DMC to Host Pop-Up Blues Museum Preview

The Downtown Memphis Commission, along with artist George Hunt and LongRiver Entertainment Group will host a pop-up preview of Hunt’s National Blues Music Art Museum in Memphis.

Hunt’s preview installation will be located at 100 Peabody Place and is expected to open on Tuesday, July 3, and run for the rest of the month.

Admission to the museum pop-up, which opens Mondays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., will be free. The hours on Sundays will vary.

Hunt’s vision for the National Blues Music Art Museum is to entertain music fans and tourists with artistic images depicting the history of blues music over the past 150 years from variety of artists, sculptors, photographers, folk artists, indigenous peoples, entertainers, and festivals.

David Simmons, head of LongRiver Entertainment Group, is designing and curating the museum, as well as spearheading the development of the project.

– Patrick Lantrip

Crye-Leike Confirms It Started FBI Investigation of Email Hacking

Memphis-based Crye-Leike has confirmed that it was the real estate company that reported what federal prosecutors described last week as “a series of intrusions” into its servers and email systems two years ago.

The U.S. Attorney’s office went public last week with a series of conspiracy and fraud charges in indictments returned by a Memphis federal grand jury in August 2017. Prosecutors announced June 25 they had arrested eight of the 12 people named in the indictment alleging “business email compromises.”

Steve Brown, president of residential sales for Crye-Leike, said in an email response to an inquiry from The Daily News that company servers were not hacked “in any sale where buyers or sellers lost any funds.”

“Crye-Leike initially contacted the FBI due to agents and customers reporting suspicious emails,” he wrote. “This resulted in Crye-Leike assisting the FBI with its investigation into criminal cyber attacks targeting the real estate industry in the United States. We are very pleased that the FBI was able to identify suspects and take actions resulting in the recent news release relaying their success.”

“Crye-Leike immediately took all the necessary steps to block attacks and Crye-Leike has not discovered nor been made aware of any smuggling or theft of data from its servers,” he added.

Federal prosecutors describe the group of 12 people charged in other cities and other countries as part of a “widespread Africa-based cyber conspiracy” responsible for allegedly defrauding U.S. citizens and companies of $15 million since at least 2012.

Crye-Leike was identified only as “Company A” in the separate indictment of Rashid Abdulai, a citizen of Ghana living in the Bronx, New York.

The 12-page indictment of Abdulai details a June 30, 2016 incident in which “unknown conspirators spoofed the email accounts of Company A’s agents and fraudulently misdirected funds that had been intended for a real estate transaction to a different destination.”

The indictment also alleges “unauthorized access into the email servers of Company A” and adds that the same day “the wire transfer … involving Company A was recalled due to suspicion of fraud.”

– Bill Dries

Levitt Shell Marks 10th Year With Fall Lineup

The Levitt Shell’s free summer concerts in Overton Park continue through July 15, but organizers are already looking ahead to a fall lineup that runs Sept. 6 to Oct. 21.

The Orion Free Music Concert Series features a wide range of artists playing free, family-friendly outdoor shows at the shell. At least 10 of the fall shows will be part of the Regional One Memphis Music series, featuring featuring local and regional artists such as North Mississippi Allstars, Opera Memphis, Low Cut Connie, Those Pretty Wrongs, Memphis Hepcats and Rhodes Jazz Night with Joyce Cobb.

All shows in the fall series start at 7 p.m. The lineup is:

Sept. 6: Devon Gilfillian

Sept. 7: Orquesta Akokan

Sept. 8: Meta and the Cornerstones

Sept. 9: The Mulligan Brothers

Sept. 13: Black Umfolosi

Sept. 14: Snowglobe with Star & Micey

Sept. 15: Rhodes Jazz Night with Joyce Cobb

Sept. 16: Those Pretty Wrongs

Sept. 20: Low Cut Connie

Sept. 21: Memphis Renaissance

Sept. 22: North Mississippi Allstars

Sept. 23: Opera Memphis

Oct. 4: Dean Owens and the Whiskey Hearts

Oct. 5: Squirrel Nut Zippers

Oct. 6: Film and Music Night

Oct. 7: Memphis Hepcats

Oct. 11: Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience

Oct. 12: Bette Smith

Oct. 13: Walden

Oct. 14: Las Cafeteras

Oct. 18: Crystal Shrine

Oct. 19: John Fullbright

Oct. 20: Film and Music Night

Oct. 21: Nefesh Mountain

In addition, two ticketed “Stars at the Shell” fundraising concerts are in the works, with the proceeds helping pay for the 50 free concerts held year-round. The next Stars at the Shell show is Robert Cray with Cedric Burnside on July 13, followed by Lake Street Dive on Sept. 29.

Tickets for both shows and a lineup of the remaining summer dates is available at levittshell.org.

– Bill Dries

‘Christmas at Graceland’ Producers Lease Downtown Space

The producers of a Hallmark Channel original movie called “Christmas at Graceland” have leased 7,000 square feet of Cutler Property Group’s Crane Company building, located at 254 Court Ave. in Downtown Memphis.

The lease will run until mid-August. This is the second time a production crew has tapped Cutler Property Group for their filming needs in Memphis. The site served a similar function for CMT’s TV series “Sun Records.”

“It’s an honor that the ‘Christmas at Graceland’ producers chose to locate their offices in the Crane Co. Building,” Adam Cutler said in a release. “Since last December we have been delivering mostly individual executive offices and office suites on our lower floors at (a) rapid pace. We only just finished preparing this floor the week before the producers came to see it.”

“Christmas at Graceland” follows the story of Laurel, a business executive who reunites with an old flame while in town for work.

– Patrick Lantrip