Join us for a special Sunday show, October 21 at 6 pm on the grounds of Rowan Oak, home of William Faulkner (916 Old Taylor Rd, Oxford, MS 38655). FREE ADMISSION. This performance is part of the Sarahfest activities on the campus of the University of Mississippi.
Guests will include southern poet, Ashley M. Jones, Memphis soul sax band, Hope Clayburn and the Soul Scrimmage and New Orleans singer-songwriter Tasche de la Rocha.
The show is hosted by Jim Dees and our house band, the Yalobushwhackers.
Lawn chairs and blankets encouraged. Parking is limited. Shuttles will be available from Old Taylor Road lot. More info soon!
(No live broadcast. This show will be recorded for future air on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Alabama Public Radio).
Sarafest is the Sarah Isom Center at the University of Mississippi’s month-long celebration of readings, screenings, lectures, concerts – and radio shows! For a full schedule of events, visit: http://sarahisomcenter.org/.
Ashley M. Jones is the author of the poetry collection dark // thing, which won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her previous book, Magic City Gospel (Hub City Press) was a love song to the author’s home of Birmingham, Alabama, the “Magic City of the South.”
Using traditional forms and free verse poems, Jones takes readers on historical, geographical, cultural, and personal journeys through her life and the life of her home state. From De Soto’s “discovery” of Alabama to George Wallace’s stance in the schoolhouse door, to the murders of black men like Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner in modern America, Jones weaves personal history with the troubled, triumphant, and complicated history of Birmingham, and of America at large.
Jones is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
Hope Clayburn & the Soul Scrimmage are one of Memphis’ funkiest bands – and that’s saying something. Clayburn’s saxophone, flute chops, and soulful vocals have vaulted her to the forefront of the reinvigorated Memphis music scene. Her band, the Soul Scrimmage, mixes soul and funk with Afrobeat and reggae. The band has released a 6-song EP, Love is on The Way and recently finished recording a full-length album, Y’ALL SO LOUD, at Memphis’ famed Ardent Studios.
The Soul Scrimmage ensemble includes Robert Allen Parker on guitar, Khari Wynn on guitar/bass, Blake Rhea on bass, Jarvis Payne on drums, Victor Sawyer on trombone, Shayla Jones on trumpet and Mike Sweep on keys.
Jam band magazine Relix said, “Is there no Hope? There is, and she will funk you up!”
Clayburn, it should be noted, also works as a trauma nurse in the ER of a Memphis hospital.
Tasche de la Rocha is New Orleans singer-songwriter-guitarist who brings a beguiling mix of rock, doo-wop, garage, dream soul, and grunge to her sound. Gambit Weekly notes that de la Rocha has “built a reputation on Frenchmen Street, finding rhythms and celebratory sadness in her cloudy, Pacific Northwestern-inspired blues.”
The Portland, OR native’s latest release is Gold Rose.
