Live music was one of the first sacrifices when the COVID pandemic hit last spring, and it has unsurprisingly been among the slowest to return.

After a year’s absence, Paula and Raiford’s Disco — and Paula Raiford — are back. 

The popular series at Memphis Botanic Garden starts July 17 with Little Big Town. Tickets are on sale now. 

The music begins on Aug. 7 with a performance by Otis Redding III, son of the legendary Stax musician, followed by a performance by another Stax legend, William Bell, on Aug. 27.

Proposed is a 15,000-square-foot building that includes a 7,000-square-foot soundstage, all to help young Memphians prepare for careers in film and television.

The opening show features Grammy-winning singer PJ Morton on June 5. Ten more free concerts will follow on Thursdays through Aug. 12 at the newly renovated W.C. Handy Park on Beale Street. 

For his album ‘It Is What It Isn’t,’ Memphis musician Paul Taylor plays every note himself — on guitar, bass, drums, synth and more.

A mainstay of Memphis’ live music scene for years, Los Psychosis hadn’t recorded professionally until last year, when the album “Rock and Roll Dreams” was made.

Venues for live performance – the Orpheum, the Levitt Shell, the Landers Center – say audiences are eager for a return to shows.

A nice crowd gathered on a nice evening to open Arlington’s Music on the Square concert series, featuring the Brian Johnson Band.

The 87-year-old musician honed his craft at South Memphis’ Club Paradise, a pivotal venue in “The Birth of Soul Music.”

The Memphis musician’s blend of hip-hop and R&B finds nationwide airplay. ‘I grew up on Memphis music and I just try to compact all of those influences into one thing,’ he says.

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.’

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.

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 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.

Musicians will perform live at The Grove at GPAC on Thursday nights through April. The concerts are free, and cocktails and snacks will be available to purchase.

The two-day event is a thank-you to supporters of Black Lodge’s Indiegogo campaign, which reached its financial goal before it was set to end. 

The concerts on a stage surrounded by “hundreds of candles,” will be limited capacity and socially distanced, with food trucks and bars available.