Jerry Lee Lewis cancels Million Dollar Quartet appearance

Jerry Lee Lewis canceled his appearance last night at the closing of the Million Dollar Quartet musical at the Orpheum in Memphis, TN. due to illness.

Bobby Brown leaving Nashville

TMZ released this photo of Bobby Brown at the airport in Nashville a few minutes ago. He is boarding a plane to LA after canceling show in Nashville tonight. It’s terribly sad that Brown traveled 3 additional hours away from his daughter from Memphis to Nashville. He should have canceled his show and left Memphis immediately to be with his daughter Bobbi instead of considering performing in Nashville. Tonight. It took all day to finally decide after 5 pm to cancel. Bobbi Kristina needs our prayers more than ever.
It won’t be long now Brown will be shopping book deals & paid interviews. Father of the year – yeah right!

Visit the National Civil Rights Museum for MLK Day 2.00 today only!

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, today you can visit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN for 3.00 or 2.00 with a canned good donation for the food bank.
The NCR museum is the former Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was killed.

Elvis Presley & Martin Luther King Tribute by Pam Tillis & Kris Thomas

Country music recording artist Pam Tillis recorded this tribute song to Elvis Presley & Dr. Martin Luther King. She sings the song with upcoming R & B singer, Kris Thomas, a Memphian himself. The video was filmed in Memphis by local documentary film maker, Molly Secours.Thomas has an impressive music background. He was a member of the StreetCorner Harmonies, he also attended Stax Music Academy. He has performed with Isaac Hayes and Mavis Staples. Pam and Kris filmed the video back in Memphis. Scenes were shot on Beale Street, Mud Island, and Stax museum.Beautiful and heartfelt photos of Elvis Presley and Dr. Martin Luther King are featured in the video. Photos of fans at the annual candle light vigil for Elvis Presley are shown and photos from the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King.And today’s StreetCorner Harmonies perform on the song as well.The song itself was co-written by Brenda O’Brien at a songwriter camp. O’Brien was one of Pam’s students. And the song triggered Tillis.“From the moment I looked at her lyric I just heard a choir singing it,” Tillis said. “That idea fired her up so much that she pursued me for the next year to help her finish it.” Tillis said the pair worked on the song together with Tillis rewriting chunks of it along the way including the music and changing the tone of the lyrics to be more uplifting. But the singer said the extensive work was worth it. “She connected two dots that I hadn’t thought of connecting before,” Tillis explained. “I thought it was a unique idea. A lot of times at songwriter camps, there’s the same idea over and over again.” Tillis described the song as being about “two historical figures and what they have in common.” “I had to ask myself, ‘What is the connection,’” she said.

Buy This Song Now

Many of you will remember this Memphis inspired song by Pam Tillis:

Another song by Kris also filmed in Memphis:

Source: Megan Murphy

Danny Thomas immortalized with US postage stamp

Fellow Memphian and legendary entertainer and humanitarian Danny Thomas has been immortalized with his face on a forever stamp.

 

The United States Postal Service revealed the stamp honoring Thomas over the weekend.
The unveiling celebrated Thomas’ 100th birthday and the 50th anniversary of St. Jude, the hospital Thomas founded in 1962.

A portrait of Thomas appears on the stamp with the hospital in the background.
It will be available for sale by the middle of February.

Memphis renames street for Dr. Martin Luther King Ave

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=11212

Board approves re-naming Memphis street for MLK : MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

Memphis Sanitation Worker Recalls the Strugle for Equality

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=11212

Sanitation Worker Recalls the Strugle for Equality: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

Thank You Mr.Nickleberry!

Schwabs’ New Owners to host Elvis Music Party with Amy LaVere & More

For all you celebratory types out there — and you know who you are — here’s an event that promises to be fit for a king.

Or more specifically, for “The King,” thankyaverymuch.

A musical tribute/birthday party for Elvis Presley (he would have turned 77 on Sunday) will be staged from 6 to 10 p.m. this Saturday at A. Schwab, 163 Beale.

The Elvis-themed evening launches a new era for the store as part of what the proprietors promise will be an ongoing effort to spotlight artists from Memphis and the Delta region.

Saturday’s musical entertainment will be provided by several artists, including Amy LeVere and the Tramps, the Jason Freeman Band and the Memphis Dawls.

Admission is $5 at the door.
The event marks the first weekend entertainment offering at the historic dry goods store since it was sold on Dec. 22 to a group of investors, led by Terry Corona Saunders, principal of Martin Group Realty, and her husband, Jake, a grandson of Piggly Wiggly founder Clarence Saunders.

