Steve Wildsmith

Film work on “That Evening Sun” wasn’t the first time Oscar-nominated actor Hal Holbrook has done a movie in East Tennessee.

Holbrook remembers a small part he had in the 1965 film “The Fool Killer,” featuring one of the last appearances of actor Henry Hull, and his time spent filming it in East Tennessee. (He remembers it shooting north of town; on the website IMDB, the filming location is listed as Louisville, Tenn., right here in Blount County.)

Wherever it was, Holbrook’s part was that of an old man — a dirty old man, no less.

“I was 30-something years old, and they used that old-fashioned makeup with glue and cotton batting to create a heavy crust on your face, and it shrank,” Holbrook told me this week. “It was horrible! I had the dried egg all over my shirt, fly was half open and this heavy makeup on. And we were working on this farm up there. Well, it was hot, and between takes, I would lay across the woodpile just to rest myself. It was the only available thing away from everybody, and I would just lay on it and rest my bones.

“This old lady who owned the farm — her husband had passed on, and she was pretty old herself — she thought I was the real thing! She started to get interested in me, asking me how my health was and if I was married. And the crew got in on it, encouraging her. And this lady proposed to me! She asked me if I wanted to marry up with her and, according to Bible practice, she would deed the farm over to me.

“For the next 15 or 20 years, every time I did ‘Mark Twain Tonight’ in Knoxville, some of the crew from that film were there, and we’d always talk about that lady and have a good laugh,” Holbrook added.

When last we caught up with East Tennessee musical entrepreneur and musical genius Arrison Kirby, he was resurrecting his El Deth label with some reissues and preparing for reentry into the local music scene. That was two years ago; we’re happy to report that he hasn’t gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle and is, in fact, ready to debut a band new band that — for now — is going by the name of Pocket Strength.

We caught up with him this week at practice with his new bandmates, Katie Collins and Megan Driscoll, and he told us what he’s been up to.

“I’ve been doing solo sets here and there, and out of a night of hanging out me and Katie and Megan got together and decided to come together musically,” he said. “I was making beats and playing guitar, Katie was playing ukulele and Omnichord and Megan was singing and playing flute. We decided to take it Rachel Jae, who’s a theatrical director, and she, in turn, got her boyfriend involved — Dane Hill. He’s a cool guy and a good musician, and he’s been playing drums and bass.

“We’ve been taking songs I have written, plus some new covers and fleshing the project out.”

On Aug. 25, the band played at The Pilot Light with Katie and the Bass Drums, a show that was originally booked as Arrison Kirby solo.

“By that point, we could do all this, so we decided we might as well put on a show,” Kirby said. “I did about three songs by myself, and then they came out and joined in. We had a good turnout, and we had some theatrics to it — a fog machine, everything we could muster. We try to evolve it every time.”

After struggling through a relationship that he says sucked the life out of him, he feels like he’s back on track musically. El Deth isn’t making money hand over fist, but he did recoup the expenses for putting out “Inkling” by Senryu, and he’s looking forward to what’s ahead.

“The eternal goal always is to erect some massively huge conglomeration type of project, and I feel like I’m back on that path toward that,” he said.

Personally, we feel that’s a good thing — Kirby and his El Deth label add a much-needed dose of avant-garde, quirkiness and experimentalism that every scene sorely needs.

FREE MUSIC!

DOWNLOAD “ALL OF ME ALL OF US,” BY ARRISON KIRBY: Right-click here (choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target As”)

A few weeks ago in East Tennessee Dirt, we told you about those dangerous ’80s rockers in Gun*Slinger and how they got kicked out of Irish Times Pub in West Knoxville for rocking too hard.

They’re at it again — this time trying to promote Saturday night’s show at Big Daddy’s Scoots and Sports Bar and Grill, 2641 Highway 411 S. in Maryville. Singer Cole Graham and fellow ‘Slinger Blake Rider stopped by The Daily Times the other day, trying to figure out what to do with the more than 500 flyers they had printed for the show — a gift from a friend who works at a print shop who, despite the goodness of his heart, didn’t think about how the guys would distribute them all.

They tried Wal-Mart in Alcoa; the cops were called. They thought about the Maryville College campus, but Rider says he’s “banned for life” over an incident involving a girl. And they did hit another local bar that has declined to book Gun*Slinger — an establishment that shall remain nameless — and did a commando-style papering of all the cars in its parking lot. (Graham even strolled in and handed out flyers to patrons before management blew a gasket and threatened to summon the law.)

