…
Read MoreThe hardest thing about picking a “least favorite” song, in my view, is that the pick needs to be something that you actually hear on a semi-regular basis. There are entire genres of music that I don’t like and don’t voluntarily listen to–experimental jazz, death metal, most jam-bandy stuff, any of that godforsaken Celtic noise that…
Read MoreSince I started doing this Challenge regularly each summer, I’ve learned to loosen my grip a bit on categories like “favorite” and “least favorite” when it comes to songs, if only to avoid simply reproducing the same picks every year. That’s been a good lesson to learn, really. Kind of like when you learn that…
Read MoreOnce again this June, I’ll be blogging the 30 Day Song Challenge, which I’ve done for the last few years. Since I began in 2011, the official list of Challenge prompts has changed several times, so this year I’ve tried to mashup the best parts of previous iterations into a new “2015” version of the…
Read MoreYesterday, Memphis turned out in force at W.C. Handy Park and on Beale Street to bid its final farewell in a home-going celebration for one of our city’s musical legends, B.B. King, who passed away last week. It was a dark and cloudy morning, which felt strangely appropriate, as Nature herself seemed unable to hold…
Read MoreThis has been a tough year for Memphis music. We’ve lost a lot of greats, some better known than others, each an irreplaceable spiritual brick in the impregnable wall of sound that guards and protects and defines this city. The fact that so many have been called home recently serves as a bittersweet reminder that…
Read MoreYesterday, my good friend, fellow music-lover and ridiculously super-smart guy, Steven Thomas (Asst Professor of English and Director of Film and Media Minor, Wagner College), published on his blog a response to and critique of my post from a couple of days ago on the Thicke/Pharrell/Gaye lawsuit (“On Blurred Lines, Pop Music, Pirates/Thieves and Memphis’ Mustang Sally”). His…
Read MoreYesterday, a Los Angeles federal jury awarded $7.4 million to the family of late, great R&B singer Marvin Gaye for copyright infringement by contemporary pop-icons Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. The jurors determined that Thicke’s 2013 chart-topper “Blurred Lines” copied elements of Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.” Although they were instructed to consider only…
Read MoreJust a few months ago, in September, I somewhat unceremoniously celebrated my 8th year at the helm of this still-imperfect, though incrementally improving, work-in-progress blog. My first couple of years were an experiment, to be sure, but I found my stride here at RMWMTMBM around 2008 or so, and it’s been mostly gravy since. I’m…
Read MoreWe did it! From start to finish, the #JoyfulJoyfulOdetoMemphis project was completed in less than a week. In fact, the studio recording and video editing were done in less than 48 hours! To get some idea of what an undertaking this was, read the backstory here. One of my favorite quotes about Memphis (from Robert…
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