So we decided that it would be Booker T. and the Memphis Group, the MG's.

NPR: Booker T. and the MG's

For the past three years, the group has visited Memphis, Tennessee, each spring to help clean up a harbor on the Mississippi River where the waters are thick with debris.

CNN: Taking out the rivers' trash, one piece at a time

In August, 1969, a Memphis man known as Sweet Willie Wine led a group of black men on a four-day March Against Fear, from West Memphis to Little Rock, passing through the small towns of the Arkansas delta.

NEWYORKER: Southern Discomfort

For orientation, in 2011, he participated in the summer reading program and commented in a group discussion blog about the "West Memphis Three, " the well-known case of men convicted of murder as teens only to be later released due to new evidence.

WSJ: Boston Marathon Bombings: Turn to Religion Split Bomb Suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Home

"There are several pockets of blight around the city, and as a result, absentee property owners have responded by boarding up their properties, " said Mark Fogelman of Fogelman Management Group, a closely held property firm with 5, 000 units in Memphis.

MSN: Orlando, Las Vegas top the list of emptiest U.S. cities

He puts together a ten-piece group that learns, eventually, to play precise and spirited versions of soul classics in the Memphis style.

NEWYORKER: The Commitments

According to a much-told story, after the show the then-unknown Elvis told the group that, if he ever landed a major-label contract -- he was on Memphis' Sun Records at the time -- he'd have the Jordanaires back him up.

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