the dotmatrix project

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

To say it was a magical evening late last February when Jim Avett took to the stage for our little project, storytelling his way through a number of classic tunes, both covers and originals, would be an understatement at best. Even Jim’s kids, the skyrocketing Avett Brothers, sat in for a few tunes. Chills went through everyone as the script was flipped and the boys backed up their dad in the spotlight.

photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Eventually, the time came to bring Greensboro’s own musical legend, Scott Manring, to the stage. Harvey did an amazing job in the video of capturing the back story of how Signs was birthed between these two gentlemen. I particularly enjoyed watching their faces as they felt time slipping back to the days of its original recording some 30 years ago.

Sheer exuberance.

MUSIC VIDEO CREDITS

Director: Harvey K. Robinson, monkeywhale productions
Director Photography:: Harvey K. Robinson
Editor: Zach Hadgraft
Camera: Mark Wagoner, Alex Maness, Blake Faucette
Gaffer: Jonathan Faw
Grips: Matty Sheets, Barry Staples, David Moore
Sound: Danny Bayer, Don Ravon

We’re still working on Jim’s live album, but it’ll come out soon enough. Patience…

Photo by Carolyn de Berry

Elizabeth Lemon, one of DMP’s photography leads and curator of tomorrow night’s photo exhibit opening at The Green Bean, was featured in an interview by Matty Sheets over at Monkeywhale.

Congrats, Elizabeth.

Kristen and Ueli making sweet, sweet music together.

Check out more of Matty’s photos over at his electronic photograph book.

Morgan was channeling Tori Amos all night long.

Check out more of Matty’s photos over at his electronic photograph book.

Photo by kazushi hirota

As we press forward, reaching out to local artists to put on our monthly show and craft/release media from past shows, we’re constantly running up against this undeniable catch 22 when we allow ourselves the time to stop and think about the big picture of what we’re doing.

Is it possible to nudge a culture into a sustainable existance if the majority population just doesn’t seem to care?

Maybe that’s not fair.

Many people in this area do care about the creative culture here in Greensboro. That’s undeniable. But as far as people digesting original expression in terms of contributing to a cultural ecosystem that can sustain artist exposure and/or economic advancement?… Well, let’s just say that’s not the dominating MO of folks in this town.

At least not as it is in Asheville or Chapell Hill or Austin or any number of highly creative, artistic and live music dominating scenes around the US.

And I’m sure a bunch of people within our various, nested creative communities don’t necessarily want their culture to change — whether that means new market exposure to people from other scenes or an evolution into something different all together.

Even the most “artsy” person can be conservative in their liberalness at times.

But there are also a large number of creative folk here in town who want, no need, to make some kind of a living from their work. Not make it big, mind you; most would be happy to offset the dedicated hours it takes to work their craft.

In the end, that notion is at the core of what we consider the dotmatrix project to be all about.

Yes, we’re documenting the local music scene with media talent local to the area, creating work that lasts far beyond the show itself. But if our approach to administer the crafting and release of this work doesn’t help any of these dedicated artists get exposure to venues, clients, commissioned work, then, IMO, we’re not doing what we need to be doing.

All the photographs, the music videos, the performances, the time spent by everyone involved to organize, craft, learn, upload, tag, share, pimp… the way we envisioned it was that we were all investing in the potential of creating a more vibrant creative culture here in what historically has been considered a Mill Town with a central location, with a cover band and club culture, featuring a great participatory film festival in The 48 Hour Film Project that is underexposed to say the least.

So we put on our shows for free, allowing people to experience new, local talent at no cost to them. Call it seeding the population if you will. Our media is also free (except for the Amie Street releases that pays the artists directly) and is chock full of creator attribution and easy to find online.

In the age of Google, discovery is key.

Locally, we’re working with establishments like Carousel Cinemas, Thai Pan, Simple Kneads & The Green Bean to cross promote the shows and the media, with screenings and exhibits. We’re also teaming up with local radio DJ’s, such as Josh Neas, Chris Roulhac & Lisa Dames, who have graciously offered to interview performers just before DMP shows. Local bloggers and social media participants constantly point to our work and some have even worked our media and show schedule into their daily publishing approach online, which is huge and greatly appreciated.

