MUSIC FESTIVAL: SEE ACTS
become a genre unto itself, as well as stars in Europe and an in-demand film scoring unit.
(Saturday, 8:50 p.m., Bud Light Stage): While Beyoncé grabbed the headlines — understandably so — for her epic set at last month’s Coachella Music Festival, art-rocker David Byrne also generated a fair amount of attention for his performance. Byrne — the former Talking Heads front man turned solo artist — wowed audiences with a selection of classic hits and a unique production featuring a totally mobile big band. On tour for the first time in nearly a decade and supporting his new album, “American Utopia,” Byrne will be one of the best bets of the fest.
(Sunday, 8:50 p.m., River Stage): Erykah Badu has occupied a unique place in the music world since emerging two decades ago with her career-defining debut album, “Baduizm.” Aside from being a critically acclaimed multiple Grammy winner, the neo-soul singer-songwriter is a genuinely eccentric artist in the best and truest sense of that well-worn phrase. Badu has relished a hard-earned creative and personal freedom in an industry that's often inhospitable to such impulses. Though she’s not released a new album since the second of her “New Amerykah” LPs in 2010, Badu’s live performances are routinely transcendent experiences. Her River Stage set on Sunday — a slot that’s previously been occupied by musical giants like Aretha Franklin — is one not to miss.
(Sunday, 3:50 p.m., River Stage): With her 2017 release "The Order of Time," Valerie June finally and fully came into her own. The West Tennessee native’s second full-length since signing with Concord Music Group expanded her folksy sound with ornate production touches, including strings and horns. Her earlier self-financed indie records were usually stripped-down affairs, but in reaching for a bigger sound June also realized her potential. Hers is a raw talent that Bluff City audiences — who first glimpsed June playing coffeehouses more than a decade ago — have long known about, making Sunday’s set a proper homecoming triumph.
(Sunday, 5:30 p.m., River Stage): The self-proclaimed “King of Memphis,” Bluff City MC Young Dolph has been a name in the news over the last year, largely due to events — including shooting incidents in Charlotte and Los Angeles — happening outside the studio and offstage. But Dolph (real name Adolph Thornton Jr.) released one of 2017’s top rap records in “Thinking Out Loud” and followed it with a defiant EP chronicling his recent experiences earlier this year. Dolph’s music fest debut will offer a chance to see just what all the buzz is about.
(Sunday, 7 p.m., Coca-Cola Blues Tent): If you were to walk into a Memphis nightclub in the 1950s — say, the Flamingo Room or the Hippodrome or any of the other long-gone legendary Beale Street venues of the era — what would the music be like? What would you see on stage? Memphis combo Love Light Orchestra answers that question by transporting local audiences back to the era when rhythm and blues big bands — led by the likes of Willie Mitchell, Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, Al Jackson Sr. and Phineas Newborn Sr. — were king. Founded by guitarist Joe Restivo, trumpeter Marc Franklin — both members of retro soul outfit The Bo-Keys — and noted Bluff City blues singer John Németh, the Love Light Orchestra is reconjuring a horn-heavy sound and style that was dominant in Memphis back in the day.