At WYXR, a cast of musicians with global name recognition see the station as a vehicle to express a fascination with not only Memphis’ music, but Memphis’ people. 

The first major, outdoor live-music event in Memphis since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mempho Fest Oct. 1-3 will feature Friday and Saturday headline sets from Georgia’s Widespread Panic, and a closing Sunday night set from North Carolina’s Avett Brothers.

“Shell Yeah!” benefit shows will feature the North Mississippi Allstars on May 6; New Orleans soul band Tank & the Bangas on May 20; Langhorne Slim on June 3; and Lucero on July 15.

Iris founding director Michael Stern says, ‘Welcoming a live audience again, even limited capacity and even outdoors, is incredibly emotional.’

Citation is second time U of M has ranked on international list in one academic year.

Tickets for Levitt Shell’s first two fundraising concerts sold out within hours, indicating that audiences are chomping at the bit for live music and shared experiences.

A majority of the finalists from the annual art competition are Collierville High students. The works are part of a display that will hang in the Memphis International Airport for the next year.

Kim Willson is an artist and entrepreneur who grew frustrated swatting at and missing flies with the traditional flyswatter. She invented Taddy Smack, a blend of whimsy and physics that may give a positive meaning to “one-hit wonder.”

Doughnuts were free for a while at Gibson’s Wednesday morning, the first local food giveaway campaign sponsored by The Kindness Revolution.

The show will air on Bloomberg TV at 2:30 p.m. April 25 and May 2. 

The Citizens to Preserve Overton Park took its fight to stop a highway all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Playwright Virginia Ralph saw an imaginative children’s musical in that real-life story.

Related story:

Activists saved Overton Park; now they just may stop a pipeline

Neighborhood leaders thought the tree-lined streets, where almost every home has a veranda, would be ideal for outdoor mini-concerts.

‘Lost in Orion,’ Don Lifted’s somber yet catchy debut single with Fat Possum Records, is ‘the culmination of a really tough, frustrating and death-ridden time,’ the artist says.

The debut of “Pour Me Another” at Brooks Museum is among several art events – indoors, outdoors, in-person, online – available to viewers April 17 and 18 in Memphis.

The Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival and Art in the Loop are planning for thousands over the weekend in distanced events.

Carmeon Hamilton’s HGTV show will likely be a six-episode “docu-style series” that shines a light on the city from her perspective. 

Dolph Smith studied and taught at what became the Memphis College of Art. Making the ladder Tennessee’s state tool was his idea. Mr. Smith didn’t go to Nashville. But he did write a letter. 

For the Levitt Shell, a series of spring and summer fundraising shows — featuring Memphis-area bands — hope to usher free shows in during the fall. 

The annual “30 Days of Opera” performances, free and outdoors, seem made to order for pandemic times, though the series has been around at Opera Memphis since 2012.

After missing 2020 due to COVID, two popular spring/summer Memphis concert series are returning next month in altered form.

Eric Robertson of Community LIFT joins Eric Barnes on The Sidebar.