![]() ![]() But the place really lit up during Bunny’s pure-blues numbers, her high register down-shifting into a growl and back again.ĭuring a set break, the bass player told us the band had only practiced together once. They covered straight-out-of-Memphis standards from “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” to “Ain’t No Sunshine,” Johnnie Taylor’s blues-soul hit “Last Two Dollars” and even Tracy Chapman. The two alternated solos-Bunny on vocals, Cloe on a cherry-red guitar-sending out the kind of sounds that ring through the air and settle smoothly in your bones. ![]() They were already playing when we walked in: the keyboardist at his table, a drummer and a bass player dropping the rhythm and two leading ladies, Bunny and Cloe. The proximity is exaggerated by crimson walls, whirling scarlet lights and the red-hot sound of the band. Had we grabbed the first seats we came to, we’d have been close enough to strum the lead guitar. We sat half-way down a community table that nearly runs the length of the room. The band commands a corner created by two rows of guest tables the keyboardist plays from the table closest to his bandmates. Wild Bill’s may be as big as my living room and dining room combined. on a Friday night, I paid my $10 cover and stepped in. Except that almost as soon as Wild Bill’s closed, it reopened. I would never feel the power of the place known as one of the last-surviving juke joints in the Delta. I didn’t have a toddler anymore, just excuses-and now, regrets. Then they’d say “late night” and lose me, because I had a toddler and sleep was everything.īy 2018, I still hadn’t made it when word went ’round that Wild Bill’s was closing. ![]() They’d use words like “juke joint” and “real-deal” as their eyes grew big and knowing, like they’d been part of some secret rite. I could tell from the way people talked about the place that it had presence-power, even. But calling Wild Bill’s a live music venue is like calling the Mississippi River just another body of water. Ever since, neighbors have told me to get to Wild Bill's, a North Memphis fixture for live music. I moved to the area between Midtown and North Memphis in 2010. ![]()
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