The city of West Memphis, Arkansas is a youngster as American cities go, having been founded really about the time of World War I, and not really growing into its present form until shortly before the Great Depression. But from its beginnings as a lumber mill town, it became an important place for the blues, having at various times been the home of B. B. King, Howlin Wolf, Junior Parker, Willie Nix, Willie Love and James Cotton. Johnnie Taylor was born only about twenty miles away at Crawfordsville, and the town of Hughes, some forty miles to the southwest, was a known blues spot, where both Alan Lomax and Steve LaVere made field recordings. By 1970, however, the blues had fallen on hard times in West Memphis. Its legendary street, Eighth Street, which once rivaled Memphis’s Beale Street across the bridge, had emptied out, and eventually all of the former juke joints had been bought up by a homeless mission or otherwise abandoned.
Yet West Memphis today has an ambitious mayor, Marco McClendon, who sees blues as a big part of the city’s renaissance, and every May there is a monthlong celebration of this foundational music on Thursday nights, an event called Blues Off Broadway. This year, the concert series kicked off May 7 with two bands, local singer Kyria B and her band Blaze, followed by Laurel, Mississippi-based Ra’Shad The Blues Kid who has been winning acclaim across the country for several years.
The event typically features great weather, good fun, and food trucks, and this one was no exception. Both artists had first-rate bands, and performed a good mix of traditional blues and some Southern soul as well. As always, Mayor McClendon took an opportunity to keep the city updated on his initiatives and the latest progress. It was a fun night indeed.