Tag: The Green Room

Folk All Y’all: Julie Williams

Folk All Y’all and Crosstown Arts present Julie Williams in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Saturday, March 9, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $20

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

“Making waves with these waves”

Fearlessly forging ahead down country roads, CMT Next Women of Country singer-songwriter Julie Williams (she/her) carries her mixed-race heritage proudly, just as she carries her tunes. Raised in Florida, Julie is turning heads in Nashville’s country music scene with the soft but powerful songs that capture the soul of growing up as a mixed-race child in the South.

Music has always been a part of Julie’s life — honing her singing talent in church and beach bars and belting national anthems before packed stadiums. She grew up listening to everyone and everything, from The Chicks and James Taylor, to Gladys Knight and Michael Jackson. Even though she was drawn to the storytelling of country music, she never quite found the sound that spoke to everything she was: Black, white, Southern, a woman, hopeful, truthful. So naturally, it was up to Julie to make this sound. “My music is mixed like me,” is how she describes it, “I want to tell the stories that need to be told.”

The Evergreen Sessions Vol. II

Crosstown Arts presents The Evergreen Sessions Vol. II in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Friday, June 2, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 in advance | $20 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Hosted by Brandon Blvd, The Evergreen Sessions Vol. II features Idi X Teco with Saturday Sunset, Camm, Kiva Richardson, Austyn Michael, and D’vonna Taylor.

The Evergreen Sessions is a platform curated and presented by Memphis-based hip-hop artist Brandon Blvd. The series has a goal of highlighting and celebrating some of the most talented musical artists in the city of Memphis.

The first installment of the session featured acts such as Mai Ty, Idaly Maceano, Pyu, Cadillac Jack, with Brandon Blvd as the closing act. In this second installment of The Evergreen Sessions, Brandon aims to elevate the experience by presenting another lineup of amazing Memphis-based acts. The Evergreen Sessions Vol. II features acts such as Kiva Richardson, Austyn Michael, Camm, and D’vonna Taylor. The dynamic duo Idi X Teco, formerly known as Hippy Soul will be headlining this event alongside Memphis-based band “Saturday Sunset!”

As a former Crosstown Arts resident artist, Brandon was able to actively collaborate with artists from different walks, backgrounds, and practices. This inspired him to pursue the creation of similar art spaces in collaboration with Crosstown Arts in order to continue the sharing of ideas, vibes, and perspectives through music. As an artist and Memphis native, Brandon hopes that The Evergreen Sessions will allow such environments to exist for the foreseeable future.

Alex Greene & the Rolling Head Orchestra

Crosstown Arts presents Alex Greene & the Rolling Head Orchestra in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Saturday, May 27, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 in advance | $20 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Session keyboardist and composer Alex Greene (Reigning Sound, Big Ass Truck, the Kropotkins, Deepstaria Enigmatica) has over three decades of experience in Memphis and New York, and has performed and recorded albums and soundtracks with the Rolling Head Orchestra since 2009. Whether he’s in singer/songwriter mode or leading a jazz band, his compositions combine strong melodic lines with unexpected, shape-shifting harmonies. Combining themes worthy of the Golden Age of Hollywood with more modernist sonic textures, and echoing artists as diverse as Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Sun Ra, the classic jazz sextet of the Rolling Head Orchestra is now augmented by the eerie wail of the Theremin.

In 2010, the Rolling Head Orchestra scored the documentary Citizens Not Subjects: Reawakening Democracy in Memphis, leading to the album Depression Jubilee. The group has gone on to perform original scores for silent films since 2019, when Greene was a Resident Composer at Crosstown Arts, including soundtracks for A Trip to the Moon; Aelita, Queen of Mars; Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman; Flesh and the Devil with Greta Garbo, and, as commissioned by the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2022, Häxan.

In this one of a kind show at The Green Room, Greene and the Rolling Head Orchestra will focus on these cinematic set pieces as stand-alone works. Free to stretch out over Greene’s compositions, the band, featuring some of Memphis’ finest players, will bring the music to life as never before, blending jazz rhythms and horns with the haunting tones of the Theremin.

KrisO: “A Night of R&B”

Crosstown Arts presents “A Night of R&B” (featuring R&B DJ set by IBJOHNDOE) in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Thursday, May 25, 2023
$15 in advance | $20 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

With a sound that can be likened to that of the ’80s and ’90s — smooth, soulful, and memorable — KrisO delivers show-stopping performances with his ‘round-the-way guy charm and notable vocal range. Performing songs from his EP “Love Levels” and notable R&B classics, KrisO is set to croon his way through the ins, outs, and various levels of love with A Night of R&B. With a mood-setting set by DJ IBJOHNDOE and vocals from Memphis natives Doll McCoy and HarleyQuinn, the night will be one to remember.

Graber Gryass

Crosstown Arts presents Graber Gryass Album Release Show in The Green Room.

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 in advance | $20 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

“If Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros relocated to Tennessee and sold their Burning Man innuendo for something more wholesome and Renaissance,we’d get the scene and sounds of Graber Gryass.”— Glide Magazine

“Funky, grassy, trippy sort of style.”— Bluegrass Today

“Like a Wokingman’s Dead or Basement Tapes outtake.”— Rock ‘n’ Load Magazine

“An immersive journey into an original expansive, exploratory song catalogue.”— VENTS Magazine

Waking Up, the third album of all original songs by Memphis jamgrass band Graber Gryass will be released on May 11, 2023. Waking Up has nine songs, all written by Michael Graber. “We wanted to push the boundary limits even more on this one, staying song-centered,” says Graber.

The album begins with a rambunctious saga of pent-up domesticity, “All the Time.” The pensive meditation “Morning on the Water” follows with lead vocals by Kitty Dearing. “Taproot” starts with a 12-string, followed with saxophone and hand percussion, and features guests Hope Clayburn and Jesse Dakota. “Waking Up” is an “Astral Weeks in Memphis”-type of dream song, about waking up in all connotations. “Living on a Faultline” finds the band at their funky best. Then Kitty takes the microphone again to lead “Hardcore Heartbreak”. Two more folk pop structured songs follow: “Okay” and “Good to You”. “Faultline”, a Carter-family inspired song about living on the New Madrid Faultline closes the set.

Graber Gryass includes Michael Graber (Guitar and Vocals), Kitty Dearing (Vocals and Saw), Andy Ratliff (Mandolin and Vocals), Andrew Geraci (Bass), Clint Wagner (12-string and Fiddle), Randal Morton (Banjo), Caleb Ryan Martin (High-strung Guitar and Baritone Banjo) with these guests: Jesse Dakota (Percussion), Hope Clayburn (Flute and Sax), and Joe Mahanahan (Vibraphone). The album was recorded at High/Low, engineered by Pete Matthews, mixed by Matt Qualls, and produced by Michael Graber.

Graber Gryass is an all-original, acoustic jam-grass band from Memphis, Tennessee. Take an award-winning writer, have him craft songs, and then layer in some of the regions hottest players, including a Winfield-winning banjo champion, the musical director of Public Enemy, members of such bands as Rumpke Mountain Boys, and others—and you have Gryass. This six-piece band can sing harmonies like the Mamas and the Papas, stretch out and jam like the Dead or New Grass Revival all while keeping audiences moving and inspired.

The University of Memphis Jazz Singers

The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $10

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

The University of Memphis Jazz Singers is comprised of 10 to 15 male and female vocal students. This group performs a wide range of music from traditional arrangements of jazz standards to more contemporary fusion jazz.