Singin’ dem Blues on Broadway…

Singin’ dem Blues on Broadway…

Main Street hosting free music and lunch as part of Heritage Month

news@theeveningtimes.com

Enjoy some hometown hospitality Wednesday during National Tourism Week and Arkansas Heritage month. Main Street West Memphis works to preserve local heritage along Broadway and is putting out a lunch spread free to the public. Blues on Broadway festivities will be Wednesday, May 10, in the Regions Bank Plaza 231 E.

Broadway.

Live music in the park setting will cover the long lunch hour food service from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Keeping with the local heritage, blues notes will set the tone.

The last two years the blue skies and fair temperatures cooperated with the scene.

Traditionally city workers line up for the hot dog lunch. Fire fighters, police officers, utility workers, street and sanitation crews, and city office personnel enjoy the fare. But the festivities are open and free to the public as well.

The travel and tourism week is celebrating its 34th anniversary and West Memphis will showcase the Main Street district. Curbs, awnings, old school lamp posts, highlight some of the recent upgrades seen on Broadway and done through preservation grants and donations to the district. Funded artwork includes some of the murals seen along Broadway and mural painted trashcans created by Academy of West Memphis art students inspired by city and regional history themes. Not so obvious to the passer-by are the roof repairs handled through the group for buildings along Broadway last year. The Main Street office itself is located in the original KWEM studios that brought blues, country and western and rockabilly pioneer performers to the radio airwaves. The cotton compress water tower is the latest Main Street project and aims to transform the old tank into an art work wired with ornamented stainless steel cables and LED lighting expected to turn on to welcome the 2018 new year.

In the meantime the twin occasions of the national tourism week and the Arkansas Heritage Month will use Blues on Broadway to spotlight the city and show case the preservation work along the city’s east-west business route.

Blues on Broadway sponsors include Southland Park Gaming and Racing, Regions Bank, Delta Ice, and Main Street West Memphis.

By John Rech