Facebook Takes a Leak & A Conversation with William Bell

 Truly one of the greatest Memphis musicians is up for a Blues Music Award celebrating his lifetime achievement in the field of blues and soul. He was there at the beginning of STAX and was there through the end. He is now re-united with STAX as Concord Music has acquired the label and all of it's holdings. 

He sat down with Ric & LJ to have a conversation about his storied career and a few great stories were told. The great William Bell called into the show and here it is as it aired. Also, Facebook sprung a leak and more than likely, your personal data got released to the public. 

NEXT WEEK: Who knows?

Gee Whiz, It's Carla Thomas

I recently spent some quality time with Carla Thomas. In 1961 she scored her first Billboard hit with Gee Whiz. In 1966, she repeated that with B-A-B-Y Baby with that song seeing the light again by being featured in the movie Baby Driver.

She spoke of how her path to show business was not quite what you'd think it was. Never seeking it out, the spotlight found her and her music still stands the test of the time.



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NEXT WEEK: Frank Monteleone and Blind Mississippi Morris

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A Conversation with Robert Gordon

One of the best things about what I do is sitting down with people who have great stories to tell. When it happens on the air, that makes for a real magical moment.

Recently, I had Robert Gordon on the air during an episode of Booze & Blues on Radio Memphis. Robert is the author of a great book about Stax. The book is called Respect Yourself Stax Records and The Soul Explosion. A great read.

Robert is also documentarian with his latest subject currently on the big screen about William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal called Best of Enemies.

We talked about all these things and played some music. One of the tunes we played came from some tape that was left behind when Stax closed. The ghosts of Stax come alive in this episode. It was a fun conversation and I am quite sure you will enjoy it as well.



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NEXT WEEK: Music, tourism, money and the City of Memphis.

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Howard Grimes - Part 1

Howard Grimes

When the phone rings and it's Mark Caldwell offering you one of the true legends of Memphis Music, you say, "Yes, please." and that is exactly how it happened. We happened to have a hole in our schedule for the Booze & Blues show on Radio Memphis and like that, Howard was in Studio B talking to Mark, Jeff Janovetz and myself.

Howard is a remarkable guy and a tremendous drummer. He started working at 12 with Rufus Thomas and got his first studio work at 14. He's still going strong.

In this first part of a two part series with Mr. Grimes, we talk the early days of Memphis music and we play some of the stuff from those days. This is an education on the history of the music from this town from a world wide known session guy.

A little note here regarding this episode. There is some music played in its entirety and was used courtesy of Howard Grimes with full permission.



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NEXT WEEK: Howard Grimes - Part 2

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