Fine Line: 'Media' Section

The Granada Theater – April 30, 2008 – The Avett Brothers with the ex and the fabby Gobbler’s Knob – one of the best concerts EVER!

That was then…

…this is now!

Bonus cut…

It’s time…

Saturday, March 20
Doors at 6 p.m.
The Opening of the Kessler Theater
Featuring: DJ Mr. Rid (spinning) – Josh Alan Friedman’s Book signing Black Cracker – “A Photographic History of Music in Dallas” by wicked-awesome photographer James Bland – Performances by Mark Growden – Slam Poet Jason Carney – Josh Alan Friedman
Cost: It’s on the house, just bring booze money
Full bar

A couple of weeks back, Salim Nourallah invited me into his Pleasantry Lane Recording Studio for an “artist’s studio tour” for KERA’s Art&Seek. It was nearly 5-years ago that I did the same for Pegasus News. The studio has changed dramatically since then.

I was asked to obtain a copy of the Nourallah Brothers self-titled album, which will go into rotation on Gini Mascorro’s Texas Mix on 91.7 KXT…I uploaded the entire CD and its bonus CD to my laptop prior to handing it over to KXT. I’ve been listening all day and it’s really made me melancholy and wishful that the Nourallah brothers would put their differences aside and come back together to make another record. I think it could be quite brilliant and full of quirky and perhaps dramatic stories about the making of it.

Anyway, the above video was shot and produced by my dear friend Alex Kanakis. I was actually invited to sit in on the planning meeting for the video, but Alex took the ball and ran with it, and a lovely, thoughtful and wonderful video resulted.

Below is the latest studio tour I filmed for KERA/Art&Seek.

I dearly love Salim and his family. In fact, I’d say he’s in the top five of my top five favorite humans on earth. He’s also one of my very very very favorite singer-songwriters.

There’s a very cool intimate concert series that takes place at the Studio by the Lake. Salim will perform on April 3rd, alongside other local greats, Trey Johnson and Ronnie Fauss. It’s a not-to-miss-er…so don’t miss it.

I’d kill to be able to shoot and edit like the folks at Lucky Rabbit Films. Hell, I’ll probably ask them if I can be their eldest intern (in the history of film) when I move to Austin in the coming years.

So, working on the calendar today, I noted that Deadman (one of my favorite bands EVER) are playing the Doublewide on Saturday night. While I’m spoken for the AllGood show with Dougie Burr and The Fox and the Bird, I’ll just have to cut out early to go see my beloved Steve Collins and band.

The above video is a 2-year old project that captures the band perfectly. It’s a gorgeous piece, rich with great videography and the perfect sounds of Deadman’s music.

Saturday, January 16th
AllGood Cafe: Doug Burr w/The Fox and the Bird
The Doublewide: Deadman

Got to shoot video of The Fox and the Bird at Good Records a few weeks back…dang, I love this band…

…Got to shoot video of Jacob Metcalf and crew at Good Records a few weeks back…dang, I love this band…

…Got to shoot video of Something in the Wheel at Good Records a few weeks back…dang, I love this band…

…I gots’it gooooood…

I got to take a tour of LaGrange in Deep Ellum just a couple of hours before they opened their doors. There are full videos here…and one just as a taste below. Go check out the full tour here.

LaGrange: the opening night musical wrap up. Music courtesy of Slick 57

“Scabby” lost his balls last week. I know it’s wrong on so many levels, but we’ve been posing him as a satellite dish, a martini glass, a plunger and various other things while that stupid thing is attached to his head. No worries. He doesn’t mind. He pretty much adapts to everything in a few secs….

PS- this was shot on my Flip Video thingie…

I was there one of those Quick nights, to shoot a portion of the Jason Janik studio tour for KERA’s Art&Seek. I was supposed to focus, that night, on Jason…but I’m a big Blythe Beck fan…and as you can tell by the video, I didn’t have my glasses on, so I didn’t know how out of focus my camera was that night…who cares, it was Blythe Beck! Thanks jason, Blythe and Farah Fleurima for letting me hang out!

Jason Janik, along with the good folks over at Quick, put together ho…ho…holiday photos of local musicians, personalities and a chef, including Gordon Keith, Tim DeLaughter and the fam, Blythe Beck, Smile Smile and Bowling for Soup, set to a Christmas classic movies theme. You can check out the photos by picking up a copy of Quick, which can be found, like, anywhere. Plus, check out the peek-a-boo videos shot during the photo sessions. Pretty nifty stuff.

