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Memphis Soul at the White House


thebes

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Should be a pretty cool performance, well, except for Justin Timberlame.

The workshop on the history of Memphis should also be very interesting. The actual performance will be streamed live and broadcast on April 15 on TBS.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/02/upcoming-guidance-performance-white-house-memphis-soul

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(Sarcasm alert) Nice to see some people get a white house tour even though we can't keep it open for plain old school kids. They'll just have to watch the PBS special.

It will be showing on a PBS special, however, it will be shown on a "pledge night." Get your credit card ready.... lol...
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Sorry bigrfish, while Wilson Pickett & Aretha Franklin may have recorded at Muscle Shoals, to dismiss Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Booker T & The MGs, Sam & Dave, etc as "Diletantes" is insulting. I hope you were being facetious.

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http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-muscle-shoals-rhythm-section-mn0001352027

I have friends that worked as session side men and producers at both places. If I had to choose one body of work over another, I would vote for the Shoals. I am not objective, and yes, the dilletante remark was a little hyperbolic. Most people are not aware of the very big mark Muscle Shoals made in defining soul music. The artists came with ideas, and the music men revealed them, much the same way as a sculptor frees the image from the stone.They really did not seek to make a style, per se, they just played the music the only way that seemed good to them, and history shows us the result.

Muscle Shoals also transcended soul music by recording many pop, country, and rock artists, like the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Bob Seeger, Delbert McClinton, the Oak Ridge Boys, Glenn Frey, The Osmonds, and so on. There are a couple of interesting documentaries out there on the subject, and the area still is producing excellent musicians and bands, like Alabama Shakes and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

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I would never belittle the contributions of the Great State of Alabama to the music scene here in the US. As a reader of album liner notes, it is amazing to see the number of recordings made at Muscle Shoals. I was first introduced to it through the Duane Allman anthologies on LP. Muscle Shoals had a wider range of music attributed to it, whereas the Stax/Volt studios were dedicated to the Soul/R&B sound. It's all good in my book.

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To me Memphis soul engenders thoughts much larger than , or more romantic, than Stax. Can you imagine the bars and juke joints around there during it's heyday. Probably most of the killer R&B players in Memphis were never even recorded.

I also bring such romantic notions to the heyday of Chicago blues. I fervently wish I had been hitting the South side blues clubs in that town back in the day.

And don't even get me started on New Orleans.

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I'm badly prejudiced, and too exponential about The Shoals, just "representing" for my buds, I guess. I must confess I like most or all of it, though, whether NOLA(Mac Rebennack, Allen Toussaint, Professor Longhair) Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Detroit or wherever. If it is in tune, on time, and carefully executed I like it....and the Hi-Fi is not complaining. Neighbors maybe another question....

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