WLOK to celebrate 40th anniversary with concert starring Al Green

Art Gilliam Jr. made history back in 1976. That was the year when Gilliam, a Yale grad who had worked in the insurance business before moving on to roles as a TV reporter and congressional aide, decided to get into the radio business. His company, Gilliam Communications Inc., bought WLOK-1340 AM, making it the first black-owned station in Memphis.

Gilliam and WLOK will celebrate the station’s 40th anniversary with a Saturday night concert at the Orpheum, headlined by Al Green.

In addition to Green, Memphis-based and nationally known gospel acts the Brown Singers and the Gospel Four will perform, along with the Tennessee Mass Choir. The Stax Academy Alumni Band will open the show.

For Gilliam, little has changed in WLOK’S mandate since he signed contracts to take over the station in late ’76. “We’ve always been community oriented,” he says. “And that’s reflective of what we’ve done over the years in and for the community. That’s been our past and present, and future as well.”

Over time, however, the sound of WLOK has changed, moving from R&B to gospel. “The station switched formats to gospel in response what we believed to be the interests of our audience and, also, we felt there was a market for gospel,” he says. “For the foreseeable future that will be our musical format.”

Gilliam adds that the station’s popular Stone Soul Picnic event at the Levitt Shell will continue. “And this year we’re planning on expanding to include a couple further events in addition to the concert over the course of that weekend. We’ll be making an announcement on that later this summer.”

As for Saturday’s anniversary show, the choice of headliner was an easy one. “Al Green was the first person to ever stop by when our company bought WLOK,” Gilliam recalls. “He came to congratulate us and wish us well. It was very much an encouragement to me personally to have him come at that time. ... That was right at the beginning.”

“The funny thing is that we were an R&B station at that time and he was in R&B music,” Gilliam says. “And then as we transitioned into gospel, so did he. So when we came up with this 40th anniversary event, he was naturally the first person I thought to have be a part of it. I went over and talked with him, and he agreed to do it.”

The appearance by Green is significant as he has dialed back, if not completely forsaken, regular concert performances over the past few years. “He’s not really on the road anymore performing, so it’s a rare opportunity for Memphis audiences to see him,” says Gilliam. “This is something he’s doing for us that’s really special.”

Gilliam notes that the show — which will be hosted by WLOK morning show personalities Linda Covington and James Chambers — will mirror the station’s history.

“The program will start out with the Stax Academy Alumni Band playing the music of Stax and the kind of R&B we were doing when we began. Then we’ll move to the Tennessee Mass Choir and the Gospel Four and Brown Singers, which brings us into the gospel era and particularly the current-day gospel era. And then we’ll close it out with Reverend Green. He’s got a great band — if you ever go to his church you’ve heard them. As I understand, he’ll be doing a mix of soul and gospel. He’ll be doing a little of everything.”

WLOK’S 40th Anniversary show: 7 p.m. Saturday at the Orpheum. Tickets: $20 to $50. Available at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com or (800) 745-3000.

High Society

A Kickstarter campaign for a fascinating new Memphis music documentary, “The Blues Society,” is ending this week. Focusing on the historic Memphis Country Blues Festivals from 1966 and 1969, the film includes footage of Furry Lewis, Rev. Robert Wilkins, Fred Mcdowell, John Fahey and Bukka White, along with new interviews with author and producer Robert Gordon, Rev. John Lewis and music historian Peter Guralnick.

Director Augusta Palmer brings some family bona fides to the project. She’s the daughter of Robert Palmer, Memphis Country Blues Society member, festival organizer and renowned critic for The New York Times.

As Palmer notes, the film combines a wealth of new and archival materials, including some remarkable color footage of the ’69 festival shot by New York’s WNET and broadcast nationally on “Sounds of the Summer,” hosted by Steve Allen — tracing “the journey of the festival from improvised local celebration to an event of national prominence.”

The film is slated for a spring 2018 release. Memphis music and blues fans interested in contributing to the Kickstarter campaign can view a trailer and donate at kickstarter. com/projects/299640613/ the-blues-society-a-documentary-film.

DAN the MAN

Singer-songwriter Dan Montgomery releases a fresh five-song EP (out on CD and digital) this week via his Fantastic Yes label. Titled “How to Get Old and Sad,” it’s a cheeky conceptual play on self-help manuals. Billed as a “reverse motivational experience,” the album’s cover boasts that it offers “Five Powerful Lessons to Promote Personal Change.”

Following up his stellar 2014 album, “Sin, Repent, Repeat,” the new record finds the Jersey-born, Bluff City-based storyteller working up another batch of bruised love songs and philosophical mediations on the lives of those in the margins.

Montgomery will play a release show at 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, at Lafayette’s Music Room.