Nager's new book traces history of Memphis music

If you spent much time with former Commercial Appleal music critic Larry Nager, you learned quickly about the spontaneous history lessons. You'd be driving down a street, and Nager would point out a building that used to house the W.C. Handy Theatre.

Pretty soon, Nager was weaving a tale about arcane aspect of Memphis music history. Unlike many people with such a gift of gab, Nager's stories were always compelling, well-told and highly educational.

Nager's now turned those stories into a book, Memphis Beat. It is a great read, tracing not only the history of Memphis music, but the history of Memphis as well. Nager says starting the book in the year 1541 was important to set the stage for what comes later.

"I felt like I had to go back that far to show that Memphis was so uniquely shaped," Nager says of the book, which sets the tone in its first line ("Hernando de Soto was the first European to the blues in the Mississippi Delta."). "I tried to do as little of the ancient history as possible, but by the time you get to the 19th century, you're very close to any and all the music that developed (in Memphis)."

The book more or less follows the chronological path of Memphis music. W.C. Handy receives reverential treatment in a compelling chapter on his role in the popularity of the blues. Nager refuses to allow critics to belittle Handy's importance, calling him "arguably the single most important figure in 20th century music. W.C. Handy changed music more than anyone else this century by adding the blues to the vocabulary of mainstream america."

Nager gives equal time to the importance of country music in the development of the Memphis sound. His chapter on former Memphian and Grand Ole Opry founder George Dewey Hay may be the most enlightening for those who think they know a whole lot of Memphis history. It expertly leads into a compelling discussion on the overlap or music styles that is Memphis music.

Memphis Beat includes the obligatory chapter on Elvis Presley, which Nager says was one of the hardest things to write.

"What can you say that hasn't been said?" Nager asks rhetorically. "The important thing was to put him in context. It's easy to say Elvis just ripped off the bluesmen, but he didn't. It was just part of the natural process...Elvis played country guitar, but it's important to remember that black musicians largely created country music."

The book ends with reviews of the Stax/Hi/soul era, the "Spreading of the Swamp Gospel" and a look at what is happening now in Mempis. That last chapter kept Nager hopping till the very end because "people kept dying."

Like the story itself, Memphis Beat also has a unique history. Nager first began working on the book while still at The Commercial Appeal.

"It was approved by Lionel Linder, who was all for it," Nager says. "He felt it was a very important project. Unfortunately, he was killed two months later."

The Commercial Appeal dropped the project shortly after that. Nager then began looking for a publisher. With the help of Oxford, Miss., photographer/promoter Dick Waterman and his sister, Nager hooked up with St. Martin's Press. Nager has high praise for his editor, Cal Morgan, calling him "a dream editor."

Nager will be returning to Memphis on May 22 for a book signing at Burke's Book Store on Madison. The signing will go from 5-8 p.m., and Nager says he expect there will be some music involved.

And it will give him a chance to again discuss a topic he loves nearly as much as any - Memphis music. It is a topic he doesn't really tire of.

"Everybody who comes down there has the same reaction," he says. "As the newcomer, you think, 'My god, no matter how important you thought Memphis was, you're amazed how much more important it is.' Everbody then goes through the same three phases. First, you're in an incredible wonderland of music. Second, you realize it all goes to waste there. And then third, there's that acceptance of that's just the way it is."

Nager's goal was to also show the odd phases that created what we all take for granted as the Memphis sound. It's a sound that comes from not just Memphis, but all of the South. "All American music comes from the South," Nager says, "and it all comes back to Memphis and the Delta."

And as Nager learned in his five years here, "there's no substitute for being there. It is that Memphis beat. It is that mojo. It happened because people believed it could."

The same could said for Nager's book - it happened because he believed it could. The city and its history are better for it.