Local legend Bruce Piephoff pulled together an all-star ensemble for his DMP performance last February (sweet Jesus, it’s been that long?). With Renee Mendoza (Filthybird) on vocals, Scott Walker, Landon Walker & Jennie Walker Brunner on bass, cello and violin (Walker Family Band) and David “Driveway” Moore on harmonica (ETI & The Goodbye House), Bruce led the audience through a memorable set of narratives steeped in southern tales — stories of inequality and of politics and with bits of love splashed here and there.

Please enjoy this beautifully shot slice of that down home pie.

And remember, Bruce’s live album is currently available on Amie Street for only $1.82.

MUSIC VIDEO CREDITS

Director: Harvey K. Robinson
Editor: Zach Hadgraft
Camera: Mark Wagoner, Alex Maness, Blake Faucette
Gaffer: Jonathan Faw
Grips: Matty Sheets, Barry Staples
Sound: Danny Bayer, Don Ravon and Cesar Oviedo

Don’t worry.  This post isn’t about baseball, or sports at all, really. It’s about music.  More precisely, it’s about all the music there is to look forward to in the month of October.  Thanks to the folks at Monkeywhale Productions, it starts off with a bang.

Last night, I was fortunate enough to take part in the first night of the first ever Save the Monkeywhale Festival at Solaris.  The eager participants were treated to a very special performance by Josh Neas, of J’s Indie/Rock Mayhem, to kick off the live event.  The first band to grace the stage was Now You See Them, from Asheville.

After that great act, Eating the Invaders took the stage and kept the party going.  Finally, Holy Ghost Tent Revival closed out the evening with their always lively, raucous performance.  It was a fantastic night of music…and this was the first night!

The lineup for Friday night’s extravaganza at The Blind Tiger includes Sirius B., Citified, Filthybird, and The Never.

For Saturday night, again at the Blind Tiger to close out the Festival, there will be performances by House of Fools, Amelia’s Mechanics, Bruce Piephoff, Martha Bassett Band, Sam Frazier, Alcazar Hotel, Stephaniesid, Jim Avett, Katharine Whalen, and special guests.  You can still get tickets online at savethemonkeywhale.com, or you can pick them up at the door.

Next weekend, there’s an incredible gathering of musicians and music-lovers happening down in Chatham County, NC.  This is the kind of thing that only comes around twice a year!  On Thursday, October 8, Shakori Hills kicks off their fall Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance.  The list of bands is too vast to go into here.  I can tell you that you can expect to enjoy a wide variety of music at this festival, from zydeco and swing to roots rock and americana.  There’s a little something for everyone in the family at Shakori Hills.

The following weekend, there’s a festival going on in Franklinville, NC, called the Deep River Music Festival.  On Friday, Amelia’s Mechanics, Eating the Invaders, and Holy Ghost Tent Revival will be performing.  On Saturday, the lineup includes the Ralph Roddenbery Trio w/ Scott Mecredy, The Virginia Dare Devils, the Haw River Rounders, Milltown, and the Wyndy Trail Travelers.

Now, I know all of this might seem like a lot, but it’s actually only the tip of the iceberg.  There’s gonna be a lot of music going on in all the familiar venues in and around town.  There are really too many shows to try and list them all here.

For example, there’s the annual Greensboro Fest that’s going on October 15-18 and will include about two dozen different bands.  There’s bound to be a couple of great shows this month in one spot or another.  Check out the Flat Iron, or the Green Bean, or the Blind Tiger, or My Favorite Things Records some time to get an idea.

Remember, at the end of this month, we’ll be putting on the last DMP show of 2009.  Alcazar Hotel, Pinche Gringo, and us folk with the dotmatrix project look forward to entertaining you once again.  You don’t have to wait until then to go out and enjoy some quality music, though.

It’s Autumn!  It’s going to get cold soon!  I suggest we all take the opportunity to enjoy this time of year as much as possible!  As far as I’m concerned, some great music and some good friends is the way to go.

The exhibit… is up.

That was only a few months in the making.

This Friday night @ The Green Bean is the exhibit’s opening, featuring the music of past DMP performers: Laurelyn Dossett, Mr. Rozzi and Eating The Invaders. We’re also going to screen a slew of DMP music videos created by the ever talented All Aces Media, Ioannis Batsios, Jason Marc Pierce, Jennifer Graves, Bret Jones and Michael McQueen.

As far as the exhibit goes, we have 29 large format photographs on display, shot by 9 local photographers across 8 monthly shows, which will stay on the walls until September 27th.

Friday night, the entire month… it’s our way of both celebrating and promoting the talent found within our own community.

