Redirected: Rich Eldredge

The Biebs in the ATL

Rich Eldredge — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:00:00 GMT

The flock of shrieking preteens (and a few shamefacedly excited adults) attending Justin Bieber’s January 23 Philips Arena show will undoubtedly be well versed in the moppet’s history. After all, the eighteen-year-old has already published two (!) memoirs. For the rest of us: a primer on the pop star’s past—including his tutelage under Atlanta impresario and Emory dropout Scooter Braun—courtesy of his mom Pattie Mallette, who wrote a memoir of her own, Nowhere but Up.

» Mallette had Justin when she was eighteen. As a single mom, she spent time on public assistance.

» After Braun begged her to come to Atlanta for a meeting, Mallette Googled him and found the article “Scooter Braun Is the Hustla,” which, she notes, “wasn’t the most encouraging first impression for the mother of a thirteen-year-old.”

» Braun did his own sleuthing, gleaning from Mallette’s Myspace page that she was Christian. He asked if she had a problem with him being Jewish.“Of course not. Jesus was Jewish,” she answered.

» When Mallette and Justin arrived in Atlanta, Braun picked them up at Hartsfield-Jackson in a purple Mercedes.

» The singer’s first stop in Atlanta was an NBA 2K8 video game playdate with record producer Jermaine Dupri. Braun’s advice? “Be prepared to lose.”

» Future mentor Usher originally blew off the pint-sized Biebs’s offer to sing for him, saying, “Some other time, buddy. It’s cold outside.”

This article originally appeared in our January 2013 issue.

Q&A with Jim Farmer

Rich Eldredge — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:16:00 GMT

Atlanta’s Out on Film celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary October 4 to 11, making it one of the longest-running LGBT film festivals in the country. Festival director Jim Farmer offers a preview.

Out on Film is now one of the oldest LGBT film festivals in the country. Reeling, Chicago’s LGBT festival, went on hiatus recently after thirty years. How do you keep Out on Film growing and prospering in these tough times? In addition to the week we do in the fall, we now hold screenings throughout the year. That has really helped us get the brand out there.

How has the Atlanta Pride Festival’s move to the fall had an impact on Out on Film? The festival is quite literally now Pride’s opening act in October, isn’t it? There are a lot of great opportunities to work with Pride on programming. Instead of just handing out pamphlets at Pride in the summer, we now have a chance to do screenings together. We’re trying to reach the same people, the same audience. It’s great to build that energy together.

When the Out on Film committee assembles to decide the festival’s lineup each year, how, um, spirited does the debate get? It does get spirited, but never ugly or antagonistic. We realize that we’re programming for our whole community. We all have our favorite films, we all have films that we root for, but at the end of the very, very long day, we realize we have a responsibility to make selections that will resonate with our entire LGBT audience. We don’t take it lightly.

There are LGBT film festivals all over the country. What’s unique about programming for the audiences at the largest one in the Southeast? My partner and I went to Frameline in San Francisco this year. [Many days] they screen from 11 in the morning until 2 a.m. They just love film there. Atlanta loves film too, but not quite enough to support an around-the-clock schedule like that. It’s a balance. We’re always about quality, first and foremost. But we also have to consider what sells. We have to put butts in the seats. So it’s a mix of really strong films that people might not have heard anything about yet—with a spotlight on Atlanta and regional filmmakers—and lighter things that will automatically sell themselves. Case in point: the Eating Out films. They’re fun romantic comedies with cute boys running around. When you’re a nonprofit film festival, you can’t argue with a sold-out audience of 200.

Twenty-five years ago, LGBT film festivals had far fewer offerings to select from. Your choices were thematically split between heart-wrenching coming-out pictures and heart-wrenching AIDS-focused films. Now you’ve got everything from gay teen-sex comedies to gay slasher flicks. Is this job more fun in 2012? It’s been an amazing evolution. Anybody can be a filmmaker these days. From a technology standpoint, it’s an easier environment for creative people to get something made without a big studio and without a huge budget. Years ago so many of the films that were submitted were dark and depressing. Topics have broadened now to include things like gay adoption, gay marriage, and relationships. Now when the films come in, they often have characters where being gay is just one element; it’s no longer the focal point. They just present everyday people, going about their everyday lives. Being gay is just one part of that.

We’re now living in an era where the president of the United States supports gay marriage. Are you beginning to see the results of those societal changes with what filmmakers are addressing in their works? We are. It is easier now to be a part of the LGBT community than it ever has. Especially for those of us who live in places like Atlanta. But we continue to struggle with issues we’ve been dealing with for thirty years, like equal rights and equal protections under the law. We’re seeing all of that manifest itself in what filmmakers submit.

