Blue Suede Shoes: Rockabilly in the Hub City

Episode 78: Pocket Change Podcast

What makes rockabilly music unique?

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Full Transcript

Shea:

Hey, this is Shea.

Carrie:

And this is Carrie.

Shea:

Welcome to the Pocket Change Podcast.

Carrie:

Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save and invest and take control of your financial journey.

Shea:

Beatles, Blue Suede, Battlestar Galactica.

Carrie:

What does that mean?

Shea:

All right, well, it's a reference from The Office, but two of the things have to do with what we're talking about today Beatles. Music. Blue Suede. I've heard of Blue Suede Shoes. I mean, that's popular music around these parts. But we're talking all about some, rockabilly.

Carrie:

Yeah. So I've kind of got my blue suede on today. For the theme of the podcast, and we're excited to find out all about this weekend coming up.

Shea:

Yeah, it's all about rockabilly music and the influence it's had on our community. So I'm excited about it.

Carrie:

Me too. We're excited to welcome our guest, Beth Bolton, CEO of Visit Jackson, and Jeremy Tubs, Director of Music and Entertainment at the University of Memphis at Lambuth. Welcome to Pocket Change. Thank you all for being here. So, Beth, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with Visit Jackson?

Beth Bolton:

I can, I am, true Jacksonian. I want to say I'm a fourth generation. I don't like to count that far back. But I love the city. You know, I have no intentions of ever leaving. I think it's such a special place. So to find myself working in the role at Visit Jackson, telling the story of our city and selling our city like it's a dream job.

Carrie:

It’s a passion.

Beth Bolton:

Yes. Yes.

Shea:

And you started out in hospitality, is that right?

Beth Bolton:

I did many, many, many years ago. I actually started as a travel agent, which was fascinating. That was back in the days where airlines actually paid commissions. And so it was a quite lucrative and interesting career. Airlines went to zero commission, and I landed on the hotel industry side of things. I've spent about 15 years there. Literally clawed my way to the top of the food chain, learned a lot of life lessons, and learned the value of a good experience and a hotel, let alone in a city in how impactful that could be to our guests that come. So then to take that knowledge and circle back to visit Jackson, it just kind of made it all come together.

Shea:

You've been bringing people here your whole career, right?

Beth Bolton:

Long time!

Carrie:

Well, it's growing a lot. You’re doing a great job.

Beth Bolton:

Oh thank you.

Shea:

And so, Jeremy, tell us about your background in, how did you get connected with the Jackson music scene?

Jeremy Tubbs:

Well, I was born and raised here, but I've moved away and started to be a professional musician. And I toured and, lived in various places, but mainly in Memphis. But, being Memphis, Nashville, back and forth, opportunity came that Lambuth had a position opened. It was in between so I could still kind of do Memphis and Nashville. And so I did that and, got the job at Lambuth, and then Lambuth transitioned over to the University of Memphis, and I stayed in that position. So I've been here now 18 years.

Carrie:

So tell us how you two got connected.

Jeremy Tubbs:

That's a great question.

Beth Bolton:

Well, my first answer is through Jackson Hidden Tracks.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Yeah.

Beth Bolton:

That was the introduction. But my second answer to that is in regards to anything musically related in Jackson. If Jeremy Tubs didn't come to your mind, like what? You've had a concussion? I don't know, but like anything musically… he's our go to.

Carrie:

Makes sense.

Shea:

Tell us a little bit about the Hidden Tracks and the Jackson music society and what's all involved in that.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Well it was, it was a need that Jackson didn't have. They didn't have this, this connective tissue to artists. When I first moved here and it was sort of a free for all. All the artists in Jackson, they just did their own marketing. They did their own Facebook pages. They did that. And there was no, entity that could sort of collect data, communicate, promote, and we saw need. Some of my students and I, about 12 years ago, saw that need to do something. So we started at Music Society and it we've thought, oh, a couple hundred people would be a part of it. And it's at 7000 people now. So it's like kind of crazy in a good way. And then, through other it adventures, Hidden Jackson Hidden Tracks came out of some other creative people's, you know, ideas, ideology and Stephanie Riley and Beth and, and if I'm forgetting somebody, let me know. Just wanted to do something with that, and, we were excited to partner with Jackson Hidden Tracks.

