Inspired Southerner

We tell real stories about the South.

Wordless Wednesday: The Very Talented Kat Edmonson

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Kat Edmondson

I went to jazz singer Kat Edmonson’s concert last Friday night at Samford University.  I was blown away by her talent and performance as a singer songwriter and storyteller.  According to her bio, she began songwriting at age nine when she wrote a song on the bus while riding to school.  She began her professional music career in Austin, Texas in 2002.  After performing in the New York City Jazz Festival she relocated to NYC.  She also is an NPR favorite.  I also got to have a conversation with her after her show not only is she talented, she also is a very gracious artist as well.  Enjoy her latest album Way Down Low below:

 

Wordless Wednesday: The Color of Music

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Wordless Wednesday:

This past weekend I attended an event called Music We Stand which was an event benefiting The Color of Music organization in Huntsville, Alabama.  This event was a showcase performance and panel discussion in front of an all-star music industry cast for songwriters.  The event was geared towards aspiring songwriters who were looking for their chance to make it in the music industry or how to make it in the industry.  

About the Color of Music:

According to their website: The Color of Music organization is a  youth driven with programs and activities geared to motivate kids of all ages. They teach children the values of life through the arts; music, spoken words and visual arts. We believe spending positive and creative time with our youth will help provide a safe avenue for their untapped creativity and keep them off the streets.  The organization is for children of all ages that strives to connect young dreams with music industry leaders; giving everyone a chance to live out part, if not all of their dream while working together in year round entertainment. Our professional staff and volunteers are dedicated to the mission.  We welcome and facilitate the development of strength and character of all who participate regardless of race, creed or national origin.  I hope to give more volunteer hours to this wonderful organization. 

Photo: Grammy nominated songwriter Clay Mills who wrote the hit song Beautiful Mess for Diamond Rio and he also is the owner of Songtown a website for songwriters.

Sloss Fest: Magic’s Back in the Magic City

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Sloss Furnace

I love music and anyone who knows me, knows this.  In fact, I once said, if I had to do it all over again, my full time job would be in PR for either a record label or for bands.  (Well I have worked with bands on their PR strategies in the past).   I have to say that my love of music comes naturally, just riding in the car with my dad one could not help, but love music.  I grew up listening to the sounds of Motown that’s the only music my dad allowed to be played in his car.  I learned to appreciate Country music at my ma’am maw Kennedy’s house. When I stayed with my grandparents during the summers, our ritual was to watch The Grand Ole Opry reruns.  

The City of Birmingham used to host a three-day music festival called City Stages and I would plan my summers around the event because I attended every night.  The event was held in downtown Birmingham and included all genres of music.  The 21-year event ended in 2009 after some financial trouble.   After the event ended, to me it has felt like the City has been missing something with no major music festival to attend until last year when the Sloss Fest Entertainment and Music Festival began. The event was held at the historic landmark Sloss Furnaces and it didn’t disappoint.   I got the opportunity to attend this year.  The festival was a learning opportunity for me because I had not listened to the music of some of the bands that played.

Dylan LeBlancAlabama has been on a fast track in the music industry lately so, it was exciting to again see Birmingham on display in the form of a music festival. Our city was filled to the brim with visitors from all over who converged to listen to bands such as Ben Harper, Death Cab for Cutie, Dylan LeBlanc and Ray Lamontagne.

The event took me back to the days when you could hardly move through the crowd at City Stages.  In my opinion, an event like  Sloss Fest  only continues the positive renaissance and reboot  of my hometown in the last couple of years.   I tell people all of the time that I was a volunteer on committees for Operation New Birmingham and the things happening now are the things we WANTED to happen all those years ago when we talked about our city during committee meetings.  How wonderful it is to see the transformation.  Birmingham continues to receive accolades from all over about the quality of life, food scene and the strides it’s made in economic growth.   Most who visit and spend any time in Birmingham come to know this, something I knew all along.

Proudly, I am one of the biggest cheerleaders of Birmingham, so my hat’s off to the organizers of Sloss Fest.  Thank you also for bringing (back) a great music festival that adds more Magic to the Magic City.

 

 

Southern Road Trip #1: Quad Cities- Northwest Alabama

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A lot of people do not know that the Northwest corner of the state of Alabama is rich in history about the music industry. It is a beautiful area along the banks of the Tennessee River and is known as the Quad Cities that includes the towns of Florence, Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia and Sheffield.  No one really knows where ‘Muscle Shoals’ got its name, but according to the city’s website, one theory is that it got its name from the piles of mussel shells that were one time found along the shoals in the Tennessee River.  Another theory is that the shape of the river looks like the muscle in a man’s arm, therefore, Muscle Shoals.  The last theory comes from several booklets that were published before Muscle Shoals incorporated.  This theory states: “Muscle Shoals, the Niagara of the South, derives its name from the Indians, who, attempting to navigate upstream, found the task almost impossible because of the strong current.”  Thus came the word muscle, symbolic of the strength required to “paddle a canoe up the rapids.”