Over the years, Out on Film became an early champion of Del Shores’s future cult classic Sordid Lives and TransAmerica, a drama that later earned Felicity Huffman an Oscar nomination. Did the festival privately take a bow for helping introduce those films to audiences? It’s great for us. As an independent film festival, we’re not going to get the Hollywood blockbusters. We’re going to get the smaller independent films, most of which, when you see the titles, you’re not going to be familiar with them. We’re proud that before Sordid Lives played at Out on Film, it was completely obscure. It was just a perfect fit for us. It ended up becoming a cult film, and Del Shores is still on the road talking about it decades later. We were thrilled to be able to screen TransAmerica and help that film build buzz. For us it’s about showcasing the filmmakers of tomorrow. At the 2011 festival, we screened The Wise Kids and hosted the film’s director, Stephen Cone. To be able to screen that early on was amazing for us. In ten years, he’s going to be a major filmmaker. And to see it earn a small theatrical release a few months later and score a rave from the New York Times was very gratifying.

Over the years, Out on Film has hosted everyone from John Waters to RuPaul. In 2011 your closing-night film, Judas Kiss, was a sell-out, thanks in part to a personal appearance by one of the film’s actors, Sean Paul Lockhart, who has also had a successful career as a porn star. Was there any cuticle chewing by the festival committee about booking that? We were a little nervous. We weren’t really sure what to expect. But the movie was good, and he’s very good in it. He’s a legitimate actor now. We had one embarrassing moment before the movie started. One of our patrons ran up to Sean Paul with one of his centerfolds and asked him to sign it. God bless him, Sean Paul didn’t blink. He even had a Sharpie with him. But we were mortified.

What film in Out on Film history has attracted the most attention? In 2010 we sold out a screening of BearCity, which is like Sex and the City, only with hairy men. Bears are a huge subculture in the LGBT community, and that was the first romantic comedy marketed to them. We sold out the largest theater in the complex. The bears literally ate the Midtown Art Cinema out of popcorn. They bought tubs of it. The theater panicked. We had to delay the screening for twenty minutes and wait for them to run out for more in order to avoid a riot.

What are some focal points for this year’s schedule of films? Our opening night film is Gayby about two college friends, a gay guy and a straight woman who fulfill an old pledge to have a baby together the old-fashioned way. Our centerpiece film, Cloudburst, starring Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker, is a universal love story about a longtime lesbian couple who escape their nursing home in the U.S. to get married in Nova Scotia. And our closing night film is BearCity 2: The Proposal, the sequel to the first film with a lot more laughs.

So this should serve as an advance warning to the concession workers at Midtown Art Cinema? Absolutely. Start making that popcorn now.

Still from BearCity2 courtesy of Sharpleft

This is an extended version of the interview that originally ran in our October 2012 issue.

Q&A with Pearl Cleage

Rich Eldredge — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:02:00 GMT

This month the Alliance Theatre presents the world premiere of Atlanta playwright and author Pearl Cleage’s new romantic comedy What I Learned in Paris (9/5 to 9/30), which is actually about 1970s-era Atlanta. It promises to transport audiences back to a time when “mini skirts and bell-bottoms were on sale Downtown for $8.87.” The writer discusses why 1973 proved a transformative time for her and the city of Atlanta.

The members of Oprah’s Book Club might not know this, but you moved here in 1969, graduated from Spelman, and then landed a job as a campaign speechwriter and later press secretary for the city’s new mayor Maynard Jackson. How did that experience inform the writing of this new play? It was a pivotal time, and I wanted to capture that for this play. When Maynard became the first African American mayor of Atlanta, it was truly an exciting time to be here. We knew we had turned a corner. We felt exhilarated. But working at city hall was the hardest job I ever had in my life. Maynard was a hard-working perfectionist. We had a joke about Maynard calling us in the middle of the night and asking us, “Did I wake you?” We always lied and said, “Oh, no.” But we got up out of the bed and did whatever the mayor wanted us to do. It was exciting to be a part of the next phase of the city’s life.

You’re best known for your dramatic works tackling sometimes-taboo social issues. Is it a relief to write a comedy? I really love writing comedy. Writing romantic comedy is even nicer because you get to write about how insane we all act when we’re falling in love. When Maynard became mayor, he was thirty-five and I was twenty-five. Everyone we knew were newlyweds, falling in love, and having babies.

How did you transport yourself back to that time period? I’ve kept journals since I was eleven years old. I went back through those, and it helps to have a husband [novelist and poet Zaron W. Burnett Jr.] who can remember every song ever recorded, who sang it, and when it was released.

How do you work as a playwright? Is your work done when you turn in the script, or do you continue to collaborate with the director and the actors into the rehearsal process? I stay involved, especially when it’s a world premiere. Theater is about collaborating. When you write a novel, you write it in a room by yourself and then a reader buys the book and goes off alone to read it. I truly love the rehearsal process, those eight hours a day! I really love actors. What they bring to the process is magical. I’m always open to what they have to say. Often, as the writer of the piece, you can answer questions when they want to know “What is this woman thinking and feeling here?” or “Why does this man act this way?” I’m not one of those playwrights who says, “Show up, hit your marks, and don’t talk to me!” I always want to hear from the other artists involved, whether it’s the director, the lighting tech, or the actors.

