August playlist: Music is essential
Elizabeth Cawein
Elizabeth Cawein is the founder and director of Music Export Memphis, which leverages public and private support to function as an export office for Memphis music. She is also an adjunct professor of music publicity at the University of Memphis, and in 2019 will teach a new course she developed on Music Urbanism at Rhodes College.
Buy some Memphis music, y’all. Our independent record stores are back open and doing shopping by appointment, which, honestly, is pretty cool.
Related stories
June playlist: Celebrate Black Music Month
We should be as bold and bullish about our contemporary black music as we are about all of our claims to fame, from FedEx and Holiday Inn to historic music attractions to dry rub ribs.
July playlist: Silver Linings
Before this is all over there will be plenty of other songs like Yo Gotti’s "Recession Proof" that comment specifically on the pandemic. Even the tracks that don’t feature bridges about Zoom meetings will still reflect the mood and feelings of this moment.
Memphis musicians continue protests in tradition of ‘message music’
Adopting Stax Records' approach to tackling Black liberation through song, several local artists responded to recent protests with lyrical activism.