Omar Higgins, leader of reggae band Chinese Connection Dub Embassy and hardcore punk band Negro Terror, died April 18 at the age of 37.

The Weekly Memphian is a partial guide to things happening in Memphis, recommended by Daily Memphian staff. This guide covers April 10-16.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Memphis-based Stax Records formed an alliance following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death here that allowed Jackson to use the record label as a platform to spread the spoken word.

The Doobie Brothers returns to the Memphis Botanic Garden concert series in a lineup that also includes Lionel Richie, Toby Keith and Brett Young. 

Michigan-based pianist and lecturer Dr. Garik Pederson traveled to Memphis on Saturday to tell the story of a piano made specifically for recreation during World War II.

Would you buy tickets to a concert before you knew who is performing? Sofar Sounds, an entertainment company now in Memphis, thinks it might be the best way to fall in love with new music.

Swain Schaefer, who began his music career in 1960s Memphis garage-rock bands and played organ for a short time for the Box Tops, died at his Nashville home Feb. 16. He was 70 years old.

Musician Dale Watson has purchased the historic Hernando's Hideaway and has plans to reopen it in late March as a venue for local and touring roots musicians.

Singer, songwriter KIRBY, a Stax Music Academy alumna, is giving back to the institution, in a couple of ways. 

The 2019 Grammy Awards are full of nominees from Memphis or that are connected to the MidSouth. 

Memphis Slim House is officially its own nonprofit, after starting off as a program of Community LIFT. Its new director, Tonya Dyson, is thinking globally about the Memphis Slim Collaboratory. 

Bands and solo/duo acts from Memphis and Mississippi to the Mediterranean and all points in-between competed Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the annual International Blues Challenge on Beale. Competition continues through Saturday.

Statistically speaking, you've likely given up on your New Year's resolution. So Elizabeth Cawein of Music Export Memphis has a new one: Listen to more Memphis music in 2019 with the first of 12 playlists highlighting the best new songs by local artists.

Blues may be thought of as a genre of older performers, but during the International Blues Challenge, young blues musicians from all over the world meet in Memphis. 

Hometown rocker John Kilzer debuts a new album, the Harlem Globetrotters hit the FedExForum hardwood, the city honors MLK on Monday and more things to do in Memphis this week.

Five Memphis sisters, all members of the band JCKSN Ave, are working on their debut album. Soon they are departing to L.A. to work on the project with two acclaimed producers from Memphis. 

The Memphis-based Blues Foundation has announced nominees for its 40th awards celebration. The winners, recognized for achievements in performances, recordings, songwriting and sustaining the blues, will be revealed in May.

Elvis turns 84, Willie Nelson brings friends to town, and "If Beale Street Could Talk" takes the screen as we run down some of our favorite things happening in Memphis this week. 

The Memphis music community is launching an initiative called Year for Memphis Music to align and amplify local projects being created, says Visible Music College president Ken Steorts.

Sam & Dave, the gospel-tinged soul duo who recorded a series of hits at Memphis’ Stax Records in the mid-1960s, is being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy.

“Ain’t gonna take no mess.”

Bobby Rush is playing a Memphis benefit concert in a little more than a week’s time. The beneficiary of the concert: a nonprofit with the mission to create an entity that will monitor and manage the Memphis Sand Aquifer in Shelby County. The aquifer is the source of Memphis’ drinking water.  

Visible Music College president Ken Steorts has joked that the institution for higher learning has a secret FM radio station. The station, on the dial at 100.3 FM, is not a secret exactly.

Brooke Fair, a 14-year-old student at Hutchison, recently released a six-song, self-written EP, “All Queens Wear Crowns.”

After serving as interim director since July, Pat Mitchell-Worley is now executive director of Stax Music Academy. Last year, Mitchell-Worley helped SMA start Stax 101, a new program offering group lessons for beginners.