Molly Whitehorn ’15 shares her love of local music by creating a website devoted to Memphis musicians called ‘Echoes of Memphis’ which will officially launch this month. The site’s initiative will be to create “a living history of Memphis music by studying the artists working in the city today and those who influenced them.” Whitehorn’s passion for music can be seen throughout her many extracurriculars as a fellow and a Rhodes Student Associate for the Mike Curb Institute for Music and she is eager to begin a new creative outlet through which she can continue to explore the art. The website will serve as a hub for Memphis music news and will house various videos portraying interviews and performances by local bands.
Whitehorn argues that Memphis in particular has cultivated her love for music. She reflects that is “has taken [her] in like one of its own, and has given me purpose beyond the blues and barbeque.” She hopes that this website will help to reassert the once popular notion that Memphis is a city which fosters musical inspiration. Whether is was due to the tense race relations or the powerful hum of the Mississippi, the sounds of Memphis were once seen as beautiful and inspiring to musicians across the country. Whitehorn asserts that “it will take a lot of time and even more effort, but there is no doubt in my mind that it can and will happen again.”
Whitehorn’s studies and extracurricular experiences at Rhodes have assured her of her desire to pursue a career in the music industry following graduation. The skills she has learned as an English major, for instance, have helped her to “get across the main points I want the audience to grasp” in both her blogs and her interviews.
Further, the connection she has formed through her involvement in the Memphis community within her extracurricular involvement has convinced her that she would like to pursue this dream in Memphis. Though the site is still in the works, it will officially launch following the first concert in the ‘Evening at Elvis’’ series featuring the band Star & Micey.