Memphis music stage at RiverBeat Music Festival rocks with Stax and soul greats

Carla Thomas, the Stax Queen of Memphis Soul, took the stage on the inaugural night of the RiverBeat Music Festival in Tom Lee Park wearing a stylish broad-brimmed hat, a shiny gold sequined top, fringed black jeans and an accessory that was more utilitarian than glamorous: a crutch.

If the implement was an indication that some of the performers during this particular musical showcase were no longer spring chickens — Thomas' first top 10 hit single, "Gee Whiz," was released 63 years ago, when Carla was a teenager — it also demonstrated that increased age does not mean diminished punch, as the singers and musicians referred to as the "Take Me to the River All-Stars" delivered the type of powerhouse soul music revue that, in the boastful parlance of a classic blues song, might be said to heal the lame and give eyesight to the blind.

For just over an hour, 15 artists — including members of the famous Hi Rhythm Section; Stax vocalists Thomas and William Bell; Memphis guitar thaumaturge Eric Gales; singer Jerome "The Bishop of Soul" Chism; young Royal Studios guitarist/singer/songwriter Lina Beach; impresario/keyboardist Boo Mitchell; and horn players, backup vocalists, and others — performed 10 songs, most of which were classics from the catalogs of Memphis' two most significant and successful music labels of the post-Sun era, Stax and Hi.

Bell, 84, gruffly crooned one of his signature recordings, "I Forgot to Be Your Lover," while reminiscing about the early days of his career, when he played "at Beale and Hernando, down at the Flamingo Room, every night." Chism revived Hi hits by Al Green ("Love and Happiness"), Ann Peebles ("Breaking Up Somebody's Home") and Otis Clay ("Trying to Live My Life Without You"). Thomas covered her father Rufus' hit "Walking the Dog" after performing a funkified and vampy version of her 1966 Stax smile-maker, "B-A-B-Y," which she introduced by first spelling out "M-E-M-P-H-I-S."

"I'm glad to be above the ground," said Thomas, laughing. When some in the crowd moaned at the thought of the alternative, she added: "That's OK, give me a hey-hey — I am here."

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Occupying the modest Zev Pavilion Stage in the center of the remade park, the "Take Me to the River" revue was designed to be the most Memphicentric show on the three-day schedule of this first RiverBeat festival, which was organized by the live music production-and-promotion company Mempho Presents. The fest fills the early May weekend slot that, in years past, was occupied by the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival, which was suspended this year while the Memphis in May International Festival copes with financial issues while assessing the Beale Street fest's future.

The "Take Me to the River" band concept stems from a project organized a decade ago by musician Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and filmmaker Martin Shore, whose music documentary "Take Me to the River" matched classic Mid-South soul and blues artists with young hip-hop stars to examine the profound influence of Memphis music on today's pop scene. Directed by Shore (who introduced Friday's RiverBeat performance), the movie spawned a New Orleans followup and — more significant — an educational curriculum, created with the Boston-based Berklee College of Music, that can be adapted for use at different grade levels.

Friday night, the deep, full-bodied sound of the soul revue was complemented by the dramatic backdrop of sunset on the Mississippi River. Low to the ground, the stage faced east, so the crowd, looking west, saw the river and sun moving behind the performers. Both the music and the atmosphere were a contrast to the action on the large festival-style main stages, to the north and south, with their booming bass notes, huge video screens, and deejays spinning sampled and pre-recorded sounds.

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The dance music and hip-hop stages drew larger crowds, but Bell, for one, was undaunted. "Soul music is in good hands, y'all," he said, giving a shout-out in particular to Beach, a 2023 Rhodes College graduate who opened the show with two original numbers.

Beach is the newest member of Hi Rhythm and is part of producer Boo Mitchell's Royal Studios session crew, taking the guitar spot originally occupied by the late Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, whose brothers, organist Charles Hodges (who is 76) and bassist Leroy Hodges (80), contributed not just authentic but mesmerizing sounds to Friday night's renditions of songs they helped make famous. Other longtime Hi Rhythm members who performed Friday included keyboardist Archie "Hubbie" Turner and drummer Steve Potts.

The presence of these veterans made the revue a tribute not just to Memphis soul in general and to Stax and Hi in particular but also to Boo's father, the late Willie Mitchell, a sonic genius whose imaginative arrangements at Royal, in conjunction with the expressive creativity of the Hi Rhythm musicians, materialized an entirely distinctive sound that has resisted imitation and remains one of the great achievements of 20th-century art.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: 'Take Me to the River' delivers tribute to Memphis soul at RiverBeat