When you live in a place like Downtown Memphis, magic does happen.

If you don’t live down here, it’s hard to explain … but sometimes the most random happy moments find you. It’s nothing you can really plan ahead for. You just have to let the Memphis soul wrap around you.

It’s usually music that moves me to talk about the soul of Memphis. Before moving to Memphis, I had no idea how much live music would become a hobby, nor what I was missing out on.

Two nights ago, it was a rooftop concert by Don Bryant and the Bo-Keys. It was one of those casual, no-expectation things … Laura texted me Wednesday night and asked if I wanted to join her. The venue, Old Dominick Distillery, is about 6 blocks from my apartment (and a very cool new spot). It’s been cold and finally the concert day was going to be sunny and warm. The ticket price was $20. It’s the Bo-Keys. It’s Don Bryant. (Both Memphis soul legends). YES, I WANT TO GO. I don’t exactly know what to expect, but I want to go.

I arrived first (that only happens when Laura is the one meeting me — we are both marching to the beat of our own drum, and arrival times tend to be merely suggestions). I headed up to the rooftop and immediately spotted a man who my colleague and I saw on Tuesday morning at a neighborhood breakfast diner (his style and demeanor are very noticeable, as you’ll see below!).

Extroversion takes over and I say “Hey, you were at Blue Plate Cafe on Tuesday” … and  we become instant concert friends.

Laura arrives, Don starts singing, and the Bo-Keys start playing. Everything else leaves my mind, because I am captivated!

Just check out the show below. I walk past this building several times a week and I eat dinner at the attached restaurant, Gray Canary, as part of my normal downtown rotation. Those are the normal, day-to-day things about living in downtown Memphis.

Finding this show with almost no notice is the extraordinary thing about Memphis.

His voice! The lyrics! The horns! All the instrumentals! My neighborhood!

#ILOVEMEMPHIS