It Came From Memphis

T-Model Ford plays on Sunday night
12 April 2012
The Weekender

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Saturday, Sunday 7.30pm, Barbican, Silk Street, EC2. Muscle Shoals: £20-£30, Delta Blues: £12.30-£22.50. Tube: Barbican, Moorgate. Tel: 0845 120 7500

Having focused its attentions on the music from, and inspired by, Nashville over three festivals between 2001 and 2003, the Barbican moves south to a Tennessee city with an even broader musical repertoire.

Lying between Nashville, home of white country, and New Orleans, bastion of black music, Memphis often managed to blend the two sounds - notably with the unprecedented global explosion that was Elvis Presley.

On Saturday, backed by the Muscle Shoals studio rhythm section that has recently returned to the fore on the fantastic Country Got Soul compilations, Bonnie Bramlett,

Donnie Fritts, Mavis Staples, David Hood and Tony Joe White sing sun-parched, heartfelt songs which merge the two styles to delicious effect. George Soule's part spoken ballads, revelling in Tennessee's swampy landscape are sure to be a highlight.

On Sunday, there's a night dedicated to the Delta Blues sound, featuring T-Model Ford (above), who stretches a line back to the blues greats as well as Olu Dara and Little Milton.

Further ahead, audiences can look forward to nights from Sun Studios, Hi Records and Stax.

T-Model Ford is also appearing at the Spitz tonight (020 7392 9032) as part of the Spitz Festival of Blues. Look out too for the primal stylings of The Dirty at the same venue on Saturday, with top-notch support from Curtis Eller's American Circus, a oneman banjo sensation.

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