Welcome to The Pick, The Tennessean music staff's weekly email conversation about all things you need to know — hot insider takes from Music City's legendary creative community, plus the who, what and where impacting our communities from Lower Broadway to Leiper's Fork and beyond.
I'm Marcus K. Dowling , The Tennessean's country music reporter.
On a recent Friday and Saturday night at Ryman Auditorium and Bridgestone Arena, a gap in time fused and created a crucial space in the Venn diagram between country, folk and soul music.
On Friday evening, Big Loud-signed Alabama native Kashus Culpepper opened for Charley Crockett at country music's Mother Church. Twenty-four hours later, Grand Ole Opry member and founding Hootie and The Blowfish member Darius Rucker performed at Bridgestone Arena.
Culpepper and Rucker's blue-collar soul vocals are borne by the six months between R&B superstar Otis Redding's performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 and his untimely passing six months later.
Redding's stylings being introduced to the countrified folk-rock adoring "love crowd" in 1967 caused a critic to offer that "(Redding) had the audience spinning like a chicken on a spit." Following the posthumous release of "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" in January 1968, few moments have allowed for Redding's particular type of universally appealing soul to multiply and exist in close quarters to audiences similar to what Redding encountered at Monterey Pop.
Last weekend in Nashville represented one of those types of moments. What occurs next is essential to observe.
Before you do anything else: Check out my colleague Melonee Hurt's latest "Nashville Rocks" feature — this one with relatively new to Nashville, Grammy-winning Halestorm lead vocalist Lzzy Hale .
Thing You Must Try To Do This Week
- Get ready for Post Malone at the Grand Ole Opry
- On Oct. 2, 1954, Elvis Presley made his lone appearance on the Ryman Auditorium stage during the Grand Ole Opry. Presley's rendition of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" only received a tepid reaction. Thus, he was never invited back to the Opry.
- On Aug. 19, 2024, Post Malone will debut at the Grand Ole Opry . Presume that his rendition of "Goes Without Saying" with Opry member Brad Paisley will receive something greater than a "tepid reaction." "It's going to be the first of many appearances from you, I have a feeling...we're going to have a blast," offered the West Virginia native.
Artist Spotlight: Lainey Wilson
It's worth noting that among country's Entertainer of the Year's "Whirlwind" album tracks is the Miranda Lambert collaboration "Good Horses." As much as 2024 has represented a breakout season for the newly-minted Grand Ole Opry member, it's in sensing the value of her mentorship by country's stars of the recent past that the greatest power of the moment presents itself.
“Good Horses" is described in a press release as "a soulful experience, evoking a sense of longing and familiarity, while exploring the theme of how love will always find its way back home." Co-written by Wilson, Lambert, and Luke Dick, it bears a level of intentional expression and thought that compares well to Wilson's work with her "Heart Wranglers" writing trio with Trannie Anderson and Dallas Wilson, famed for yielding her COVID-19 quarantine-era hit "Heart Like A Truck."
Watching Wilson's joy when being invited to the Opry by Reba, singing Tom Petty's "Refugee" with Wynonna Judd, or when she performs "Good Horses" with Lambert sketches a sense of both what Wilson brings to the table and also how her award-winning and beloved skills will evolve.
Song You Need To Hear
Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long (Monterey Pop Festival 1967) - "Otis (draws) on a different dimension of feeling and experience than that of any other performer who would be heard at Monterey and is dramatically consumed and undone, by the force of his yearning, desire and need."
A blueprint from the past identifies the future.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's magical Otis Redding moment
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