Shea:

Yeah. And so with that, you know, why would you say it's important to invest, you know, in music in our community?

Jeremy Tubbs:

Well, I mean, music is an art form. And I think you need all types of art. You need theater art. You need, visual art. You need, dance, ballet. All types of art needs to be, you know, championed for and… with music. Music is, it's usually at every event, right?

Shea:

Yeah.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Yeah. There's usually some sort of musical aspect to every event. So, and it doesn't matter the way you look at it, it could be a full orchestra, or it could be one person, you know. So it's varied. And then spectrum is vast. So you can have all kinds of stuff. So the importance of it is that we need to invest in our musicians to, to want and, be creative. If you don't make if you can't make a living doing it, or at least get some sort of sort of benefit out of it, then we're going to lose it, you know? So we want to invest in it.

Shea:

That’s great.

Beth Bolton:

It's the universal language.

Carrie:

That's right.

Shea:

Connect us all.

Beth Bolton:

Yeah.

Carrie:

Yeah. That says so much just that.

Beth Bolton:

Yeah. That's what my music teacher told me in elementary school. What is the message? Music is the message because it's a universal language. And it’s true!

Carrie:

I can’t imagine not having music, I mean imagine how boring life would be.

Beth Bolton:

Right.

Carrie: Okay. So let's switch gears just a little bit. And I just want to bring to attention that I'm wearing my version of blue suede the best that I could today.

Beth Bolton:

We’re so happy!

Carrie:

Just so everyone knows. The Blue Suede Rockabilly Weekend is coming up. So can you tell us all about that?

Beth Bolton:

You want me to start?

Jermy Tubbs:

Yeah. You go ahead.

Beth Bolton:

It grew out as a result of a strategic plan that Visit Jackson, TN then had, these really, really smart people came to town and they took a look at everything. And we had stakeholder meetings, and they did a deep dive. And, you know… What is there in Jackson that is unique? That could attract visitors and, as a result of this days’ long process, like the, the, the brilliant guy. And I'll go ahead and say his name, it’s Steve Chandler… He looked at us and he's like, “what is the matter with you? Like you're sitting at the center of rockabilly. You're the hub. You're the home of Carl Perkins. Like you, you should be doing some sort of rockabilly festival!” We're like, okay. So we started thinking about it and listening to the stories of Carl Perkins. And if you go to the Tennessee Legends of Music Museum and you see the film and you talk to the docents, they're going to tell you that, the Beatles pretty much say without Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles... They used to pool all their money together and back in, in London, and would go and buy his record and dissect it because they were so fascinated with it.

Carrie: That’s amazing.

Beth Bolton:

And, you know, and Doctor Tubs could tell you more of the culture of the rockabilly music, but like, when we're sitting on that, we would be crazy not to capitalize on that. It's still a big undertaking, and there's a lot of creative geniuses behind it, aka Stephanie Riley. She's helped me tremendously through that process, but that's where it was born from.

Shea:

Yeah. And so what's all going to be taking place during the weekend? You've got it coming up in April.

Beth Bolton:

It is. It's April 24th through the 26th. This Blue Suede Rockabilly weekend, is made possible through some of our key sponsors currently, which would be the Greater Jackson Chamber, the Tennessee Arts Commission, B3 creative, Hub City Brewing, Leaders Credit Union is our t-shirt sponsor.

Shea:

Got some cool t-shirts. Right here.

