LA Hoops or ATL Breakfast?

First up, I have to tell this story.   A couple of nights ago, our own Dan Hannon called me from LA where’s he mixing at Sunset Sound Studios, to say, “You’ll never believe who I’m shooting hoops with right now.”  I guessed Bon Jovi.  After all, he’d hung out with Steve Perry only days before, so I went for broke.  Wrong.  It was John Kraskinski, “Jim” from The Office.

 

Anyway, yesterday Rudy Vaughn and I went to the Atlanta Public Relations Interfaith Prayer Breakfast at the invitation of our pal Glen Jackson from Jackson Spalding PR.  In fact, Rudy (left) had his guitar at the ready; he was officially the understudy for Aaron Shust (center), who was there to sing a few songs, but whose wife could go into labor any time.  

 

Aaron indeed sang.  He did great; his voice is always super smooth.  And if there’s a nicer dude, I’d like to meet him.  Rudy and I made some new friends, and renewed some acquaintances.  Really enjoyed meeting Eric Elwell, who was there with Aaron.  Over his 20+ year career, Eric has recorded and mixed over 50 major label releases, and in 2005 was honored with a Dove Award as a producer & engineer.  He also does production on major tours.  Great convo.  Good guy.

 

Afterwards, Rudy and I made an unplanned visit to the big auditorium next door within the Cobb Energy Centre where the breakfast had been, and we watched the Atlanta Opera perform Cinderella.  We capped all this off by having lunch with Matt Winters, the new service programming director of Cumberland Church in Nashville.  Good day. (Special thanks to Brian Steely at Jackson Spalding for the pics.)

 

So, what’s cooler?  Hoops with John Kraskinski, or breakfast with Rudy and Aaron?

 

 

How much would you pay?

Today, we ordered 2nd Wave shirts.  Though we won’t have them in time for Saturday’s gig, we will be taking pre-orders, so please give us a shout if you want one.

 

Speaking of which, 2nd Wave will be playing at 1pm this Saturday at Forsyth County’s Christmas in Central Park.

 

Then, on Dec. 4th, we’re throwing a Second Wave Christmas block party in Cumming called Christmas in the Cul-de-sac, the sequel to last year’s Concert in the Cul-de-sac.  We plan to have hot cocoa, hot dogs, and such.  There are also rumors of an opening band containing Second Wave parents.  More info forthcoming.

 

So, how should we price these shirts?  How much would you pay?

 

 

Part of the Plan.

 

My buddy Chad Jarnagin works with a great fellowship in Nashville called The People’s Church. I want to point you to this great entry on Chad’s blog, because it so lines up with the idea behind ONE Atlanta Music.

 

The core of guys who started this organization, this “brand” called ONE Atlanta, want to cultivate, encourage, and develop some of the young talent in this town that needs experienced hands guiding them. That’s not at all to brag on my experiences as an artist/agent/manager. But I will brag on guys like Dan Hannon, a guy who continues to get face time with major labels all over the place who are excited about the artists he’s developing and producing (several such discussions this past week). I’m proud to be affiliated with him, specifically in regard to those artists who will be working under our 1ATL moniker.

 

The first of those, in terms of us actually developing, producing and recording an artist under the ONE Atlanta brand is Rudy Vaughn. We hope there are many more.

 

Of course, there’s plenty more young talent out there that we’re getting to pour into, in different ways.  I love being one of the band dads helping with the development of Second Wave.  I love helping other young musicians and singers in different ways, from helping them find gigs to connecting them to other musicians.  I can only do so much of that, of course, but I’ve really been blessed this year to spend a lot of time “pouring into” different artists in different ways.  Again, I don’t mean to talk about myself as if I think I’m something great.  But there’s something very exciting about knowing you’re wired a certain way, and that God is asking you to use that wiring for Him, and then actually having opportunities to do it!

 

Are you doing what you’re passionate about?

 

 

Getting it right.

Here are a couple more pics from Dan’s mixing excursion to LA, as I’ve blogged about much in recent days. These are basically just shots of Manchester Orchestra listening back to mixes, mulling things over, deciding if they’re liking what they’re hearing. 

 

These particular pics remind me a lot of historic Ardent Studios in Memphis, where I spent many an hour back in the day with Smalltown Poets.  We’d roll into town to work on a few songs here or there and would stay in the old, dilapidated “band house” next to the studio.  It was rumored to be haunted.  Don’t know about that, but it was creepy.  

 

On a completely separate, but good, note - today I led worship at North Lanier Baptist Church here in Forsyth County. They’re some good peeps and I had a good time.  The Veteran’s Day tribute in the service was pretty cool.

