Produced by Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem) and featuring horn arrangements by legendary Memphis session player Jim Spake (Al Green, John Hiatt, Solomon Burke, Cat Power), the record marks a decided turn toward the Memphis soul sound that has long informed the band’s records from afar.

‘1372 Overton Park’ follows the band’s 2006 release, ‘Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers’, hailed by Pitchfork as “the best showcase for the band’s taut dynamic yet.”

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The new album’s name comes from the address of the Memphis loft in which all four band members lived, practiced and even recorded portions of their 2003 release ‘That Much Further West’.

The history of the space itself is even more colorful – in the ’70s, 1372 Overton Park was a karate dojo where local resident Elvis Presley, among others, took lessons.

Over recent years band members have gradually moved out leaving lead singer and guitarist Ben Nichols the sole resident of the space until word finally came down that the building would be sold and demolished. Almost as if marking the end of an era not only for the building but for the band as well, this record turns the page and signals a strong move toward the Memphis soul sound that has long served as an influence for the group.

Nichols explains, “When [saxophonist] Jim Spake put that first horn track down, we began thinking of the record as having a certain sound. We heard pieces of Memphis history being played over our songs and it floored us and we just went with it.”

While ‘1372 Overton Park’ serves as a love letter to Memphis and its musical heritage, the band has far from abandoned the country/ rock/ punk influences that they’ve become known for over their previous five records and countless tour dates in front of rabid fans.

“I think the fact that we don’t claim a genre is very important to what Lucero is,” according to Nichols. “There are too many rules in punk rock. Too many rules in country music. We’re hard headed and…god damn if we don’t do things the way we want to do them.”

Playing between 150-200 live shows a year, Lucero has come to be known as much for their hard-touring work ethic as for their critically acclaimed records.

In addition to his work with the band, lead singer Ben Nichols also released a solo record in early 2009 and co-stars in MTV’s $5 Cover, a series about the Memphis music scene.

“In case there was ever any doubt, country music is always better when played by genuine Southerners.” – Rolling Stone

“Full of shabby glory.” – Paste

The band is currently streaming a new track, “The Devil and Maggie Chascarillo,” on their website!

Lucero MySpace
Lucero Official Website

Happy to receive the Elvis Presley ‘From Elvis In Memphis’ album ahead of release, I made sure to make the first listening of the 2 discs an event worthy of the King.

I invited my listening companion out to the back garden, as the warm afternoon sun was just setting. We poured our drinks and sat back for an evening of classic music.

The tracklisting is conveniently on the back of the discs, however, I decided to refrain from studying the upcoming songs and instead, enjoyed the anticipation of what was to come, with each song.

I’m not the most educated of Elvis fans, which makes this album a treat – I was getting turned on to “new” Elvis songs that I hadn’t heard before, which I would have thought would be a task considering the amount of hit songs that he released such as “Jail House Rock”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Hound Dog” and many more. You won’t be finding those songs on this album though. To me, the tracks on ‘From Elvis In Memphis’ seem more obscure, and I would be interested to know exactly how popular these songs were when they were released and how the hard-core fans feel about them. He certainly had a great repertoire of songs.

“Wearin’ That Loved On Look” is a great choice for an opening track. With Elvis’ soulful voice along with the solid, groovy feel of the band and the busy backing vocals, you can’t help but move along to this funky number. The album continues to roll, moving from soul to blues, country, pop and not to forget, love songs.

Some tracks are more playful, like “Power Of My Love” and “Stranger In My Own Home Town” while others have more of a serious tone with visual storytelling, such as “Gentle On My Mind”, “True Love Travels On A Gravel Road” and “The Fair Is Moving On”.

“Any Day Now” was a pleasant surprise, as I’ve heard other versions before, but not Elvis’. His rendition makes me like the song even more. The familiar “In The Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds” (bonus) are welcoming inclusions. Another surprise was hearing Elvis sing “Hey Jude”, which seemed a touching nod to the Beatles.

The last two songs before the 10 bonus tracks on the second disc – “You’ll Think Of Me” and “Without Love (There Is Nothing)” – slowed down the momentum, but it started to pick up again with the crescendo at the end of “Without Love (There Is Nothing)” and then the second round of bonus tracks kicked in, including “In The Ghetto”, “Suspicious Minds” and “Rubberneckin’”.

The passion in Elvis’ voice throughout ‘From Elvis In Memphis’ is inspiring. He could sing anything and these 2 discs prove it – to me, anyway. There is a lot of music to consume here, and these gems of songs should be given the royal treatment when listening.