Beth Bolton:

Yes, yes. So we are excited and that will continue as we get closer to time. Yeah, it's a pretty jam-packed weekend. We are still filling out the itinerary. The main portion of the event on Saturday will take place at Hub City Brewing. And we have, four acts. We will have, pinup girl contest. There is a car show going on out at Rockabilly Stadium. That will kind of coincide with the vintage cars. And, we're working on getting people back and forth down to that. We have a website that has the itineraries on it. We have, hotels listed that are giving discounts. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Denver Air because they've got the nonstop service from Atlanta to Chicago, and they're giving a discount if you're attending the event… the code’s rockabilly26.

Carrie:

Right.

Beth Bolton:

…To get them a discount. And we're targeting those markets as well as some markets in Europe, because, this rockabilly culture is no joke.

Shea:

Wow.

Beth Bolton:

I've been really interested to see how that's evolving.

Carrie:

So I just have to tell you guys that in preparation for your podcast today, we were listening to rockabilly music today. So in our office.

Beth Bolton:

Love it!

Carrie:

We've been jamming out all day.

Beth Bolton:

Okay.

Jeremy Tubbs:

That's great. That's great. Yeah.

Shea:

So we got this Blue Suede Rockabilly weekend coming up so people can check it out at bluesuedeweekend.com, of course... Follow along on social media for all the updates and itinerary and all the activities and musicians coming to town. So we're excited.

Carrie:

Yes. So tell us, our rockabilly festivals common... This is the first time I've personally heard of it and what makes it so unique?

Beth Bolton:

They are common.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Yes. They are.

Beth Bolton:

I went down a rabbit hole on Reddit learning about it. And, I mean, they're literally people that go from one festival to the next to the next. All over the country and Europe as well.

Carrie:

So it could be rockabilly hopping.

Beth Bolton:

Yeah.

Shea:

What makes, rockabilly music so distinct? What? Tell us all about it.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Sure, sure. So rockabilly music is really. It comes from, poor people. It's sharecroppers, it's cotton farms. It's plantations. It's a merging of white and black culture. It's, a little bit of blues that's mixed in with some gospel that's mixed in with a little bit of, you know, old English ballads and, salt of the earth kind of stuff. It's acoustic usually, in it's roots. It's acoustic. And Carl Perkins is a prime example of that... Ingredients mixing together. He was a poor white man who worked in a cotton field and was a sharecropper. His parents were sharecroppers, and, he learned how to play guitar from a black man who worked also in the field and played some blues music. And then he was, you know, also involved in church. And that all kind of married together. And, you get this uniqueness that becomes distinctly rockabilly. The other thing that rockabilly is, it's the, the pedagogy, the technique behind it, is it's done with like, plucking strings with fingers, whether it be a guitar or a bass, even like, playing like that on, crude instruments like, anything wooden or, a shell of a turtle that, that that's been carved out and things like that. So, it's built around all that and, it's that blending of styles that makes it sound rockabilly. You'll hear it and be like, oh, it sounds a little country. Okay, well, if you listen to early Elvis and that hiccupping style that he used to do that comes from also, again, that, early rockabilly style. Carl had it, Elvis had it. Gene Vincent had it. There was a lot of early rock and roll stars and that were born out of that rockabilly tradition. Now, if you listen to Little Richard, he was more gospel. So at the same time you had Fats Domino, you had Chuck Berry, you had Little Richard playing in that same circle, Jerry Lewis… and they came more from a gospel church aspect. Where as Carl and Elvis, and even Johnny Cash came more out of that rockabilly flavor.

