Feeling the pulse of Memphis with River City Records founder Chris Braswell
THE tourists are returning to a re-energized downtown Memphis, the city no longer America’s favourite bad news story, its hitherto much-maligned reputation built on a shaky foundation of envy and ignorance.
Driven by a billion-dollar investment programme long-empty buildings are being restored with compassion, Memphis Police Department report a forty-percent reduction in crime over the past two years, and a City Hall sympathetic towards its arts sector are all playing their part in restoring the pride and expanding the appeal of the city dubbed Home of Blues, Soul & Rock ‘n’ Roll by Memphis Tourism.
And for music lovers of all genres, a new destination makes a deserved appearance on the city’s must visit list – River City Records, owned by Memphian Chris Braswell who is quick to praise City Hall for their appointment of DeMarcus Suggs, Director of Creative and Cultural Economy, whose brief includes bringing life and business back to the downtown area.
“This is something fairly new since Paul Young became the mayor,” Braswell explains. “before that he was head of the Downtown Memphis Commission so he’s got a real vested interest in supporting the downtown environment and a lot of that includes music, and I do think this city needs somebody in City Hall that is focused on the music scene whether it’s the local music scene or bringing in regional and national acts and getting new venues put up.
“I think the appointment of DeMarcus is a great addition to the city and being that he’s only been there for a year and a half maybe, we’re on the early stages of it, but to have an advocate in City Hall for the music scene and paying artists is good, because I hear from artists that play on Beale Street let’s say, that they’re getting paid the same amount they got paid twenty years ago to play there, and unless they are one of the big Friday night acts a lot of them struggle.
“And venues in general have become really stale on what they pay artists, but I do think that there’s a lot of recognition about that in the last few years. I feel like there’s been a lot of talk about it, I think that there’s some good venues that do take care of artists and in turn what you get is a better calibre of music coming in and I remain hopeful these artists will get paid what they truly deserve and I think some of the venues are catching on.
“But honestly City Hall have done a lot in the last year and I know it’s kind of tied in with Downtown Memphis Commission probably more than the mayor’s office, but they’ve got new programmes involved where safety officers are walking around, they have a dedicated landscaping team that go up and down South Main keeping everything trimmed, keeping it nice, planting flowers, and they’ve hung banners along all the lampposts recently, all things that bring a bit of vibrancy to downtown, and definitely working on filling empty spaces with things that tourists would be interested in – retail shops food and beverage, something that’s entertaining for them as they’re walking down the streets.”
As a regular visitor to Memphis, a noticeable lack of buskers has always intrigued me, especially within a city priding itself on their famous ‘grit and grind’ culture. However, another recent initiative is leading to significant positive change for the city’s buskers.
“It’s funny, because it’s actually really easy to be a busker down here. You do have to get a busking licence, but it doesn’t cost anything and it’s easy to apply for. You go into the Downtown Memphis Commission and tell them you want a busking licence; they tell you the ‘do’s and don’ts’ – and really the don’ts are it can’t be amplified beyond a certain decibel.
“And they just started a programme last year that they’ve restarted this year called ‘Music on Main’ where Downtown Memphis Commission is paying local artists four days a week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to busk, to get out here and play, so they are bringing music onto South Main and they’ve had some really talented musicians out here on the streets. It’ll run through we know to the end of June, but I believe July and August get too hot so they kind of hold off during those couple of months and start back up for another two months in September and October. They move the spots around each week and that way music is not kind of in the same place. I think it’s a great addition and to be able to pay these artists to come out and do it instead of just asking them to do it for tips, it’s a great thing.”
Approaching their fifth year in business River City Records position themselves perfectly between catering for those seeking perhaps the more mainstream, better-known artists, and others on a quest for something more niche.
“We have people from all over the world shop here and being that I’d say about sixty or seventy percent of our business in the shop is ‘tourist.’ Obviously the Memphis music section is probably the most popular and I’d say our top three sellers are all out of that section – whether it’s Elvis Presley or Al Green or the Stax compilation records, those are three of our biggest sellers and it’s definitely fuelled by the tourists that are coming in town for the music scene.
“Total artist by far is Elvis, our biggest seller probably three-to-one to any other artist but with that being said Al Green’s Greatest Hits is my number one seller, that album sells more than any other. But Elvis put out two-hundred records in a twenty-year time frame so obviously there’s a lot more for them to choose from that’s why Elvis as an artist is my biggest seller – but Al Green’s Greatest Hits my number one album seller.
