Memphis’ Own @SnootieWild At The @BMI Showcase at @EARL_EAV @A3C

Snootie Wild first came to my attention a couple of years ago at a record pool meeting in Memphis, as an amazing rapper from North Memphis with the unusual ability to command a Jamaican accent at will. This might not be unusual in a lot of cities, but there is almost no Caribbean presence in Memphis whatsoever, and Snootie has no island background When he released the single “Yayo” a few months later, he became the biggest artist in Memphis. Not long thereafter, he signed with Yo Gotti’s Cocaine Music Group, which has since been renamed Collective Music Group, and began to tour the country with Gotti. More recently, he has followed up the success of the earlier single with a new single called “No Kissing”, which blew up the streets of Memphis and other Southern cities all summer. So his appearances at A3C garnered a lot of attention, and his appearance at the BMI Showcase in East Atlanta Village was especially good. Despite his youth, Snootie Wild seems calm and in complete control, enjoying himself and bantering with crowd as if they were old and trusted friends. The young Memphian has great things ahead of him.

Keep up with Snootie Wild:
https://twitter.com/SnootieWild
http://gomode.snootiewild.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/snootie-wild/id653599663
http://instagram.com/snootiewild

Joshua McCain and the Soul Seven Getting Funky at The Spot Bar & Grill In North Memphis

Memphis has a number of neighborhood clubs, bars and hole-in-the-walls, but it’s not all that common for them to book live bands, so when I heard that Joshua McCain & The Soul Seven were playing at a place called The Spot on Jackson Avenue in the Mitchell Heights area, I was intrigued. I had driven past the little sports bar many times, but had never imagined there being live music there. And while I had heard the Soul Seven before, it had always been a stripped-down three piece version of the band, but on this particular Friday, the larger ensemble was crowded into a corner of the tiny club, playing an incredible jazz/soul instrumental, complete with saxophone. During the rest of the evening, the band featured a number of tunes with their male and female singer, including covers of Frankie Beverly’s “We Are One” and “Happy Feelings.” The venue was tiny, with walls painted with every kind of Dallas Cowboys decoration imaginable, since the owners seem to be Cowboys fans, and the small crowd of neighborhood regulars grew bigger as the evening progressed. It was actually a lot of fun.

Decatur Street Mural in North Memphis

Saturday afternoon, while driving around North Memphis, I discovered this colorful mural on the wall of an abandoned store at Decatur Street and Looney Avenue.

Authentic North Memphis Blues with the Memphis Bluesmasters at Wild Bill’s

Memphis’ music reputation was built on blues long before gospel or soul, but authentic blues in an authentic setting in Memphis is not so easy to find. A few juke joints still exist in rougher Memphis neighborhoods, and one of the most long-standing is Wild Bill’s, a North Memphis institution on Vollintine Avenue that had a long run of popularity before closing abruptly last summer. It reopened under new ownership in December, and I read that on weekends, the Memphis Bluesmasters play there, often with Memphis blues queen Ann Hines.
So even though we were under a winter storm warning, I drove down to the rather tiny juke in a non-descript strip shopping center not far from Northside High School. When I arrived, there was already a good-sized crowd in a jovial mood. Despite the new owners, Wild Bill’s still has the funky juke joint ambiance that I remembered from my previous visit a couple of years ago, and the only real difference is that they have added a hot-wing menu and have started opening for lunch.
The Memphis Bluesmasters are a seasoned group of Memphis musicians with years of experience playing blues and soul music, on Beale Street and elsewhere, but here in North Memphis, they can let their hair down and play to the local crowd, some of whom come up and make a small dance floor in front of the musicians. Ann Hines wasn’t singing with the band on this particular night, but the female vocalist was called Miss Nickki, and she was an attractive singer with a fine and powerful voice. The material was largely taken from the standards of southern soul, with covers of Tyrone Davis, Shirley Brown and O. V. Wright songs.
At the end of the band’s first set, it was 1 AM, and I walked outside to discover that the whole neighborhood was draped in a coating of white snow that was still falling. The music would continue until 3 AM, but I decided it was best to make my way home.

Memphis Manassas High School Band at the Southern Heritage Classic Parade

Manassas High School was the second Black high school in Memphis history to have a marching band, and the original band director of the school was none other than Jimmy Lunceford, the man who went on to become a legendary big band star of the 1930’s, fronting a band largely composed of former Manassas students. Later, Emerson Able mentored many fine Memphis musicians at Manassas, including jazz stars Frank Strozier and Booker Little, as well as Al Green’s drummer Howard Grimes. Although Manassas has suffered from low enrollment in recent years, it appears that its band program is on the way back up, as evidenced by their appearance in this year’s Southern Heritage Classic Parade, 9/14/13

Memphis rapper Snootie Wild (@snootiewho) Live at @PurpleHazeMEM during On Location Memphis (@olm_trailer)

North Memphis rap artist Snootie Wild first came to my attention at March’s The Music Exchange event in Hickory Hill, when he performed the Jamaican-sounding single “Back and Forth.” At Saturday night’s On Location Memphis music showcase, Snootie came on stage after folk-singer Clay Parker, a rather strange transition, to say the least. But Snootie’s fans had packed the Purple Haze, and he got the biggest acclaim of any artist on the bill.

Snootie Wild Live at #TMXMemphis

Snootie Wild performs at the Music Exchange at the Sahara Cafe and Grill in Hickory Hill, Memphis, 2/27/13

Stebo (@Stebo4Life) Promoting His New Mixtape at #TMXMemphis

North Memphis rap artist Stebo has a new mixtape out, and last night he took full advantage of the new record pool called the Music Exchange to promote it. #TMXMemphis will be held six times a year in Memphis as a place for artists to promote their music and network with each other, with DJ’s and with industry personnel.

Memphis artist @CrownVega Networking at #TMXMemphis

North Memphis rapper Crown Vega has a new single out called “Ball Hogg” and was at the Music Exchange Wednesday night promoting it and networking. Visit http://www.reverbnation.com/crownvega to hear the new single and other songs from Crown Vega.

Memphis Manassas High School Band in the Southern Heritage Classic Parade 2012

Manassas High School in North Memphis is the second-oldest Black high school in Memphis (it was originally a county school, as it was outside the city limits of Memphis). It has a long tradition of excellent music which began when Jimmie Lunceford was hired to be the band director of the school. Lunceford would go on to fame and fortune in the world of big band jazz, along with one of his former students, drummer Jimmy Crawford. Great Memphis musicians such as Emerson Able, Isaac Hayes and Howard Grimes attended Manassas High, and although the school has suffered from low enrollment in recent years, its football program was recently featured in a documentary called Undefeated. Here the Manassas High band marches in the Southern Heritage Classic Parade in Orange Mound, Memphis TN, 9/8/12