Notes from the Tour - MEMPHIS

Here I am on a bright, sunny day in Memphis, TN with the one and only Monsieur Jeffrey Evans, he the great musician, mentor, and all around great guy - the one beyond 68 Comeback, Gibson Bros., and the sound that launched a thousand garage bands. We were at the cool record store, Shangri La waiting to see a band play, but I had to leave before they even arrived...

the photo was taken by John Paul Keith, the fella you see below in the picture with Jeff.



JP is a guitar player too. He just completed a tour of Europe with Jack Oblivian and Harlan T. Bobo. He also fronts his own band, The One Four Fives. If you play music or know music theory, you will recognize 1,4,5 as the basic chord progression of any rock n roll song structure.

Memphis breathes, eats and sleeps music. Perhaps that's why I always have a great time here.

We did the Punk Rock Day of the Dead here in Memphis at Goner.

If you came to the show, or even if you didn't and you thought it was a cool idea, the person to thank is Jack Oblivian.



Before he left for his tour of Europe, back in August, I was giving him my own itinerary, hoping that he'd be able to attend the Oxford, MS Motel Art Show of which I was a part. He asked me why I wasn't doing a show in Memphis - if I was going to be so close anyway. One thought led to another and before you know it, Punk Rock Day of the Dead was born and Jack had agreed to provide some kind of music for the night. We got to talking about the Mexican part of it and he inspired me to pursue the mariachis and all the fun stuff you saw in the store (if you were able to be there). But because the real honest to goodness mariachi band were actually hard to pin down... Jack and Tyler Keith saved the day by drafting their friends and band-mates into the one-off band you see in the photos below.



It was outrageously fun. You should have been there!

This coming weekend in Memphis actually features a few of these faces... Friday night, I am going to try to be in three places at once. The Hi Tone will be rocked by former Reigning Sound bassist Jeremy Scott's new band The Wallendas and by Talbot Adams and his Black & Whites from Oxford, MS. At Murphy's, mes bebes Demons Claws will play their brand of creepy trashy punk rock 'round midnight, and down at the Buccaneer, JP Keith & the One Four Fives will apparently play all night long. The following night, JP and Jack O will be rocking the Hi Tone with Jump Back Jake as the house band, and on Sunday afternoon, Monsieur Jeff Evan's usual partner in crime, Ross Johnson will be doing a British Invasion thing with Jeff Golightly.

Memphis is the place to be this weekend and I'm glad to be here. Next weekend (16/17) I'll be in Houston, bringing my Unguarded Moments tour to Sound Exchange, and on Sunday, I jetset to LA to be part of the Punk 365 book launch PARTY.

Hopefully I'll see some of you at one of these rockin' activities.