Chuck Berry’s legacy remains in good hands, judging from the reelin’ and rockin’ that took place at a tribute show marking Berry’s 70th birthday Oct. 18 at 12th & Porter. Performing as The 28’s, a quintet of veteran rockers—bassist Garry Tallent, keyboardist Jack Irwin, guitarist Doug Lancio, guitarist Brent Little, and drummer Tommy Meyer—ripped with wild command through Berry’s repertoire. The experience rose far above the usual cover-band fare to capture the carefree freedom and joyous interaction of rock at its most primal. The dance floor stayed packed throughout the evening as the band’s three-hour show rolled through everything from “Maybellene” to “My Ding-a-Ling,” with every band member stepping up and taking a lead vocal sometime in the evening. Originally set up as a one-off affair, the band reports that it had such a good time that it’s now planning to set up another date. The next show will likely include an expanded song list that incorporates songs by Hank Ballard, Little Richard, and other ’50s greats.

Linda Gail Lewis, sister of Jerry Lee and a piano-pounding rocker and veteran country singer herself, celebrated her recent move from Memphis to Nashville by attending the Chuck Berry tribute show. She recently returned from a monthlong series of concerts in Europe to set up her home in Antioch, where she lives with her daughter Annie, son Oliver, and husband Eddie Braddock, a famed Memphis promoter and songwriter who worked with Stax Records during the label’s glory years.

“I love Nashville,” says Lewis, “but the main reason I’m here is because I think it’s the place to be if you’re in the music business.” Lewis certainly knows something about the business—she’s been a part of it for over three decades. She made her recording debut in 1960 with her sister Frankie Jean, then in 1963 released a duet, “Seasons of My Heart,” with Jerry Lee Lewis. The same year, she joined her brother’s band as a harmony singer, touring with him for more than 20 years. In 1964, she released her first solo single on ABC/Paramount, but by 1968, she had signed to Smash Records, where she recorded a solo album and several more duets with her brother. Her duet with Jerry Lee on “Don’t Let Me Cross Over” was a top 10 country hit, and she also enjoyed chart success with solo versions of “Turn Back the Hands of Time” and “Roll Over Beethoven.”

Lewis eventually retired from music, but five years ago she initiated a comeback with International Love Affair, an outstanding album of energized roots-rock on the French New Rose label. She also released a country album, Love Makes a Difference, earlier this year on Memphis-based Icehouse Records. Just recently, she recently began recording new tracks with producer Stuart Colman, whom she met in 1991, when she was touring England after the release of International Love Affair.

Lewis professes to be a fan of many of Colman’s past productions, especially his work with Shakin’ Stevens and Billy Swan, and says she’s stayed in touch with him over the past few years. The two renewed contact after Colman moved to Nashville earlier this year, and they appear to have hit it off working on tracks designed to get Lewis a new U.S. record deal.

“She’s had a lot of experience, yet she still has this wild, rough energy that you can’t fake,” says Colman, who has recorded Lewis on new tunes by songwriters Tim Krekel and Rick Vito. “When she likes a song, she really connects with it. She’s given some great performances so far, so I’m real excited about the possibilities. She has what I think is a real unique sound. Her piano playing is pure Memphis, and her vocals come straight out of Mississippi; there’s a lot of soul there. She’s also familiar with Nashville, and we’re putting this tight Nashville rhythm section behind her. I think what we’ve come up with so far has a lot of power to it.”

Lewis hopes to begin performing around her new hometown soon.

Here’s the best name we’ve heard yet for an all-night alternative-country extravaganza: the MiniPrlJam. (For any slowpokes out there, that’s pronounced “Minnie Pearl Jam.”) The Thursday-night event at the Sutler is a massive birthday party for No Depression magazine writer Kim Webber, and the surrounding hullabaloo has been described as an “unofficial No Depression event,” whatever the hell that is.

