Beale Street Festival announces mind-boggling lineup

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Lou Reed, Buddy Guy and Fergie walk into a Memphis bar… Actually, there’s no joke here. This is an actual possibility at the Beale Street Music Festival taking place in Memphis this May.

As part of the larger Memphis in May International Festival, The Beale Music Festival will bring over 65 artists from practically every genre to Tom Lee Park in Memphis over the over the May 2-4 weekend.

The festival has lined up an impressive collection of music’s elder statesmen/women like Aretha Franklin, Lou Reed, Buddy Guy, Santana and Bettye LaVette. Indie mainstays like Ben Folds, Cat Power and Tegan and Sara will also share the stage with Pinetop Perkins, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and The Black Crows. But what about your angry-at-the-world 15-year-old son? Won’t he be bored to tears if he gets dragged along to the festival? Not if Disturbed, Seether and My Chemical Romance have anything to say about it.

The what-ifs associated with this line-up are endless. Imagine the lead singer of Disturbed explaining the meaning behind his “oo-wah-ah-ah-ah” lyric to a bemused Franklin. Or what about Jerry Lee Lewis waiting in line for the porta-potties behind Ben Folds, Joan Jett and My Chemical Romance? Or even ?uestlove and Bettye LaVette exchanging awkward glances while they watch Project Pat’s set...their hands lightly touch...a love that dare not speak its name develops...hush, sweet child of passion...go gently into the humid night...

Um, yeah, here’s the complete lineup:

Friday, May 2
My Chemical Romance
Sheryl Crow
The Roots,
Keb’ Mo’
Richard Johnston
Hellogoodbye
Jonny Lang
Ben Folds
Charlie Musselwhite
Robert “Wolfman” Belfour
Flyleaf
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Project Pat
Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials
Lord T & Elosie
Amy LaVere
JJ Grey and Mofro
Lurrie Bell

Saturday, May 3
Santana
Disturbed
Matisyahu
Bettye LaVette
Richard Johnston
Lou Reed
Seether
The John Butler Trio
Pinetop Perkins & Hubert Sumlin W Billy Gibson
Blind Mississippi Morris
Buddy Guy
Simple Plan
Arrested Development
Watermelon Slim
Cat Power
The Whigs
Colbie Caillat
Back Door Slam
Duman
Saving Abel
Tegan and Sara
Kenny Neal
Muck Sticky
Oracle and the Mountain
Al Kapone
Preston Shannon
Eli “Paperboy” Reed

Sunday, May 4
Fergie
Michael McDonald
The Black Crowes
Doyle Bramhall
Richard Johnston
Finger Eleven
Aretha Franklin
O.A.R.
Magic Slim & the Teardrops
Robert “Wolfman” Belfour
Gavin DeGraw
Jerry Lee Lewis
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Nick Moss & The Flip Tops
Rue Melo
Duman (from Turkey)
Umphrey’s McGee
Samuel James
Carney
Billy Lee Riley
Pete Francis
Calvin Cooke