String Theory Media

New Work: Video Notes for the Nashville Symphony

We recently visited with Nashville Symphony Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero about the upcoming concerts featuring the Mahler Sixth Symphony in A minor and the Haydn "Fire" Symphony. The video piece we shot and edited is now featured on the home page of the Symphony. Or you can watch it here:

New Nashville Essay

An essay I wrote about Nashville yesterday and today was recently published in my college alum magazine, Northwestern. There's also video there of me talking about our key indie music events: Next Big Nashville, Americana and IBMA. Key excerpt:

Nowadays the international media companies that own the big labels measure Nashville’s output against the aberrant fortunes made by Garth Brooks and Shania Twain in the 1990s, a veritable recipe for overthinking, corporate interference, risk management and artistic disappointment.

 I was always struck how southern Chicago was, with its blues and soul food and ample evidence of the great migrations from the Delta and elsewhere. And ironically it was at a blues record label in Chicago (I was an intern at Alligator Records in 1987) that I was first exposed, by a co-worker, to bluegrass music in a serious way. I've kept in close touch with Chicago ever since and I was happy to have a platform there to say something about the city I love here.

Music City Remixed Podcast available

The Music City Remixed series concluded today on WPLN with part six about Nashville's independent sector, including the Ten Out Of Tenn tour and the Next Big Nashville conference. To help folks who missed episodes, the fabulous Ken Mastri has built an archive page at WPLN with all six episodes, plus a 30-minute podcast of the whole series in its entirety.

PLUS, we've posted substantial highlights from many of the key interviews I did for the series. You can hear some very high-end analysis of the Nashville music business from Bill Ivey, Paul Worley, Mark Montgomery, Elin Mulron, Jason Moon Wilkins, Mark Wright and Fletcher Foster. I'd like to thank those folks and the others who took time to be interviewed for the series. Please drop me a line to let me know what you think. 

Find all six episodes HERE.
Stream the full 33-minute documentary HERE.
Download an MP3 podcast of the full series HERE.

 

Will the snarky Scene revise and extend its remarks?

While I understand that it's part of the job description of an alternative weekly music critic to be aloof and jaded, I do hope that Nashville Cream blogger Steve Haruch will revisit the subject of the Music City Remixed series on WPLN once it airs the sixth and final episode on Monday morning. Here's what he wrote after Part One aired in November:

The first installment, which aired this morning, seems geared at people who've been living under a rock (but not listening to rock) for the past, oh, three years. Not much new here: CD sales are down, the industry is dying, maybe you care (but you probably don't), etc. But it is first in the series, so I'm hoping it gets a little more interesting as it goes on, as WPLN generally does a pretty good job with their local features.

The series was intended for a broad audience, so some basic context was necessary. As such, I was a little miffed that Steve paraphrased the host intro and first sentence of part one as if that's where the story ended. The issue I actually tackled was the crisis in artist development and the long term prospects for the health and welfare of Music City if nobody fills the artist investment void being left by the decline of the major labels. If there's ample reporting already about that in the Nashville press, I'd love to see it. We invite Steve's criticism of the whole series, sincerely hoping he thought it got "a little more interesting."

A full 30-minute podcast version of the series will be posted sometime over the weekend.

Foot soldiers for music

Check this NPR feature about a bold idea we think we love: MusicianCorps. From the intro:

President-elect Barack Obama has said he believes the arts are good for people. During his campaign, one of his ideas was to create an Artist Corps — a kind of Peace Corps for artists who would work in low-income schools and communities.

But what would this actually look like?

Listen HERE>>>

New work: Giancarlo Guerrero for NSOkids.org

This is one of six new video profiles we did for the Nashville Symphony that just went live at its education website, www.nsokids.org. The music director designate talks about his background, why he became a conductor, and what a conductor does, which is something lots of adults I know can't put their finger on.

Usher (not that one) and a classical guitar

My friends Mickey and Rob inspired a nice little musical drama this weekend. Three weeks ago, I saw Rob and told him about the Music City Guitar Show today at the State Fairgrounds. He sounded interested in a new classical guitar - the kind with nylon strings and mellow tone used by everybody from Segovia to Chet Atkins. I told him I understand. I'm in the market for a guitar too. Not the same style, but men in guitar hunting mode are a band of brothers.

In unrelated circumstances I saw Mickey in front of a bunch of beer taps...

The YouTube Orchestra

Clever. And a nice reminder that from time to time, it's really awesome to be able to read music. By the way, Tan Dun is the mega-composer from China who scored Crouching Tiger and who wrote the opening ceremonies music for the Olympics. My wife got to sit next to him at a dinner once. In China. Without me.

Music City Remixed Part Four

Episode four of my ongoing radio series about Nashville adapting to the new music business aired yesterday morning on WPLN. This one's about cultivating the city's digital music infrastructure, and as with every episode, I am sorry there wasn't more time to explore or even mention the other companies based here that are working hard to bring change to a city not famous for change, folks like Passalong Networks, Griffin Technology and Thirty Tigers. Find the audio story HERE.