Some of your female readers are so smitten with Blue Hamilton, the R&B–singing romantic hero in two of your novels, Baby Brother’s Blues and Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do, they’ve been known to complain, “Damn that Pearl Cleage for creating the perfect man who doesn’t exist in real life!” What advice do you have for the single ladies searching for Blue Hamilton in real life? [Laughing] It’s true! Women stop me on the street corner to ask, “Does Blue have any brothers? Is he real?!” I’ll say this: He’s not based on any one person, but he possesses many of the same traits I’ve stolen for him from my husband. He’s the kind of man you want to see in your relationship and working in your neighborhood. He possesses that combination of having the ability to love openly and someone who is very romantic. He’s able to share and recall his past lives too, just like Blue. I’ve taken some of that directly from his memories. To have readers react that way is a wonderful gift to give my husband.

There are countless jazz fans who haven’t been able to listen to Miles Davis the same way since reading your 1990 book, Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman’s Guide to Truth, where you detail Davis’s abusive relationships with women. Should I continue to feel guilty about wanting to listen to his work? No, you should not feel guilty. Miles is dead. We can just hope the next time he comes around his spirit and his personality will be as lovely as his music. And I will confess that I was never able to give up listening to Kind of Blue myself either!

I just acquired a mint condition vinyl copy of his 1961 live album Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall. Do I have Pearl Cleage’s permission to crack that bad boy open? [Laughs] Absolutely. Do you know that I got phone calls from people when he died [in 1991] asking, “Is it OK to listen to Miles again?” I had no idea the book would have that kind of impact, but I’m happy it got people to stop and think, especially if men took the time to read it. Women are not in these relationships alone, and we can’t evolve together unless the men are active participants as well. So yes, go home tonight, open a bottle of wine, put that on the turntable and enjoy!

Photograph by Albert Trotman

This is an extended version of the article that originally ran in our September 2012 issue.

Q&A with Baton Bob

Rich Eldredge — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:58:00 GMT

On August 10, Baton Bob, aka Atlanta’s Ambassador of Mirth, embarks on his first-ever drum majorette march around the globe with his one-man show, the Myrtle Hat Tour. The street performer’s alter ego, sixty-year-old Atlanta florist Bob Jamerson, previewed the show.

You created your character in the aftermath of 9/11. You were a St. Louis–based flight attendant scheduled to fly that day. How did you find your inner Ambassador of Mirth in the chaos of that tragedy? A month after 9/11, I lost my job because the airline industry was turned upside down. A therapist once told me, “When you feel yourself slipping into depression, go out and do something that makes you feel good down to your soul.” After 9/11 I dug around in my closet for my old high school marching band baton, and I went into Forest Park in St. Louis and just began twirling in an attempt to lift my spirits. I had no idea about the voyeuristic response I would receive. Then, with Christmas coming, I decided to add the costume, because laughter is a natural healing agent. I knew if I could make people laugh, I could help myself as well. That’s how Baton Bob was born.

Your one-man show is named for your mother? My mother Myrtle is eighty and still completely fierce. She has this incredible collection of hats, because she’s a black woman, you see. I’m using ten of her hats to tell the story of Baton Bob. On Sunday mornings, my mother would transform herself with these beautiful hats and matching gloves and shoes. I got my dress savvy from her and her mother, Virginia Watkins Redd. It’s less about the character and more about [Bob Jamerson], the person behind Baton Bob. I want people to know who that person is.

For the past decade, you’ve worked as a street performer, wearing outrageous outfits, blowing a whistle, and entertaining people on the sidewalk. For your forty-five-minute Myrtle Hat Tour, you’re using a stage. What can you reveal about the show? It’s going to be street level just on a stage. I’m going to be transitioning into these different hats and costumes as I tell Baton Bob’s story. I’ll be twirling my baton and breaking out the pom-poms, too, because Baton Bob’s alter ego, my new cheerleader character, Shake-A-Bag Bob, will also make an appearance. His pom-poms are made out of recycled grocery bags. He’s very green. I’ll be making a splashy entrance set to Donna Summer’s “Last Dance.” I’m booking stages around the world to house the show. Baby, it is going to be fab-u-lous.

What do you want people to take away from this show? That they have the same ability to make a difference and the same capacity to be a conduit for joy. Anybody can do what I do on the street. When the universe presented me with this opportunity eleven years ago, I had to say yes to it. When I started doing this, I had no clue we’d be speaking about it eleven years later. It’s taken on a life of its own.

You lived in Atlanta from 1979 to 1990 and moved back to Midtown from St. Louis in 2004. How differently does Baton Bob play in Atlanta versus St. Louis? Night and day, honey. St. Louis is still very conservative and very Catholic. But I remembered how free-spirited Atlanta’s Midtown area was, so when I moved back, Piedmont Park became my stage.

Your goal with this show is to take it to all fifty states and around the world? I’m going to Bali, I’m going to Australia, I’m going everywhere. It’s going to take as long as it takes. You can’t place a deadline on spreading joy.

Does Baton Bob have universal appeal? Of course! I’ve performed in Bali before as Baton Bob. By the third day on the beach in Bali, the natives were imitating me. Joy is contagious.

What pieces of Atlanta are you taking with you on your Myrtle Hat Tour? That emotional state I had back in 2004 when I first moved back, and I was in Piedmont Park and seeing people respond to Baton Bob for the first time. That warmth, that kindness, that state of complete disbelief!