Truly, these dudes are some bad boys — but ain’t that what rock ‘n’ roll is all about? Besides, they’re just trying to let everybody know — Saturday’s show takes place at 9 p.m., is free and will feature the first performance of every song from the band’s forthcoming new album, “Dangerous Curves Ahead.” The guys are looking to finance the record by pre-selling copies — which means you make a donation up front, the band pays for studio time and you get a new album when it’s done. It’s a good plan, a good way for struggling bands to get their music recorded and a way for fans to help out up front. Check out the band’s website for info on how to donate.

FREE MUSIC!

DOWNLOAD “PICK UR POISON,” BY GUN*SLINGER: Right-click here (choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target As”)

OK, everybody sing along now: “Happy birthday to you … happy birthday to you … happy birthday Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson … happy birthday …”

You get the idea. It’s the annual Labor Day/birthday bash celebration this weekend out at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson, 1820 W. Lamar Alexander Parkway in Maryville, and to commemorate the occasion, owner Scott Maddux and his crack team of motorcycle and music enthusiasts have a full weekend of events planned.

Saturday night, there’s the annual visit by country-rock hooligans the Kentucky Headhunters with opening act The Van Lears; the show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets are $20. On Sunday night, Blount County’s own The Drunk Uncles, with their pal and roots-music ace Larry Cordle, will take the stage at 8 p.m.; tickets to that show are $10. But it’s tonight’s headliner who’s getting a lot of press these days — piano man Leon Russell, he who resembles Gandalf the White and has played with just about everyone on the planet, from the Rolling Stones to George Harrison.

His most recent project is the one getting the most attention these days — “The Union,” a collaborative album with Elton John. The new record, produced by Oscar and multiple-Grammy winning producer T Bone Burnett, marks the first time these iconic artists have worked together since 1970. It was recorded live in the studio with Elton and Leon on dueling pianos, features 14 songs (including ones written by Elton and his lifelong lyricist Bernie Taupin, as well as the combined songwriting team of Leon, Elton, Bernie and T Bone).

According to a recent press release, Leon first met Elton in 1970 when he attended Elton’s first ever U.S. show at the famous Troubadour in Los Angeles. The meeting heralded the beginning of a long friendship and a mutual appreciation between the two artists.  “In the late ’60s and early ’70s, the one piano player and vocalist who influenced me more than anybody else was Leon Russell,” Elton said.  “He was my idol.”  The pair went on to tour together shortly thereafter at New York’s Fillmore East and to this day have held such high admiration for each other’s work.

After years of being out of touch, Elton listened to Leon’s music while on safari in Africa last summer and was inspired to reconnect with his idol.  “Elton called to ask if I would do a duet album with him,’” Russell said.  “I’m very happy that he chose me to do this.”

Russell’s performance takes place at 8 tonight; tickets are $25. Husky Burnette opens the show.

OK, so technically “Going the Distance,” which opens today at area theaters (including Carmike Foothills 12), stars Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. But the guys in British-based indie-rock band The Boxer Rebellion, which includes Maryville boy Nathan Nicholson, get some screen time as well.

On one of the band’s first visit to the United States (well … a working visit, we mean. Nicholson, after all, grew up here in Blount County.) — back in August 2009 — the guys spent some time in Manhattan, filming a background scene for the romantic comedy. It all started, Nicholson told me on Thursday, when the band performed a Los Angeles show at The Troubadour. As with most Hollywood stories, a friend of a friend ended up knowing someone at New Line Cinema who came to the show and saw some potential in the band.

“It just so happened they happened to have this movie and needed a band in our situation, and we seemed to fit that role pretty well,” Nicholson said. “They gave us a script and passed us along to the director, who was in New York. We played New York a couple of days later and the director came out to see us and it just happened from there. It was a very smooth kind of transaction.”

Filming for the band took place over a couple of different weeks. Compared to the experience of making music videos, having a small role in a big-budget romantic comedy was a bit mind-blowing, Nicholson added.

“They shut down a whole block of New York City and had about 250 crew (members) and 300 extras,” he said. “They have really long days — they start about 7 a.m. — but we didn’t do our thing until 8 p.m. So we were there for 13 hours before we did anything, just sitting around watching it all go on and taking it in.”

