the dotmatrix project

William Dawson of The Alcazar Hotel brought high energy to The Green Burro for the October Dotmatrix show.

To see more of Julie’s work, check out her blog.

Josh Johnson’s one man band, Pinche Gringo, gets backup from Liza Jane on maracas and Jimmy Brad on guitar.

Hearing the blues Pinco Gringo style.

To see more of Julie’s work, check her blog

The Alcazar Hotel performs October 29, 2009 at the Green burro. Members from left to right: Edward Stanley (guitar), Steve Newton (drums), William Dawson (lead vocals) and Adam Dodds (bass).

William Dawson serenades Julie Welch.

Check out more of Michael Dunn’s work on his blog

Josh Johnson in his one man band, Pincho Gringo, performing at The Green Burro.

An audience member gets comfortable as he takes in the garage/blues sounds.

To see more of Michael Dunn’s work, check out his blog.

Will Dawson connects with camera and crowd.

Fans become part of The Alcazar Hotel’s performance as Will Dawson moves off the stage and into the crowd.

To see more of my work, check out my blog.

Liza Jane gets the crowd to participate in the music.

Josh Johnson makes final adjustments to his amp.

To see more of my work, check out my blog.

New year, New decade, good enough reasons to try something new, right? DMP is beginning this year’s concert series in the Triangle at Duke Coffee House, this Friday, Jan. 29th at 9:00. We’re stepping out of our back room speakeasy comfort-zone which is the Green Burro and we’ll be covering a show featuring three bands from Chapel Hill-based Drughorse Collective. Huge preemptive thanks to Michael Reklis for including us and arranging the event.  The night will feature sets from Ryan Gustafson, The Light Pines and Max Indian, three acts with infectious jams that will stick in your head long after the night has faded into a PBR-fueled lovefest.

For those of you new to these bands and looking for a place to start. (These tracks are available on the Myspace sites linked above):

The Light Pines: “Climbing Towards You”

Ryan Gustafson: “Soul Train (Red or Black)”

Max Indian: “Heaven Help Us”

Triad-based DMP friends, come show the Bull City scene your love for essential local music. Greensboro to Durham isn’t that far, (just watch out for the unmarked patrol cars on 40-85.) True to DMP form, the show is still free, so come out and bring your friends. People of the Triangle who may not have attended a DMP show yet, you know the bands are great. Come be a part of an evening of documented local music. You may be able to hear your beautiful self in the background when you purchase a copy of the show on amiestreet.com.

We’ll see you there!

photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Don and I made the trek out to Durham with Elizabeth yesterday to be interviewed on WUNC’s The State of Things. I had pushed for a group interview — so many people have made this project a reality that quite honestly, my voice matters much less than theirs — but Laura Leslie was sitting in for Frank Stasio, who had prior knowledge of the project whereas this was all new to her, so it was deemed best to keep it relatively simple.

That meant Prez and Andy had to stay home, and Liz had to sit in the hallway and do her best to take a few shots for posterity.

The interview happened, and Laura was extremely warm and gracious and overall it went well. I flubbed the end, as unbeknownst to me, the engineer behind me began a countdown to armageddon that Laura needed to react to, but otherwise I think we represented ourselves alright.

We’re in the midst of making a number of changes two years deep into this venture — in particular, leaning towards documenting paid shows only. What we’re unsure of is how such a shift in direction will impact the community building / participation aspect of the project and whether or not that in and of itself will effect our happiness with the direction of DMP.

At least we have the power to reform our wayward direction if we so choose.

Here’s the interview:

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This will be another brief post.  For a more detailed account of the night’s performances, check out Nash Roberts’s take on the evening.  Also, for the newbies, here’s our promo entrance page to sign up for an account with Amiestreet and receive free money to support our local artists.

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In June of 2009, the dotmatrix project hit another milestone.  It was our first opportunity to feature three performances in a single evening.  We were pleased to showcase three singer/songwriters all local to Greensboro, NC.

Randy Furches is a high-spirited, high energy person and performer.  He kicked off the evening with a short set that showed off his love for all varieties of music.  There was some Blues, some Folk, and a little bit of Hip-Hop.  He brought along with him two musicians to accompany him during his set.  Hank Johnson provided some extra flavor on guitar and on mandolin.  King-Kev-O helped Randy finish his set off, bringing his own lyricism to the stage on “Cryogenics.”

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer, Jerrod Smith
Mixing Engineers: Dan Bayer, Cesar Oviedo
Mastering Engineers: Cesar Oviedo
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Elizabeth Lemon

Morgan McPherson is a talented young performer who I believe has a long and prosperous career ahead of her.  For this evening, she was accompanied by Ron May on bass and Strother Bullins on drums.  The magic these guys brought to the stage can also be found on Morgan’s EP, Destiny Save Me, which was recently recorded in Nashville.  It should be available soon.  You can check out her myspace for more information on that.

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer, Jerrod Smith
Mixing Engineers: Dan Bayer
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Doug Klesch

Kristen Leigh has done quite a bit of traveling as well, going as far as the West coast, to produce her music.  Fortunately, for us, she still calls Greensboro home.  When she’s not performing purely solo, Ueli Schweizer joins her on violin, as he did for us this evening.  Sara Dickson, Kristen’s friend and tutor on piano, also accompanied the talented songwriter during the performance.

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer, Jerrod Smith
Mixing Engineers: Don Ravon
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Matty Sheets