Can you describe the feeling you get when you’re in costume and in character, when you’re in the zone as Baton Bob marching down the sidewalk and waving to your admirers? Oh, God. When I see those smiles on people’s faces, it just feeds my soul. That’s where my joy comes from.

*EXTENDED VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW THAT RAN IN OUR AUGUST 2012 ISSUE

Photograph courtesy of Baton Bob

Q&A with Kelly Hogan

Rich Eldredge — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:13:00 GMT

Singer Kelly Hogan may live in Evansville, Wisconsin, these days, but the Atlanta native was enjoying a late breakfast of a pimento cheese sandwich and “a baby glass bottle of Coke” as she discussed her upcoming show opening for Neko Case July 20 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It is also the twentieth anniversary year of the tragic accident that ended the short but brilliant career of Atlanta indie act the Jody Grind, where Hogan first courted fame.

So, pimento cheese and Coke for breakfast?
What can I say? [laughs] When I get a cravin’, I bow down to it!

How often do you get to come home these days?
I was just home to see my dad, who’s a retired police officer down there. He took me to the firing range. I had never shot a handgun before, and my dad gave me a firing lesson. He’s got all this vast knowledge. Between him and my uncle, I think we had eight different firearms. It took three of us to carry in all the guns! I totally nailed it too. I kept my target. Lots of head and chest shots. Before I leave town on tour, I’m going to put it up as a window shade so nobody messes with my house.

On your new album, I Like to Keep Myself in Pain, you’ve recorded songs written by Vic Chesnutt, M. Ward, the Magnetic Fields, John Wesley Harding, and others, while R&B legend Booker T. Jones of Booker T. & the MGs fame contributes Hammond B3 organ. How depressed were you that you couldn’t find anyone talented to work with?
[Laughs] I know, right?! I went out on Sunset Boulevard in a gorilla suit with a “Musicians Needed” sign and started waving to cars, and that’s what I ended up with. I washed a lot of cars too. Isn’t that crazy? That’s all due to [Anti-Records president] Andy Kaulkin. I love that label so much. He’s my idol. He likes to throw different musical worlds together. He trusts music to be the universal language. He was the one who suggested Booker T., and he has the clout to make that happen. Pretty much, if you bait your trap with Booker T., everyone else will come.

The first single off the new album is “We Can’t Have Nice Things.” It’s a bit of an update of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic “A House Is Not a Home” but with some anger management and substance abuse issues, isn’t it?
Yeah, with the holes in the wall and the whiskey rings on the furniture and all that good stuff. It’s pretty tragic and gothic, but I’m kind of singing it with a smile on my face. It’s all pretty wry. Plus, I finally got to do my big [R&B vocal arranger] Charles Stepney choral arrangement homage in that song. It was fun.

For “Daddy’s Little Girl” on the new album, you sing in the first-person as Frank Sinatra. Was it fun to bend gender on that?
It was cool. When I cover songs, I rarely change pronouns. I like to honor the songwriter’s perspective. Plus, I love anything with lyrical detail and humor. It was like putting on Frank Sinatra’s suit, walking around in his clothes for a little while, and then discovering Marilyn Monroe’s phone number in the jacket pocket.

The most heartbreaking moment of the song is that last line, “Some guys need to be loved by a woman, I needed to be loved by the world,” and Nancy Sinatra comes into the narrative.
Isn’t that crazy? She’s doomed! I loved all that. She has the benefits of being Nancy Sinatra; but then again, she’s doomed to be Frank Sinatra’s daughter. When you look at the title, you’re asking yourself as the listener, “Where is that gonna come in?” I love that it arrives at the very end of the song, all wrapped up in a beautiful bow. That M. Ward, he can write a song.

Speaking of M. Ward, two summers ago when he and Zooey Deschanel played the Atlanta Botanical Garden as She & Him, one of their fans ended up in the lily pond. How rowdy do Kelly Hogan fans get? Does the garden need to hire bodyguards for the bullfrogs?
I can only hope for something as awesome as that! I play make-out music. When people listen to me, the worst that can usually happen is that someone gets pregnant. When I play Atlanta, my mom and my stepdad bring their giant posse. They’re the biggest troublemakers who usually show up at one of my gigs. My mom is a master gardener. I pretty much grew up in diapers playing on the swings in Piedmont Park, but I’ve never been to the gardens. I’m excited.

On this tour you’re pulling double duty, opening for Neko Case and then performing in her band as one of the singers during her set. How difficult is it to switch gears?
It makes for a really long day. I’m an old lady now! I will not be using the word “party” as a verb during the month of July. The hardest thing about singing backup is not about the singing, it’s about the shutting up. It’s what you don’t sing that’s as important as what you do sing. It’s all about what the song needs. It’s 90 percent listening and 10 percent output. When we’re onstage together, Neko almost solicits us to act out during her set, trying to get me to tell stories about feminine hygiene products and stuff. We’ve all played together for so long, we can all be ourselves. It’s a crazy big ole family picnic up there.

