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.”

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.

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.

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

Three-day passes for the 2019 Beale Street Music Festival are now on sale. 

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.

Fourteen-year-old Reagan Strange, a Memphis native, is a top contestant on NBC's singing competion, "The Voice." The show, now its 15th season, pairs the contestants with one of four celebrity coaches.

The Blues Foundation, based in Memphis, will honor 11 people and organizations at its Keeping the Blues Alive Awards in January during the 35th annual International Blues Challenge.

Named for Southern Avenue, which runs from the easternmost part of the Memphis city limits all the way to South Memphis, Southern Avenue is also the name of an up-and-coming Memphis band that embodies the city’s soul, blues and gospel traditions.

Jerry Lee Lewis' Cafe & Honky Tonk is hosting its 83-year-old namesake for a New Year's Eve concert.

Memphis is known for its music, but one record label in town isn’t run by well-known names in the industry – it’s run by students at the University of Memphis.

One of the more memorable Memphis cultural moments of the past several years was Justin Timberlake’s 2015 induction speech for the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

Some nights begin with a bang. The 2018 Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony started with a ball of fire.

With the mission of tying Memphis’ soul music history to the city’s soul music of today, the Soulsville USA Festival is returning to College Street and McLemore Avenue.

Brennan Villines has been a staple in the Memphis music scene for years, playing at nearly every venue in town. However, it wasn’t until this summer when he appeared on FOX’s “The Four” that the 30-year-old artist captured the hearts of thousands around the country singing a soulful rendition of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”

The second annual Mempho Music Festival at Shelby Farms Park was so successful that organizers say they expect to expand the event in 2019. “Memphis deserves a world-class music festival,” Mempho founder Diego Winegardner said Sunday. 

The idea of Mempho Music Festival stems from a bike ride founder Diego Winegardner took with friends a couple of summers ago on the Shelby Farms Greenline to Shelby Farms Park itself.

Last month, Memphian and Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum received a note on the Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame.