A Long Time Gone

The real reason for our trip back to Memphis?

It seems the City of Memphis, NARAS, and the Memphis Music Foundation all put their heads together and decided to award Larry Raspberry and The Highsteppers a Brass Note On Beale Street.
This one was a special award. As a member of the Gentrys, (Remember "Keep On Dancin"?), Larry had already received a note a year or so earlier.   —

— but the foundation wanted to specifically to show him and the Highsteppers some love.
The Highsteppers were and are still some of the top players in the business. I was proud to be one of them in my time and honored to be asked to come back home and stand up with this fine group of musicians as we received our recognition.

What a night.          

                                                             

It's been a long time gone, alright — 33 years to be exact — it was a blast to see this many friends and old band mates in one place at one time; sadly a few are no longer with us.

This brass note will be embedded in the sidewalk somewhere along Beale Street where it will stay forever.

It's quite an honor.

Good friends , Jim Gaines and Sandy Carroll were there to help celebrate and return the favor. 

Jim, a Grammy Award winning engineer and producer and Sandy, a singer/piano/songwriter, made the day even more special. Both have received Notes on Beale for their ongoing works.

(Photos I took at their award ceremony.) >> https://youtu.be/YfHVtEgS-BI

Photo by Dan Wiseman

It was a great show, a great crowd, and hell of a lot of fun.
I'm not a reunion kinda guy, but this was worth the drive.

Did I join in and play bass?      Nope — opted out — just shot photos and hung out instead.

Let the players play.

For me... it truly has been, 'A long time gone'.

Cheers,

Istaboa

P.S — To the guys: More pics from the night will be posted as I process them.

Photo by Dan Wiseman