“The European tourists are knowledgeable, specifically the Memphis music scene. Obviously they’re making a trip here that someone let’s say that’s from Tallahassee Florida can drive up in eight hours, an easy drive, so to come across the pond for music whether they’re Elvis fans or whether they’re soul and blues fans – I mean there’s so much depth to their love of music which typically means in turn their knowledge of music is the same.
“The local residents buy a lot of the local artists stuff but also depending upon their genre I sell a lot of alternative and new music. Hip hop and rap sells quite well and then everybody kind of hits the classic rock and soul and ‘r&b’s’ for those classics.
“But there’s definitely a great indie scene here in town and a lot of the musicians cross over and are in multiple bands, a lot of that crossover where artists like Joe Restivo the guitarist play in a lot of different bands so yeah, it’s a great cohesive scene and you can seven nights a week find some amazing music to listen to here in town. And there’s so much Memphis music influence on people whether it’s horns or just guitar styles, the Memphis music that has come before the newest musicians has definitely heavily influenced a lot of them – so that’s where you’ll get the similarities.
“Three up and coming local artists? There’s a female solo artist named B.Lakeitha that has an absolutely amazing voice, and kind of in that same realm – and I don’t know if you consider Marcella Simien ‘up and coming’ – but she’s absolutely one of my favourite local artists that I think is far underestimated how talented she is, and then kind of on the opposite end there’s an alternative band here in town called Sleep Theory that has gotten really popular and really big into the festivals and they’ve really blown up over the last year.
“But for artists struggling to break out of Memphis, we find a lot of that. I know like the blues artists specifically they go overseas – and while they may come here and struggle to bring in thirty or forty people into a venue – they can do a European tour, South America is really, really big and they absolutely love American blues music, and they can go down there and fill out a hall and they’ll sing along, they know every word to the song and that doesn’t even happen in the States! So, I do believe there are certain genres of music that definitely benefit from the fans that are in other countries and they go over there knowing that they’ll do so.
“The band from the States, Red Clay Strays – they’re pigeonholed into country but they’re far more soul and gospel than they are country – but they went on their first European tour just within the last nine months and two of then never even had their passports. John the drummer had to get his passport, they’d never travelled out of America before and they did I think a ten or twelve city tour that they announced and every tour got sold out before the plane ever left to go over there and so it definitely shows you they’ve never played there before, but there are fans and they will sell out those venues.”
And with vinyl now a billion-dollar industry outselling CDs across the US and UK, is there finally room for optimism both for the wider record sector – and River City Records?
“The short answer is yes. I’m very confident that the demand will continue to increase as it has for the last dozen plus years. My concern – and I’ll be completely candid – is that distributors and labels have figured out that vinyl is really hot and that they are really pushing the limits on what they are in essence telling us what a record should sell for, and I’ve seen that price point just in the five years I’ve been in business, seen that price point creeping up year over year, over year.
“And if there’s one thing that will slow down the vinyl surge it will be price points. So many of who are really bringing vinyl back are teenagers, twenty-year-olds, thirty-year-olds – and you know Taylor Swift unfortunately is a perfect example, every release she puts out has a price point of between forty and fifty dollars and for even a two LP release that’s still quite a bit of money for a teenager or twenty year old, it’s a big ask, so hopefully they’ll recognise that with quantity they can still make the same amount of money as opposed to just jacking the price up. I truly believe if there’s anything that will cause the vinyl surge to slow down or go in the opposite direction it’ll be price point on these records for sure.
“But River City Records, we’re an independent record store in the heart of the entertainment district downtown Memphis. We also do all sorts of in-store events, and we’ve got six-time Grammy winner PJ Morton instore on June 13. [Details HERE] He’s probably the biggest, most well-known artist we’ve ever had in although I’ve had legends like Eric Gales in here, Mudhoney an old sub-pop grunge band from the Seattle times, The Red Clay Strays, Arlo McKinley, and Buffalo Nichols.
“We’ve had a lot of good artists come in but none that had twenty-two Grammy nominations and six Grammy wins so we’re excited for PJ Morton and for all our news you can follow us on Instagram at River City Records where we’re always posting when we’re having events. Obviously we have a website too where you can purchase Memphis music from us directly and although we don’t ship internationally currently – that will change in the near future.”
Connect with – and support – River City Records HERE
