OXFORD AMERICAN’S MEMPHIS MUSIC REVUE
THURSDAY 6/6. Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts, University of Central Arkansas, Conway. 5 p.m. Free.
The Oxford American, a National Magazine Award-winning quarterly publication based in Conway, has made thoughtful work of bridging the South’s musical past with its present for over three decades, sometimes by taking the music writing straight off the page and into readers’ earbuds through the magazine’s December music issue and accompanying compilation album — tantamount to an early Christmas for a particular type of music nerd. This time around, they’re honoring the history of venerable Stax Records with a music party at the University of Central Arkansas’s Windgate Performing Arts Center. Beginning at 5 p.m., the Stax Museum’s SoulMobile will spin vinyl records, sell merch from Memphis artists and, a press release said, “create a ‘party on wheels’ with major social media appeal.” That’s followed by a concert from Memphis purveyor of self-described “Black Lady spiritual music” Talibah Safiya; and The 926, an assemblage of alumni from the Stax Music Academy, a nonprofit school that teaches aspiring soul artists music theory, composition and music business. The show is free, but you’ll need to make a reservation here.
