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?

 

 

Our Big News.

ONE Atlanta Music is proud to announce the signing of its first recording artist.  Today, Rudy Vaughn signed contracts to make him the first offical signee of the new ONE ATLANTA MUSIC brand.  A press release, an album release party, and - of course - AN ALBUM are in the works. For now, you can read more about Rudy here.

 

For those who don’t know about the mission and vision of our music brand, click here.  We want to develop talent at the local level and help it grow to the next level, as 1ATL’s Dan Hannon has done the past few years with Aaron Shust, Manchester Orchestra, Elevation, and more recently Kristy Starling (album due out 09) and the Enemy Lovers (being courted hardcore by major labels right now).  

 

Thanks to everyone who has helped us get to this point: Glen Jackson and the team at Jackson Spalding, Kent Marcus up there in Nashvegas, Nick Kirk for introducing us to Rudy in the first place, Chris Morgan at 12Stone, our business guru David Fussell, Huff, Shane, our patient wives and kids, and many others of you.

 

Let’s make some music.    

    

Update: Video from Friday’s lunch

Told you I’d try to get my video issues worked out, so I could share a little of the music that went down at this past Friday’s 1ATL Thank You Lunch for Jackson Spalding.  (Click here if you have no idea what I’m talking about, or just scroll down to the Aug. 8th entry.)  Thanks to Josh Peters for fixing the video problem.  Here’s a 10 minute series of song clips with Rudy Vaughn and Miriam Ah Kuoi, doing all original music.  (Sorry it’s so dark; but hey, studios are usually dark.)  

 

Glowing in the Dark.

ONE Atlanta took over the “A” room at Glow In the Dark Studio today.  We threw a lunch for Jackson Spalding public relations firm to say thank you for all their incredible work on our behalf.  They have partnered with us on branding and marketing stuff, and they are amazing.   Original music was provided by Rudy Vaughn (and his bandmates Nathan Cooley and Mike Hankins), with a special guest appearance by Miriam Ah Kuoi.

 

Several of the Jackson Spalding creative staff were there, including Glen Jackson himself.  There was also a contingent of 12Stone’s redemptive arts staff there.  A few other friends of 1ATL were there, too, including Glow in the Dark owner Matt Goldman (thanks for the room) and Michael Johnston (thanks for the pics), both of whom are former bandmates of mine in Smalltown Poets.  Fellow 1ATL founders Dan Hannon and David Fussell were there; even my wife, kids, and in laws were there!   Okay, sorry for the who’s who.  (But I do still need to thank Cindy, Alice, Jenny, and Jake for the food and the chairs.)

 

Hoping to update this post soon with video.  My camera is being very uncooperative at the moment.