Beale Street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee runs approximately 1.8 miles from the Mississippi River to East Street. Created in 1841 and originally named Beale Avenue, it was immortalized in 1916 by composer, musician and bandleader W.C. Handy in his "Beale Street Blues." By the middle of the century, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Albert King, Muddy Waters and more had all played Beale Street, recognized as one of the nation's foremost cradles of the blues. But by the mid-1960s, the legendary
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