Memphis PowerPop Festival
Part of the Orion Free Concert Series
THE CONNELLS
with The Sonny Wilsons
and
Your Academy
September 6, 2025
The Overton Park Shell
Gates open at 4pm
Music begins at 5pm
What’s the big deal?
Growing up in Memphis, you were constantly reminded of the musical heritage of our city. Rhythm and blues, soul, gospel, funk, rockabilly, rap, and of course that guy with the swivel hips and sneer.
Incredibly, there was more. Go back in time and get your hands on your college cassette collection and you’ll probably find a healthy dose of R.E.M., The Replacements, and Let’s Active. Fast forward another decade or two, and thumb through those scratched up Wilco, Posies, Teenage Fanclub and Lemonheads compact discs. What do these bands have to do with Memphis? They all cite Memphis’ own Big Star, as a defining influence in their development.
‘Power Pop’ music is rooted in the harmonic structure of the Beatles and Beach Boys with the harder edge of The Who at its core. Big Star soaked it in and added their own spin, drawing upon the melting pot that is the Memphis music scene. The result was a three album catalog from the 1970’s that to this day is in Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
It’s that legacy, and really Memphis’ musical legacy, we are celebrating through the festival.
Artists
The Connells
The Connells, one of North Carolina’s most successful indie rock bands, have new music on the way for the first time since 2001. They’ll break their recording hiatus with “Steadman’s Wake,” a new 11-song album that will be released September 24th, 2021.
Beyond the fact that “Steadman’s Wake” is the group’s first new release in over 20
years, it is the first Connells’ album to feature their two newest members, guitarist Mike Ayers and drummer Rob Ladd (who have been in the lineup since 2002 and 2012, respectively), and the band’s first record made up of songs contributed solely by Mike Connell, who happens to take on a more prominent role as vocalist.
Additionally, the title track, “Steadman’s Wake,” represents the first time The Connells have ventured into overt politics. Previously, the group tended to let actions and implications do the talking when it came to current events. But taking a more concrete and literal stand was something the times seemed to demand. With references to war, the opioid crisis and the white-supremacist rioting that roiled Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 (and were reprised in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.), there is no mistaking the message of “Steadman’s Wake.”
“We’ve had some oblique socio-political bits here and there over the years,” says Mike Connell. “But never as direct as this. It seems like it’s time. It’s scary, where we still stand in this country with issues of race. Of the 11 songs on the record, the clear consensus within the band was that ‘Steadman’s Wake’ best reflected the band’s take on the temper of the times and best represented the “spirit” of the record.”
Off-record and onstage, The Connells have been no strangers to political activism over the years, going back to benefit shows they played for Harvey Gant when he was running
against controversial Republican U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Nevertheless, taking a musical step into current events was not a decision they made lightly. But as frontman Doug MacMillan concurs, the times are dire enough to demand a response.
“Even the least politically minded bands are saying things now because they need to be said,” MacMillan says. “Mike’s never been one for hitting anybody over the head with an
agenda, and his lyrics tend to be pretty subtle. But I’m glad we did this. I’ll be interested to see what people think.”
Even though it’s been 20 years since their last recording, The Connells never quit playing live, and Mike Connell never quit writing songs. Eventually enough material came together to suggest it was finally time to make another record.
“Steadman’s Wake” features eight new songs that have never been released, while three of the album’s songs previously appeared in different versions on 2001’s “Old-School Dropouts” – a collection of demos recorded at the group’s practice space.
This time, however, they decided to record in a proper studio for the first time since 1998’s “Still Life,” the final album the band recorded for TVT Records. The “Steadman’s Wake” sessions took place at Durham’s Overdub Lane and Fidelitorium Recordings, the Kernersville, N.C., studio run by North Carolina Music Hall of Famer Mitch Easter (famous for his work with R.E.M., Game Theory and his own band Let’s Active). John Plymale, whose studio credits include Meat Puppets, Superchunk and Squirrel Nut Zippers, produced “Steadman’s Wake,” with cameo guests including Ben Folds Five and Surrender Human bassist, Robert Sledge.
With the exception of Rob Ladd being sidelined for several months in the wake of a serious 2018 car accident, things went smoothly on the whole.
“Rob hit a dump truck head-on at 60 miles an hour,” Mike Connell says. “The first responders were dismayed that he actually survived, but he’s a strong guy. That obviously put things on hold for a while, but we kept working on the record in fits and starts when we could. The impulse was to take one last crack at getting back in the studio and do one more proper record.”
“Steadman’s Wake” was originally to have been released in 2020 but was held up due to the pandemic, a hard delay for a band that had waited so long for this followup. It joins the catalog as The Connells’ ninth full-length album in a career going back to 1984. That was when the band first formed in Chapel Hill at the University of North Carolina, debuting a year later with “Darker Days.” Their 1987 Mitch Easter-produced album “Boylan Heights” established The Connells as college-radio favorites, and they went on to work with producers including Gary Smith, Hugh Jones and Lou Giordano on subsequent albums.
