MEMPHO Music Festival to Honor Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famers Steve Cropper and Booker T. Jones's Influence on Stax Records and Memphis Music with Tribute

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The inaugural MEMPHO Music Festival will honor Steve Cropper and Booker T Jones’s legendary influence on Stax Records and Memphis music with a special tribute Oct. 7 at Shelby Farms Park.

“Booker T Presents: A Stax Revue & Journey through Soul, Blues, and R&B” will perform the main stage, followed by an all-star performance from Steve Cropper & Friends. The back-to-back sets will serve as a continuous tribute to Memphis’s roots in music, as led by the legends themselves.

Booker T. Jones — a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Musicians Hall of Fame inductee, GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and four-time GRAMMY Award-inner — will present Booker T.’s Star Revue, a presentation of Booker T.’s hits with the MG’s. The Stax Revue will feature a 10-piece big band with three lead vocalists, a three-piece horn section and Booker’s usual rhythm section. The set will deliver an experience curated to take the audience on a boundary-pushing musical journey of Stax Records through Booker’s eyes.

Steve Cropper, Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer and Songwriter Hall of Famer — the “World’s Greatest Living Guitarist” — will follow the Stax Revue with an all-star tribute to Memphis music.

Cropper has tapped an eclectic mix of artists, either local to Memphis or connected to the music including Dave Mason (Traffic), Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers, Dead & Company), John Popper (Blues Traveler), Eddie Floyd (wrote “Knock on Wood” with Cropper), as well as legendary keyboardist Lester Snell (Isaac Hayes, Shaft, B3 organ), drummer and cousin to Al Jackson, Steve Potts, trombonist Victor Sawyer, and tenor sax player Jim Spake.

Current list of artists set to perform tribute:

Booker T. (Stax, Booker T. & The MG's)

Dave Mason (Traffic, The Reels)

Eddie Floyd (The Blues Brothers)

Lester Snell - Keyboards (MD) (Memphis session player)

Jim Spake - Sax (staple Memphis session player)

John Popper (Blues Traveler)

Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers, Dead & Co)

Steve Cropper (Stax, Booker T. & The MG’s, The Blues Brothers)

Steve Potts - Drums (Booker T. & the MG’s)

Victor Sawyer- Trombone (Stax Music Academy)

This year's lineup includes Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Cage the Elephant, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Cold War Kids, Bishop Briggs, Robert Randolph and The Family Band, Hard Working Americans, Southern Avenue and more.

Tickets, including single-day and two-day general admission and VIP passes, are on sale now.

For tickets and more information, visit www.memphofest.com.

About Shelby Farms Park

At 4,500 acres, Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, Tennessee is one of the largest urban parks in the country. With a visionary master plan designed by James Corner Field Operations, it is poised to become one of the best. Today, the Park features miles of paved and unpaved trails, dozens of lakes and ponds, the internationally recognized and sustainably designed Woodland Discovery Playground, a buffalo herd, the FedEx Event Center, The Kitchen Bistro and Kitchenette, a water play splash pad, an outdoor event stage overlooking an 80-acre lake, a treetop adventure course and more.

About Big River Presents

Founded by Memphis native Diego Winegardner, Big River Presents is focused on promoting live events like MEMPHO aimed at enhancing Memphis’ cultural scene and reputation as a premier destination to live and work. Big River Presents believes Memphis is sacred ground for all those interested in the music industry.

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