As I posted previously, Griff’s of America was born in the late 1950’s in Kansas City, but somehow it gained a real foothold in Dallas, Fort Worth, Shreveport and Ruston. This location in Southeast Dallas is the oldest location I have seen.
For breakfast, I decided to try I place I have often heard about in Dallas called Breadwinners. The place was sheer pandemonium with the Saturday crowds, but the food is really good. They are also a bakery, and the desserts were really tempting, even at 9 AM!
Morning view from my balcony, Dallas, Texas Summer Music Conference, July 16, 2011
Memphians probably first noticed Teflon Don when he composed a song for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA, but he goes far deeper, as evidenced by his debut album God, The Government, The Game, an album whose title seems to reflect the three ways that inner-city residents have historically tried to make their way. Although Teflon uses a traditional Memphis style of delivery and fairly standard beats, his lyrics come from a more positive direction, trying to warn young people to take advantage of opportunities (“God, The Government, The Game”) or reminding them about the struggles that African-Americans have faced in the past (“Let’s Talk About”), a song that was written for Black History Month. While God, The Government, The Game offers little that is unexpected, it is a credible debut album from a hard-working artist that sees rap as a way to improve the city of Memphis.
The Dallas-based label Hulk Entertainment threw a private set on the Friday night before the Texas Summer Music Conference at the Hotel Zaza in Dallas, which is quite a happening place.
The Texas Summer Music Conference put me up in a suite at the Sheraton Market Center in Dallas. The view of downtown from my balcony was really cool.
3316 Line Avenue: Sound City and Shreveport’s Forgotten Legacy of Soul
This former theater at 3316 Line Avenue in Shreveport was once the Sound City Recording Studio in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s While not as famous as Cossimo Matassa’s, or Sun, or Stax, or Malaco, a lot of great southern soul was cut at Sound City, by artists like Eddie Giles, Reuben Bell, Ted Taylor, Geater Davis, Little Johnny Taylor, Shay Holliday, Tommie Young and the African Music Machine. Bobby Patterson ran his Soul Power label there for awhile, and Stewart Madison ran Alarm Records from the building before moving to Jackson, Mississippi and Malaco. The years were not kind to Sound City, however. Renamed Southern Star, the studio became a more country-oriented operation in the mid 1970’s before closing down during the financial crisis that wracked Shreveport in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The legacy of soul and funk music in Shreveport was largely forgotten.
Memphis, Monroe, Shreveport, Dallas
Driving from Memphis to Dallas through Monroe and Shreveport #texassummermusicconference