Twenty years ago this spring, the Jody Grind played its final gig together [the act disbanded after members Robert Hayes and Rob Clayton were killed coming home from a gig in April 1992]. People here still talk so affectionately about that band. What are your fondest recollections of that time, playing in your first band here?
We were total dorks and misfits but I like that we stuck to our guns. We wrote out an inner band constitution that stated we were going to do things on our own terms. Record company reps would take us out to dinner, but they always wanted to try and categorize us as either jazz or cabaret or punk rock. After our demise I remember reading music reviews in Creative Loafing and saw that we had become shorthand to describe other acts: “Jody Grind-esque.” I remember thinking, “All right! We’ve become an adjective!” I have tons of kick-ass memories. They were amazing people. We had some great times. I’m pretty sure there’s still a hunk of my hair nailed above the soundboard at Sluggo’s in Pensacola, too!

What?
[Laughs] Long story. I had these two long ponytails for, like, forever; and one night onstage, we cut one off with scissors and then [Jody Grind guitarist] Bill [Taft] pulled a bowie knife out of his pocket and cut the other one off. It got nailed to the wall of Sluggo’s. We were all like, “Okay, next song!” I still have the other one in a drawer somewhere. Golden times.

One thing that struck me listening to the new album and then going back to listen to the Jody Grind’s 1990 debut on DB Recs is that you’ve maintained that stick-to-your-guns attitude of singing what you want and freely merging elements of jazz, R&B, country, and rock. You’re still resisting being put in that box, aren’t you?
I’ve gotten to where I love ramen noodles. I’m sitting on my thrift shop couch, looking at my thrift store bookcase, filled with my thrift store books. I’m only interested in singing great songs that make me feel something. The songs deserve that. The songwriters deserve that. I’m still abiding by that old [Jody Grind] inner band constitution. It was written in ink. I’ll shave my legs to play a show but that’s about it.

*EXTENDED VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW THAT RAN IN OUR JULY 2012 ISSUE

Photograph courtesy of Atlanta Botanical Garden

Rich Eldredge is one of our editorial contributors.
Learn more about him | Follow him on Twitter | Contact him

Q&A with Greg Phillinganes

Rich Eldredge — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:17:00 GMT

As a session keyboardist and arranger, Greg Phillinganes's work with the Jacksons spans thirty years. He played on all of Michael Jackson's solo albums, including "Off the Wall," "Bad," and 1982's iconic "Thriller," and served as musical director for the late pop star's "Bad" and "Dangerous" tours. He serves in the same capacity for Cirque du Soleil's "Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour," set to play Philips Arena June 29 to July 1.

A lot of this show remains cloaked in mystery. What can you reveal about we might expect? Expect a very high quality show with a lot of the familiar elements of Cirque as far as dancers and acrobats but with no clowns and no fake Michael. You will definitely feel Michael in the room though.

How do you set about achieving that, given that Michael Jackson was one of the most electrifying live performers in pop music history? This show started out with the vision of Jamie King, who is the writer and director of the show. Jamie had a direct working connection with Michael, starting out as a dancer for him (on Jackson's 1992 "Dangerous" tour) and then as a choreographer and now he produces all the megaconcert tours for artists including Madonna and Rihanna. He brought along Kevin Antunes who serves as the show's musical designer. Thanks to Sony Music's assistance, Kevin had the enviable job of going through all of Michael's original recordings and creating specific arrangements based on Jamie's ideas.

You've spent more than three decades playing on various Jackson recordings from the Jacksons' 1978 "Destiny" album to Michael's 2009 posthumous recording "This Is It." What made you and Michael such solid collaborators? I was first brought on to work as an arranger for Michael and his brothers on the "Destiny" album. There was a kinship, a mutual respect, but most of all, it was fun. One night after a session on the album, I talked most of the brothers into going to Magic Mountain, an amusement park outside of L.A. with me. No security guards, no cops, it was just us. But this was early, early on when they were making the transition from Motown to [CBS Records].

In the early 1980s, when you were in the studio with producer Quincy Jones and Michael creating "Thriller," were you aware the material had the potential to have the kind of cultural impact it ended up making? No. You can't ever know that. It's just impossible. And yet, maybe Steve Jobs knew he was going to revolutionize the world when he created the iPhone. You can't go into a studio to create music thinking that you're going to change the world. Having thoughts like that can actually get in the way of the creative process. All you can hope is that if you create something that gets you excited, a whole lot of other people will feel the same way. Quincy and Michael just wanted the best songs possible for the album. That was the goal when we went in, and it ended up becoming the game-changing event it was.

When casual music fans ask you to point out one specific Greg Phillinganes musical moment on the "Thriller" album, which of your many contributions do you point them to? Probably the title track "Thriller" written by Rod Temperton. There are just layers and layers of keyboards on that. There's so much ear candy on that song. I did the synth bass part, those high-pitched synth parts, I did the Rhodes [keyboard] part and even did the pipe organ that Vincent Price does his rap over. It was crazy! When I listen to it now, I just think about all the fun we had creating all those layers in the studio.

