Saving the Memphis Music Scene

Last week the BBC posted a video highlighting the return of Al Bell to the Memphis Music Scene. You can watch the video detailing his return to Memphis here.

Al Bell at Stax

Although I think it’s great that Al Bell wants to be involved again, and I am quite sure his experiences with Stax are valuable, there were a few items in the interview that I found less than accurate – the first being the the following claim:

“Bell has returned to his roots in Memphis, Tennessee, to rekindle the music scene he dominated for decades.”

Well, where do I start? To make my point,  I need only to say that I would bet that most people that have been paying attention would say that the music scene in Memphis doesn’t actually need to be rekindled. Since I started following it in the early ’90s its been a vibrant scene full of talented, interesting and impressive artists.  One of the biggest pop stars in the world calls Memphis his hometown, and many others have had brushes with great success. We just had a television series based on the lives of Memphis musicians air on MTV and we’ve had two Academy Award winning motion pictures focusing on music made in Memphis in the past few years. I would think that any city that could claim any one of these would be seen as having a successful music scene.

But alas, I know these things are superfluous to most musicians in Memphis, and the real ideal is developing a model to help them become successful enough to become full-time working musicians. Many of them have told me that their goal isn’t to be on MTV, or the cover of  Rolling Stone – they just want to be able to pay their rent by doing something they love to do – just like the rest of us.

But here is the thing – the two components you need in order to do this are not really any big secret: Have great songs and tour your ass off!

This formula has been proven time and time again – but let me give you an example that I know of first hand from Ardent Music. Last year we released what I feel was a fantastic album from Jump Back Jake -  Brooklyn Hustle / Memphis Muscle. We pushed the record to all the proper channels and actually got a bunch of great reviews. But for several different reasons, the band was unable to do any significant touring.  Seeing that as a major downfall, we decided that we would make sure that we got Star & Micey  – whose s/t album is also fantastic and has already gotten tons of great reviews – on the road as soon as possible.

Without a booker or a drummer,  and with the help of their producer, Curry Weber, they booked their own tour hitting several cities in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio, and Tennessee. Some nights they played to 5 people others they played to 50, and I am sure it wasn’t always fun being on the road, sleeping in the van, and eating peanut butter sandwiches every day – but with their album not officially due for release until October 20th – they’ve already sold more pre-orders than what Jump Back Jake has sold total.

One has to look no further than bands like Lucero and Skillet to prove this model even further.

Speaking of Skillet, that brings me to another part of the Al Bell interview that I felt was a little misleading. He states in the interview that since Stax there have been no other viable labels in Memphis. I guess he doesn’t feel like Ardent Records is a real label – even though they have sold millions of albums and just happened to have the #2  album on Billboard last month (btw, I have nothing to do with Ardent Records – but we do share an office.)

Anyway, I think it’s time we stopped looking to individuals to come to Memphis and “save” us. I could name several other candidates that were touted as people who were supposed to come here and and make big things happen – but other than showcases and workshops, not much has happened. The bottom line is the bands have to save themselves.

Related Articles by Zemanta

• Al Bell: Out of Exile, Back in Soulsville (nytimes.com)