The streets were packed and jumping last Saturday at Cooper-Young Festival.
With locals on the streets and on stage it was undoubtedly Memphis, and it almost seemed, for one afternoon, Beale Street packed up and moved.
Jack Simon of Brister Street Productions was excited even before the festival began about the two stages his brainchild had helped produce, and equally so about the video feed Brister was going to have at the studio’s first Cooper Young Festival.
Otis Faithful opened up the festivities on Brister’s Midtown Market stage, playing that “Old Delta Dirty Blues,” as they called it, and as it sounded, with vocals reminiscent of Marc Bolan at times.
"I was really excited. We were looking for a way to get on one of those stages and Jack called the morning before," said Otis Faithful harmonica player Kyle Bors-Koefoed. There had been a mix-up, a clash of scheduling, and Simon's original opener Perfekt Daze couldn't make it. When Simon learned this information he told Kyle that Otis Faithful was the first to pop into his head.
"It's not the first time I've been there, but it's the first time I played, " Bors-Koefoed said, "I started off rough, didn't shower in time, a bit hungover from the gig before, but once we started paying it all smoothed out."
When asked what the day would be like, Jack Simon simply pointed at Otis Faithful and smiled, wearing his aviator shades and long hair, it was understood that he meant “Rock n’ Roll.”
University of Memphis student Zach Gilliam, guitarist and vocalist for the Soul Thieves, was there laying down that soulful Rock n Roll sound.
“That the whole thing even happened was cool. On both stages, it was just a variety of Memphis Music: Jazz Reggae, Rock n’ Roll, blues and bluegrass," said Gilliam, pleased about his performance and the success of Brister.
Goner Records, Memphis vinyl shop and Cooper Young resident, certainly agreed with Simon. They hosted a stage of their own with Jack Oblivian headlining. “He’s got an album coming out with Big Legal Mess a subsidiary of Fat Possum,” and the kicker is he started with local Memphis record label Goner Records.
Gilliam says, “This was my favorite Cooper-Young yet. It was the best representation of Memphis culture I’ve seen from it so far.”
My personal favorite part of the day was Devil Train, however. It was like being in the middle of a Grateful Dead show in 1974. I die a little inside knowing that I didn’t get to talk to them, that I didn’t get their information in order to pick their skulls like the petals of a sunflower.
The day was amazing, one of those gorgeous summer Memphis days when the sun’s decided to calm down and not beat on the city so hard. A slight breeze in the air and a room temperature Guinness Draft in my mug, bought specifically to be kept warm, right on my back, that very morning. I sang with Kid Ego’s bassist on the lawn next to House of Mews, and left a bit early because, I’d had my fill, I’d gotten a great story, and it was someone else’s turn to party and explore.
With locals on the streets and on stage it was undoubtedly Memphis, and it almost seemed, for one afternoon, Beale Street packed up and moved.
Jack Simon of Brister Street Productions was excited even before the festival began about the two stages his brainchild had helped produce, and equally so about the video feed Brister was going to have at the studio’s first Cooper Young Festival.
Otis Faithful opened up the festivities on Brister’s Midtown Market stage, playing that “Old Delta Dirty Blues,” as they called it, and as it sounded, with vocals reminiscent of Marc Bolan at times.
"I was really excited. We were looking for a way to get on one of those stages and Jack called the morning before," said Otis Faithful harmonica player Kyle Bors-Koefoed. There had been a mix-up, a clash of scheduling, and Simon's original opener Perfekt Daze couldn't make it. When Simon learned this information he told Kyle that Otis Faithful was the first to pop into his head.
"It's not the first time I've been there, but it's the first time I played, " Bors-Koefoed said, "I started off rough, didn't shower in time, a bit hungover from the gig before, but once we started paying it all smoothed out."
When asked what the day would be like, Jack Simon simply pointed at Otis Faithful and smiled, wearing his aviator shades and long hair, it was understood that he meant “Rock n’ Roll.”
University of Memphis student Zach Gilliam, guitarist and vocalist for the Soul Thieves, was there laying down that soulful Rock n Roll sound.
“That the whole thing even happened was cool. On both stages, it was just a variety of Memphis Music: Jazz Reggae, Rock n’ Roll, blues and bluegrass," said Gilliam, pleased about his performance and the success of Brister.
Goner Records, Memphis vinyl shop and Cooper Young resident, certainly agreed with Simon. They hosted a stage of their own with Jack Oblivian headlining. “He’s got an album coming out with Big Legal Mess a subsidiary of Fat Possum,” and the kicker is he started with local Memphis record label Goner Records.
Gilliam says, “This was my favorite Cooper-Young yet. It was the best representation of Memphis culture I’ve seen from it so far.”
My personal favorite part of the day was Devil Train, however. It was like being in the middle of a Grateful Dead show in 1974. I die a little inside knowing that I didn’t get to talk to them, that I didn’t get their information in order to pick their skulls like the petals of a sunflower.
The day was amazing, one of those gorgeous summer Memphis days when the sun’s decided to calm down and not beat on the city so hard. A slight breeze in the air and a room temperature Guinness Draft in my mug, bought specifically to be kept warm, right on my back, that very morning. I sang with Kid Ego’s bassist on the lawn next to House of Mews, and left a bit early because, I’d had my fill, I’d gotten a great story, and it was someone else’s turn to party and explore.