The two leads introduced themselves to the band and have since become friendly; they hung out with the band members at the London and Los Angeles premieres and even introduced The Boxer Rebellion at the British V Festival. The band, which appears on stage twice during the film (but have no speaking lines, unfortunately), performs two songs and wrote a third — the new “If You Run” — for the soundtrack.

“It was pretty random and quite surreal,” he added.

If you’ve seen commercials for the film, you’ve heard The Boxer Rebellion — the band’s song “Spitting Fire,” off of the album “Union,” is playing during practically the whole thing. If you’re on the fence for the October 12 performance by the band at the Clayton Center for the Arts on the Maryville College campus, perhaps hearing the music in the film will change your mind. Or, you can download the free .mp3 below.

We’ve told you all about the band numerous times, but in case you’re discovering this blog for the first time on this post, here’s a recap: In January 2009, the band released “Union,” its sophomore album (a follow-up to 2005’s “Exits”) — a self-financed album that was available solely through iTunes. Within 24 hours of its release, “Union” had peaked at No. 4 on the iTunes U.S. Albums Chart, No. 5 on the iTunes UK Albums Chart, and knocking My Morning Jacket off the top-spot to take No. 1 on the iTunes U.S. Alternative Chart. The album was disqualified from entering the Official UK Albums Chart as no physical CD was in stores at the time, but that didn’t stop the band becoming the first unsigned band in history to enter the Billboard Albums Charts at No. 82 on a digital-only release.

Last December, iTunes declared “Union” its Alternative Album of the Year. This summer, the band recently completed work on “The Cold Still,” its forthcoming third album, with acclaimed producer Ethan Johns.

DOWNLOAD “EVACUATE,” by The Boxer Rebellion: Right-click here (choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target As”)

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a massive electronic music festival taking place over Halloween weekend in nearby Asheville, N.C. — Moogfest, slated for Oct. 29-31.

It’s designed to honor the vision and invention of Robert Moog, who called Asheville home during the last 30 years of his life; previously, the festival has been held in New York. This year, it’ll take place at various venues in downtown Asheville and include a lot of latitude for the performers. According to the site, “While the wide range of Moog instruments – the Minimoog Voyager, the Little Phatty, the Etherwave Theremin, Moogerfoogers, and the new Moog Guitar – will play prominent roles throughout the festival’s events, the artists performing will certainly not be limited to those who create their work on Moog instruments. Instead, artists will be chosen for their role in creating unique and groundbreaking musical experiences that embody the essence of Bob Moog’s visionary and creative spirit.”

One of those artists is Derek Vincent Smith — the artist known as Pretty Lights, who’s coming to town for a show next week (Aug. 25) at The Valarium. I asked him about Moogfest when I interviewed him recently.

“I’m excited about my fall tour as a whole because of a lot of new things will be going on, and there are new production elements I’m bringing to the stage,” he said. “Asheville’s one of the coolest cities in the country, and also I love Moog. I’ve been into the factory before, I’ve seen live Moog performances, and I’ve always used the gear they create — even before creating the Pretty Lights project.

“I’m really pumped about that show. Hopefully it’s gonna kick off the fall tour in a big way.”

As one of pop culture’s most recognizable Jewish figures, Matisyahu — who performs this weekend at the University of Tennessee and is on the cover of the Aug. 20 edition of The Daily Times Weekend entertainment section — is often asked to weigh in on the neverending strife in the Middle East.

For the most part, he told me this week, he chooses not to engage in debate or discussion.

“With what I’m doing, there’s enough bad press for Israel right now, which means bad press for Jews,” he said. “I’m here, and I’m making music — I’m not a politician, and I’m not a leader of a country making decisions about lives. Those are the difficult decisions that leaders need to make; I’m involved in something completely different.

“It’s art and inspiration, and I don’t think there’s any point for me to tell people what my feelings about poltiics are. That’s irrelevant to what I do.”

He does, however, offer one caveat — as someone troubled for the future not just of his people, but of all people.

“All of this anti-Israeli sentiment going on around the world, I believe, is really just anti-Semitism masked as something else — blaming the Jews for the world’s problems,” he said. “It’s very similar to what was happening with the Jews at the beginning of the Holocaust, and it concerns me.”

Judging by the Internet chatter on Twitter, a number of local fans made the trek down to Atlanta on Wednesday night to see the double-bill of indie rock goodness that was Arcade Fire and Spoon.

Doubtless they enjoyed the show. Doubtful, however, did any of them get to hang out with both bands afterward. Except for one man — one Mr. Wil Wright of the Knoxville indie power-pop ensemble known as Senryu.