Three Connells albums made the Billboard 200 charts in America, but their biggest commercial success came overseas. “’74- ’75,” a pensive and moody ballad from 1993’s Giordano-produced LP “Ring,” reached the top-10 in 11 different European countries in the mid-1990s (including No. 1 in Sweden and Norway). The song’s evocative time-traveling video, juxtaposing then-and-now photos of alumni from The Connells’ hometown Broughton High School, also earned a cult following with fans making their own video versions.
“We’ve been trying to figure out if there’s some kinda theme to this new record,” says MacMillan. “If anything, I’d say it’s 20 years older. The minor-key-heavy chord progressions and the way Mike puts songs together, still give it dark undertones. But the lyrics seem a little more upbeat than before, even if it still has that longing aspect. It feels a little more grown-up than we’ve done in the past - more upbeat and not quite as cynical. Every record we’ve ever made, we’ve thought it was the last one. Maybe this really will be it. Then again, as long as we’re still playing, chances are that Mike will still be writing songs. We’ll see.”
The Connells
Mike Ayers -- guitar
David Connell – bass
Mike Connell – guitar, vocals
Rob Ladd -- drums
Doug MacMillan – vocals
Steve Potak – keyboards
The Sonny Wilsons
The Sonny Wilsons is the power pop project of Adam Yancey (Solo artist, Afterglow, The Chain Hopsons, The Becky’s) and Allen Couch (East Link).
Adam Yancey, who gigged his way through flight school is, and this is a direct quote, “The only idiot in the world that got into the music business for the money. And the only idiot, in the history of idiots, which is a long list, who had to fall back on a music career to become an airline pilot!”
Multi-instrumentalist Allen Couch's love of music began when he stumbled upon, and subsequently appropriated, his parent's 8-track copy of Abbey Road. Yep, he's that old…. Thus began a lifelong appreciation for a well structured pop harmony.
They are joined by singer-songwriter-guitarist Danny McGreger (Lately David), singer-guitarist Chris Swenson (The Devil Brothers, David Brookings Band, Victor & The Spoils, Megawhat, Black Oak Arkansas) and bassist Johnny Norris (Crash Into June, Your Academy).
The Sonny Wilsons’ first album, recorded at Ardent and High/Low studios with Jon Auer (Posies, Big Star) producing, will be released late summer of 2025.
instagram.com/the_sonny_wilsons
facebook.com/sonnywilsons
Your Academy
When semi-legendary Memphis power pop band crash into june acrimoniously split in 2005, founding member and bass player Johnny Norris clinged to hope that the band would one day regroup to make one more great album to complement its critically acclaimed releases from blind to blue (1999) and Another Vivid Scene (2002).
While reunion shows in 2013 and 2016 sparked hope, a group commitment to record again never materialized. And, when Norris’s efforts to reform the band in August 2019 to celebrate his birthday were rebuffed by the latest incarnation of the group, it appeared that all hope of another CIJ- related recording was extinguished.
Enter guitarist Chris Gafford and drummer Dan Shumake, both of whom appeared on CIJ’s debut release, from blind to blue. Since leaving crash into june, Gafford and Shumake remained active in the Memphis music scene and had joined Stephen Burns’ most recent reincarnation of The Scruffs. When approached, the two eagerly signed on to join Norris for an August 2019 performance of crash into june songs and other power pop classics. But, the question remained: who would sing?
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Brandon McGovern cut his teeth on the soul and blues sound of his city. With a love for The Beatles and 60's garage bands, he spent his early years playing in various bands, including Madison Treehouse, which played many shows with crash into june throughout the 90’s on Memphis’s famed Highland Strip.
Enter Adam Hill. Hill is affectionately known in power pop circles as “The Big Star Archivist” having assisted Ardent Studios founder, the late John Fry, with locating, transferring and mixing long lost Big Star and Chris Bell tracks for inclusion on box sets released in the early 2000’s. Adam also plays guitar in The Scruffs and is an accomplished recording engineer having worked with Jack White, Cat Power, Klaus Voorman, Low Cut Connie, and, of course, Big Star. Adam signed on to play lead guitar in and record Your Academy.
Under Hill’s tutelage, Your Academy has recorded what truly is the resurrection of Memphis power pop.
Past events
August 31, 2024 - Matthew Sweet' with The Sonny Wilsons and Abe Partridge.
September 2, 2023 - The Baseball Project with The Sonny Wilsons
September 2022 - A Tribute to Chris Bell, featuring Jody Stephens, Jon Auer, Van Duren, Your Academy and The Sonny Wilsons.
Venue Information
Venue Information
Please visit https://overtonparkshell.org/visitor-experience for information relating to parking, seating, food and beverage options as well as venue rules.