Lineup takes on different feel than years past
‘Tis the season to complain about the Beale Street Music Festival lineup. A quickie poll to gather some of the instant reaction:
The results so far have “Shrug” with a narrow lead over “Yup!,” and that’s pretty much where I’m at. But let’s take a closer look. first, with some context. The headliners (three main stages across three nights) over the past five years:
» 2017: Snoop Dogg, Widespread Panic, MGMT, Kings of Leon, Wiz Khalifa, Death Cab for Cutie, Soundgarden, Sturgill Simpson, Jill Scott.
» 2016: Neil Young, Weezer, Train, Meghan Trainor, Jason Derulo, Modest Mouse, Beck, Paul Simon, Zedd.
» 2015: Lenny Kravitz, Flaming Lips, Five Finger Death Punch, Avett Brothers, Paramore, John Fogerty, Ed Sheeran, Wilco, Cage the Elephant.
» 2014: Snoop Dogg, Foster the People, Pretty Lights, Kid Rock, Patti Labelle, STS9, Avenged Sevenfold, Alabama Shakes, String Cheese Incident.
» 2013: Hall & Oates, Alice & Chains, Bassnectar, Black Keys, ZZ Top, The Roots, Smashing Pumpkins, Flaming Lips, Black Crowes
Short on Titans and Of-the-Moment Stars: Returnee Snoop Dogg is an icon, of course, but after three all-timers (Neil Young, Paul Simon, John Fogerty) over the past two years, this year’s group of headliner lack long-term, multigenerational stars with deep catalogs.
At the same time, it’s not as of-themoment as last year, where Meghan Trainor and Jason Derulo balanced Young/Simon with a counterweight of contemporary pop. This year, the headliner who is the most intensely current is unlikely left-of-center country star Sturgill Simpson,a Grammy Album of the Year nominee and recent Grammy telecast performer whose horn-laden country soul drew raves at the Orpheum last year.
Instead — and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing — this year’s headliners are largely major artists whose commercial peaks were somewhere in the past decade or so ( Kings of Leon, MGMT, Jill Scott, Wiz Khalifa, Death Cab for Cutie), all geared towards the young adults who are the festival’s audience foundation.
Post-Boomer Shift: Last year, the presence of Young and Simon at the top obscured an inevitable generational shift on the undercard, which has grown to be dominated by Eighties and Nineties acts still hanging on. This year’s Eighties babies: Aussie political rockers Midnight Oil, J. Geils Band voice Peter Wolf and reggae royalty Ziggy Marley. Those who love the ‘90s: Grunge stars Soundgarden, post-grunge stars Bush, pop-punkers (non-hip-hop influence) Jimmy Eat World, pop-punkers (hip-hop influence) Sum 41, and singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco.
R&B/Hip-Hop Headliners: I’ve been campaigning for more hip-hop and R&B on the bill for the past several years and while there’s still a lot of work to be done, this year’s lineup presents some progress at the top, with a contemporary(ish) black music headliner each night in Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa and Jill Scott, with Atlanta rap star Ludacris presumably paired with Khalifa on Saturday night. But it’s still skimpy below that.
There’s a (much) longer riff to write here about the now multi-generational shift in modern black pop away from a focus on live performance, with hip-hop and R&B traveling a more studio-to-radio or studioto-Internet trajectory rather than being nurtured via the local-giggingto-hard-touring route of most strains of rock and blues. (A similar case can be made for mainstream country, whose general exclusion from festivals like this is a different story.)
Pair that with the reality that festivals like this are largely booked among artists on a wider summer festival circuit, rather than as one-off bookings, and there are pressures that limit the festival’s options. All that said, I’d still like to see more emphasis on modern black pop. With three main stages, my ideal is that one stage each day would be like a mini “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.”
Locals: There’s a subtle Memphis flavor to the headliners: MGMT with White Station High School’s Andrew VanWynGarden. Kings of Leon’s West Tennessee roots. Widespread Panic’s heavy regional footprint. Snoop Dogg’s oft-stated Memphis love. Below that, Stax legend Booker T. Jones is a very welcome booking, presumably in the blues tent. Among current locals, there doesn’t seem to be anyone as well-positioned to make waves as Julien Baker last year. Blues-rockers Southern Avenue, who release their debut album soon, would have been the best bet. Their absence suggests booking conflicts. But Amy LaVere, Dead Soldiers, Marcella & Her Lovers, Lil Wyte, and recent fest
regulars Ghost Town Blues Band make for a strong local contingent.
Sleeper Picks: Some undercard acts likely to make my “to see” list:
On Friday, throwback soul man Charles Bradley is a live sure shot and Bob Mehr insists that Peter Wolf, who has shifted in a bluesy/rootsy direction, has a surprising amount of game left, and my YouTube explorations this morning confirm that. On Saturday, the
are my pick for best overall band of the past decade or so and if they’re paired (as I suspect) with loose-limbed Rhode Island rock-and-rollers Deer Tick, that’s where I’ll be for a while. In the blues tent (presumably), Corey Harris is a welcome name to see.
On Sunday, in addition to going to Memphis music church with Booker T. Jones, I’ll be interested to see how the outspoken likes of Midnight Oil and Ani DiFranco tailor their sets to the Trump era.
Reach Chris Herrington at chris.herrington@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @chrisherrington and @herringtonNBA.