Dan DeLuca's Mix Picks: 'Muscle Shoals,' Lame-O Records showcase, and 'Talkin' World War III Blues'
A magazine's annual music issue, a Michael Jordan photo show, plus a Philly rock showcase, an uncomfortably relevant Dylan song, and a music doc about the Alabama mecca built by the late Rick Hall.
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Muscle Shoals. 2013 documentary about the Alabama town that became a soul music mecca thanks to Rick Hall, the producer and songwriter who died last week at 85. The movie tracks Fame and Muscle Shoals Sound studios successes with local talent such as Percy Sledge and Arthur Alexander, as well as out-of-towners like Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, and the bothers Allman and Osmond, among others. The movie is on DVD and On Demand. To dig deeper, check out Hall's 2015 autobiography, The Man from Muscle Shoals: My Journey from Shame to Fame.
Lame-O Records Rock Residency. The Philadelphia label founded in 2012 continues its annual wintry tradition of weekly benefit shows for local charities, like Behind the Bars and PAWS. Thursday at Boot & Saddle with Superweaks, No Thank You, and Loose Tooth, and featuring Philly bands such as Hurry, Harmony Woods, and Slaughter Beach on subsequent Thursdays this month.
Bob Dylan, "Talkin' World War III Blues." Somehow, those Cold War oldies but goodies about the threat of nuclear annihilation are timely once again. This Dylan song was written after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and is on his pre-electric 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
Oxford American, Kentucky Music Issue. The Southern literary magazine's annual music issue features Sturgill Simpson's mug on the cover and includes profiles and essays about Loretta Lynn, Les McCann, Richard Hell, the musical jawbone, and the Lexington farm where Sonny Rollins, Sammy Davis Jr., William S. Burroughs, and Ray Charles went to kick drugs. Plus previously unpublished poetry by Thomas Merton and a stellar multiartist CD featuring Dwight Yoakam, Joan Shelley, and Harry Dean Stanton. Available at bookstores and OxfordAmerican.com.
Mark Jayson Quines, NOBODY. Photography show by San Francisco shooter Quines that focuses on "the desire for apex through the symbol of Michael Jordan" and considers how pop culture shapes identity, whether through collectible basketball cards, Nike marketing wizardry, or Space Jam pinball machines. At the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center at the Crane Arts Building in Kensington through Feb. 17.
Mark Jayson Quines, "Boy W / J's."