This minisode was made for the NPR Student Podcast Challenge: College Edition. It's a summary of the Memphis Country Blues Festival, which ran from 1966 through 1970 at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park. The first season of Beyond Beale covers the festival in depth.
This episode features interviews from Augusta Palmer, Chris Wimmer, Henry Nelson, Jimmy Crosthwait, and “Daddy” Mac Orr.
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Emma Jane Hopper: Welcome to Beyond Beale, I’m your host, Emma Jane Hopper. We have here a special mini episode about the Memphis Country Blues Festival, a short-lived but unique event in Memphis, Tennessee. Our inaugural season covers it in-depth.
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Emma Jane Hopper: From 1966 through 1970, the Memphis Country Blues Society put on an annual festival featuring country blues artists at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park. The Society’s members were white, the musicians were mostly Black, and the festival played to an integrated audience. This was an anomaly for Memphis during the Civil Rights Movement.
Augusta Palmer: ….the staff restrooms at the Shell were still segregated... in sixty six when the festival started.
Emma Jane Hopper: That’s Augusta Palmer, whose father, Robert Palmer, was a founder of the festival. Dr. Palmer is a documentarian, and her upcoming film is called Blues Society. It’s also about the Memphis Country Blues Festival.
Chris Wimmer: ...when we were in high school, a lot of times, we could go out and go into some of the black clubs, not all of them. Now, mind you, but some…. But but blacks coming into a white club, was a completely different issue. It just didn't happen.
Emma Jane Hopper: This is Chris Wimmer. He was a core organizer of the festival, along with Dr. Palmer’s dad, Bill Barth, and Nancy Jeffries.
Chris Wimmer: ...I don't know if the law, you know, the laws were still on the books, so to speak…. Memphis just was not an integrated town at that time.
Emma Jane Hopper: Despite the implicit segregation of Memphis, the Memphis Country Blues Society reached a fairly large audience, with local newspapers like the Commercial Appeal reporting a thousand or so attendees.
Augusta Palmer: ….I think they always attracted more people than they thought that they would attract.
Emma Jane Hopper: One of those people was Henry Nelson, who was 15 when he attended the festival.
Henry Nelson [00:13:49] ….When I discovered... that space in 68, I felt like I had found my tribe... it was my my cool place. It was my safe place.
Emma Jane Hopper: Mr. Nelson’s from West Memphis, across the bridge in Arkansas. He found Overton Park when he was a teenager, trying to find his way to Woodstock but going in the wrong direction.
Henry Nelson: ….One of the reasons I felt at home and with my tribe is because there were so many African-Americans there who were, considered themselves cool and hippies, and that was that was part of it. But also the fact that everybody got along and there was never an incident that I recall from all the years I've gone to to that tribe.
Emma Jane Hopper: The acceptance Mr. Nelson found in the Memphis hippie community didn’t extend to the general public.
Henry Nelson: ….in my mind, in my heart, that I relate to the culture that most hippies believed in. It was about love. It was about togetherness. However, being a person of color outside of that culture, I am just a person of color. And I experienced that absolutely.
Emma Jane Hopper: The integrated nature of the festival didn’t strike the organizers as unique until after all was said and done, according to Mr. Wimmer.
Chris Wimmer: ….the importance of that is kind of hindsight. At the time it was just the way we were. we were all kind of musicians and hippies and beatniks, you know, a pretty liberal bunch.…
Emma Jane Hopper: Mr. Nelson didn’t realize how mythical the festival would become either.
Henry Nelson [00:21:11] ….when I look back on it and what people, you guys are talking about now, it was just another day in Overton Park. And who knew?....
Emma Jane Hopper: The city wasn’t invested in musicians who weren’t Elvis.
Chris Wimmer: ….We never could get any interest, you know, financial or otherwise, out of the city…. Whether it was because these were just old black guys that they just kind of brushed off, or if they were just ignorant and had no concept of the history and the blues and, you know, evolving into modern rock n roll or exactly what it was. But the city's only concept of Memphis music was Elvis.
Emma Jane Hopper: Like Mr. Wimmer, Mr. Nelson also said that Memphis music doesn’t begin or end with Elvis. Country blues hasn’t been given the respect it deserves.
Henry Nelson: It wasn't valued and I would say the same thing for the music business itself, because a lot of the music business, the true beginning of the music business itself, didn't start with Elvis. I mean, Elvis just happened to be around at that time. But it was really from African-American artists and the artists, primarily at Stax and Royal Studios…. I think the city has always devalued that culture of music…
Henry Nelson: ….when you think about country blues and the lack of popularity and awareness about it, that's cultural. And it's also…. racist in regards to just being separated and unappreciated and devalued and invisible, if you will.
Emma Jane Hopper: After Steve Allen covered the 1969 festival on his PBS show Sounds of Summer, the city finally started paying attention. Jimmy Crosthwait, emcee of the ‘68 show and musician , said this was less of a boon than it seemed.
Jimmy Crosthwait: ….then by the time the city was in on it, they were just screwing it up. So the original members just sort of walked away. And that's how, the Memphis Country Blues Society, just dissolved….
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Emma Jane Hopper: Aside from Elvis, most notable Memphis musicians were and are Black. The fact that most people think of Elvis instead of Furry Lewis or Booker T. and the MGs when they think of Memphis is evidence of the racism Black musicians faced, either from the city or from the recording industry.
“Daddy” Mack Orr: ...it's a lot of good musicians here and never did get that break, you know
Emma Jane Hopper: That was “Daddy” Mack Orr, a blues musician who moved to Memphis in the 60s but didn’t start playing until the 80s. On the other side of production, Mr. Nelson went into radio and later worked with some of the country blues musicians he saw on stage at the Levitt Shell when he was 15.
Henry Nelson: ….the music industry is vicious... But these artists were... never paid their due in regards financially or publicity wise….
Emma Jane Hopper: All of the money made off the festival was split among the Black musicians, and the Society’s founders only kept the festival going for 4 years before losing interest. At the end of everything, it seems pretty clear that the festival’s only real purpose was getting a chance to listen to musicians that didn’t get all of the gigs they deserved. It’s funny how something so casual at the time became such an interesting piece of Memphis history, buried in bureaucratic racism and Elvis memorabilia.
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Emma Jane Hopper: Thank you so much for tuning in, if you enjoyed this show then be sure to listen to Beyond Beale, the Mike Curb Institute’s Memphis music history podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you to the interviewees featured in today’s program, in order of appearance, Augusta Palmer, Chris Wimmer, Henry Nelson, Jimmy Crosthwait, and “Daddy” Mac Orr. Today’s episode was written and produced by myself and Elijah Matlock. Elijah is also our audio engineer. The original music for today’s program was created by Cam Napier. Thank you to Betsy John and Shaliz Barzani for our gorgeous cover art. I’m your host, Emma Jane Hopper, see you soon and stay safe.