When it comes to female vocalists of the '60s, especially Motown singers, few are as instantly recognizable as Martha Reeves. Nearly every greatest hits package from the era will include either "Nowhere to Run," "Dancing in the Street" or "Jimmy Mack" and the better collections will have all three.
Reeves, along with her backing group The Vandellas, is coming to Chattanooga on Saturday, May 12, to do two shows at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. Tickets will go on sale March 30, at 9 a.m. A portion of the $45 ticket will go to the CTC. The show is being produced by Come Clean Productions.
Not only is her music often found on '60s hits collections, it has been used on a few soundtracks. "Nowhere to Run" was featured in "Good Morning, Vietnam" and her version of Van Morrison's "Wild Night" can be found in "Thelma and Louise." "Heat Wave" makes it in both "The Boys in the Band" and "Sister Act 2."
» Congratulations to Hive Theory for winning the Road to Nightfall this past Saturday. They will headline Nightfall, the free Friday night series at Miller Plaza, on June 22. The finals were held at The Signal, where a really good crowd of about 800 folks turned out.
The series was created eight years ago by Jonathan Susman, while working with Chattanooga Presents, which produces Nightfall, as a way to showcase local talent by putting several groups in front of new audiences. Fans of one group or style of music didn't always venture out to see something different.
Barry CourterThirty bands representing 150 musicians competed over the three-weekend, six-round event. The winner and the runner-up, which was SunSap, earned cash prizes.
RTN is now produced by Barrett Taylor and Gig City Productions, and it continues to grow and evolve. Taylor has been working with SoundCorps, which is focused on promoting professionalism in the local music scene, on ways to help the artists develop their careers.
This has been the topic of many discussions around town in the past year or so. It's called the music business for a reason and people all over are trying to figure out how to make a living at it utilizing everything from social-media options to improved electronic press kits to networking tools.
To be successful requires way more than just being a talented singer or guitar player and nobody has discovered the can't-miss, one-size-fits-all formula for making it. But it's encouraging to see so much cooperation among many groups. Even that could be improved as several groups were under-represented or completely absent from the proceedings on Saturday. It's a process, right?
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.