the dotmatrix project

The Martha Bassett Band at Studio B by the amazing Doug Klesch.

To see more photos from DMP, check out our flickr site

The energy of Joe Craven as seen through the lens of Doug Klesch

To see more of what we do at the dotmatrix project, check out our flickr page

The multi-talented Joe Craven captured by Stephen Charles!

Find more dotmatrix project photos on our flickr site

Bruce Piephoff with Scott Sawyer, bringing it to Studio B.

To see more of Doug’s work and hear about his exciting adventures around the country, check out his website

And for more dotmatrix project photos, take a look at our flickr page

An overview of Bruce Piephoff by Stephen Charles

For more photos from the dotmatrix project, check out our flickr site

How does a group of professionals-by-day, rockers-by-night get multiple songs banned on a local, independent radio station?

photo by Kevin Belton

Ask Sin Tax.

Sin Tax is comprised of founding member Dr. Nancy McCurry, on bass and vocals, Doug Baker, with guitar and vocals, Moxie Campbell, on drums, Dave McLean, on guitar and vocals and Marilyn Wolf doing vocals and percussion.

In August of ‘09, Neill Clegg Jr. joined Sin Tax on the ol’ DMP stage, tooting his horn alongside these crazy kids.  It was a powerpop, rockabilly, glam-rock kinda night, with a distinctly punk edge.  Sin Tax brought the spice!

photo by Alex Maness

Was it the pretty instruments that helped them rock so hard that night?  Maybe it had something to do with the three flights of stairs up which they hauled their equipment.  Maybe it was the pretty outfits that made them shine.  Or maybe, just maybe, they were showing off a little.

My opinion?

It had to be the shoes!

photo by Doug Klecsh

photo by Kevin Belton

You can come up with your own conclusion.  To hear what I’m talking about, check out their album on Amiestreet or Last.fm. 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.

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineer: Dan Bayer
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Alex Maness

photo by Paula McLean

We’ve put on over 50 acts since 2008 and not once has a band approached me with the impetus for a live recording as Crystal Bright did last week.

In late June, Crystal and the fellas plan on touring up and down the NE coast — potentially heading as far north as Boston. The only problem is that since they’re such a new act, they don’t have much material to share with booking managers.

Enter DMP.

This Friday night we’re putting on a mini-show, focusing exclusively on a live recording for the band. I just booked the gig with Max Benbassat over at CFBG’s. He already had an act booked for a 9:30pm start time, so we’re going to slide in around 6:30pm and get started at 7:30pm sharp.

Come on out and bring the love. I’ve no doubt it’ll all end up on the album.

18+ $4 donation at the door.

My inaugural post for the dotmatrix project concerns an art show that I stumbled upon quite by chance. I had just been soaking up the sounds of Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands and Amelia’s Mechanics at Center City Park, enjoying the summertime atmosphere of people enjoying live music outdoors, of kids running happily about and of vendors selling their wares. It’s a great scene. And it happens every Friday night for free.

The friend who was with me said she needed to check out a video on display at the Center for Visual Artists made by a friend of hers. I decided to tag along.

As a disclaimer, I will say that I don’t go to very many art shows. I think I’ve become jaded over the years by subjecting myself to pretentious drek. But in this instance, my cynicism was replaced by the delight of discovery. All thanks to John Charles Gibbs.

I stepped through the doorway to the Center for Visual Artists and did what I do when I shop for clothes: I breeze through the racks, rapidly scanning the merchandise for textures and colors that appeal to me. It is an inexplicable method that works for me.

I strolled past the various works in the gallery’s forefront, which remain in my mind a blur of muted colors and indefinite forms. At this point, I felt a mounting impatience. But for whatever reason, I persevered and made my way deeper inside the gallery.

I crossed a sort of threshold defined by the positioning of the viewing space and glanced briefly to my left. A bizarre portrait caught my eye. I wanted to turn away from it but it had me. I studied the flat color, the stark and disproportionate outline, the posture of the subject, the facial expression. It was a little unsettling but magnetic all at once.

When I’d taken my fill of the portrait, I glanced to the right of it. And there was my reward! There were the vivid colors, the decisive execution of form, the imaginative rendering of texture and a hint of fun.

Hanging in a row was a series of paintings depicting flowers in vases. The colors were crayola basics. The forms seemed inspired partially by Asian art and partially by Scottish painter, fabric and furnishings designer and architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. And there was a sculptural quality to them created by what appeared to have been the hard end of the paintbrush etching outlines in thick acrylic paint.

It did not surprise me when I went deeper into the bowels of the gallery and discovered sculptures by this artist as well as more paintings: some graceful lilies in a vase, two whimsical chairs, a large tree made of plywood. Sitting off by themselves were a couple of landscapes and a portrait of a house. These generated a distinct sense of movement and a vibrant energy that, in my opinion, is rare in visual art. When I see it, my whole being responds with a celebratory, “Yay!”

I encourage you to view John Charles Gibbs’ paintings live and in person at the Center for Visual Artists on the second floor of the Cultural Arts Center at 200 N. Davie Street in Greensboro through June eleventh. Gallery hours are Tuesday 10-5, Wednesday 10-7, Thursday/Friday, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 2-5. The exhibit is free. Call 336.333.7485 if I’ve missed anything that you need to know.

Ah, the beautiful sound of guitars, mandolins, banjos and… cereal boxes with strings?

Tomorrow night, the dotmatrix project is teaming up with The Rooster’s Wife — a wonderful venue / gallery in Aberdeen, NC — to put on Get The Folk Downtown! at Studio B (520 S. Elm Street, down the alley next to The Broach Theater) here in downtown Greensboro. It’s a lineup of Folk and Americana talent, both from within the Triad and across the country, that you won’t want to miss.

