Tampa Calling

“What a diff’rence a day makes” – María Méndez Grever

The music portion of SXSW has begun and Austin is infested with indie rockers, scenesters, hipsters and musicians from all over the world. The snarky t-shirts and iPhones of the interactive and film portion have been replaced with leather, tight pants and guitar cases. And they’re everywhere.

Try to imagine if every bar, club and art gallery in Tampa and St. Pete tented their parking lots and had full concert lineups on indoor and outdoor stages for 6 straight days. It’s a lot to take in. Not to mention, the stimulation of the local economy here – from stage and equipment rental to groceries and clothing – is staggering.

These Arms Are Snakes at Red Eye Fly. More photos after the jump.

There are many methods of navigating the music portion of “South by.” You can meticulously plot your path, you can wander from bar to bar (if you have a wristband or a badge) or you can do a combination of both. Modes of transport can include car (shout out to Monica Armendazzle), cab, bus, shuttle, bike (they ought to rent these), rickshaw, horse-and-buggy, and finally your own two feet. 

Ivan is in town now, as well as some folks from Creative Loafing Atlanta, so we’ve been coordinating via text. This has worked to avoid overlap and to catch wind of “secret” parties such as last night’s Playboy Party held in a warehouse on E. 12th in which Jane’s Addiction played a surprise hour-long set. Word on the street is that Metallica will be doing a similar stunt tonight to promote their new Guitar Hero game. We’ll see.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tampa’s (actually Brandon’s) own Damon Fowler’s national debut CD, Sugar Shack, makes its first appearance on the Billboard Blues Chart this week at #12.

This from a release by his record label, San Francisco-based Blind Pig:

Audiences and critics alike are responding to the young guitar phenom’s exciting, soulful blend of Southern rock and swamp blues.  In an early review,  Billboard called the CD a “notable project” and Fowler a “formidable slide guitar player … his playing throughout the album is deft … and his original material is solid,” while The Virginian-Pilot said “Sugar Shack effectively introduces a major talent” and praised Fowler’s “formidable guitar chops and slide work, versatile tenor voice, and expert command of rustic American music styles.”

If you haven’t seen CL’s multi-media feature on Fowler, click here.

A few days before Damon Fowler’s new, nationally released CD, Sugar Shack, came out on Jan. 27, I sat with him in the CL studio for a lengthy conversation. The 29-year-old Tampa native was enthusiastic, but realistic, about the CD, released on the San Francisco blues label Blind Pig. He also knows he has some stereotypes to overcome. Here’s a portion of the feature story that will run in next week’s issue and be up online soon:

Damon Fowler knows what you’re thinking, some of you at least:

Here comes another fresh-faced, guitar-slingin’ white boy with a new album out on a national blues label, further populating the already crowded ranks of guitar-slingin’ white boys who play real fast and real long and can’t sing worth a damn but think of themselves as real bluesmen.

Damon Fowler doesn’t blame you for thinking this, but he wants you to know: It’s not true.

“It is a trap — a white boy with a guitar,” Fowler says. “It’s terrible for me. I mean, I like some of those blues hotshot guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan, but there was only one Stevie Ray Vaughan, and now you got all these guys in ponchos boot-scootin’ and playing [Stratoscasters] and it’s all so contrived. It’s what’s wrong with the blues — that and harmonica players in purple suits who try to sing like something they’re not.”

No, really, Damon, don’t hold back.

“A lot of times that shit’s just an excuse for playing guitar. Put together a little song like “I’m lonely for my baby, I’m lonely for my baby, oh yeah. She don’t come to see me” — and then you wail [on guitar] for 10 minutes.”

“It’s not a blues record.”
That’s how Fowler, 29, succinctly describes Sugar Shack.

Click here for the full story, along with video and audio.

Damon Fowler’s CD Release show is tonight at Skipper’s Smokehouse, 8 p.m., presented by WMNF. $10 advance, $15 at the door.

Check out audio and video of Damon talking and performing on CL Sessions.

Damon Fowler talks with Eric Snider about the blues and his new album, Sugar Shack, available on Blind Pig Records.

Download.

Download the songs below the jump: Read the rest of this entry »