THE MUSIC RAMBLER

Beale Street Music Festival Lineup

The Beale Street Music Festival will take place at the riverside Tom Lee Park in downtown Memphis on May 2-4, 2008. This year's lineup is an impressive mix of big name crowd pleaser's ( Fergie, Santana, My Chemical Romance) and the great soul, blues, and rockabilly musicians who call Memphis home. A three day pass costs $63.50 and day pass is $27.50.

Friday lineup: My Chemical Romance , Sheryl Crow, The Roots, Keb 'Mo', Richard Johnston, Hellogoodbye , Jonny Lang, Ben Folds, Charlie Musselwhite, Robert "Wolfman" Belfour, Flyleaf , Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Project Pat, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, Lord T & Eloise, Amy LaVere, JJ Grey & Mofro, Lurrie Bell

Saturday: Santana, Disturbed, Matisyahu, Bettye LaVette, Richard Johnston, Lou Reed, Seether The John Butler Trio, Pinetop Perkins & Hubert, Sumlin W Billy Gibson, Blind Mississippi Morris, Buddy Guy, Simple Plan, Arrested Development, Watermelon Slim, Cat Power, The Whigs, Colbie Caillat, Back Door Slam, Duman, Saving Abel, Tegan and Sara, Kenny Neal, Muck Sticky, Oracle and the Mountain, Al Kapone, Preston Shannon, Eli "Paperboy" Reed

Sunday: Fergie, Michael McDonald, The Black Crowes, Doyle Bramhall, Richard Johnston Finger Eleven, Aretha Franklin, O.A.R., Magic Slim & the Teardrops, Robert "Wolfman" Belfour, Gavin DeGraw, Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Nick Moss & The Flip Tops, Rue Melo, Duman (from Turkey), Umphrey's McGee, Samuel James, Carney, Billy Lee Riley, Pete Francis, Calvin Cooke

The Beale Street Music Festival Website

Clarksdale Mississippi's Juke Joint Festival

If you have ever wanted to experience the genuine down-home blues of the Mississippi delta than you will have a hard time finding a better experience than Clarksdale's Juke Joint Festival taking place April 19th,2008. This is far from a one day affair as there will be related events all weekend starting on Thursday the 18th and continuing until late Sunday night. The official live music part of the festival will will take place on a half-dozen stages around town on Saturday until about 6pm. And that's just the beginning, after dark there will be live blues at close to another dozen venues, including actor Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero and the legendary Red's Lounge.

Juke Joint Festival Website

The Music Rambler in the coming weeks will be posting a music guide and travel information about Memphis and the Mississippi Delta.

B.B.King Buys Mississippi Hometown Juke Joint

B.B. King has brought a juke joint in his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, a place where he plays once a year during his annual homecoming and where he met his second wife. Club Ebony opened in 1945 and B.B. was one of the many big names in blues and R&B who has played there over the years. Others have included Count Basie, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Ike Turner. The previous owner brought the place from B.B.'s mother-in-law in the mid-seventies. B.B. must have big plans for the joint because he is a man who doesn't think small. Besides continuing to tour at age 82, he operates namesake clubs on Beale Street in Memphis, Times Square in New York, Nashville, and Orlando.

Blues tourism is becoming a big part of the economic picture in the Mississippi Delta region. The town of Clarksdale, MS has been revitalized over the last decade with the influx of blues devotees from around the world opening music related business's and art galleries. Actor Morgan Freeman is the best known, opening his upscale juke joint "The Ground Zero" in 2001 ( if a juke joint is upscale, is it still a juke joint? ). Perhaps B.B. sees the same future for his hometown of Indianola, a place where he has returned to play many times over the years.

The Music Rambler in the coming weeks will be posting a music guide and travel information about Memphis and the Mississippi Delta.

Also see: Clarksdale Mississippi's Juke Joint Festival

B.B. King's Club website

The Ground Zero website