The Bar-Kays : at Jazz and Jokes Lounge (Nashville, TN) Sat. March 2, 2013

The Bar-Kays

R&B

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

The Bar-Kays’ 1967 hit single “Soul Finger” remains the Memphis band’s signature tune, but the long-running funk group has always changed with the times. Over the years since such Stax Records landmarks as “Soul Finger,” The Bar-Kays have endured the death of four original members in the December 1967 plane crash that also took the life of Otis Redding, along with personnel changes and shifts in stylistic direction. These days, original bassist James Alexander leads a band that includes vocalist Larry Dodson, who first sang with The Bar-Kays in 1970. Their oeuvre includes excellent work done in the late ’70s and ’80s — funk landmarks such as 1978’s “Holy Ghost” and 1984’s “Sexomatic” are great, greasy examples of the Memphis novelty-dance-record genre. They hit again with 1995’s “The Slide,” and last year released an EP, Grown Folks.

—Edd Hurt