You bring a lot of credibility and a personal connection to Michael to this Cirque production. What elements of Michael the musician were you able to hardwire into this show, given that history you shared? Understanding his musicality because I was directly involved in it at the time the music in the show was being created. And because we use the original recordings in the show, I end up accompanying myself each night. I was also able to bring in a lot of the musicians from those sessions to play on the tour as well in order to give the show that authenticity.

Your original Michael Jackson session work from the seventies, eighties, and nineties accompanies you on this tour? How wild is it to have your recorded self back up the live you each night? It doesn't suck. It feels like I'm in the studio every night. We literally have everything there but Michael. We don't have him there physically but we have him metaphysically. That's not a word I use often. You definitely feel him and you see him too on all the video screens. It's a reminder of how great his artistry is and the massive impact he had on the world.

If Michael had the opportunity to see this Cirque show, what would he say to you about it? I truly believe he DOES get to see it every night. I totally believe he's checking it out. He would like it. He was a fan of Cirque. He had been to their headquarters in Montreal on a couple of occasions. The last time he was there, he lost his mind in the costume wing. They couldn't pull him out of there! He had seen all the shows and in later years, he brought the kids too. He was in talks with Cirque reps to do a collaboration, so I think he would be really pleased with this.

*EXTENDED VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW THAT RAN IN OUR JUNE 2012 ISSUE

Rich Eldredge is one of our editorial contributors.
Learn more about him | Follow him on Twitter | Contact him

Q&A with SweetWater

Rich Eldredge — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

In 2012 Atlanta's SweetWater Brewery celebrates fifteen years of barreling up some of the south's best-selling craft beer. As fans prep for the eighth annual SweetWater 420 Music Festival in Candler Park, April 20–22, cofounder Freddy Bensch reflects on his success.

What can you reveal about the special SweetWater fifteenth anniversary beer you're creating with your former college roommate and SweetWater cofounder Kevin McNerney [who left the company in 2008]? The very first beer we ever brewed here was SweetWater ESB [Extra Special Bitter], and we ended up winning silver medals at three different beer festivals. But we stopped making it after three years. For the fifteenth anniversary, we took that recipe, dusted it off, and gave it an adrenaline shot: bumped up the hops and the alcohol and turned it into a high-gravity ESB. Kevin came back to work on the recipe and brewed it with us. We're actually bottling it today. To have Kevin, who was a huge, instrumental part of building this place and a great friend, come back and help out with the anniversary beer was personally, for me, just awesome.

When guys on the brewery tour walk into your SweetWater Tasting Room, their jaws often go slack. It's like stumbling into the ultimate man cave, only you get paid to work there. Did you realize that when you were creating it? When you're around it all day, you take it for granted. But when you see someone walk in for the first time, and his eyes and tongue fall on the floor, you realize how great you have it. You're wearing flip-flops and shorts, and they're in a suit and tie. I have to remember that not everybody gets to drink beer for a living at three in the afternoon. It puts things into perspective about how lucky we are.

Your wife has to be psyched that your man cave doubles as your office at work, right? You know, my wife just built me a man cave at our home in the basement. I have no idea about what she's trying to tell me with that. What does that mean? I'm completely perplexed with that one!

I love that the SweetWater 420 Music Festival starts on April 20. How much do you have to pay someone off so that date always lands on a weekend? Actually, the date is sort of a moving target; but if you drink enough 420s, it all seems to work out.

This year you've booked Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, former James Brown sax man Maceo Parker, Athens act Perpetual Groove, and Donna the Buffalo. How do you select the proper music to drink beer by? We pull from our roots. It's musicians who inspire us and bands that we know put on a show and are going to blow people away. We also love giving up-and-coming acts a shot. We try and introduce the crowd to local bands that maybe people haven't seen before. Bottom line? It's really a personal preference and bands that are going to contribute to an all-around good time.

Each year people always come away from the festival talking about the great vibe SweetWater 420 creates. Are there any secrets to achieving that? For a beer-and-music fest, people are always surprised at how family oriented it is. That's something I'm really proud of. It's not Oktoberfest by any means. There's a ton of kids' activities. A lot of the folks who come down each year were with us fifteen years ago. They were twenty-one, twenty-two back then, and now they're thirty-six or thirty-seven, and they have families. They still show up to blow off the dust and shake it around a little bit. They just have a baby attached to them now.

On your SweetWater business card, you have the job title of "Big Kahuna." What's the typical reaction you get when you hand it to someone? There's usually a hot tub joke involving use of the word Speedo. I'll leave it at that.

Fifteen years ago, you and Kevin followed your passion for beer and literally created a workplace for yourselves. In 2012, there are a lot of folks who have been tossed out of careers they thought they would retire from. What advice can you give others on how to follow your bliss? You have to evaluate what you consider success. When we started this, success for us was all about quality of life. We've been blessed that our quality of life has blossomed into financial success as well. To be able to come into work every day, bring my dog, and work with people I truly like is amazing. To love going into the office is one of the greatest things in the world. If [you're] lucky you're on the earth for eighty years at best. You gotta take a shot at it. You don't want to reach sixty-five and wish you'd done what you wanted. Take the chance.