Jennifer Dalton w/ Jack Benedict		Bruce Piephoff w/ Scott Sawyer
photo by Marc DeRoberts

 
The evening kicks off at 8pm sharp with Jennifer Dalton, an acoustic folk musician based in Greensboro, NC. Originally hailing from Gainesville, GA, Jennifer has been dividing her time between recording her first collection of music, performing locally in small, intimate venues, defending her PhD thesis and raising two wonderful children. Accompanying Jennifer will be Jack Benedict, an accomplished guitarist & mandolin player and long-time collaborator and friend. He’s a former member of the folk duo Mystk Dog and currently plays in the band Hanging Thread with other local musicians.

Following Jennifer is a set by local legend, Bruce Piephoff, who’ll be playing with Jazz guitarist extraordinaire, Scott Sawyer. Bruce has been writing and performing songs and poetry for over 40 years. He began in Chapel Hill, NC in the late 60’s while a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has recorded 20 CDs of original, independent, songs and poetry for Flyin’ Cloud Records, and has performed nationwide on the folk singer/songwritercircuit. Bruce just published his second book of poetry, Fiddlers and Middlers in 2009. He has shared the stage with Steve Forbert, Riders In The Sky, Greg Allman, Chuck Brodsky, Tom Paxton, and others, and has played everywhere from Merlefest to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Fresh out of high school, Scott met Bruce circa 1976 on Tate St. in Greensboro, NC. The untimely demise of a mutual & dear friend initiated their 1st performance together in almost 30 years in the summer of 2009. This encore performance will feature a set of Bruce’s music and poetry, spanning material from the 1970’s and forward. Fans of Townes van Zandt, Elizabeth Cotton, Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Joni Mitchell, the blues, roots music, the beat poets, Bukowski, jazz and more are urged to attend this “rare” collaboration.

Joe Craven		Martha Bassett Band
		photo by Carolyn de Berry

 
The second half of the evening will get rolling with Joe Craven. Hailing from Dixon, California, Joe has been described as a madman with anything that has strings attached — violin, mandolin, tin can, bedpan, cookie tin, tenor guitar, mouth bow, banjo, berimbau, balalaika, boot ‘n lace — plus a world of percussion instruments including animal bones, squeeze toys, cake pans, waste cans, umbrella stands, martini shakers and Himself. Joe is an educator, former museum curator, visual artist, actor/storyteller, festival emcee and former 17-year vet for mandolinist David Grisman, He has recorded and played with folks ranging from jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli to Grateful Dead Guitarist Jerry Garcia to The Persuasions. We are extremely excited to have him for this show, with all credit due to Janet Kenworthy of The Rooster’s Wife.

North Carolinians have known the music of our featured act of the evening, Martha Bassett, for some time now, but in the past couple of years, she’s been finding a new audience throughout the southeast due to increased touring, her work on the Sony Classics film JUNEBUG, festival appearances, and numerous articles in the press. The Martha Bassett Band have opened for Lyle Lovett, played Merlefest, and although they are known for their ability to incorporate jazz, country, traditional, and rock standards into the live shows, it is their original music that fans appreciate most.

If you enjoy live music steeped in stringed instruments and beautiful lyrics, well, this is the show for you.

The DMP crew will be there documenting the event, as always. Tomorrow night’s team includes Dan Bayer (Sound Engineer), Stephen Charles & Doug Klesch (Photography) and Michael McQueen, Louis Bekoe and Ioannis Batsios (Videographers). This is an exciting evening for us, as it’s the first paid gig we’ve put on since we started documenting live shows two years ago this month. We can use all the support you can muster, so feel free to drag your neighbors out for a great time.

Tickets are $10 at the door and are also available with your debit or credit cards at Etix.

Hope to see you folk downtown!

When I opened the email from Shayne on the eve of the DMP show last July, asking if The Future Kings of Nowhere (Solo) could get on the bill, quite frankly, I didn’t know how to respond. I mean, he’s friends with The Wigg Report, our opening act for the evening, and I love FKoN’s music, but we had already scheduled the sound, film and photo crew for the evening — since they were all volunteer, I didn’t want to take their time and effort for granted.

In the end I caved. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Shayne is just that talented. So we worked out an abbreviated opening slot and agreed to forgo a music video.

photo by Doug Klesch

His set was sick. We should’ve filmed it.

Shayne has this uncanny ability to cut right through the uncertainty of a crowd and capture their attention with songwriting that somehow pushes the buttons of common denominator emotions, but in truly unique ways. I guess that’s just a blowhard way of saying the man can write a damn good tune.

That said, here’s the six track EP we recorded that evening.

LIVE ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineer: Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineer: Don Ravon
Album Design : Sean Coon
Album Photo: Jason Ellison

Since our show, Shayne’s life has been a roller-coaster ride — moving up to Brooklyn to see if his music could take off, getting the shitty news of being diagnosed with cancer, picking up and moving back to Durham and then jumping straight into undergoing chemo and radiation therapy. He also got married along the way, and while I’ve never met Rebekah, I’m sure she’s a major reason why he has such a great attitude and sense of humor about all of this. I mean, seriously, check out this post at his blog (now a movement), This Machine Kills Cancer.

How many people can joke about this kind of an experience?

Probably cancer patients. God bless ‘em.

All proceeds from Shayne’s Amie Street album go straight to his pocket, as well as sales from This Album Kills Cancer (a bunch of DMP musicians donated tracks to the cause).

If you consider yourself to be a supporter of the arts, particularly the art scene here in North Carolina, please consider purchasing one or both of the albums. Great music and a great cause. What could be better?