—–

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Press information:

‘From Elvis In Memphis’ celebrates the 40th Anniversary of American Studio Sessions

In January – February 1969, after 13 years of recording studio albums and movie soundtracks in Nashville and Hollywood, the time was right for Elvis Presley (1935-1977) to set foot once again in a Memphis studio. Those sessions at Chip Moman’s American Studios yielded a year-long string of ‘comeback’ hit singles: “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain.”

‘From Elvis In Memphis’ : Legacy Edition collects that entire American Studios output, and then some.

For tracklisting and more information about the album, go to: ‘From Elvis In Memphis’ press

Elvis Official Sony Website

By: Jenny May – BandWeblogs.com

In January – February 1969, after 13 years of recording studio albums and movie soundtracks in Nashville and Hollywood, the time was right for Elvis Presley (1935-1977) to set foot once again in a Memphis studio. Those sessions at Chip Moman’s American Studios yielded a year-long string of ‘comeback’ hit singles: “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain.”

FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION collects that entire American Studios output, and then some.

The specially-designed 40th anniversary double-CD package will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting July 28, 2009 through RCA/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

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The extensive 2,400-word liner notes essay for FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION was written by the homegrown Memphis team of Robert Gordon (whose books include It Came From Memphis and The Elvis Treasures, and whose documentary films include Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story and Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement’s Home Movies) and his wife Tara McAdams, author of The Elvis Handbook among other works.

Individually, disc one of FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION includes the 12 songs of 1969’s original From Elvis In Memphis LP. Among these are “In the Ghetto” (written by Mac Davis, the song that jump-started his career the next year as a Columbia Records artist), and powerful covers of Gamble & Huff’s “Only The Strong Survive” (via Jerry Butler), Johnny Tillotson’s “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’,” Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On” (famously covered by the Rolling Stones back in ’65), John Hartford’s “Gentle On My Mind,” and Burt Bacharach’s “Any Day Now” (via Chuck Jackson).

The 12 songs are augmented by four bonus tracks, songs that showed up on various LPs over the next couple of years “Who Am I?”, “If I’m A Fool (For Loving You),” and covers of Bobby Darin’s “I’ll Be There” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

Disc two of FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION includes the 10 songs that comprised LP two of the double-LP From Memphis To Vegas – From Vegas To Memphis (more on this album below). Among these are Percy Mayfield’s “Stranger In My Own Home Town,” Neil Diamond’s “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind” (ironically, it was Neil Diamond who yielded his studio time at American to accommodate Elvis), Bobby Russell’s “Do You Know Who I Am?,” Ned Miller’s “From A Jack To A King,” and Mort Shuman’s “You’ll Think Of Me.”

These 10 songs are augmented by another 10 bonus tracks, grouped as The Original Mono Single Masters. Four are (mono) reprises of songs that appeared on the aforementioned LPs: “In The Ghetto,” “Any Day Now,” “The Fair’s Moving On,” and “You’ll Think Of Me.” The other six were all originally non-LP single sides at the time of their first release: “Suspicious Minds” (the Grammy Hall Of Fame and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, written by Mark James); “Don’t Cry Daddy” (Mac Davis) b/w “Rubberneckin’”; Eddie Rabbitt’s “Kentucky Rain” b/w Shirl Milete’s “My Little Friend”; and finally, guitarist Johnny Christopher’s “Mama Liked The Roses.”

Elvis Presley’s multi-faceted performing career underwent a heroic rebirth in 1968 and 1969, ignited by three factors: his NBC-TV “comeback” special of December 1968 (taped in June, his first live show before an audience in over seven years); his landmark sessions at Chip Moman’s American Studios in January-February 1969 (Elvis’ first official recording in his hometown of Memphis since leaving Sun Records in November 1955); and his triumphant return to Las Vegas (the International Hotel) in August 1969, which led to his return to touring for the rest of his life.

The back-story originates with the NBC-TV broadcast of “The ’68 Comeback Special.” A colossal success by every standard, the tv special (and those indelible black leather images) invigorated Elvis and everyone around him, including the two most formidable figures in his career at the time, Colonel Tom Parker (his manager) and Felton Jarvis of RCA Records (his A&R man and staff producer).