 

There was a color guard there; veterans were honored according to their branch of service (complete with military theme songs), and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice were memorialized by a bugler playing taps. I love that stuff.  Happy Veterans Day.

 

 

Oli and Steve

Dan sent me some pics from a cello session today at LA’s Sunset Sound with the brilliant Oli Kraus. There’s some beautiful stuff at his myspace page, definitely worth checking out.

 

It’s also worth noting that Dan called me last night to tell me that, the night before, he got to meet and hang out with Steve Perry of Journey, at a showcase for the band Public Radio.  That’s a big deal for anybody, even a guy like Dan who’s been doing some serious hobnobbing lately.  He said that Steve was just walking up to the soundboard and tweaking it at his own discretion.  I replied that, if you’re Steve Perry, who’s going to stop you?  (I really think he had the band’s permission to make tweaks if he liked, but it’s a better story with about that detail.)

 

Journey fans, represent.

 

 

Coast to Coast

I’m pretty proud of my partner Dan for the high profile work he’s been getting in the music industry.  And I’m excited about the doors it could open for ONE Atlanta as we begin doing our own recording projects in the near future. To add to the previous post, here’s a couple more pics from Dan’s mixing trip to LA.

 

But I have a pretty good story to share about Dan, too, and it happened back East, right here in the ATL area just a few days ago.  

 

Here’s the account of what happened at Picasso in historic downtown Buford GA last weekend, according to Rudy Vaughn’s keyboardist Mike Hankins:  We were “sloshing through” the intro to Purple Rain… So Dan - completely cool - comes up and takes the mic - guest vocalist Sam Tesh was struggling with the words… So they are singing together… We get to the break and… Well - it was a little weak… So Dan turns around and says “(Dang)… The band doesn’t even know the song”… And sat back down… It was actually a light-hearted moment… We love Dan!”

 

 

 

Sunset Sound

I’ve asked Dan to send iPhone pics from time to time while he’s out in LA mixing Manchester Orchestra.  He’s at Sunset Sound studio.  Here’s the first installment.

 

LA

 

My biz partner Dan Hannon is headed to Los Angeles to co-mix the new Manchester Orchestra record with big-time producer Joe Chicarelli (U2, Counting Crows, The Shins).  Of course, we think Dan is big time too.  

 

Apparently, the band’s manager and record label President were both in Atlanta this past week to preview the record, and were excited about it. Congrats to Dan for doing a great job, as always. Looking forward to getting my hands on that record.

 

 

The Watchmaker’s Son

 

Our friend Brandon McCormick of Whitestone Motion Pictures (based out of 12stone Church) is recovering well from a Vespa scooter accident last month in which he apparently had to slam on brakes while going 50 mph. (He’s seen here talking to one of his actors on the set.) He had some teeth replaced and some facial reconstruction.  But he feels well enough to have recently returned from accepting the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival for the film The Watchmaker’s Son.  Watch it here.

 

 

Oh, what a night.

Not sure where to even start.  Thursday’s night’s final Buckhead Music Project at Velvet Underground rocked.  Rudy Vaughn, James David Carter, and Jamie JAMM Portee all killed.

 

Rudy had a new bass player onstage with him, a good dude/good player named Wes Flowers, who plays for Butch Walker as well.  

 

(Sidenote: Butch Walker has a new record coming out and is playing at The Loft in Atlanta on November 10.  Read all about it here.  Many of you remember the Atlanta band he fronted, The Marvelous Three.  The other two-thirds of the Three (Jayce and Slug) are buddies of ours.  And my son is in the band Second Wave with bassist Holden Fincher; his dad is Jayce, Marvelous Three’s bassist.)

 

Rudy’s set ranged from Michael Jackson’s Beat It to original songs; also, for the first time, I saw Rudy play sax and he destroyed it - in a good way.  James David Carter was excellent, as usual.  Dude has insane falsetto.  JAMM and his band, complete with horns, capped the night off with some great funk/jazz/r&b fusion, or whatever they call it.  Chantae Cann joined him; she’s a background singer for India Arie and is an amazing, new voice on the Atlanta scene.  JAMM also brought both his wife Joni (also known as INOJ) and James David up on stage to do some guest vocals.  

 

Other friends of ONE Atlanta that were there: Michael Johnston of Smalltown Poets, a surprise attendance by original Smalltown Poets drummer Byron Goggin who lives in North Carolina, Moxie Davis with wife Clarissa, Big Snow (on turntables in between bands, doing his thang), Ryan Fitzgerald of theAMP, Casey Darnell, too many amazing musician friends to name, and a bunch of Buckhead Church staff - not the least of which is ‘Los Whittaker (thanks for the pics dude!)

 

 

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