Shea:

Wow.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Carl stuck to that though. And Elvis changed. Johnny didn't. He went to more country. And so, Carl was really, the godfather of that. And then he influenced George Harrison so much that that's what some of those early Beatles records have, they, that has that rockabilly twang to it. And it's, again, a blending of again, John had a little different influence than George, and George had a little different influence than Paul. So. But it's there. It's an ingredient that rockabilly. And then in the late 70s, early 90s, coming out of punk culture. Okay, the garage band culture of the of the late 70s, you had the leather jackets and you had the blue jeans and all that stuff with the rockabilly renaissance comes back and you start to see… what we kind of see now is like motorcycles, cars, hot rods, blue jeans, black leather jackets, chains, tattoos, hairstyles with grease and stuff. That wasn't Carl. Right? That was the rockabilly renaissance. So you see people like Joe Strummer of The Clash or the Stray Cats and Brian Setzer and, and those kind of acts sort of reflect that rockabilly, attitude, rebellious attitude that came out of rockabilly as well. So it's just fascinating how it's become, and still is, a very cultural thing that a lot of people gravitate towards, and they still kind of look like that. You know, people decide to dress like that and even like with the pinup contest, that that's part of that culture now, you know, so it's grown year after year into being, very vastly popular. I have a really good friend who's a massive fan and goes to a lot of rockabilly festivals.

Shea:

Wow.

Jeremy Tubbs:

And they've already bought their VIP tickets for this weekend.

Beth Bolton:

Yes!

Shea:

There you go.

Carrie:

So yeah, so tell us why rockabilly is so important to Jackson. I think it’s pretty obvious.

Shea:

You can see the influence… and how West Tennessee is really the root of that as a rural community.

Jeremy Tubbs:

You don't expect to go to, let's say, South Texas and hear... You know, anything... But what comes out of South Texas, you're going to hear you're going to hear influence a blending of, of Mexican music along with American music. And you're going to you're going to see it and hear it, right? It's the same thing that comes out of West Tennessee. We have that as our identity. There's not many places in the world… you're not going to go to, you know, you know, Seattle and get sort of, you know, a rockabilly scene as much as you can get it here because it was born here. So it's important for our DNA to, to recognize it. We are in a delta area mostly, and that we are, culturally, a blending of European and African cultures that brought their own styles and uniqueness. And that gives us a sound that's not heard anywhere else in the world.

Carrie:

I love it.

Shea:

So how can an aspiring musician or someone looking to get involved in live music join in, in Jackson in this area?

Jeremy Tubbs:

I think it has to be a community, right? Because, I mean, we have to work together. Like Beth and I do things together along with other people, and we have to be connected... So musicians, I think anybody that's in any kind of creative field has to be, you know, building relationships and then working hard to build to keep those relationships healthy and then investing in it. So the investment is that we, give and we have to continue to support. And so if I'm at a place in my life where I can give financially, I'll give financially. If I'm not, then I will help in some other way. Right? Yeah. So it doesn't matter where you're at in life, I think you can volunteer time or you can, you know, promote or you can just be, a good person, you know, and, go see things and support people and show up, you know, things like that.

Beth Bolton:

And I would encourage them to join Jackson Hidden Tracks.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Yeah.

Beth Bolton:

I mean, Jackson Hidden Tracks is a an initiative of Visit Jackson, TN. But, you know, you can go on there and you can search for, if you needed an entertainer, you were hosting a party and you wanted a specific genre... You can search by genre and find local artists. And you know that helps everybody. So I think it's a community effort.

Shea:

I think what you're saying about Carl Perkins and how his influence just extended all throughout different music genres and groups. So just taking that and mimicking that, you know, is, important.

Jeremy Tubbs:

That is very important.

Beth Bolton:

And, you know, one thing that I don't think we have mentioned, but like this evolved also out of the 70th anniversary of the release of his… Blue Suede Shoes.

Carrie:

That makes sense.

Beth Bolton:

Yeah. What a better time to start?

Carrie:

So do you have blue suede shoes?

Beth Bolton:

I already have two pair. Girl.

Carrie:

Where do you, where do we get our blue suede shoes in Jackson? Because I think a lot of us need a pair.

Beth Bolton:

Oh, I’ll hook you up.

Carrie:

Okay. All right. Okay. So this is a financial podcast. So I do have to ask you, what is the best financial advice that you guys have been given?

Beth Bolton:

You want to go first?

Jeremy Tubbs:

You can go. Yeah. Go ahead.

