Crosstown Arts
Roots, Rock, Rebellion. Grammy-award winning artist Alvin Youngblood Hart returns home to Memphis for a special night in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts.
Alvin is the cosmic American love child of Howlin Wolf and Link Wray. Respected around the world as a “musician’s musician,” Alvin Youngblood Hart’s praises have been sung by everyone from Bob Dylan to guitar gods Eric Clapton & Mick Taylor.
Tickets: $10
Doors 7:30pm | Show at 8pm
Evolving over the last eight years, A Solo Voice, composed and performed by Odeya Nini, is an investigation of resonance, extended vocal techniques, performance, and pure expression, exploring the relationship between mind and body and the various landscapes it can yield. The work is a series of malleable compositions and improvisations that include field recordings and theatrical elements, aiming to dissociate the voice from its traditional attributes and create a new logic of song that is not only heard but seen through movement and action. In a multi-dimensionality that serves to both provoke and soothe in abstract communication, the voice is presented in its spectrum of natures as it travels through cultures, ages, emotions and colors, like photographs, with tender intimacy and bold aberrance.
Tickets: $10
Doors 7 pm |Performance 7:30pm
Odeya Nini is a Los Angeles-based experimental vocalist and contemporary composer. At the locus of her interests are performance practices, gesture, textural harmony, tonal animation, and the illumination of minute sounds, in works spanning chamber music to vocal pieces and collages of musique concrète. Her solo vocal work extends the dimension and expression of the voice and body, creating a sonic and physical panorama of silence to noise and tenderness to grandeur. Odeya has collaborated extensively with dancers, visual artists, filmmakers and theater directors as both a composer and soloist and has worked with and appeared in works by artists and ensembles such as Meredith Monk, Butch Morris, Lucy & Jorge Orta, The Industry & Wild Up.
Odeya’s work has been presented at venues and festivals across the US and internationally, such as Resonant Bodies Festival, Banff Centre, The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, The LA Phil, MONA and Art Basel Miami, from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, Australia, Mongolia, Madagascar and Vietnam. She leads vocal sound baths, seminars, workshops and retreats exploring the transformative and healing qualities of embodying the voice.
Odeya holds a BFA from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and an MFA in composition from California Institute of the Arts.
www.odeyanini.com
Join us in The Green Room for Those Pretty Wrongs, a musical partnership between Jody Stephens (of Big Star) and Luther Russell. Also featuring members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra — Jessie Munson, Yennifer Correia, Beth Luscombe, and Jonathan Kirkscey.
Tickets: $15
Doors at 7 pm | Show at 7:30 pm
Those Pretty Wrongs are Jody Stephens and Luther Russell. It’s a musical partnership borne of a deep and lasting friendship, the roots of which stretch back to the early ’90s, when the two were introduced. As the story goes, nary a note of music was made between them until about five years ago, when they were united in the cause of a documentary about Jody’s alma mater, the legendary Memphis group Big Star. After releasing their self-titled debut on Ardent/Burger in 2016 to a healthy dose of acclaim, they went out on the road, playing for audiences across North America, Australia, Europe, and the U.K.
During the course of these runs, they began to forge the sound for their second offering, Zed for Zulu, due out September 6, 2019 on Burger Records, a meditation on communication or lack thereof, the ever-present past or the question of the future, inevitable death, or imminent re-birth. The music is colorful but muted, something complex woven in a simple way. It’s a symphony of chords and melodies, yet played in an understated fashion, without too much fuss. Those Pretty Wrongs don’t have time to fuss, as Luther dwells in Los Angeles and Jody resides in Memphis. And they like it that way.
Tickets: $15 advance/$20 at the door
Doors 7pm | Show Begins 7:30pm
Larry Springfield is a singer-songwriter whose voice is vibrant and full of soul. He’s written and produced music for artists such as Gerald Levert, Chante Moore, and Wayne Brady. He’s also toured the U.S. with Keith Sweat, Al Green, Chante Moore, Barry White, and B.B. King. Larry’s live performances are fun and exciting, and he’ll be bringing that energy to The Green Room on Saturday, August 10!
Join us at The Green Room for a performance by Memphis musician Grace Askew, celebrating her first full-length album release in five years.
The 12-song culmination of writing and performing a new song every day for over 500 days straight, Denim & Diesel is a raw and vulnerable collection of stories about the struggles of daily life. The album was self-produced and recorded at Grace’s home — a.k.a “Tumbleweed Ranch,” a creaky, old, tin-roofed ranch house on 100 acres in Eads, TN, and features two co-writes with Mike Doughty (of ’90s cult band “Soul Coughing).
Jana Jana, one of Memphis’ hottest, new female-led bands, is fronted by Jana Misener (founding member of Memphis Dawls and Giant Bear). With live cello loops and soaring vocals, Jana Jana’s soul-inspired indie rock is an orchestrated tempest.
$25 presale | $30 night of show
Doors at 6:30 pm | show at 7 pm
About Grace Askew:
Grace Askew is a sixth-generation Memphian and a highway child. With seven studio albums, two international songwriting competitions, gold medals, multiple appearances on NBC’s The Voice, and over a decade of touring under her belt, Grace has established herself as a relentlessly creative artist and a powerhouse of talent. Growing up to the humming lullaby of the nearby interstate, she fell asleep imagining all the places she would travel one day.
Join us as Rob Jungklas performs new songs from his forthcoming project, Gone To Water. Opening act: Jana Misener.
Tickets: $10
Doors at 7 pm | Show at 7:30 pm
About Rob Jungklas:
Rob Jungklas came roaring back into the Memphis music psyche with 3 new critically acclaimed recordings in a few short years: Arkadelphia, Gully, and Mapping The Wreckage. Ever prolific, he has released four more since his reemergence. The Spirit and The Spine, Nothing To Fade, and Blackbirds on Madjack Records, and 7 Sisters.
He issued his debut LP, Closer to the Flame, in 1987 on Manhattan Records. On the strength of an MTV video aired for the single “Boys Town,” the record garnered airplay and modest chart success for his effort, while creating the iconic regional anthem “Memphis Thing.”
The more reflective Work Songs for a New Moon, that followed two years later on RCA, showcased Jungklas’ nuanced blend of pop songwriting and Memphis style R&B.
Lee Froelich calls Rob’s songs “profane and poetic, haunted by ghost and damnation” and the sentiments are echoed by the likes of Rolling Stones’ David Fricke who describes the sounds as “bloodied bottleneck guitar and choked prayer.”