The lineup includes Tommy Womack, Kevin Gordon, Phil Lee, The Skeeterhawks, Shinola, Phil Fuson, and Andy Scheinman; make sure you get there in time for Jennifer Nicely, a young newcomer who’s turned a lot of heads at the Franklin Road club lately. (Lee says she “has the voice and the face of an angel,” and everyone knows he doesn’t exaggerate.) Surprise guests are expected to perform, and Lonesome Bob serves as the evening’s host. Show time is 8 p.m.

Greg Garing, the former Tootsie’s mainstay, can be heard singing a duet with Peter Rowan on True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, a Sugar Hill Records tribute that had been in the works long before Monroe’s death. Garing and Rowan pair up on a beautiful version of “Letter From My Darling,” with Garing singing high harmony and playing mandolin, including a perfectly jagged solo take. The two are joined by fiddler Bobby Hicks and bassist Todd Phillips, the latter of whom produced the collection. The outstanding album is a who’s who of modern-day bluegrass performers; included on the collection are the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Del McCoury, John Hartford, Sam Bush, Roland White, David Grisman, Vassar Clements, Herb Pedersen, Tim and Mollie O’Brien, David Grier, Jerry Douglas, Richard Greene, Laurie Lewis, Kathy Kallick, Tony Trischka, Mike Marshall, Scott Nygaard, and Chris Thile. As for Garing, word has it that his new LP is tentatively scheduled for release on Paladin/Revolution in April; the record has been described as “sort of trip-hop bluegrass.”

Highly regarded New York engineer Steve Adabbo has been retooling a few songs by Nashville-based rock band Warehouse. Adabbo, who has worked with Patti Smith and Suzanne Vega, is punching up a few songs from the band’s self-released CD, On a Good Day. New guitarist Donnie Roberts (Webb Wilder, Steve Earle) has also been in the recording studio adding a more aggressive sound to several of bandleader Ned Massey’s songs. The retooled tunes, which include “So Far Away,” “On a Good Day,” “Driven Away,” “Smarter,” and “I Almost Drowned,” won’t be released on a new version of the CD. Instead, they’ll be used to take advantage of growing record label interest in Massey’s work.

Of late, Warehouse—which also features drummer Jeffrey Perkins and keyboardist Rick Neal—has received good reviews following its appearance at St. Louis’ Midwest Regional Music Festival, and the band continues to build a strong regional following with performances through the Southeast and Midwest. But Massey has been through this drill before: In the 1980s, while living in New York, he attracted the interest of record producer and talent scout John Hammond, known for discovering Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Billie Holiday, among others. When CBS, the label with which the late Hammond was associated for 50 years, passed up a chance to sign Massey, Hammond used his own money to finance recordings for the young singer and personally touted him to other record executives. Massey came close to signing with several labels, but the deals all fell through in the final stages.

Massey moved to Nashville in the early ’90s with his girlfriend, singer-songwriter Terry Radigan, who is currently working in the studio with record producer Don Cook (Brooks & Dunn, Wade Hayes and The Mavericks). In New York, Massey’s acoustic-based sound leaned toward ballads and story songs. In Nashville, however, he has reacted to the proliferation of the city’s singer-songwriters by toughening up his sound and hardening his insights and biting humor. In local shows, Warehouse’s straight-ahead, dynamic rock provides a brisk alternative to the current predominance of “alternative” rock bands. The band performs Nov. 19 at 12th & Porter with Dreaming in English.

Bad country pun of the month: “Hot to Molly,” by Mila Mason. Even though the references to Mexican cuisine mercifully stop with the chorus, the song lives up to its groaner of a title by following a rote storyline about a high-class beauty queen who falls for a lower-class bull rider—hot tamale, what an original idea! For good measure, it packs in a couple of the fast-turning, tongue-twisting lyrical runs that have become so popular of late. According to the credits, it took three minds—Blake Lasater, Ed Lasater, and Raymond Faulknor—to come up with the chorus: “Oh but she was hot, hot to Molly!/And just what she sees in him nobody knows/But the boy was hot, hot to Molly!/Even in a bed of thorns you can sometimes find a rose.” The song is one of four tunes on Mason’s album that happened to come from the publishing company owned by her producer, Blake Mevis.