String Theory Media

Moving past the music video

I've said it for years: the music video as invented for MTV is a used-up medium. Even at their height, one in a hundred was creative and memorable. Artists rarely look natural lip synching. To watch GAC these days is to see a parade of visual cliches as tired as the music itself. Worst, they've conditioned several generations of Americans to expect perfection from performance. How much more vital would our music culture be if all those thousands of fake performances had been actual musicians making music? Even "live" videos have been edited, cleaned up, tuned and processed to the point that they bear no audible resemblance to the experience of being at the show. So now here's a story about the next generation (hopefully) of the music video. It cites folk like the director who calls himself Vincent Moon who's chasing indie rock bands and writers around and capturing their performances in unexpected places. Some of it's too shaky and quirky for my tastes, but at least it provokes a reaction, and his sensibility about music is strong and inspiring. Any musicians out there interested in pursuing something like this, holler at us.

Daniel Levitin is back

Just heard this On Point interview with Daniel Levitin, the record producer turned neruoscientist whose last book "This Is Your Brain On Music" was a bestseller and a the subject of a previous post. His new opus is called "The World In Six Songs: How The Musical Brain Created Human Nature." I'm not sure about his theory yet, but he's one of the only voices out there really popularizing views of why music matters beyond the temporary pleasure it brings.

Video trailer for Casey Driessen

Casey Driessen has long been one of my favorite young musicians in Nashville, a fiddler who arrived via bluegrass channels but who has long been one of the most creative and experimental members of that fraternity. He's backed up Tim O'Brien, Steve Earle and plenty of others, and he's built his own cult fan following with his various bands, his work with Bela Fleck and his solo album 3D, released a couple of years ago on Sugar Hill Records. Now Casey has made a new solo record with the musical collaboration of multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, bassist Viktor Krauss, drummer Matt Chamberlain and producer Jason Lehning. Casey asked me to capture some of the sessions and piece together this preview of the album, titled Oog (Dutch for eye and a reference to a famous M.C. Escher drawing), due early next year. It's up on our YouTube channel, but here's a version hosted at VIRB in hopes of getting better quality.

Accordions rock

I've long said that there never was a band that couldn't be improved with a good accordion player, and now the Seattle newspaper has validated my love of this maligned instrument with a feature about a comeback of sorts for what used to be the most popular instrument in the world. Accordions were relegated to uber-dork status by generations of nerdy teachers teaching kid/victims how to play Lady of Spain, but that could be said of any instrument. I first got hip when I saw an accordion in Richard Thompson's rock bands in the early 1990s, and I realized there was an organic depth in that reedy sound that no synthesizer has ever come close to matching. Then I discovered Zydeco, the greatest dance music on earth, which depends on the squeezebox for its fluid pulse. Then I heard classical Indian singers who often use accordion-like instruments to make a lovely chordal drone as a musical bed. The newspaper story notes that Arcade Fire is among the newer bands to use accordion, but there are many, past and present. The Continental Drifters are one of my favorites, plus Donna the Buffalo, Tom Waits, the Decemberists, Barenaked Ladies, and our good pals Last Train Home. On the un-rock side, you've not lived until you've seen Jeff Taylor play his dazzling swing style with the Time Jumpers here in Nashville. And in just one other random grab from memory of great moments in accordion, check the documentary Music From The Inside Out, in which a single street musician playing Vivaldi on accordion stops an entire symphony orchestra in its tracks one evening. It's magic.

Liner Note Double Header

This week I received final versions of a couple of new albums for which I wrote liner notes, and I share them here in hopes you'll give these artists a look. The second album from Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain came out on Tuesday. Carrie is a bluegrass singer from East Tennessee with a bold, colorful voice and a love of Patsy Cline. String Theory super-fans might recall that we did a video bio and performance videos with Carrie when she released her first disc. On Monday I'm heading to the tiny town of Fairfield Glade, TN to shoot Carrie's CD release party, so watch for that.

The other project, which comes out August 19, is a best-of collection from the Hot Club of Cowtown, the fire-breathing acoustic swing and gypsy trio from Austin. The band reunited about a year ago after a couple years on hiatus, and as a show here in town a few weeks ago proved, they're back in form as one of the best live acts in the U.S. So this "greatest hits" package would make a good overview if you're just getting to know them.

My liner notes for both projects are posted in their entirety after the jump...