Alive After Five
Knoxville's most unique live music experience happens on select Fridays in the museum's Great Hall, 5:30-8pm. Catered and with 2 cash bars, these non-smoking events are family friendly and great for dates. Admission is $8 for nonmembers, $4 for members and students, except where noted otherwise.
January 9 - Lonesome Coyotes
$10 General Admission • $6 with Membership or student ID
The Lonesome Coyotes are Knoxville’s most celebrated band to play in the
Texas Swing and country-rock styles. They were a mainstay at the original Buddy’s Barbecue in Bearden in the late ‘70s, and they got a national audience from an unlikely appearance on the TV soap opera “One Life to Live” in 1981. A year later, the Coyotes went international without even leaving Knoxville - as the house band at the Budweiser pavilion during the 1982 World’s Fair. After an extended hiatus due to family and other career considerations, the band reunited in 2002 for a sold-out show at The Bijou Theatre, and they’ve been the most popular band at Alive After Five for the past four years.
www.lonesomecoyotes.com
January 16 - Wallace Coleman Blues Band
$9 General Admission • $5 with Membership or student ID
A native of Morristown, Tennessee, Wallace Coleman was captivated by
blues music as a young boy listening to Nashville’s WLAC. Coleman left Tennessee in 1956 to find work in Cleveland, Ohio, and, to his delight, an active Blues
community where Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King and others came to perform. A self-taught musician, Coleman was playing harmonica in Guitar Slim’s band when he caught the ear of Robert Lockwood, Jr., stepson of legendary Bluesman Robert Johnson. He played in Lockwood’s band for ten years and performed on the Grammy nominated CD "I Gotta Find Me A Woman." Then in 1997, Coleman formed his own band and has recorded three acclaimed CDs. "...one of postwar Chicago's most indomitable torchbearers." Blues Revue magazine, 2004.
www.wallacecoleman.com
January 23- Tennessee Sheiks
$8 General Admission • $4 with Membership or student ID
The Tennessee Sheiks is an acoustic swing band made up of several long
time Knoxville musicians, who over the years have graced many stages in numerous groups playing a variety of genres: blues, jazz, bluegrass, and swing. Nancy Brennan Strange, the chanteuse of the Sheiks, joyfully delivers the vocals in this entertaining band. The group includes Don Cassell, one of East Tennessee’s premier mandolin and dobro players; bassist Jon Steele; Morgan Simmons on rhythm guitar, tenor banjo and percussion; and lead guitar player Don Wood, a true disciple of Django Rinehardt, the legendary Gypsy jazz guitarist.
http://www.myspace.com/tennesseesheiks
January 30 - John Myers Band
$8 General Admission • $4 with Membership or student ID
John Myers is an extraordinary entertainer whose early career included
stints with R&B groups The Five Pennies, The Four Pennies, and then The Hearts of Stone on the Motown label in the early 1970s. Now living in Knoxville and performing with some of its top Americana musicians, his career has taken a whole new turn. His repertoire still contains some soul songs from his Motown days, but he can just as easily pull out a song by Hank Williams, croon a number by Louie Armstrong or belt out an old-time banjo tune. Myers currently collaborates with his wife Pamela who is a prolific songwriter. He recently released a live album from the WDVX Blue Plate Special radio show which includes two of their original songs. He is currently working on a studio album as well.
www.myspace.com/brotherjohnmyers
February 13- "Valentine's Eve Special" featuring Donald Brown and Friends
$9 General Admission • $5 with Membership or student ID
It has been over three years since his last performance at Alive After Five,
and we are extremely pleased to present pianist, composer, teacher, bandleader and arranger, Donald Brown, who is renowned internationally and also happens to live here in Knoxville. An Associate Professor of Music at the University of Tennessee, he has also taught at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and conducted a weeklong workshop at the Julliard School of Music in New York last fall. He has played with Art Blakey’s “Jazz Messengers,” Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, Milt Jackson, and many more. In addition to more than a dozen albums of his own, he has recorded with many internationally known artists. He is noted by other jazz greats and critics as a master composer, and his compositions are widely recorded by other artists. A multiple Grammy nominee, he became widely known for his first Grammy-nominated composition “The Insane Asylum” which was first heard on Wynton Marsalis’ album “J Mood.” Come enjoy an evening of jazz with Knoxville’s most renowned jazz man.
www.myspace.com/donaldbrown
February 20- "Fat Friday Mardi Gras Special" featuring Mem Shannon and The Membership
$10 General Admission • $6 with Membership or student ID
It’s the Friday before Mardi Gras and time to “laissez les bontemps
roulez!” One of our all-time favorites at Alive After Five, New Orleans native Mem Shannon is an internationally touring Blues artist who channels the spirits that inspired Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, The Meters and The Neville Brothers. He has been acclaimed by CBS Sunday Morning, National Public Radio, USA Today, and more. His songwriting has been compared to Willie Dixon and Percy Mayfield, and he performed at the Kennedy Center for the PBS Tribute to Muddy Waters, as well as at Blues festivals from Hong Kong to Caracas. Mem Shannon & The Membership blend jazz, funk and R&B into the mix to create a musical gumbo of New Orleans Blues that is uniquely their own.
www.myspace.com/memshannon
February 27- Soul Connection
$10 General Admission • $6 with Membership or student ID
Originally formed in 1966 under the name of Soul Sanction, this group
became one of the legendary bands of East Tennessee. At a special “Rename the Band Party” Alive After Five two years ago, their name was changed to Soul Connection. Their combination of keyboards, horns, guitars, and drums, blended with a variety of male and female vocals and harmonies and covers a wide musical spectrum of Rhythm & Blues, Soul, and dance music, all done with unmistakable style and infectious energy.
