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Crosstown Arts presents Memphissippi Sounds, 2022 Blues Music Awards nominee for Best Emerging Artist, in the Green Room on July 29, 2022.
Doors open at 7pm | Show begins at 7:30pm
Tickets: $12 in advance | $15 at the door (plus fees)
One fateful summer night in 2017, the paths of two uniquely gifted and talented Memphis musicians aligned in a club on Beale Street. Cameron Kimbrough, grandson of Junior Kimbrough and native of the famed Mississippi hill country, brought his raw, stripped-down rhythms from the fresh, open air of Potts Camp, MS, to the crowded room.
As the audience took in Kimbrough’s beats from the drums, they were blessed by the powerful and mesmerizing voice of Damion “Yella P” Pearson’s harmonica. Kimbrough had grown up hearing the blues from his grandfather’s juke joint, and later taught himself to play. Yella P. was also self-taught on the harmonica, first picking it up at age 13 and honing his style while listening to the blues on Beale Street.
An instant connection growing from their chance encounter, they teamed up to form Memphissippi Sounds and immediately began creating a new sound. Their custom blend of North Mississippi hill country blues, Memphis blues and soul, rock, pop, and hip-hop was debuted at the New Daisy while opening up for guitar legend Eric Gales.
Since then, they’ve taken the Memphissippi Sound on the road to places such as Thacker Mountain Radio Hour in Oxford, Clarksdale’s Juke Joint Festival, and Little Rock’s Whitewater Tavern backing up Grammy-nominated local bluesman R.L. Boyce. Memphissippi Sounds has made local appearances at such venues as the Levitt Shell, Radio Memphis, and the Indie Memphis Film Festival. Between gigs, they enjoy doing some old-school busking on South Main, a throwback to the heyday of Memphis music.
Their album Welcome To The Land was released late in 2021 by Little Village to great critical and commercial acclaim, and has ridden at the top of the radio charts since. The album has been nominated for the Best Emerging Artist Award in the annual Blues Music Awards in early May.