VIDEO

Since about 2005, through my company String Theory Media, I have produced documentary video for a variety of clients, including Rounder and Sugar Hill Records, Nashville Public Television, the Nashville Symphony, the Americana Music Association and the International Bluegrass Music Association. I recently produced and directed three permanent installation museum films for the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC.  I'm a shooter, editor, producer, director, interviewer and writer. Highlights are below. Deeper catalog can be found at my Vimeo channel. 

 

CHUCK MEAD

Chuck Mead, one of the smartest and savviest students of classic country music on the planet invited me to document the making of his 2011 album Back At The Quonset Hut. The full half-hour documentary is available packaged with the CD and LP releases. It's an amazing album that mingles youth with experience, vintage with modern. Chuck performs all the time, so watch for him. In the meantime he's still musical director of the ridiculously successful traveling Broadway show Million Dollar Quartet. 

On Feb 28, 2012, Chuck Mead will release his new album Back At The Quonset Hut, a classic country album made in the renovated studio that gave birth to Music Row. Chuck is best known as founder of the hillbilly revival band BR549, which revolutionized Nashville's downtown live country music scene in the late 1990s.

 

CASEY DRIESSEN

Casey Driessen is one of the most inventive and unique stringed instrument players in the world. Based out of Asheville, NC now, he honed his skills at Berklee School of Music and the Nashville fiddle and bluegrass scene. He tours with Bela Fleck and does an amazing one-man Singularity show that will redefine what you think of the violin, jazz, bluegrass, electronic music, and "Billie Jean". We're making a series of films with Casey as he pursues his Fiddle/Sticks Project. Below are the three films we've made, plus the series trailer (as more are to come). 

"I've been playing fiddle since I was five years old, and I never wanted to play it like anybody else."-Casey Driessen, fiddler "I've been caught in a groove before where you can't get out of it-you just have to ride it as long as it lasts."-Kenny Malone, drummer Listen to "Five and a Fiddle" on Bandcamp: http://caseydriessen.bandcamp.com/track/five-and-a-fiddle-pre-release-feat-kenny-malone Fiddle/Sticks is a collaborative exploration of rhythm that pairs Grammy-nominated fiddler Casey Driessen-a leading voice in percussive fiddle/violin technique (known as the chop)-with a list of the landmark drummers and percussionists of our time.

Fiddle/Sticks: The Drummer Project by Casey Driessen is a collaborative exploration of rhythm which pairs Casey -- the leading voice in percussive fiddle/violin technique (AKA The Chop) -- with a list of the landmark drummers and percussionists of our time. Cutting across all genres and traditions, the project documents these rhythmic explorations through recordings, videos, photos and journals.

 

SAM BUSH

Sam Bush changed bluegrass music forever as part of a small cadre of radical thinkers and virtuosic pickers that emerged in the 1970s and 80s. A champion mandolinist and fiddle player, he's collaborated with every significant acoustic musician in string band music and mentored numerous other artists. A few years ago I directed a series of narrative and performance videos for Sam as the inauguration of Sam Bush TV on his website. Here's one piece about Sam's remarkable mandolins. More at SBTV.