This is one of my favorite projects - ever. Imagine hearing a client ask you to make a promotional piece, and they were kind of up for anything. It was for a documentary on Antone's, a landmark music club in Austin, Texas. They they said: hey you should give this guy a call, he's taken pictures at the club since the 60s. All the pictures were great: Muddy Waters, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, and just about every notable blues musician of the 20th century. I almost had to make two posters.
The club logo was supposed to be part of the promo, but the artwork had been done by hand sometime between 1968 and 1974 and copied until all the type and the photo of Little Walter had been reduced to halftoned mush. Well, I had to do something about that.
The primary function of the project was to act as a one-sheet for the SXSW film festival. I wanted to capture the layered history of the club and its changes (venues, money, lots of stories ... all very colorful). The faces of the great players who were in the film were a natural for the one sheet (Willie Nelson! Muddy Waters! Buddy Guy!)
And if there's one thing I've learned from growing up with a Texan family: the only thing they love more than barbecue is their flag.
Once the one-sheet was done, the client asked if I could make some sort of promotional piece, of course on a budget. I asked "Why not just make it so that every one wants to keep the poster?" We focused on the colorful history of the club, and with a wealth of excellent photography by Watt Casey, the promotion made itself.
Jumior Wells at the original Antone's in about 1974. Seriously! I'm not putting this in the poster??
Yes I am!
Yes I am!
I was really happy with the result (see bottom.) The nice folks at SilverStar flew me to Austin for the SXSW Film Festival, and I had the brains to fold a poster up and take it to the club that night. I got to meet a Who's Who of Austin musical royalty - Hubert Sumlin, Kim Wilson, Jimmie Vaughan, and the inimitable Pinetop Perkins. Pinetop wasn't signing autographs that night, but somehow my statuesque cousin coaxed him into it.
Paul Ray, leader of Paul Ray & the Cobras (Stevie Ray Vaughan's first real group) signed over SRV.
