Long before rap music was a thing or synthesizers, drum machines or sequencers were invented, Memphis was a blues town, but despite the city’s long legacy in the blues, the genre is not front and center in the Bluff City anymore as it once was. Even on Beale Street, authentic blues is hard to find. But people who know head to a small juke in a fairly rough part of Memphis to hear authentic blues. And more often than not, when they enter Wild Bill’s, the man they will hear is Big Don Valentine and his All Stars.
Don Valentine’s dad Carl was part of a North Memphis blues band called the Hollywood All-Stars, who were known for playing a regular gig in the Hollywood neighborhood of North Memphis at the Hollywood Theatre near Chelsea and Hollywood streets. In the 1980s, they made a record album for Dr. David Evans’s University of Memphis-affiliated record label High Water Records, and a teenaged Don Valentine was playing drums on that record. Later the band, including Don, toured Europe.
Although Don is a first-rate drummer, today you will find him more often on the stool out front of the band singing. His repertoire is a mix of the traditional blues with a few more contemporary Southern soul hits, enough to keep the crowds of all ages satisfied. But he will go “down in the alley” as he calls it, with such obscure tunes as “Cummins Prison Farm” and “Tin Pan Alley.” So in demand is Don for blues that many clubs and events in Memphis will pay him to come and sing with the bands they already have, and he is known so much in the city that people call him “Big Memphis.”
Catching him wherever he is playing is a treat for blues fans whenever they are in Memphis. And for the tourist or local resident alike, Wild Bill’s is also a not-to-be-missed experience where live music is the rule and not the exception, and the party, food and good times continue until the crack of dawn,
Wild Bill’s
1580 Vollentine Av
Memphis, TN 38107
(901) 206-3272