Founded 1963 Relaunched 2019. The Postmodern South.
Funk
Funk

Willie Mitchell Historical Marker at Royal Studios

On March 1, 2012, a historical marker was unveiled outside Royal Studios at 1320 Willie Mitchell Blvd in South Memphis in honor of the studios, Hi Records and Willie Mitchell. A number of Memphis music figures and personalities were there, including Preston Lauterbach, the author of The Chitlin Circuit and the Road to Rock and Roll, Boo Mitchell and many other members of the Mitchell family, Steve Burrage and the Novareses of the Poplar Tunes record stores, Otis Clay, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Earl Randle, Darryl Carter, Teenie Hodges, Charles Hodges, Howard Grimes, Scott Bomar of the Bo-Keys, Wes Phillips and DJ Bay of Select-O-Hits Music Distribution, Elizabeth Montgomery of Ardent, Cameron Mann and Pat Mitchell of the Memphis Music Foundation, local music supporter and businessman Kris Kourdevelis, George Klein, Jack Hale of the Memphis Horns, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell and US Representative Steve Cohen of the 9th Congressional District. It was a beautiful day, and one of the kind of events that shows the good side of Memphis and what our city can and will be with a shared purpose and vision. 

Charles “Packy” Axton Album Release Party at Stax

In some ways, Charles “Packy” Axton was the forgotten man in the Stax Records saga. The son of one of the partners, Estelle Axton, he was a saxophone player in the original Stax band, the Mar-Keys, along with Don Nix and others. Exiled from Stax by his uncle, Jim Stewart (by some accounts due to drugs and/or alcohol), he recorded only a handful of sides before dying tragically in 1974, only in his thirties. But the really hip Light in the Attic Records label out of Seattle has assembled all the material they could find into one cool CD called “Late Late Party”, and the album release party at the Stax Museum was something of an all-star gala, despite the odd time of 4 PM on a Tuesday afternoon. Scott Bomar of the Bo-Keys was there, as well as Andrea Lisle, local Memphis music writer, Robert Gordon, the author of It Came From Memphis, legendary bluesman/photographer Don Nix, who had been Packy’s bandmate in the Mar-Keys, and L. H. White, who was the “L.H.” in L. H. and the Memphis Sounds, who cut four sides under Packy’s direction that would ultimately come out on the Nashville-based Hollywood label. Altogether, it was a good time with good music, and the only sad thing being that Charles “Packy” Axton never saw such acclaim during his lifetime.