Art&Seek Artist Studio Tour with ArtCon5 Artist Frank Campagna

Art&Seek Artist Studio Tour with ArtCon5 Artist Jason Janik

Art&Seek Artist Studio Tour with ArtCon5 Artists Tom Sale and Judy Vetter aka The Tom and Judy Show

Art&Seek Artist Studio Tour with ArtCon5 Artist VET

Art&Seek Artist Studio Tour with ArtCon5 Artists (and artist coordinators) Vanessa Neil and Kevin Obregon

Art&Seek Artist Studio Tour with ArtCon5 Artist Jason Ice

ArtCon 5 – The Day Before – The artists gather to make their art – 9 a.m., Friday December 11

ArtCon 5 – The Day Before – The artists gather to make their art -2 p.m., Friday December 11

ArtCon 5 – Art&Seek was there and they brought glitter, glue sticks and lots of crayons!

Big ups to Tiffany Kieran and Tyler Watson for helping with video and interviews. Lots’o'fun

If you are lookin’ for me, I’m over here…

Shot this for Art&Seek and it still ranks about #1 on anything I’ve ever shot, video-wise….I love Becky and Bill and I love this video of them rehashing….

Thursday, December 10th
AllGood Cafe
Jon Dee Graham
CD Release Celebration for It’s Not as Bad as it Looks
9 pm

Hurry up and open…open…open…open…

Dude, Sweet Chocolates from Cindy Chaffin on Vimeo.

Folk’n'A aka Trinity River Folk performed at Cliff Fest 2009 and delighted me to no end…I look forward to more performances.

Guitars by Cade Sadler

When I was doing some research on Willie Baronet, I ran across an interview he had done (can’t for the life of me remember where I read it) and he mentioned that a man named Jack Allday had given him his first shot. My dad was good friends with Jack Allday in high school. I shared this information with Willie and he just happened to have filmed Jack’s 50th high school reunion. Weird wonderful world. I can’t remember if dad and Jack were in the same class, but I’m posting these for my dad cuz I know he’ll know folks in these great videos.

Nice work, Willie…yet, again!

HPHS Class of 1959 Reunion Part 1 from Willie Baronet on Vimeo.

HPHS Class of 1959 Reunion Part 2 from Willie Baronet on Vimeo.

“Ocho” – Collin Herring at Ramble Creek from Todd Wiseman on Vimeo.

I was sort of laughing at myself a couple of days ago when I realized that I had missed my “7-years of music blogging” anniversary last month. I wasn’t laughing at the fact that my dead braincells are multiplying, rather that the main staples…really, the only staples, of my car CD player are the following:

The Lonelies EP
Macon Greyson Uneasy
Collin Herring Avoiding the Circus
Deadman Paramour
Joyful Sinners EP
The Happy Bullets Blue Skies and Umbrellas
Salim Nourallah Polaroid

These are the CDs I listened to years and years and years ago that made me fall in love with the local music community, and all these years later, I’ve never tired of a one.

However, I do get really excited when these bands and artists put out new albums. I found the above video over on Collin Herring’s site. It’s really awesome and features some great Texas-based musicians and producers and songwriters and brilliance.

Collin Herring is releasing his latest album, Ocho, pretty much as I type. The above video was shot at Ramble Creek, featuring a behind the scenes peek into the making of this record. Collin Herring and his dad (and bandmate) Ben Roi Herring are folks I consider to be my friends. I’ve known ‘em forever. I’ve loved ‘em forever, and neither one has ever played or sung a note that I didn’t absolutely adore.

Ocho was recorded out in the sticks at Ramble Creek and features such other FineLineFaves as Ben Roi Herring, Will Johnson, Keith Hanna, Roberto Sanchez and of course the great Britton Beisenherz (The Monahans, Milton Mapes).

The Ocho festivities kick-off on Monday, when Collin will appear on KXAN in Austin and on KLBJ 93.7..wait, there’s more…

Tuesday, November 17th
Waterloo Records (Austin)
Live in-store – 5 p.m. – Free

Thursday, November 26th
The Moon Bar in Fort Worth – 10ish

Saturday, November 28th
The Ghost Room in Austin