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Beale Street Fest rolls out the red carpet
for a bevy of talented performers

2017 Beale Street Music Festival (BSMF)
Tom Lee Park
Memphis, TN
May 5-7, 2017

Soundgarden

Ani DiFranco

Drive-By Truckers

Review and photos by Frances Sealy

The Beale Street Music Festival has been an original part of Memphis every May since its inception over 40 years ago. It traditionally is on the first weekend and it was typically a blues oriented festival. That orientation has shifted over the years. There is still one blues stage out of the four stages, but the festival has changed with the times. It now offers a wide variety of music genres. And this weekend did just that.

The first day headliner was Snoop Dogg. Snoop took time off of his lucrative Mount Kushmore Wellness Retreat Tour to make appearances at select festivals. BSMF had a capacity crowd for the king of gangsta-rap. Earlier in the day, the crowds were treated to R&B artist, Charles Bradley who gave a stellar performance as usual. Rocksters, Sum 41 and Jimmy Eat World gave highly energetic performances. MGMT, Peter Wolf and Widespread Panic kept things moving on the first day.

Saturday was the biggest day from the crowd's point of view. Kings of Leon, Wiz Khalifa, Death Cab for Cutie, and Big Head Blues Club were the headliners. New Orleans band, The Revivalists, stole the show for the day. Band front man, David Shaw was relentless with his performance. This was also a great day for jam bands. Drive-By Truckers and Dawes gave stellar sets. 2 Chainz, Mutemath, X Ambassadors, Highly Suspect, and Ronnie Baker Brooks gave their all.

The last day was very special with Soundgarden, Sturgill Simpson, Jill Scott and the legendary Booker T. Jones headlining the day. Looking beyond the headliners, Machine Gun Kelly, Alter Bridge, Bush, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Ziggy Marley, Ani DiFranco, Tori Kelly, and Mayer Hawthorne pushed the genre gun. The day had it all from reggae, rap, metal rock, pop, R&B to country music.

There is little wonder why many acts love to play the birthplace of the Blues and Rock 'n' Roll. This year's lineup was the best and will be hard to beat next year!