Walking in Memphis: Omnivore Revisits "Beale Street Saturday Night"

Walking in Memphis: Omnivore Revisits “Beale Street Saturday Night”

March 2, 2015 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

Omnivore Recordings is going back to Memphis.

The label has already preserved a number of classic records drawing on the city’s rich musical landscape by artists including Big Star, Alex Chilton, Sandra Rhodes, and Sid Selvidge. On April 14, Omnivore will add to that collection with the reissue of Beale Street Saturday Night, produced and curated in 1979 by the late Jim Dickinson in celebration of the city’s blues mecca Beale Street.

Produced for The Memphis Development Foundation (and with proceeds today going to benefit the Beale Street Caravan, a non-commercial radio series), the fourteen tracks on Beale Street Saturday Night featured many of the city’s best and brightest including Sid Selvidge (bandmate with Dickinson in Mud Boy and the Neutrons, who are also featured on the compilation), Sleepy John Estes and Furry Lewis. The original record helped save the Orpheum Theatre on the famous Memphis thoroughfare; the theatre is still happily showplace to musicals and concerts alike today.

Jim Dickinson’s son Luther, himself a consummate musician and member of North Mississippi Allstars, describes the very special music in the grooves of this album (which will, indeed, be available on vinyl with download card as well as on CD): “This is not a field recording. Jim produced these multi-tracked recordings in The Orpheum Theatre, at Ardent and Sam Phillips Studios, and in his home on his beloved Ampex 8-track. He loved the concept of a hi-fi recording of a lo-fi sound. He said Johnny Woods could read his mind in the studio. This is an example of the world boogie, the country blues masters and the crazy white boys, locking themselves in world class recording studios for late night recording sessions because they loved playing music together—Mud Boy & The Neutrons (Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Lee Baker, and Jimmy Crosthwait), Fred Ford, Sleepy John Estes, Prince Gabe, Furry Lewis, Teenie Hodges, Johnny Woods, and so many more.”

Preserving the vibrant blues-based music being created during a dark time for Memphis, Beale Street Saturday Night comes to life anew on April 14 from Omnivore on CD, DD and LP. You can pre-order the album directly from Omnivore now, and we will update with Amazon links as soon as they are active!

Various Artists, Beale Street Saturday Night (Orpheum O-101, 1979 – reissued Omnivore, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD)

Walkin’ Down Beale Street – Sid Selvidge
Hernando Horn – Fred Ford
Beale Street Blues – Grandma Dixie Davis
Big Fat Mama/Liquor Store – Sleepy John Estes
Ol’ Beale Street Blues – Prince Gabe
Furry’s Blues – Furry Lewis
Rock Me Baby – Teeny Hodges
Rock Me Baby – Alex
“Ben Griffin was Killed in the Monarch…” – Thomas Pinkston
Frisco Blow – Johnny Woods
On the Road Again – Mud Boy and the Neutrons
“Mr. Handy Told Me 50 Years Ago…” – Thomas Pinkston
Chicken Ain’t Nothin’ But a Bird – Furry Lewis
Roll On, Mississippi – Grandma Dixie Davis

Categories:

News

Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

Genres:

Everything Else, R&B/Soul

Tags:

Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Various Artists

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.