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Stax's Studio A to host intimate concert series

By Pamela Perkins
perkins@commercialappeal.com

An audience sitting under dimmed lights and cloth-draped cafe tables topped with glowing votives set the mood for Isaac Hayes as he recorded his first album almost 30 years ago.

Now it's the intimate lounge setting the Stax Museum of American Soul Music plans for a series of live concerts called "Last Mondays In Studio A!" beginning Jan. 31.

Museum officials are lining up artists from various music genres, particularly artists from the heyday of the old Stax Records label, to perform from 7 to 9 p.m. on the last Monday of each month. They'll play music and talk with the audience.

The first concert will feature local jazz and blues artists Di Anne Price & Her Boyfriends. Admission is $20, but free to museum members. The event includes complimentary wine, beer and hors d'oeuvres.

The series is designed to attract more museum visitors and members, said Tim Sampson, spokesman for the Soulsville agency, which opened the museum in 2003 on the label's former site, 926 E. McLemore.

And, he added, "We're developing ideas to, at some point, film and record
these concerts and conversations as a possible television production."

But the series also keeps with Soulsville's tribute to the legacy of Memphis music and the old Stax Records label, whose artists included Hayes, The
Staple Singers, Otis Redding Jr. and Rufus Thomas.

The concerts will be in the museum's replica of the legendary Studio A,
where Hayes recorded his first album, Presenting Sir Isaac , which includes the standard "When I Fall in Love."

"That was and this is entertainment," said Deanie Parker, Soulsville's president and executive director. "We're still presenting what is uniquely Memphis and out of Soulsville USA."

For details and an updated artist lineup, visit Web site soulsvilleusa.com .

- Pamela Perkins: 529-6514