Other investors are Jake’s sister, Posey Cochrane, and Tommy Peters, CEO of B.B. King’s Blues Club.

Founded in 1876 by haberdasher Abraham Schwab, A. Schwab has operated on Beale Street for the past 100 years and remained owned by Schwab family members until its recent sale.

With about 12,000 square feet of sales space, the iconic Downtown store is a popular tourist attraction and customers entering the historic shop are greeted with the motto, “If you can’t find it at A. Schwab, you’re probably better off without it!”

© 2012 Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Time to Turn Page to a Better Year for Memphis

Time to Turn Page to a Better Year

2011 was another year where what had once glittered wasn’t always what was of value.

Recessions have a way of ripping away veneers that look more substantial and less tentative than we hope they are.

What is clear for the year ahead is that it is up to us collectively to make our destiny.

Perhaps what we do deliberately will be tempered considerably by the weight of other factors beyond our control. But not all of the elements that determine success or failure and the ground between them are out of our reach.

2012 will be the year a specific plan to consolidate Shelby County’s two public school systems takes shape. Our civic disposition to look at what others have done has been satisfied.

With that, we hope the consolidation planning commission will fashion a school system that has as its goal a single public school system that strives to be better for the parents of all children in what are now two school systems. By better we mean in measurable terms of student achievement that is clear in how students function in their everyday lives not just in test results.

Any plan should also realize that public education is no longer a monopoly but a partner with the transformation of private schools as well as other schools that are a mixture of public and private school tenets.

Showing others outside our community how well adults can work get along and what grand general statements they can make is completely secondary to the task of meeting the expectations any parent has for his or her child. That will be the real test of the plan to come in this year.

The New Year promises to be a critical one for Overton Square’s revitalization. Like similar endeavors across the city and the region, this is a plan that has been waiting for some sort of signal that a stubborn recession is coming to an end.

We also hope it is the year our city can perfect the art of doing several things at once like the long awaited and too long delayed revitalization of Elvis Presley Boulevard between Brooks Road and Shelby Drive.

This revitalization is not about Graceland and the tourists who come there as much as it is about Whitehaven and the communities a block behind what could once again be a thriving business district fronting the boulevard on both sides.

2012 could be the year that we learn how to turn revitalization plans into reality beyond the Downtown core.

The seeds for that revitalization might involve seed money. But let’s not forget that the seed that will grow the deepest roots in any terrain is an education system repurposed to grow thicker than kudzu across an achievement gap. The gap was here before the recession and it will be here after the recession without leadership and bold, meaningful action.

The Memphis News

Dewey Phillips’ boys meet the cast of "Memphis" the musical

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=11212

Dewey Phillips’ Family Meets ‘Memphis’ Cast: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

Anxious theater goers waited to see Memphis the Musical since it kicked off its national tour at The Orpheum, but none were as nervous as the Phillips brothers, Randy and Jerry.

“I am looking forward to watching it,” said Randy. “I am sure it will meet or exceed my expectations.”

They had never seen the production based loosely on their dad, legendary Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips. His character in the musical is named Huey Calhoun and played by Bryan Fenkart.

“He sounds a lot like my dad; his mannerisms were a lot like my dad’s were.”

Randy’s wife Doris of 37 years never met her father-in-law.

“I feel like I know him because I have heard all those stories all these many years, and I think those two are full of Dewey!”

The family had not been told of a surprise FOX13 set up for them, a meeting that left a lasting impression on the family and a cast member. It happened right after the show as well-wishers acknowledged the family. The Orpheum invited the family for a rare back stage tour. They met David Bryan, who wrote the Tony Award-winning music and lyrics, and shook hands with Randy Adams, one of the producers. Then was the meeting no one ever imagined – the fictional father meets the real children of his character’s muse.

“I am Randy Phillips, you were playing my dad. You did a great job. You had his mannerism down. It was like bringing back old times.”

“I am Jerry Phillips, Dewey’s middle son. You did a fine job.”

“I really appreciate you coming back,” Fenkart replied. “It is so crazy to meet the lineage after all this!”

“Like I was saying, it brought back old memories,” Randy said. “I was telling my wife, I wish dad could have been here to see it.”

“After how much we listened, I listened to his stuff to capture the essence of it… the endorsement saying we did it well means a great deal coming from you,” Fenkart said.

They sat for a few minutes to look over family pictures no one has seen before, like old photos of dad in the hospital. The mementos helped Fenkart bring his character into sharper focus, and created an emotional bond between the family of a legend and his portrayal on the national stage.

Jerry said of his father, “He is smiling right now.”