All of these decisions and relationships have sprung from a sincere desire of everyone involved to to see what we’re doing succeed because it affects each of us — both from a personal & businesses perspective — in a positive manner.

Halfway through our second year doing this, I can honestly say that I’ve seen our community of artists, media makers and fans of local music cross-over more than I ever imagined possible. At any given show, members of more than five past bands represent in the audience, as do past photogs who show up and shoot unsolicited. I’m also getting to know fans of local music, as they’ve become a staple at shows, which feels great.

Within our own new found community, the people are amped and participating. New Greensboro, as my friend Matty Sheets has coined the collective, yet unorganized local movement of DMP, Monkeywhale, Giant Invisible Cyclops, Focal Points, Lyndon Street Artworks, etc., is beginning to take hold with the folks already in the know.

So I guess we do have the people.

The real question is how far can we take this?

Read this list of folks right here, and see if “singer/songwriter” comes to mind:

Johnny Cash
Bob Dylan
Neil Young
John Denver
James Hetfield
Joni Mitchell
Carly Simon
Tori Amos
Ray LaMontagne
Laurelyn Dossett
Matty Sheets
Conor Oberst
Ani Defranco
Amy Winehouse
Harry Chapin
James Marshall Owen
Scott Avett
Lily Allen
Ryan Adams
Jeff Tweedy
Dan Fogelberg
Dolly Parton

For me, there’s a few in there where the phrase singer/songwriter sticks out to me like a black turtleneck sweater.

John Denver. Joni Mitchell. Cat Stevens.

The others, not so much. But I found most on a wiki list of singer/songwriters.

Johnny Cash? Come on. Singer/songwriters don’t flip the bird at Columbia Records.

They whine about it.

And that’s the basically the idea I’ve been carrying around about the singer/songwriter genre for a few years now.

The switch flipped a few years back. Precisely the moment when, sitting in the home studio office of an LA-based music producer, the man said in a very kind, very matter-of-fact way, something like, “We’ll try and make your songs sound a little less singer/songwriter.”

My brain did something like:

Singer/Songwriter: Bad
Metallica: Good (for your reference)

And for the last two years, I’ve tried shaking the term off like, well, a tight black turtleneck, throwing as many musicians and arrangements and Garage Band beats as I could at songs to take them out of the coffee shop and into the coliseum.

I wanted my songs to flip you the bird. Not sing about them.

Dammit.

Recorded a bunch of songs in a studio with some fine musicians. And when I heard the playback the first few times, realized the songs I’d worked so hard to write, were now so far away from the original purpose, far from anything I could ever duplicate live.

Far from tunes that literally stood naked in front of you. Not the first blush of love, naked, when everything sounds like a pop song, new, and not yet overplayed. The naked-in-the-bright-light, when every thing about the person is real with flaws and missteps and wrong notes. That kind of naked.

Being naked in front of people takes a lot more courage than flipping somebody the bird.

So I took the term, singer/songwriter, back.

Took off the black turtleneck.

Realized again it takes a kind of unordinary courage to be a singer/songwriter.

Where you have to sing the notes – not scream – into the mic.

Where melody can’t hide inside some refrigerator-sized amplifier.

Where the singer, songwriter alone has to fill the room.

That unordinary courage is what you’ll see this week at the dotmatrix project with the singer songwriter performances of Kristen Leigh, Morgan McPherson and Randy Furches.

Authentic, real and naked.

Dress appropriately.

Live at the dotmatrix project
Thursday, June 25
at the Green Burro

The sci-fi sound of ETI’s name gets a boost from this photo…

…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.

Subterranean Bums’ continually shifting lineup both layered and stripped their folk format. Friends jumped on and offstage with new instruments to add to the mix of songs like “World Full of Downers” and “Oklahoma Thunderstorm.”

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

From the May 28th ETI set….

Marshall Owen, picking at the speed of sound.

And one shot of most of ETI….

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