Several members of Elvis’ entourage had long-standing connections with producer and songwriter Chips Moman. As busy as Memphis and the surrounding area’s studios were – Stax Records, Willie Mitchell’s Hi Records, and in Alabama, Rick Hall’s FAME Studios and the new Muscle Shoals Sound – it was Chips’ American Studios on Thomas Street that had all but eclipsed the competition, a steady rise in business that began in 1965. Like those other studios, American had its core rhythm section of world-class players: guitarist Reggie Young, bassists Tommy Cogbill and Mike Leech, Bobby Emmons on organ, Bobby Wood on piano, drummer Gene Chrisman, plus the Memphis Horns led by Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love, and a dazzling array of background vocalists. Holding it together was Chips Moman, a songwriter (“Dark End Of the Street,” Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman Do Right Man”) and experienced producer since his earliest days at Stax Records.

According to Peter Guralnick, American reportedly charted 120 hits between November 1967 and January 1971, landing 28 records on the Billboard charts in one memorable week. There were early national hits with local acts Sam the Sham (“Wooly Bully”), Sandy Posey (“Born a Woman”), the Box Tops (“The Letter”), Merrilee Rush (“Angel Of the Morning”), the Gentrys (“Keep On Dancin’”), and many others. Atlantic Records became a major client, as producer Jerry Wexler steered Aretha Franklin (“Think”), Wilson Pickett (“I’m a Midnight Mover”), Dusty Springfield (Dusty In Memphis), Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations (“Sweet Inspiration”), Herbie Mann (Memphis Underground), and many other label acts to Chips’ American Studios.

A lifelong Memphis resident (since age 13) whose story – and the story of the birth of rock and roll itself – is inextricably linked for all time, Elvis Presley arrived at American Studios at the perfect moment: January 13, 1969. It was just six weeks after the NBC-TV broadcast of December 3rd, and a month after the release of the TV Special soundtrack LP, a platinum seller whose climactic closing number, “If I Can Dream,” was turning into Elvis’ first hit single since 1966.

With the exception of the impromptu “Million Dollar Quartet” session of December 1956 at Sun Studios with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash (officially unreleased until 1990), it was the first time Elvis was recording in his hometown in over 13 years. The first results of the American Studio sessions came quickly; “In the Ghetto” was issued as a non-LP single in May 1969, and was welcomed as a platinum-selling hit.

In June 1969, From Elvis In Memphis presented 12 of the 32 master recordings that Elvis completed at American Studios, climaxing with “In the Ghetto.” The album became his first gold-selling studio (non-movie soundtrack) LP since 1961. In August, “Suspicious Minds” (b/w “You’ll Think Of Me”) was released as a new non-LP single. “Suspicious Minds” not only hit the million-selling mark, but became Elvis first #1 hit since 1962 (“Good Luck Charm”) and the last #1 of his career.

Also in August, buoyed by his comeback chain of events, Elvis kicked off a four-week run at the brand new International Hotel in Las Vegas, following Barbra Streisand’s run in the 2,000-seat showroom. Live recording over the course of six nights was produced by Felton Jarvis, and five months later in November, the double-LP From Memphis To Vegas – From Vegas To Memphis was released.

The first LP gathered 13 songs recorded live at the hotel; the second LP brought out another 10 of the American Studio tracks. The concurrent November single release, however, was not drawn from the album tracks. Instead, it came from the American sessions, as “Don’t Cry Daddy” chalked up another million-selling Top 10 hit. Two months later in January 1970, “Kentucky Rain” extended the string, a Top 20 gold-selling hit.

A couple of as-yet unreleased American tracks – Bobby Darin’s “I’ll Be There,” “If I’m A Fool (For Loving You)” – surfaced on Let’s Be Friends, a Camden budget LP released April 1970. In November, RCA spun off the studio half of the double-album as a single LP, Back In Memphis. In March 1971, another as-yet unreleased American track – “Who Am I” – surfaced on Elvis’ Christmas Album, also a Camden budget LP. And in February 1972, one more as-yet unreleased American track – the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” – popped up in the middle of Elvis Now. It was the last time that the non-LP American sides were heard from until the 1993 box set, From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential 60’s Masters.

Elvis Presley scored a major conquest with the music he recorded at American Studios that winter of 1969, a triumphant return to his hitmaking ways in the company of another Mid-South visionary, Chips Moman. “But fires must be fed, or else they go out,” Gordon and McAdams warn. Still, “After revisiting the spirit of home, Elvis had a victory he could reflect upon, a confirmation that he was capable of more, a know­ledge of the fire burning inside us all that we call hope.”

FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION by ELVIS PRESLEY (RCA/Legacy 88697 51497-2) CD One – Selections: 1. Wearin’ That Loved On Look • 2. Only The Strong Survive • 3. I’ll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms) • 4. Long Black Limousine • 5. It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’ • 6. I’m Movin’ On • 7. Power Of My Love • 8. Gentle On My Mind • 9. After Loving You • 10. True Love Travels On A Gravel Road • 11. Any Day Now • 12. In The Ghetto • Bonus tracks: 13. I’ll Be There • 14. Hey Jude • 15. If I’m A Fool (For Loving You) • 16. Who Am I?

Notes:

Tracks 1-12 from From Elvis In Memphis, originally issued June 1969, as RCA 4155.

Tracks 13 & 15 from Let’s Be Friends, originally issued April 1970, as Camden 2408.

Track 14 from Elvis Now, originally issued February 1972, as RCA 4671.

Track 16 from You’ll Never Walk Alone, originally issued March 1971, as Camden 2472.

CD Two – Selections: 1. Inherit The Wind • 2. This Is The Story • 3. Stranger In My Own Home Town • 4. A Little Bit Of Green • 5. And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind • 6. Do You Know Who I Am? • 7. >From A Jack To A King • 8. The Fair’s Moving On • 9. You’ll Think Of Me • 10. Without Love (There Is Nothing) • Bonus tracks – The Original Mono Single Masters: 11. In The Ghetto • 12. Any Day Now • 13. The Fair’s Moving On • 14. Suspicious Minds • 15. You’ll Think Of Me • 16. Don’t Cry Daddy • 17. Rubberneckin’ • 18. Kentucky Rain • 19. My Little Friend • 20. Mama Liked The Roses.

Notes:

Tracks 1-10 from LP Two of the double-LP From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis, originally issued November 1969, as RCA 6020; tracks 1-10 re-released November 1970 as single LP Back In Memphis, RCA 4429.

“The implicit challenge was accepted, and all sank in for hard work, real work.. The biggest hits of Elvis’ latter career came from these sessions: ‘Suspicious Minds,’ ‘In The Ghetto,’ ‘Don’t Cry Daddy,’ and ‘Kentucky Rain’… He went from selling a couple hundred thousand singles to having several hits that sold more than a million… Once again Elvis arose and again, Elvis triumphed.” – from the liner notes by Robert Gordon and Tara McAdams

Legacy Recordings
Elvis Official Sony Website

Amy’s album “Songs For Bright Street” has been attracting attention, having been selected in Indie-Music.com’s Top 25 Indie Release of 2006 while grabbing a “Best New Country Song 2006″ nomination from Independent Music Awards for “The Real Thing.” Over the last year, Amy has been asked to open for Little Feat, Heartland, Phil Vassar, John Corbett Roger McGuinn, John Gorka, Peter Mulvey, Tracy Grammer, Sloan Wainright, and Steve Forbert.

Amy Speace & The Tearjerks Folk Alliance 2007 Showcases Marriott Hotel and Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis

Wednesday 2/21
10:30pm Sacred Yard, TBA
1:00am Focus Music Presents, Rm #1828

Thursday 2/22
11pm Rumbling & Tumbling, TBA
* 12am Wildflower Records Presents, Performance Alley, Jackson Room
1:30am Grassy Hill Ent., Rm #1812

Friday 2/23
3:00pm Vic’s Kick Ass Women, Rm #1812
* 10:30pm CD Baby Presents, Performance Alley, Jackson Room
11:30pm Wildflower Records, TBA
12:30am Kyser Capos, Rm #1705

Saturday 2/24
12:30am Wildflower Records, TBA
1:30am Fox Run, Rm #1910
(*) Official showcases

Amy Speace has already won a loyal grass-roots fan base, thanks in large part to live performances that merge warmth, humor and emotional immediacy, and to a tireless touring schedule that’s already taken her across the United States. She’s also won considerable critical acclaim, with The Village Voice observing that Speace is “taking her Americana away from twangy contemplation toward tangy confrontation” and noting that she’s “not another of those breathy would-be child poets, but a real singing writer of songs.” Time Out New York stated, “Amy Speace plays sweet, twangy folk music with a clear voice and an innocent vulnerability,” while The Nashville Scene noted that she “balances wry humor with open-hearted honesty.” And renowned Nashville critic Robert K. Oermann, writing in Music Row, dubbed her a “new star.”

http://www.amyspeace.com
http://www.folkalliance.org