We do hope you can come out and enjoy it with us.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t introduce our featured photographers, so here they are:

DMP PHOTOGRAPHERS (These are the folk who signed up with us to shoot specific shows and then uploaded their high-res shots to the DMP flickr photostream under a Creative Commons license, which in turn furthers our mission)
		Kevin Belton flickr account Email | Voice: 336.816.8571 Kevin is a professional product photographer for the High Point furniture industry, second camera for John Leonard Photography for weddings and special events. He has been shooting themed based ideas in the last year or so featuring addiction, fashion, and music. Art is his passion and the camera is his medium.
		Stephen Charles CharlesMedia Photography Email | Voice: 336.682.9517 Stephen Charles began taking photographs in 1983 with a 35mm Canon Sure Shot. With the advent of Digital SLRs he has pursued photography as a growing passion, with a desire for letting candid captured moments tell the story.
		Jessi Hagood Jessi Hagood Photography Email Jessi Hagood is a native of Eden, NC and works primarily in the Greensboro area as a Wedding and Portrait Photographer. Recently her work has involved photographing Bodybuilding and Figure Competitions, soon to be featured in Muscle and Fitness Magazine and in an upcoming episode of MTV Made.
		Doug Klesch Doug Klesch Photography Email | Voice: 336.542.3071 Doug is a refugee from the cubicle farms of corporate America. Failing to have sapped all creative energy from him over more than a decade, his overlords released him back to the world. He gratefully returns wielding a camera.
		Elizabeth Lemon Elizabeth Lemon Photography Email | Voice: 719.244.3518 A recent graduate from the photography program at Randolph Community College, Elizabeth is adjusting to life outside a classroom. She is pursuing fine art and documentary photography with rediscovered inspiration and a tool box of new knowledge.
		Alex Maness Alex Maness Photography Email | Voice: 336.707.6121 Alex Maness, local boy done good, likes to travel and explore, but keeps Greensboro, NC as his center of gravity. He runs a photography business shooting for magazines and advertisers, as well as his own documentary projects.
		Mark Smith flickr account Email | Voice: 336.414.4721 Mark’s first inkling that photography could be fun was when his parents brought out the dreaded slides of their jaunts overseas. Once Mark could afford it, he bought a Pentax ME Super and “that was that.” These days, Mark happily takes sports and beach pictures as well as the live music events at DMP.
COMMUNITY PHOTOGRAPHERS (Talented, local photogs who came out to shows and documented the evening)
		Carolyn de Berry Carolyn de Berry Photography | Email Monkeywhale Productions | Email A Connecticut native and graduate of Guilford College and the Commercial Photography Program at Randolph Community College, Carolyn is a freelance photographer and assistant living in Greensboro, NC. She is also the production photographer and studio manager for Monkeywhale Productions.
		Allen Martin MartiniVision Email | Voice: 917.687.1912 Greensboro native Allen Martin is a photographer and designer who has recently relocated back to his home town after 18 years in NYC. A camera owner since adolescence, for the last several years Allen has focused on fashion, fine art and entertainment photography.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

• Katie Southard, Owner of The Green Bean
• Elizabeth Lemon, for matting, framing and curating the show
• Laurelyn Dossett, Mr. Rozzi and Eating The Invaders, for generously donating their talent at the exhibit opening
• Don Ravon for running sound at the exhibit opening
• Don Ravon & Dan Bayer for mixing the music video tracks
• Ioannis Batsios, Blake Faucette, Michael McQueen and Bret Jones for scrambling to produce their music videos on time
• Andy Coon for helping prep the music video DVD
• Allen Martin for the beautiful show poster
• All of our talented photographers, many of whom aren’t represented in this show. You can see their all of their work at our flickr spot

A SUPER SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR FRAME SPONSORS:

• Mark Wagoner Productions
  Email | Voice: 888.854.0406
• 243 Framing
  243 E. Salisbury St., Asheboro, NC. 27203
  336.629.5101
• Martin’s Frame and Art
  336.274.2426

…where James Marshall Owen appears to be transported by the music.

A different perspective on ETI, as Alex has Matty Sheets apparently getting ready to go right through the camera.

For more of Alex’s work, you can go to Alex’s web site or check out his other shots in the DMP photostream.

Off with the electric bass and on with the horns. Now let’s get some upright bass.

Photo by alex maness

Their show at The Burro on May 28^th was blissfully youthful Americana. It was something in the same vein of The Avett Brothers before they became the Avett Brothers, though perhaps more pharmaceutical, so to speak.

Wiry vocals, jittery melodies, outbursts and prone to lampooning, it was a performance that literally had the babies in the crowd dancing along. Seriously, I saw it with my own eyes. You must be doing something right when that happens, right?

