There are 5 article(s) tagged Rufus Thomas:

• November 2025

  • Did Prince ever play Beale Street?

    Yes, and it was legendary. 

    By Jody Callahan November 30, 2025

• December 2020

  • December playlist: Music for the definitely-not-normal holidays

    We can pledge not to go “back to normal.” Normal, in the best of times, found us donating to GoFundMe campaigns to cover emergency medical bills of folks in our music community. Normal was $100 a gig for musicians. Normal is the system that’s broken.

    By Elizabeth Cawein December 25, 2020

• March 2020

  • The Weekly Memphian: Blues Traveler, America

    The Weekly Memphian is a partial guide to things happening in Memphis, recommended by Daily Memphian staff. This guide covers Mar. 12-18.

    By The Daily Memphian Staff March 12, 2020

• July 2019

  • Memphis has plenty of musical heroes

    Think of Aretha Franklin or Isaac Hayes in Soulsville, Willie Mitchell in Orange Mound and Dewey Phillips at the Hotel Chisca. A Rufus Thomas statue could go just about anywhere in town and Memphis Minnie and Furry Lewis sure would look good on Beale Street.

    By Mike McCarthy July 13, 2019

• September 2018

  • Memphasis: All Funked Up

    (This was my first column some 400-plus columns ago. I was looking for a word that most aptly describes Memphis. Just one word …)

    By Dan Conaway September 21, 2018