We’ve written multiple times about Senryu and the apparent bottomless well of talent Wil possesses — most recently in March — but he’s also the recipient of some boundless good fortune. Even he admits that finding himself post-show hanging with three-quarters of Spoon, all of Arcade Fire, his own publicist and Bryan Poole of the indie band Of Montreal.

“The idea was really just to go down and hang out with Eric (Harvey, multi-instrumentalist for Spoon whom Wright met when the two played in the North Carolina indie ensemble Physics of Meaning),” Wright told me today. “He’d gotten in touch with me and said to come on down to Atlanta, and I got to meet (Arcade Fire singer) Win Butler before the show.

“Afterward, though, everybody was excited because ‘The Suburbs’ had just gone No. 1. Everybody was drinking champagne, and Arcade Fire travels with a ping-pong table, so it was very ping-pong-centric. To meet heroes like that, and to meet them on such a big day for them and just get to blend in … it was surreal. I’ll remember it forever.”

Such is the life of the frontman of Senryu, but know this — every accomplishment, every stroke of good fortune has been earned through hard work. Example — on the heels of releasing the full-length “Inkling” in March, the band already has two EPs ready to go. Both will be celebrated on Saturday at a show with Teenage Love13 at The Longbranch Saloon, 1848 Cumberland Ave. (”The Strip”) in Knoxville.

By most standards, Senryu’s output is mind-blowing, especially considering Wright is already working on an album of remixes and B-sides for a fall release. To him, it’s just what he does — his best.

“I experienced and wrote everything in May and early June, then knocked everything out as soon as I got home from California,” Wright said of the creation of the two EPs — “Attached at the Hip” and “Superduperficialworld.” “ I was experiencing a lot of serious, dark examinations of progress, and also having a whole, whole lot of fun — a really insane sort of nobody’s-holding-the-steering-wheel sort of fun.

“I had enough for an album, but because of how different the songs were, I decided to do two albums worth of material split up into two very different camps.”

“Hip,” he said, reflects a tight-knit friendship — the heady invincibility felt by those on the inside and the head-scratching, left-behind feelings by those who are on the outside looking in.

“Inside, it feels like the center of the universe, but outside it can feel very polarizing and annoying,” he said. “I love the juxtaposition, the view from inside and outside of this really crazy, tight-knit group of people. It revolves around a lot of the fun I was having here and in Los Angeles for work. It was just a really, really crazy time.”

Quick aside — Wright was in Los Angeles because a documentary filmmaker he met on tour has embarked on the creation of a documentary about the band. It’s roughly halfway through production, with filming set for Saturday night at the Longbranch, and Wright flew to LA to film some scenes there as well.

“It’s about how we’ve stayed on our grind through the paradigm shift in the music industry, and how nothing has really ever happened for us even though everything has happened,” Wright said. “We’ve done everything we wanted to do – lived out our dreams and aspirations for the band — without ever experiencing any actual market success. That, and it’s focusing on the fact that we have an extremely long catalog.

“Things happen, but they don’t. It never feels like an ascension or descension — it feels like nothing really changes; sometimes in a frustrating way, sometimes in a comforting way. I get to see a lot and do a lot, and I try to accept it as kind of the stuff that happens. I just stay busy, stay focused on what I’m doing and not get caught up in it.

“Anyway, in Los Angeles, he took me around and had me play whatever I wanted to play in these massive, surreal settings and backdrops,” Wright added.

The film has no title yet, but Wright hopes it’ll be completed in early 2011.

Back to the new EPs … “Superduperficial World” is the more thought-provoking of the two, less frenetic energy and more contemplation. If “Attached at the Hip” (and the title track, by the way, is a shot of cocaine — brief, intense and stout enough to drop you to your knees and leave you with your ears ringing, panting and scrambling for more) is the wild night where all manner of craziness unfolds, “World” is the morning after, sitting in the living room with the shades drawn while the first rays of the sun creep through, having yet to find sleep and still digesting everything that just happened.

“It’s kind of like riding on the back of a monster — you can’t do anything about it; you just find yourself looking left, looking right, looking into the past,” Wright said. “It’s about home, about living here. A lot of people living here feel like they can’t escape, and that makes me feel really frustrated because I love it here. They talk about feeling trapped, about feeling stifled by the geography of Knoxville.

