If you’re into the blues, check out the Center for Southern Folklore, on the Main Street Mall just south of Gayoso, tonight at 8 PM. The Daddy Mack Blues Band’s new documentary DVD, by Jim O’Donnell, will be screened at 8 and the band will perform at 9. $5 cover. Details below, pasted from an e-mail they sent me:
The Daddy Mack Blues Band and cinematographer Jim O’Donnell celebrate the official DVD release of “Plain Man Blues,” the Daddy Mack documentary that premiered last fall at the Indie Memphis Film Festival. The fun starts Saturday, July 26 at 8:00 p.m. with a screening of the documentary followed by a blistering set by the Daddy Mack Blues Band at the Center for Southern Folklore Store located at 123 S. Main @ The Peabody Place Trolley Stop. Admission for the DVD party is free while the cover for the live concert afterward is only $5.00.
DVDs of “Plain Man Blues” are now available for sale in the Folklore Store for $18.99. You can also pre-order your copy by emailing store@southernfolklore.org or calling the Folklore Store @ 525-3655.
“Plain Man Blues” traces the late blooming career of Daddy Mack Orr who taught himself how to play guitar at the age of 45 after years of picking cotton, working construction and starting his own auto repair shop. Now in his sixties, Mack makes his living fixing cars by day while playing the blues music he loves nights and weekends. His talent was apparent early on when he joined the legendary Memphis-based blues band, The Fieldstones. As the leader of his own band, Mack and his crew have entertained audiences around the world from fish fries in Paris, TN to music festivals in Paris, France. Along the way, he has achieved success as a recording artist with three consecutive albums in the Top Ten of the national blues charts – “Fix It When I Can,” “Slow Ride” and “Bluestones.” Even so, life as a musician doesn’t come easy and Mack is still waiting to hit the big time. “Plain Man Blues” shows what it takes for Mack to make it as a blues artist and the road he took to get there.
The creative force behind “Plain Man Blues” is Jim O’Donnell, an independent Memphis filmmaker. He produced and directed the award-winning documentary “Ray4theNBA,” which aired nationally on College Sports Television, as well as, being screened at film festivals throughout the country. He has produced several Memphis-centric documentaries such as “The Party Ain’t Stopped Yet,” about the closing and re-opening of The Center for Southern Folklore and “75 Years of Pink,” the history of Memphis’ Pink Palace Museum, as well as the fiction film “Presumed Dead.” O’Donnell has also been nominated for a Regional Emmy for his work as a photojournalist. He is a graduate of The University of Memphis Department of Communication’s Graduate Program.
For more info on Daddy Mack and “Plain Man Blues”, check out: http://www.insidesounds.com/artists.php?ArtistId=1693