Events

Stalwarts of the Memphis music scene for over 30 years, The Reba Russell Band has traveled the world, released eight albums and four singles. The band received a prestigious Brass Note on Beale Street in 2018 and continues to record and perform their dynamic original blues to audiences everywhere. Vocalist, producer, songwriter Reba Russell is a prolific studio backing vocalist on a variety of projects including artists, Al Green, Tracy Nelson, Duane Betts, U2, and a host of others. A song recently written by Russell, WHY NOT YOU, (Sister Lucille Band) is currently nominated for Song and Video of the year by the Josie Awards, based in Nashville.

Memphis Listening Lab/WYXR’s Record Swap and Crosstown Arts’ eighth annual Zine Fest are coming together for one awesome event in the Crosstown Concourse Central Atrium!

Larry & Joe is the duo of Joropo maestro Larry Bellorín (Monagas, Venezuela) and GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime star Joe Troop (Winston-Salem, North Carolina). These two virtuosic multi-instrumentalists fuse their respective Venezuelan and Appalachian folk traditions on the harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, upright bass, guitar, and maracas to prove that music has no borders. Their bilingual (esp / eng) program includes storytelling, humor, and singalongs.

Memphis Listening Lab/WYXR’s Record Swap and Crosstown Arts’ eighth annual Zine Fest are coming together for one awesome event in the Crosstown Concourse Central Atrium!

An off-the-wall comedy documentary about the greatest rap band that never was. Documentary filmmaker Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons) infiltrates the behind-the-scenes world of rap's most controversial band. Meet the fast-talking philosophical Ice Cold (Rusty Cundieff), the short-tempered militant Tasty-Taste (Larry B. Scott), and their spiritual center, D.J. Tone Def (Mark Christopher Lawrence). See them in the recording studios, jam with them on stage, hang with them and hear their philosophies on music and life. Featuring hilarious videos of all their biggest hits, plus the “gangstas”, the girls and the guns. A wonderfully funny spoof.

Pedal and lap steel guitar ace Roosevelt Collier, so proficient he’s affectionately known as “The Dr,” released his solo debut, Exit 16, on GroundUP Music. It’s a potent mix of blues, gospel, rock and, in his words, “dirty funk swampy grime,” as overseen by producer and Bokanté bandmate Michael League (from the Grammy-winning Snarky Puppy). Brought up in the House of God Church in Perrine, Florida, Roosevelt built his “sacred steel” guitar prowess alongside his uncles and cousins in The Lee Boys, known for their spirited, soul-shaking live performances.

Already being hailed as “the next Woody Guthrie,” DC resident Crys Matthews is among the brightest stars of the new generation of social justice music-makers. A powerful lyricist whose songs of compassionate dissent reflect her lived experience as what she lightheartedly calls “the poster-child for intersectionality,” Justin Hiltner of Bluegrass Situation called Matthews’s gift “a reminder of what beauty can occur when we bridge those divides.” A former drum major and classically-trained clarinetist turned folk singer, Matthews is using her voice to answer Dr. Martin Luther King’s call to be “a drum major for justice.” Crys Matthews’s thoughtful, realistic and emotional songs speak to the voice of our generation and remind us why music indeed soothes the soul.

Talented, ambitious, and backstabbing hairstylists gather for a competition in England, only to find one of their own murdered before judging can begin. Winding through neon-lit halls and backstage dressing rooms, competitors unspool long-simmering resentments and secrets as they search for the killer among them, in this devilishly funny whodunit from debut filmmaker Thomas Hardiman.

The sonically innovative harpist, Brandee Younger, is revolutionizing harp for the digital era. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked relentlessly to stretch boundaries and limitations for harpists. In 2022, she made history by becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Ever-expanding as an artist, she has worked with cultural icons including Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, and Moses Sumney. Her current album, Brand New Life, builds on her already rich oeuvre, and cements the harp’s place in pop culture.

The Crosstown Strictly Jazz Series, presented by Crosstown Arts in collaboration with Strictly Jazz Entertainment, is designed to salute classic jazz music as contemporary musicians perform the work of the legends.

John Fullbright’s debut album was called “preternaturally self-assured,” while NPR said “it’s not every day a new artist earns comparisons to great songwriters like Townes Van Zandt and Randy Newman, but Fullbright’s music makes sense in such lofty company.” The Wall Street Journal crowned him as giving one of the year’s 10 best live performances, and the album also earned him a GRAMMY nomination for Best Americana Album and the ASCAP Foundation’s Harold Adamson Lyric Award.