“I’ve been so many places, and I would rather be here than anywhere. I feel like this is the place for me, and that’s one of my major frustrations from other people. I don’t think being from Knoxville, Tenn., has stopped me from living my dream out. It’s as interesting as anywhere else and undersaturated.

“The whole thing i just about life direction paranoia and feeling out of control,” he added.

Saturday night, however, the control valves will be twisted all the way open, and the insanity that is Senryu … not to mention Teenage Love13 … will be unleashed, he added. It’s a masquerade party designed to mimic the beginning-of-the-semester mixers that will take place up and down “The Strip” over the next week, when University of Tennessee students come back to town.

“This is an icebreaker where no one meets,” he said with a laugh. ”Everyone will be there and no one will meet, because we’ll all be wearing masks.

“Some things are going to happen at the show that I have to keep secret, though. No one that attends the show will ever forget what goes down on Saturday night.”

FREE MUSIC! Download “Papillon” by Senryu, from the new EP “Attached at the Hip”: right-click here (choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target As”)

Blount County rock band The Moonshine Cherrys are on the cover of The Daily Times Weekend entertainment section this week, and in the story the guys — Paul Beasley, Ted Thompson, Eric Keeble and new drummer Scott Rader — talk about the new album they plan to record at Rader’s Music Row of Maryville Studios.

Adding a fourth member — Rader, with Keeble moving from behind the kit to second guitar — frees up the band to recreate the songs live as full as they are in a studio setting, Beasley said.

“When we did our old records, we would fill them up with all of these bells and whistles, but then we’d have to go out live and strip it down to the essence of the song,” Beasley said. “Bringing Scott on board really gives us what we needed to take it to the next level. With Eric on guitar, we can do a lot more harmony now. I don’t have to carry the load the whole time, and I can play acoustic some. I’ve always been an acoustic guitar freak, but at the same time, it was hard to get up there and play an acoustic guitar with a rock ‘n’ roll band when you need that electric stomp, rock ‘n’ roll sound.”

They joke that the new CD — scheduled for release sometime in the fall — might be called “Old Dogs, New Tricks,” a reference to the band’s longevity (The Cherrys have been a part of the local scene for 13 years) and to the expanded lineup. At its heart, however, the new record will be a return to form, Thompson said.

“This record to me is just about getting back to the basics, to when I was just starting this ride,” he said. “I’ve done the whole writing for radio, writing for our label, trying to think of the marketing aspect of it. After I took that year-and-a-half hiatus when my little one was coming on the scene, I kind of came back and said, ‘Ted — write like you used to. Don’t worry about whether it’s going to make it on the radio or if it’s what the kids like.’

“We don’t have to reinvent anything or do something out of the box. What we do is just raw, emotional, old-school rock ‘n’ roll. Look at a band like Led Zeppelin — those guys are timeless, no matter what the flavor-of-the-month on the radio is, and that’s what I always wanted to write — just good rock ‘n’ roll that’s timeless. So I went back to those old roots and listen to a lot of Zeppelin and Drivin N’ Cryin’ and Social Distortion while I was writing these songs.”

Memphis indie-rock outfit Snowglobe is one of the stories you’ll find in this week’s edition of The Daily Times Weekend entertainment section; among other things, founder/vocalist/pianist Brad Postlethwaite talked about fellow Memphis musician Jay Reatard, found dead in January from an apparent overdose. (I interviewed Jay in July 2009, prior to his show at The Pilot Light.)

“Me and (fellow Snowglobe member) Jeff (Hulett) lived with him for a little while, right after Snowglobe started when we first moved back to Memphis,” Postlethwaite told me. “That was when he was with (band) The Lost Sounds, and it was an interesting period of time.”

Although the two hadn’t seen each other in a while, Reatard’s death was a blow, Postlethwaite added.

“It really sucked,” he said. “We were close friends during that period of time we lived together, but eventually we saw less and less of each other, to the point where it was once a year at South By Southwest or something like that. But it definitely really made me sad.

“I still think about him, at least once a week. It still seems surreal. The thing that I worry about is that I hope he had gotten well-known enough to where his name is going to continue to live on. I think that it is; I hope he got his name out there enough so that, years from now, people will know who he is and go back and find his music.

“It’s just incredibly sad to think about how much further he could’ve gone,” Postlethwaite added.

Snowglobe performs at 10 p.m. Friday, July 30, at Barley’s Taproom, 200 E. Jackson Ave. in Knoxville’s Old City, with The Carter Administration, a band that includes former Superdrag guitarist Sam Powers.