Monday, June 07, 2010 -
MITCH McCRACKEN - Special to The Daily News -

Two of Memphis’ biggest musical assets came together last week when Ardent Studios hosted the Beale Street Caravan’s annual Blowout fundraiser.

Ardent has been bringing in major talent to Memphis for years: The Vaughn Brothers, the White Stripes, ZZ Top and B.B. King have all recorded there. The Beale Street Caravan has been exposing the world to Memphis music for years.

Now in its 13th year, Beale Street Caravan is the most widely distributed blues radio program in the world, delivering Memphis music to more than 2 million listeners on about 300 stations each week.

And the Blowout is an important event to raise money to support the show’s operating budget.

“This is a fun way at the end of Beale Street Caravan’s regular season to supplement our annual donations,” said Sid Selvidge, the program’s executive producer and Memphis musician. “Everybody has a good time listening to live Blues and getting some great bargains on auction items.”

The community came out in full force Thursday night to support Beale Street Caravan donating a variety of items to be auctioned to benefit the radio program. From The Orpheum donating tickets to local artists donating paintings, it was there to be auctioned off to help in the fundraising effort.

Beale Street Caravan has become the place people turn to experience authentic blues music. The program features in-depth interviews and recording sessions of classic and contemporary blues artists.

It not only features national artists like Elvin Bishop, legendary harpist Charlie Musselwhite, Texas music master Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, guitar-great Joe Louis Walker and singing sensation Shemekia Copeland, but Memphis artists like the Reba Russell Band, Todd Snider and Susan Marshall.

“Our music is truly Memphis’ heritage, and Beale Street Caravan promotes and preserves blues music and its derivative forms by exporting our indigenous culture to a worldwide audience of over 2.4 million listeners each week,” Selvidge said.

True to its purpose, the Blowout featured a performance by the Homemade Jamz, a family Blues band from Tupelo, Miss. They have appeared on “The Today Show” and “CBS Sunday Morning,” and they have been named “The Youngest Blues Band in America” and “Youngest Blues Music Award Nominees.”

In fact, the Homemade Jamz won the 2008 Blues New Artist of the Year Award by the Bay Area Blues Society in Oakland, Calif. They also won second place in the 2007 International Blues Challenge in Memphis.

The group consists of 17-year-old front man Ryan Perry (vocal and guitar), his 15-year-old brother Kyle Perry (bass) and their 11-year-old sister Taya Perry (drums). They were joined on stage at the Blowout by their dad Renaud playing harmonica.

The Beale Street Caravan is not only the most popular blues show in the world, it is also commercial free and for stations without downlink capabilities, the program can be delivered on CD.

Beale Street Caravan can be heard in Memphis on three stations, the show airs at 7 p.m. Saturdays on WYPL-FM (89.3), 11 a.m. Tuesdays on WEVL-FM (89.9), and at 6 p.m. Wednesdays on WUMR-FM (91.7). Visit the website at bealestreetcaravan.com.