Meaningful Memphis
MIFA - Uniting the Community through Service - written for Grace-St Luke's 'The Messenger' newsletter A murder and a call to action. In...
Memphis in Motion - A New Project, Part 2
I am a procrastinator and like to do some things off the cuff, so when it really counts - and more often as I get older - I plan and...
Memphis in Motion - A New Project, Part 1
I've been in a cave... The Call, "I Still Believe" I remember singing on stage twice as a child. The first was “Morning Has Broken,” a...
African-American History Month - "I hear her voice as the cold winds blow"
I’m going to end this series with - surprise, I know - a singer/songwriter you may not know. These 28 days of honoring African-American...
African-American History Month - "if number one should start to fall"
Both Johnny Cash and Fats Domino would have celebrated birthdays today, this 26th day of February, African-American History Month. I’m a...
African-American History Month - "I believe I'll dust my bed"
US Highway 49 would qualify as one of William Least Heat-Moon’s ‘Blue Highways.’ It could tell tales of life, death, pain, and joy along...
African-American History Month - “When the blues overtake me”
From humble beginnings, legacies are built. When traveling musician Will Shade returned home to Memphis in 1926, he started a band like...
African-American History Month - "on some lonesome railroad iron"
Finding conflicting information in research is troubling. I usually look for two corroborating sources, but sometimes an odd fact jumps...
African-American History Month - "tunes that you know and love so"
What do a disco-singing trio and a New Orleans R&B singer have in common? Well, you know it has to be about this 22nd day of...
African-American History Month - "It didn’t stop me"
Aretha Franklin sings through it all. Her parents were separated, her Father an influential preacher who put her in his traveling shows,...
African-American History Month - “I am so humble and pleading still”
You may not remember the movie, but it was set in 1930’s Chicago and featured what everyone thought of when they thought about 1930’s...
African-American History Month - "walkin' down Hastings Street"
Sometimes music is about context. Put yourself in January 1949. That big Admiral radio from Montgomery Ward is belting out the biggest...
African-American History Month - "Tell your Mama"
So you say you have one of those jobs where the boss watches the clock? You’ve done everything that needed doing and you still have a few...
African-American History Month - "a million miles away"
Prelude to a “Dear John” letter? This song was written at the height of World War II and thousands of GI’s - in all sorts of uniforms -...
African-American History Month - “We talked about…”
With a thousand songs to his credit and 200 million - and counting - records sold, this artist should be a household name. He started...