This year you made the "Georgia Trend" 100 Most Influential Georgians list along with Governor Nathan Deal, Home Depot cofounder and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and Senator Saxby Chambliss. What was your reaction when you got that call? I choose to believe it was a typo. I need to be on the Most Under The Influence Georgians list.

*EXTENDED VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW THAT RAN IN OUR APRIL 2012 ISSUE

DejaBlue Grass Band performing at the 2011 festival; photograph courtesy of SweetWater Brewery Company

Rich Eldredge is one of our editorial contributors.
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Q&A with Billy Cox

Rich Eldredge — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:09:00 GMT

When the Jimi Hendrix tribute concert Experience Hendrix starring Keb’ Mo’, Buddy Guy, Dweezil Zappa, Jonny Lang, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd tour hits the Fox Theatre March 10, veteran musician Billy Cox will be on hand to tame the young lions in the all-star lineup. The seventy-year-old bassist is the only surviving member of the late guitar god’s trio Band of Gypsys.

Is it true that Jimi Hendrix only formed Band of Gypsys as a money-making venture to satisfy the terms of a recording contract? Jimi was being sued for $15 million because he had signed a previous contract with a record producer. Jimi was business-savvy but he was still an artist first. His business side wasn’t quite where it should have been. So we made the live album to help him out. To me, that’s what friends are for. We recorded it to try and help him out of a mess.

So, basically, the groundbreaking blues and rock act Band of Gypsys, studied by a generation of guitarists, was formed as a fundraiser? As a fundraiser. You bet. [laughs] Ain’t that something?!

Were you guys nervous standing backstage at Woodstock waiting to go on stage with Jimi in 1969? There was a curtain for the bands to look out from. [Drummer] Mitch Mitchell looked out at the crowd and said, "Oh, my God!" I looked out and said, "Whoa!" Jimi looked out and told us, "OK, there’s a lot of people out there. But have you noticed that they’re sending a lot of energy up to the bandstand? Let’s take that energy and utilize it and send it back to them." That was Jimi’s wisdom and that’s exactly what we did.

On the "Woodstock" album, sharp-eared listeners claim they can hear your bass on the first five notes when Hendrix unexpectedly launched into "The Star Spangled Banner" but then you decided to lay out for the rest of the tune. Why did you make the decision to stop playing? Easy. It wasn’t on the set list! We had rehearsed a repertoire and we played that repertoire. We were up there a long time too, like an hour and forty-eight minutes or something. And then, Jimi just starts playing "The Star Spangled Banner"! At first I thought, "OK, I know it, let’s do it." And then all of a sudden something told me, "You better lay out of this one, Billy!" And what an incredible decision that was. Jimi was one of a kind. It was his moment there.

In 2010, after decades on the shelf, a series of unreleased recordings you guys made together came out via the album "Valleys of Neptune." What are your impressions of those sessions forty years on? I’m really glad the material is finally out there. For years, I had been wondering what happened to those tracks. There were humongous stacks and stacks of material created. At one point in time, [the record label] told us, "You know, you guys are using up too much time in the studio. It’s getting too expensive." They didn’t realize music was not only the way we made a living, but it was our hobby too. We didn’t hunt, fish, or bowl. We used that time to create. It paid off too since here we are forty years later, and there’s still stuff in the vaults to release from that time.

In author David Henderson's authoritative 1978 Hendrix book, "'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky," he describes your bass playing as "a steady and consistent, yet creative, bottom presence." How difficult was it to maintain the bottom of the music and to resist taking those flights of fancy with Hendrix when he would solo? It was very tempting, but I realized someone had to be Earth when Jimi became Space. And Jimi became Space a lot. Someone had to keep things grounded. That was my job and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed giving that support. It wasn’t about me, it was about the group and it was about the leader, Jimi Hendrix.

On your new album "Old School Blue Blues," you pay tribute to Hendrix and drummer Buddy Miles, your late Band of Gypsys bandmates with the song "Last Gypsy Standing." How daunting is it for you to be the last member of the trio to carry on that legacy? That song just tells the complete story of what happened and what we were all about. We had a lot of fun. I’m proud of what we did. At his heart, Jimi Hendrix was a bluesman. But instead of playing through one small amp like the old blues masters, he did it through walls of amps.

You shot the new album’s cover at Miss Kitty’s Place in your hometown of Nashville. Miss Kitty’s Place looks like quite a joint. Yes, sir, it is. Miss Kitty’s is on [Hermitage] Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s one of those small, what you might call a dive, chitlin circuit places. The bandstand can only accommodate maybe a guitar player. In the summer, in the back, there’s a picnic area where they serve barbecued ribs, fish, and chitterlings. It’s really the last of the chitlin circuit places in our area. I’ve been known to poke my head in there on occasion too!

*EXTENDED VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW THAT RAN IN OUR MARCH 2012 ISSUE

Rich Eldredge is one of our editorial contributors.
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Q&A with Julia Forbes

Rich Eldredge — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:39:00 GMT

Opening February 5 at the High Museum, The Art of Golf features works by the likes of Rembrandt, Norman Rockwell, and Andy Warhol. Atlanta golf legend Bobby Jones Jr. warrants his own room. The exhibition’s managing curator Julia Forbes, a golfer herself, explains the origins of the show running through June 24.

