Just a note to let everyone know that the new releases are in the store!

Friday, October 30, 2009 at 7:30 PM

The incredible guys in the Zac Brown Band have announced a benefit concert at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta. The GATH and ZBB have a cool history together. The first time they played the GATH was opening for Wilmot's band Ashtray and another band called Brighter Shade. John Hopkins (the bassist for ZBB) was in brighter shade and produced Ashtray's album. Hopkins and Wilmot grew up in the same town and started playing music together in high school. After that first show the crowds started growing exponentially every time the band came to Athens. Zac's last show at the GATH was the same week that 'chicken fried' hit number one on the charts (that was one crazy night!). Zac and his band are showing incredible generosity and tons of love for the Athens music scene by doing this benefit show. It's shaping up to be an incredible night of music with lots of special guests and surprises. The Zac Brown Band has really blown up lately and we are so proud to have these guys in our corner.

I completed this new Phoenix poster to help raise money. Be sure to pick one up at the show. It's a 2 color print on French Speckletone Oatmeal paper.

The show will feature uncut sheets of past studio work. For those unfamiliar with what an uncut sheet is, it's the raw press sheet before the posters are cut and trimmed. What makes them interesting is often times two different posters are run on a sheet creating some interesting juxtapositions like Judas Priest and Rufus Wainwright. Many have handbills run across the bottom also. Uncuts are usually limited to 5-10 sheets, so they are pretty rare items.

I have never really offered any of these sheets for sale or shown them except for the occasional festival or charity fundraiser. I decided I would like to show people some of the more interesting combos we have done over the years and let them see the light of day.

More info in the coming days at www.1819central.com

The line-up is as follows: Umphrey's McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band, Les Claypool, The New Mastersounds, The Bridge and an acoustic show by Bayliss and Austin. That is quite a chunk of musical nirvana to experience in a town like Amsterdam. And I promise there will be no mud, roadblocks, drug dogs or rude cops to harsh your mellow.

I awoke a few weeks ago and sat down at my computer for morning coffee only to be jarred fully awake. I saw a Facebook update from a friend that the Ga Theatre was fully engulfed in flames. I was in shock. No, it couldn't be. Not the Theatre. It had been there forever. In my mind, it would be there forever. I could almost smell the stale beer and old wood. For anyone who has ever graced the place with their presence you know exactly what I mean. It was also the best sounding venue in the country. I did the cover for the Derek Trucks Live at the Ga Theatre CD. Everybody loved recording there. Those 3 foot thick walls just made for the perfect room. Now it was gone.

I immediately made a few phone calls to check in with friends downtown. I was planning on being at a Perpetual Groove show that night at the theatre and then leaving the next morning for a short vacation. I was informed that the show was cancelled and a new show was planned for the next night at the Classic center to raise money to help the dislocated staff of the theatre. I went into artist mode. The vacation was postponed. The art schedule for the day got scrapped and I started working on a fundraiser poster. For the next 14 hours straight I painted a phoenix rising from the ashes. The poster was finished the next morning before the ashes had cooled at the Theatre.

The show that night was somber. Backstage, seeing my friends who worked there was difficult. They looked shell shocked, but were holding it together as best they could. It was the quietest I think I have ever seen a Backstage atmosphere.

I found a place in the back of the Classic Center to sit and watch the show. PGroove raged, but there was this hollow feeling that I had lost a dear old friend that would never be replaced. We will build the Theatre back, I'm sure of that, but that beer stained icon of my youth was gone forever. At least I have 30 years of memories of shows and events. Those memories are ones I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Please contribute to the "Rebuild the Theatre" fund at Georgiatheatre.com. Athens needs this venue. I want those 21 year old kids going to shows to be able to look back in 30 years at the new theatre in the same nostalgic manner as I have, knowing we spent some of the best times of our lives in that hallowed room.