{"id":46037,"date":"2018-04-25T09:13:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T15:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=46037"},"modified":"2018-04-25T09:13:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T15:13:49","slug":"fat-possum-artist-and-legendary-songwriter-don-bryant-brings-soul-to-double-decker-arts-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/fat-possum-artist-and-legendary-songwriter-don-bryant-brings-soul-to-double-decker-arts-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Possum Artist and Legendary Songwriter Don Bryant Brings Soul to Double Decker Arts Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Saturday, April 28<br \/>\n1 pm<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fatpossum.com\/artists\/don-bryant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Don Bryant<\/a> <\/strong>has been singing since he was 5, starting in his <strong>Memphis<\/strong> church. He joined his father\u2019s family vocal\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">group, then formed a gospel quartet for a high school radio gig. Broadcasting broadened the audience and they went\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">secular, singing pop at <strong>WLOK<\/strong> on<strong> Dick \u201cCane\u201d Cole<\/strong>\u2019s popular show. After parting with the DJ, they took a very real\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">step toward careers when, as the <strong>Four Kings<\/strong>, they began fronting <strong>Willie Mitchell<\/strong>\u2019s band.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Willie\u2019s band was known for instrumental records, but when they\u2019d play at <strong>Danny\u2019s<\/strong> in West Memphis, Don\u2019s group\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">fronted them. But the group broke up and Willie needed a vocalist who could play with his supple, slinky funky\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">beats, and anointed Don Bryant as his leading man.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Don could also write songs. He was still in his teens when, in 1960, Willie was producing the<strong> 5 Royales<\/strong> and Don\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">handed him \u201cI Got To Know.\u201d The 5 Royales put it on wax. Don was hot in the spotlight and in the writer\u2019s room.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nxBbYROWVPY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Don cut songs at <strong>Hi Records<\/strong> under the Four Kings moniker (\u201cThat Driving Beat\u201d) and as a solo artist (\u201cDon\u2019t Turn\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Your Back On Me\u201d). He wrote songs for other Hi artists, including <strong>Janet &amp; the Jays<\/strong> and <strong>Norman West<\/strong>. In 1969,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Don was popular enough to release an album.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Around 1970, Willie put Don with the Hi label\u2019s newest act, <strong>Ann Peebles<\/strong>, who burst on the scene with \u201cPart Time\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Love.\u201d They eventually co-wrote the hit \u201cI Can\u2019t Stand the Rain\u201d in 1973 and were married the following year.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Ann\u2019s performing career continued, as did Don\u2019s writing, and they began raising a family. Occasionally, Don\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">returned to the microphone, dueting with his wife, sometimes releasing gospel material. Always, he continued to\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">write songs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">And all the while, that voice was maturing, mellowing, until these recordings that find him, at age 74. The band is a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">mix of lifelong cohorts and upstart stalwarts. They understand where he\u2019s been and where he wants to go, making\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">his song \u201cHow Do I Get There,\u201d a rhetorical question, because they have clearly found the way.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14544 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"The Local Voice Ligature\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, April 28 1 pm Don Bryant has been singing since he was 5, starting in his Memphis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":46038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[12260,10402,12257,10401,12258,10403,12261,468,12262,12259,12256],"class_list":["post-46037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-localfestivals","tag-5-royales","tag-ann-peebles","tag-dick-cane-cole","tag-don-bryant","tag-four-kings","tag-hi-records","tag-janet-the-jays","tag-memphis","tag-norman-west","tag-willie-mitchell","tag-wlok"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-25-Don.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}