Photo by Mark Smith

Sticking with the friends theme, there was no shortage of supporters both on stage and in the crowd for the Subterranean Bums/Eating the Invaders show. You couldn’t help raise your glass to the music of Eating the Invaders. They write suburban hymns which are best enjoyed while drankin’, which was especially fitting for a show at The Burro. Their songs are played seemingly for fun’s sake. This seems obvious, but it’s not every band’s MO. It’s easy to tell when a group plays songs regardless of audience reception–though it’s important to note that the audience certainly enjoyed themselves as much as the band did that night.

Photo by alex maness

Where the crisp trumpet of Steve Jackson was often showcased in the music of Subterranean Bums, Eating the Invaders music isn’t the same without the harmonica of David “Driveway” Moore. Rumor has it, he even snuck in a kazoo solo.

All in all, a great night accompanied by friends and acquaintances, offstage and on. And maybe a few cabaret dancers thrown in there for good measure.

Photo by Mark Smith

Marshall Owen, picking at the speed of sound.

And one shot of most of ETI….

Matty, Marshall and “Driveway” Moore belt out a chorus.

Matty Sheets of Eating The Invaders.

Matty Sheets, apparently early in the ETI set before the lights and the crowd caused divestiture.

For more of Elizabeth’s work, check out her blog

These misfits will be playing in just a few short hours at The Green Burro.

C’mon, brave the ridiculous downpour from the Gods and come on out to our free show.

Local talent documenting local talent.

Word.

James Marshall Owen can’t turn a gig down. If he’s already got a date on the books, he’ll say no. Otherwise, he’s on it like Mick Jagger on a mic.

He’s a bone’ fide Buster Dilly, master collaborator and pinch-hit guitar slinger. Call him when your bass player gets sick. Call him when you’ve got a super fantastic gig, with no one to play with, and you need someone to wear a sharp suit, a tie, and learn the tunes on stage and kick. that. set’s. ass.

That said, I’ve always wondered about the equipment Marshall throws in his knapsack to head out the the door and catch the bus, or a quick hitched ride to the latest musical emergency. Usually, he plays whatever is available. But his preference? That’s what I wanted to know.

He plays three instruments: Guitar, bass and banjo. His main money-maker is a work-in-progress electric built by both factory and artisan hands.

You know what? I’ll let Marshall tell you the rest (you can also hear it yourself when Marshall plays the dotmatrix project this Thursday with Eating the Invaders and The Subterranean Bums).

John Leonard via the dotmatrix project

Main electric instrument: 1995 Yamaha Pacifica “112″

It’s the Strat-style six-string, with a Rose Wood fingerboard, brass nut, and a custom-made maple flame wooden pick guard. Gael carved that for me.

This guitar is kind of an ongoing project. I’d like to refinish it and replace the remaining plastic parts with rosewood to match the fingerboard.

Every time I break a string, it’s at the bridge (aka saddle), where there are tiny (invisible to MY eye) burrs.

I love the pickups; with a humbucker in the bridge position it’s definitely more versatile tone-wise than a Telecaster, which is typically my second choice.

Past loves: A piece of crap Stratocaster Squier

It was a fairly unpopular model they only made for a couple of years. It’s like a cross between a Strat body and a Telecaster neck and electronics. It was a piece of crap but I loved it. That was stolen in the parking lot of a certain 24-hour diner after an Eating the Invaders show at the Green Bean about a year ago.

String gauge: Grimy Ernie Balls or D’Addario’s .012-.056 round wound strings

On both guitars (as well as my hand-assembled Franken/LesPaul Copy, which is currently being rocked by Mike of Our Horse Jethro).

Ernie Balls tend to last pretty decently, but the way I play, pretty much any set of electric strings ends up grimy and too heavily used to stay in tune properly long before I get around to changing ‘em.

In any case, I’ll change around depending on my mood, but aside from being pretty picky about using heavier gauges, I like any old set of strings as long as they’re new. Wait. What?

Ampage: Fender Princeton Chorus 2×10

It’s not that I don’t like tube amps, just don’t have one!

Pedals and effects: Horrible fuzzy

I’ll use a wah or chorus once in awhile but I usually just stick to a 6-band EQ that I kick on for volume boosts or drastic tonal changes mid-song. Oh, I also have a bass distortion pedal; I like using that with the guitar cause it’s a horrible fuzzy sound and there’s a blend knob so you can mix the clean signal with it.

Acoustical preference: A piece of shit and a pawn shop

I swore on a Yamaha FG400 or something like that for years. I bought it for $50 from this guy I knew from a community theatre production we were in; it had sat in his closet for about 10 years, so it looked like shit but turned out to be wonderful.

Last summer, I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket, so I took that guitar to Yesterday’s Music in High Point, which is a fantastic shop run by fantastic people (Paul & Cathy Szydlik) who gave me a great trade-in for a brand-new 2005 Alvarez AJ60SC acoustic-electric.