The area also is home to the Tennessee Valley Authority a program that was formed to bring economic development to those in the Tennessee Valley that were suffering during the Great Depression.

In the 1960s the area began to become known as the ‘Hit Capital of the World’ because of the music industry legend Rick Hall of FAME studios and the Swampers the session musicians who played on the hit records.  Many musicians travelled to this northwest corner of Alabama to make hit records, some names you may recognize like:  The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, The Staple Singers, the Allman Brothers and the Osmonds.

The area also is the home of the now historical landmark, Tom Hendrix’s Wall, a memorial wall he built to honor his great-grandmother and her struggles during her journey to Oklahoma and back to Alabama.  She was  a member of the Yuchi Indian tribe.  The wall is located off of County Road 8 near the Natchez Trace. It is very spiritual place and you will feel its importance while you take a journey through it.

If you plan to make a visit to the area make sure to watch the documentary ‘Muscle Shoals’ before going because it will explain a lot of what you hear in our discussion in the video below.  My friend Dorothy Bloom Little and I visited the area last summer to take the ‘Swampette’ Tour and to visit Tom’s Wall.  We hope you enjoy our discussion about our wonderful and meaningful road trip to the Quad Cities area.

 

 

Guest Post: Alabama by Way of New York

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Birmingham skylineDorothy B. Little

Born in New York, raised in Chicago and spent several years of my adult life in Cleveland categorizes me as a Yankee. The loss of my husband and my mother made me realize that I wanted to be near my children. This was a dilemma since one son lives in San Diego, the other son lives in Richmond, Virginia and my daughter lives in Birmingham.   Well, my daughter won the lottery and got her mother as the prize. So I packed up my house and headed down south.

It was an excellent choice. Not only was I able to spend time with my daughter and her family, but I also fell into the warmth and congeniality of the South. I remember walking into a department store in the mall one day and heard someone say “good morning”. I looked around to see who had greeted me and was shocked when I realized it was a salesperson and that was the only the start. People smiled, made eye contact, and greeted me wherever I went. These small gestures made for such a pleasant transition to my new home, Birmingham, Alabama.

Of course, the various landscapes took my breath away. The beauty surrounded me. It was nothing like the plains states from which I came. Hills, valleys, blue skies, flowering trees and shrubs presented a picture which instilled a peaceful calm within me. Although the rather windy roads and lack of street signs definitely sent me on some rather interesting and unplanned side trips.

Birmingham is such a great place. It is centrally located to other parts of the state. Only a five- hour drive and I am at the Gulf Coast. Many people do not realize that Alabama offers a varied topography. The state has rivers and mountains in the North and the beaches in the South and Wiregrass areas to the east. Once at the gulf a calmness again came over me as I walked on the white sand and waded in the clear blue water. I watched beautiful sunsets and ate some really great seafood. The shore keeps calling me back and I have answered and returned several times. Of course, I plan several more visits to the water.

Since I have been here, I also have discovered “the Shoals” and absolutely fell in love with the area. There are so many hidden treasures such as Tom Hendrix’s wall that sits just off of the Natchez Trace Parkway. His story of his great grandmother and her plight moved me in such a way that it touched me to my very core. When she was 16 years old she and her sister were rounded up to walk the Trail of Tears from northern Alabama to the reservations in Oklahoma. Once there she escaped by herself to return to the “singing river”. The Wall represents her journey to the reservation and her journey home. Mr. Hendrix keeps her story alive through this stone wall. His work of love has been placed on the National Historic Register.

And then, of course there is the music. It is alive and well in the Shoals, Muscle Shoals in particular. It gives another example as to why the Tennessee River is called the “Singing River”. Being a bit of a music junkie, I had to tour a couple of the old recording studios, 3614 Jackson Highway (Muscle Shoals Sound) and Fame studios. It’s hard to believe so many singers and songwriters came to or are from this area. Aretha got her start there and so many stars recorded in these studios, like the Stones, Wilson Pickett and Cher just to name a few.

I have only been in Alabama for 6 years and am constantly learning more about this wonderful State in the South. It is really a best -kept secret.

War Eagle, err Roll Tide……… go Bears!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tell real stories about the south. ~Kara Kennedy, Publisher