Beth Bolton:

Quit shopping on TikTok Shop after you've had your Ambien.

Carrie:

Oh, a bunch of things show up that you never knew you ordered, huh?

Beth Bolton:

It's a surprise. At the mailbox every day… I'm like, oh, I did that.

Carrie:

That's hilarious. That is great advice. Thank you.

Beth Bolton:

Now, if I stick to it, is another story.

Jeremy Tubbs:

I mean, I'll probably butcher this, but I say it so often that I sometimes mess it up. It comes from a producer named Rick Rubin. Rick Rubin produced, the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers. He did the last Johnny Cash record, a very, very influential producer. But he says, he says sometimes you're job is your job. Sometimes your hobby is a hobby. Sometimes your hobby is your job. And sometimes you have to have a job to support your hobby.

Shea:

Yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Tubbs:

And I think that's just fascinating because, you know, if in all reality, you know, like, in especially the music business, music side of it, it's very rare that you can actually make a living as a professional musician. We have a lot of people who have jobs out in the community that do play music and are very successful playing music. They still have a job that supports their hobby of playing music in a way. So financially, I think the things… you can have the dream, but you have to have a plan for the dream. What does that plan looks like? How can I save money? My students that come into the University of Memphis, I want them to have a budget. I want them to have savings. I want them to be able to live in another city for two years without having a job at the end… you know, I want them to plan for those things. So it's all about planning, preparation and getting to that place where, you know, you can turn your hobby into more than that. Your passion is what Rick calls it. He goes, he calls. You want to have a job to support your passion. If you like fishing, you have a job to support your fishing habit. So that's to me, is a sound financial, you know, statement. And I guess it always echoes when I'm talking to students about… save. Don't buy a new car.. You know, you know, those kind of things. You don't need a new car if it runs, let it run. Save some money up and then and do things with that money later on.

Carrie:

If you like shopping you got to have a job to support your shopping hobby.

Beth Bolton:

I was just thinking to myself… so we can tell who's got the PhD, and who does not.

Jeremy Tubbs:

No!

Carrie:

That's great advice.

Shea:

So the answer to this next question is obvious. If you found some extra change in your pocket, what would you spend it on? You're going to spend on blue suede weekend. But if you had another answer, what would you spend any extra pocket change on? A record?

Jeremy Tubbs:

I mean, I honestly, I have two beautiful kids. I'd probably do something for them. Yeah, I would do something for my children.

Shea:

That's great.

Beth Bolton:

Same, except I have one and two grandchildren, and we'd probably take a trip.

Shea:

Yeah. That's great.

Carrie:

Yeah, I like it.

Shea:

To another rockabilly festival…

Beth Bolton:

To another one.. Yes.

Jeremy Tubbs:

I'd also like to add that during that weekend too, that we have, we have a, a mixer. It's called the Matchbox Mixer. That's going to happen at Homesoule. So yeah. And we're going to have Kyle Lacy play that night. He's from New York City. He's a wonderful I mean, he's a fantastic artist. He can do rockabilly, but he also blends in his own little style to it as well. That's going to be at that new Homesoule event center.

Beth Bolton:

I think they’re going to call it the Press Room.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Yeah.

Beth Bolton:

If I’m not mistaken. It’s gonna be awesome.

Jeremy Tubbs:

That's where we're going to have the Matchbox Mixer up in the top of that. And, it's going to be, pretty sweet.

Beth Bolton:

And along with that, and we've not discussed this, but we have an artist that is going to be drawing a live, picture of Carl during that event. If he finishes that night, it'll be on display at Hub City Brewing the next day, and people can bid on it. Wow. If he finishes that night, it may be sold, but I'm really excited to see that.

Carrie:

That will be fun. Well, thank you guys so much for being on the Pocket Change Podcast, and we're looking forward to the Blue Suede Rockabilly Weekend coming up soon.

Beth Bolton:

Awesome.

Jeremy Tubbs:

Thank you. Thank you for having us!