With maple back/sides and spruce top, it’s a much lighter-sounding instrument than the one I was used to, but it has pretty good balance of highs and lows, and the neck is amazing. It’s as comfortable to play as an electric, but you can still really dig in.

Bass face: a 4-string Schecter custom

Not much to say about this one; I also got it brand-new, though with the scuffs I’ve given it in a year you wouldn’t know it. I don’t know what kind of strings I got for it. Ernie Ball’s medium maybe?

Photo by Julie Welch

Keeping it all together: I play all 3 of those with Eating the Invaders

I don’t change setup much from one group to another, although if I’m gonna use any effects, it’s way more likely to happen with Project Tritium.

Don’t think I’ve used the bass fuzz with ETI (yet). I’ve recorded some electric parts on the Yamaha for Subterranean Bums, but I primarily play acoustic–and banjo.

The loaner: A banjo

My only banjo is an old untunable Sears Silvertone, and Les Paul signed it in Sharpie so I just play whatever banjo Jack Carter or Emily Stewart loans me.

I have no clue about banjo strings at all! It’s the one instrument I’ve never broken a string on. (Knock on wood).

I’ve been surrounded by creative people all my life, but not in the way I am here in Greensboro, NC. The passionate vibe to create and the hustle people have to support themselves is unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

I mean, both of my parents were art teachers, which provided them a consistent income, but they spent a vast majority of their creative energy fostering the creative development of others. They both had the skills to pursue doing art for a living (I’ve seen their work), but at some point early on they made pragmatic, career-based decisions to teach and raise a family instead.

They chose one life over another.

Over the years that I lived in NYC leading up to my move here, I befriended numerous people who were musicians, composers or artists after hours with a consistently advancing career in the commercial art world by day. Sure, there was always a struggle for time, but the job could be replaced in the blink of an eye with a linear move elsewhere in town. Making it as an artist, first and foremost, was a goal, but it was without a true sense of immediacy.

In These Parts

The people I’ve come to know here live their craft, bent on doing whatever it takes to keep doing what they do — whether they’re single or married with kids, creating is not an option, it’s a necessity… like breathing.

Take Harvey Robinson at Monkeywhale, or his PiC Carolyn de Berry. Not only do they create beautiful short films and photographs, but they prolifically pimp the best work that our creative community has to offer, 24/7. All of this with an eye on financing a feature film. Somehow, they make a living doing commercial work in the short time between.

Matty Sheets is a Monkeywhale contributor, member of two bands — Eating The Invaders and Come Hell Or High Water — and the MC of The Flatiron’s Tuesday night open mic. Last I heard, Matty was slinging coffee at The Green Bean, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was hustling elsewhere to grab a buck to make ends meet.

My brother, Andy Coon, is creating, producing and shooting a web series, The Corporate Assassin, while taking on numerous freelance gigs to contribute to his mortgage payments. He’s married, wants kids and needs health insurance.

Molly McGinn works part-time at an agency, runs three blogs and assists at her friend’s palates studio so she can make both rent and music with her girls in Amelia’s Mechanics.

Dan Bayer shoots local HS sporting events and runs sound at shows around town (including ours at DMP) while trying to get a sound studio off the ground.

I could go on for a long while like this.

This is Greensboro — a town chock full of talented artists, musicians, filmmakers… but also defined by an aggregate population seemingly more interested in what’s on television & clubbing downtown than supporting the arts.

Check that. Not the arts, their arts.

See, that’s what community is about — recognizing common interests and supporting each other in our pursuits. At least it is to me.

So you say we’re not Austin, or even Chapel Hill. Go where the interest and action is, right?

You tell that to one of my friends. You tell them that if they want to make a living at their craft, they should uproot to find a “market” willing and able to support them.

These people aren’t suits, willing to constantly start over, moving from one town to another to make a better buck. They’ve invested time, energy and love to help shape this community and honestly love what they do while valuing their place here.

So they do what they have to do to get by.

Josephus Thompson III wrote an article, steeped in personal experience, about this very subject in GoTriad last week. He ended it as such:

[...] The Bible says, “Faith without works is dead,” so we work and keep the faith; we pray and we stay on the straight and narrow, traveling the unbeaten path believing we can make it and cascading through all the gray areas of the unknown, postponing or as Langston might say, deferring our dreams. So, we must not defer, we must not linger in our fantasies, but pursue our desires and our dreams. And at the end of the day we do, doing whatever it takes to get us through to the next stage of our lives — hopes, dreams and ambitions in tow. For we understand and know that we must do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do.

Sometimes, that notion becomes lost in the darkness of pursuit and struggle. I’ve experienced it myself. So to both the friends I’ve come to know over time and the creative souls I’ve yet to meet, I’ll let Josephus III take us out…

In The Morning
[Click through to the post to listen to audio]

We’ll get there.