"Sir James MacDonald (1741–1765) and Sir Alexander MacDonald (1744–1810)" by William Mosman, National Galleries of Scotland, courtesy of the High Museum of Art

So this is the first time a major art gallery has organized an entire exhibition dedicated to artists’ depiction of golfing? At least in the United States. We’ve done our homework. We don’t think anyone else at a major American art museum has had an exhibition focused on the art of golf. This is the latest result of the High’s ongoing partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland. At one point, Michael Clarke, the director of the National Galleries of Scotland said to our director Michael Shapiro, “You know, we own ‘The Golfers’ by Charles Lees, what we think is the most important golf painting ever made.” Michael Shapiro replied, “Really? Is there a most important golf painting ever made?” This was not an area of art history terribly familiar to him and not being a golfer himself, he wasn’t necessarily aware of the work. And now, this large wonderful 1847 Victorian painting by Scottish artist Charles Lees is the centerpiece of our show.

And it’s never been displayed in the United States? It’s never been here. I don’t believe it’s ever left Scotland. We have an entire room dedicated to that painting, along with many of Charles Lees’s sketches and photographs as well.

How do you go about assembling the various pieces of this show? You’ve got everything from a 1654 etching by Rembrandt to a 1977 screen print of Jack Nicklaus by Warhol in this show. It required a lot of incredible detective work. Because nobody had assembled this kind of work before, it was in a hodgepodge of places. You have to go through old books and pore over old records. You start searching databases around the country and discover things like the Cincinnati Art Museum has “Golf Course [California]” by George Bellows. There were many, many sources we drew from.

I’ve heard the first part of the show depicts the history of golf, including kolf, a distant cousin of the game played on frozen canals in Holland in the seventeenth century? Believe it or not, in the 1600s, kolf was very popular and often provided inspiration for Dutch painters who depicted this game in their works. The game was played on ice with a stick, a ball, and maybe used a tree stump as a target. It was played in teams and in a lot of these paintings you see the two teams and the balls heading toward the targets. These beautiful Dutch paintings lend a lovely historical air to our exhibition.

How did being a golfer yourself aid in the The Art of Golf curating process for you? I have a lot of passion for what I do here, and I also love the game. It was nice to merge the two. Understanding the game is important in terms of knowing what you’re looking for. But at its essence, this is an art exhibition. This is what our business is at the High Museum of Art. Putting together an engaging exhibition that tells a great story is what we do. It just happens that this time we are doing it about an entirely new subject that will hopefully bring a lot of new people into the High.

Ordinarily, wives complain that they can never get their husbands to go to the High with them. I’m thinking this will be less of an issue with The Art of Golf? Let’s hope so! Much like The Allure of the Automobile exhibition we did a couple of years ago, we’re hoping to attract new people in to see this show. At that show, I talked to lot of people who had never been here before and they had an opportunity to see things here in addition to the autos. We’re hoping this show will have a similar effect.

How do you respond to criticism from the serious arts patrons who will likely click their tongues and say “First, they turned my beloved museum into a classic car show and now they’re transforming it into a Dick’s Sporting Goods outlet?” They should come and see the show. A lot of people who came to see The Allure of the Automobile realized we brought spectacularly beautiful moving sculpture in for that. With The Art of Golf, they’ll get to see works of art spanning 400 years and artists that they love and whose work they admire. Artists who happened to be fascinated by the landscape and the personality of a sport as their subject. I think that’s really exciting. Hopefully, our patrons will too.

*EXTENDED VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW THAT RAN IN OUR FEBRUARY 2012 ISSUE

Rich Eldredge is one of our editorial contributors.
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Q&A with Dr. Uzee Brown Jr.

Rich Eldredge — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Atlanta’s King Celebration concert will feature the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, music director Robert Spano, the Morehouse and Spelman College glee clubs, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. National Public Radio (WABE ) will air the concert on the MLK holiday, January 16. Morehouse music department chair Dr. Uzee Brown Jr. talks about this enduring tradition.

Photograph by Philip McCollum Photography

In 1999 NPR commissioned you to arrange a rendition of “We Shall Overcome” to honor King’s seventieth birthday. What inspired you? NPR wanted a piece that was festive and carried the spirit and the power of that freedom song, the song of the movement.

When your arrangement is performed at the King Celebration, attendees have been known to stand as if Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” is being sung. What runs through your mind? A feeling of tremendous pride. When I hear it myself, it stirs something in me as well. It brings back all the power of the message of “We Shall Overcome.”

This annual concert also celebratesAfrican American classical composition. This has been a lifelong commitment for you and one you shared with Dr. King. It was one of the most significant things Robert Shaw brought to this city. When the conductor of the Atlanta Symphony said that we needed to have music that was reflective of the makeup of Atlanta as it relates to people of color, that was a huge moment. This concert continues his work as well.

Rich Eldredge is one of our editorial contributors.
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