This week we have the highly anticipated Brian Owens & The Deacons of Soul in a live performance captured at the Levitt Shell. Brian Owens comes to us from his hometown of St Louis, our Mississippi River cousin to the north. Much like our rivertown neighbor to the south, New Orleans, it’s a city long associated with the sounds of the African American created genres of blues, jazz, gospel, and soul. He recently released an album called Soul of Cash… a soulful reimagining of works from Memphis music icon Johnny Cash’s catalouge.

Grammy nominated blues man, Guy Davis, will also be with us to deliver an installment of the Blues Hall of Fame, an exploration of the lives of the pioneers and innovators enshrined in the Blues Hall of Fame.

This week on BSC we feature a performance by Bill Abel from the Mighty Mississippi Music Fest during Bridging the Blues. He’s an accomplished potter and visual-artist, but most folks know him as an omni-present force on the Delta festival and jook joint circuit.

Also BSC contributor Preston Lauterbach continues his series the Chitlin’ Circuit and The Road to Rock n Roll.

In early 1970, Booker T Jones was on sabbatical in California having grown disillusioned with confines of Stax Records and Memphis, when he heard the Beatles’ latest effort, Abbey Road. So moved was he by the Beatles’ genius and daring, that he sat down and drafted his own Memphis-style tribute to the group. The album, released later that same year, is titled McLemore Avenue, after the street where Stax’s studio and headquarters were located. This week on BSC, we have Memphis’ very own Booker T and The MG’s tribute band, The Maitre D’s, performing McLemore Avenue from start to finish in a performance captured on the cutting room floor of Studio A at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

Over the past few seasons, BSC has brought our listeners a lot of Memphis music from a funky Midtown dive known as Bar DKDC (Don’t Know, Don’t Care). On this week’s program we take a closer look at what makes a music spot special. We talk with the owner, restaurateur Karen Carrier, and we have killer performances from The Reigning Sound and Lucy Woodward!