Post by lesley on May 6, 2006 9:21:18 GMT -5
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis Online)
May 6, 2006
Blues Tent & AutoZone stage Blues, rock fans get early satisfaction
By Mark Jordan
Special to The Commercial Appeal
Playing first at a major outdoor music festival like Memphis in May's Beale Street Music Festival is supposed to be a thankless job -- all beating sun and no crowds. But at the Blues Tent, Memphian Billy Gibson played to a full house.
"First act, the sun is shining, and the Blues Tent is packed," said Jay Sieleman, executive director of the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, as he watched Gibson blow his harp through a set that included selections from his new Inside Sounds CD The Billy Gibson Band. "You'd think it was raining outside."
Also watching Gibson from the side were cameras from the BBC, in town to videotape the young harmonica player and fellow Friday Blues Tent performer Ronnie Baker Brooks for an episode of the series "Destination Music."
At one point, Gibson turned his set into a miniature Inside Sounds showcase, bringing up labelmate Daddy Mack Orr to front the band for a few numbers.
At the AutoZone Stage, Marty Casey, best known as the runner-up in last year's television talent search "Rockstar: INXS," and his band Lovehammers played to a crowd of about 300, drawing equally from teens and young adults attracted to such melodic modern rock as the band's single "Trees" and older listeners curious about the charismatic singer who almost became the new Michael Hutchence.
For his part, Casey, a wiry performer from the Mick Jagger school of lead singing, put on an electric and, at times, death-defying show. Twice he leaped into the audience, walking through it to belt out a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," and during a performance of the band's "The Tunnel" from their eponymous major-label debut, Casey climbed one of the steel girders flanking the stage, going up about 30 feet belting out a verse while hanging upside down.
Casey was followed by Memphis hard rockers Egypt Central, who technically moved to a smaller stage after last year's music fest but moved up in profile.
"The crowd was great, much bigger than last year," said drummer Blake Allison as he signed autographs after the show. "We've been pounding (our music) into these kids' ears for a while, and it's very satisfying."
Egypt Central's large turnout comes just as the band is preparing to release its major-label debut this summer and as the first single, "Over and Under," which they closed with Friday, is one of the most requested singles on local station 93X.
Back at the Blues Tent, Duwayne Burnside, son of the late North Mississippi legend R.L. Burnside, filled the venue to standing room only. Though his sound is more Chicago than his father's hypnotic hill country boogie, Burnside had the crowd dancing in the aisles with lengthy guitar jams and she-done-me-wrong blues.
Link: www.commercialappeal.com/mca/live_music/article/0,1426,MCA_508_4678084,00.html
May 6, 2006
Blues Tent & AutoZone stage Blues, rock fans get early satisfaction
By Mark Jordan
Special to The Commercial Appeal
Playing first at a major outdoor music festival like Memphis in May's Beale Street Music Festival is supposed to be a thankless job -- all beating sun and no crowds. But at the Blues Tent, Memphian Billy Gibson played to a full house.
"First act, the sun is shining, and the Blues Tent is packed," said Jay Sieleman, executive director of the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, as he watched Gibson blow his harp through a set that included selections from his new Inside Sounds CD The Billy Gibson Band. "You'd think it was raining outside."
Also watching Gibson from the side were cameras from the BBC, in town to videotape the young harmonica player and fellow Friday Blues Tent performer Ronnie Baker Brooks for an episode of the series "Destination Music."
At one point, Gibson turned his set into a miniature Inside Sounds showcase, bringing up labelmate Daddy Mack Orr to front the band for a few numbers.
At the AutoZone Stage, Marty Casey, best known as the runner-up in last year's television talent search "Rockstar: INXS," and his band Lovehammers played to a crowd of about 300, drawing equally from teens and young adults attracted to such melodic modern rock as the band's single "Trees" and older listeners curious about the charismatic singer who almost became the new Michael Hutchence.
For his part, Casey, a wiry performer from the Mick Jagger school of lead singing, put on an electric and, at times, death-defying show. Twice he leaped into the audience, walking through it to belt out a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," and during a performance of the band's "The Tunnel" from their eponymous major-label debut, Casey climbed one of the steel girders flanking the stage, going up about 30 feet belting out a verse while hanging upside down.
Casey was followed by Memphis hard rockers Egypt Central, who technically moved to a smaller stage after last year's music fest but moved up in profile.
"The crowd was great, much bigger than last year," said drummer Blake Allison as he signed autographs after the show. "We've been pounding (our music) into these kids' ears for a while, and it's very satisfying."
Egypt Central's large turnout comes just as the band is preparing to release its major-label debut this summer and as the first single, "Over and Under," which they closed with Friday, is one of the most requested singles on local station 93X.
Back at the Blues Tent, Duwayne Burnside, son of the late North Mississippi legend R.L. Burnside, filled the venue to standing room only. Though his sound is more Chicago than his father's hypnotic hill country boogie, Burnside had the crowd dancing in the aisles with lengthy guitar jams and she-done-me-wrong blues.
Link: www.commercialappeal.com/mca/live_music/article/0,1426,MCA_508_4678084,00.html
