Big thanks to Ron Wynn at the Nashville City Paper for a very flattering description of String Theory Media on Monday. Full story is after the jump.
Having ‘second’ thoughts
HAVIGHURST TRADES IN FIRST CAREER TO CREATE NEW NICHE ON MUSIC ROW
Nashville author and journalist Craig Havighurst developed a national reputation as a critic and feature writer through informative, incisive pieces on music for several publications, among them The Wall Street Journal, Oxford American and Entertainment Weekly as well as a four-year stint serving as a music business and music writer for The Tennessean, where he won the 2004 Charlie Lamb award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism.
Despite his success, Havighurst wanted to pursue a different path, one that would still be fueled by his love for musicians and music, but wouldn’t require as much distance from them in terms of approach or daily dealings.
He also wanted to get more directly involved in what he saw as a revolution happening within the music world in regards to everything from marketing and production to distribution and presentation.
As a result, over the past two years Havighurst has been the president and principal producer of String Theory Media, 1009 16th Ave. S., a Nashville-based business entity that operates in four different arenas.
“I really wasn’t interested as much in criticism anymore because over the years I’d developed relationships with musicians and it just became more difficult to have that separation you need to be certain that you’re objective in your evaluation of their work,” Havighurst said. “Plus these are such exciting times in terms of what’s going on with music and I wanted to become more personally active because it struck me as being so exciting.
“Plus there was a time when Opryland Productions was going full-tilt and the Nashville Network was running that so much music-driven content and programming was coming out of Nashville and we were becoming as important for what we were doing on camera and film with music as in the studios. It just seemed like the time was right for me to make this transition.”
String Theory Media does everything from original productions for commercial release and distribution through DVD, network or podcasts to doing specific tasks for private clients such as development video, repackaging and marketing of out-of-print or obscure documentaries. It does consultation on intellectual property matters, discussing ways to preserve collections or prevent exploitation of musical and societal properties.
A prime project for String Theory Media involves the operation and maintenance of the Nashville Chamber Orchestra’s (NCO) online program Uncovered in conjunction with the New York-based organization ArtistShare.
“This is a project we’re particularly excited about because it combines the new technology in a manner that allows the NCO to be interactive with fans, lets musicians provide their own views and accounts of events, and even provides a postevent wrap-up for their concerts,” Havighurst said. “There’s a blog for musicians contributions and the site will have audio and video highlights from rehearsals, interviews with NCO members, slide shows and commentary. We’re really excited watching its growth.”
Basic membership in various Uncovered projects is $35, which not only allows access to the digital and online content, plus any new CD or album project but also catalog CDs and DVDs from the NCO and guest artists.
More importantly, it’s a way of giving the public more access to the musicians and giving them audio and video content that was previously unavailable.
Other recent String Theory projects include various bios and items written for the Americana Music Association in conjunction with next week’s AMA awards, collaborations with Rounder Records on different projects, a half-hour documentary on the Infamous Stringdusters, a DVD for the group Last Train Home, and a promotional project for the forthcoming Alison Krauss/Robert Plant CD.
“With my background I can talk technically about music and also put it into a cultural and historical context,” Havighurst said. “But to me the real joy and challenges now come from using the new technology on behalf of musicians and finding ways of creating new content. We want to do more documentaries and video projects, which is something that’s really stimulated by being at this location in the Nashville Films building around lots of people who are actively involved in highlighting music on video and DVD.”
Despite his new business venture, Havighurst hasn’t stopped writing. He’s recently completed articles for forthcoming editions of Fretboard Journal and Acoustic Guitar and has a new book just released on the history of radio station WSM-AM.
He can be heard frequently on WPLN-FM doing stories on musicians and the music business (he recently did a profile of Tom T. Hall), but he says he’s careful now about what he covers in that arena.
“I’m pretty much out of straight criticism now, and I’m also always careful about not doing any radio pieces about current or potential clients. That (radio work) is more about just the context of the music business or doing profiles on people I admire strictly out of a desire to see them get properly credited.”
Meanwhile, Havighurst says there are some other things he wants to pursue in regards to String Theory Media.
“I want to move outside the Americana/Bluegrass world where I’m pretty well known and do more things in jazz, which is a music I’ve listened to and loved all my life,” he said. “The things we’re doing with classical music are also great and we want to expand that as well. But a real growth area remains — music documentaries and DVD projects — and that’s a field that we really want to move into heavily in the future.” CP
Comments