Reelfoot Library of Music and Sound

Reelfoot Library of Music and Sound (number 5)

I received the latest volume from Reelfoot* in the mail a while back, but it was lost in the shuffle and I forgot to place it in my stack of "to listen to and look ats". Anyway, I got around to it today, and it is yet another fantastic collection of sounds/visuals from the folks at Reelfoot. It's always a pleasant surprise to open the mail, especially when it contains unique, thought provoking, and original ideas and art.

A bit about Reelfoot:

THE REELFOOT LIBRARY IS DIVIDED INTO FOUR BRANCHES WITH ALL OF ITS CONTENT EITHER BEING CREATED IN-HOUSE OR DONATED BY OUR NETWORK OF CONTRIBUTORS.

BOOKS
Reelfoot Books is interested in releasing small edition, handmade books that deal with folklore, tall tales, artist books, or anything else that involves a good story or beautiful images. We will also post short stories in a digital format for reading online.

SOUND
The Reelfoot Library of Music and Sound collects rare, common, and many times, previously unheard recordings. 2-3 times a year we mail out compilations composed of tracks hand picked from our dusty vaults.We are always accepting donations of original songs and sound bites, in fact this is how a large portion of our collection was acquired. Donors will be added to the physical mailing list and receive an official Reelfoot Certificate of Participation. This wing of the library is also in charge of our frequently updated Reelfoot Podcast, which catalogs field recordings, journalistic adventures, and other audible odditties.

FILM
The moving image branch is the newest edition. Initially, we plan to post a series of found films, however, we are also interested in commissioning ideas for short fiction and documentaries. The films will be archived onto DVD format, and available for purchase through the Reelfoot Library website.

DEPARTMENT OF EDITIONS
Also known as the Reelfoot Gift Shop, patrons will find anything from books, to limited edition sculptures. All available through mail order and purchase in our online store.

Check them out.

*Reelfoot Library of Music and Sound

AIRPORT ART

Selections from the Arts in the Airport exhibit / Nov. 5, 2009.

I attended the Arts in the Airport Opening Reception last night at the McGhee Tyson Airport and snapped a couple of shots with my phone (yeah, phone pics aren't that great)...but anyway, if you fly into or out of the Knoxville Airport between now and April 22nd check out the artwork. There are some really great pieces, and I am proud to be included...it was a nice evening of art...on a Thursday, at the airport. Who knew?

Many thanks to the Arts and Culture Alliance and the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority for putting on such a nice event/exhibit.

Josephine...

Magnolia Electric Company - Josephine

I just wanted to say that this record is really beautiful. If you are a fan already then you probably have it, but if not, you can check out a recent live session from the band on Daytrotter (link below).

Daytrotter Sessions - Magnolia Electric Company

Purchase here

Dance of Death / Wild Games

Ambrose Bierce and the Dance of Death / Wild Games.
The University of Tennessee Press.

2 new books headed to the warehouse and available to pre-order HERE - The University of Tennessee Press.

Ambrose Bierce and the Dance of Death - Lively and engaging, Ambrose Bierce and the Dance of Death adds valuable new insights not only to the study of Bierce but to that of nineteenth-century American literature in general.

Wild Games - Featuring contributions from a variety of distinguished scholars and writers—including an essay by the noted folklorist Simon Bronner on the culture of the deer camp, a fascinating account of coyote tracking by Eric Eliason, and an examination of the role of gender in outdoor life by Diane Humphrey Lueck—this book shows how the traditions of hunting and fishing tend to bind hunter and prey into ancient patterns that often defy contemporary culture.

The Robot.

Doin' the Robot. Knoxville, TN. October, 2009.

A coworker and friend asked me to take some shots of her family. I've never tackled that before, so it was a really great opportunity for me to get some practice at more people shots...and it was alot of fun. I tried shooting digitally, and borrowed a camera, but it just didn't work out as well as I'd hoped...as my friend Lawson told me, you do better with what you're used to, and he's right. I'm beginning to know what is gonna come out of my camera, where in the digital world I started trusting the little 2 inch screen, and well, you just can't trust the little 2 inch screen. Hmm. Anyway, I caught little Maggie looking like she was doing the "Robot" and it is one of my favorites from the day.

Wally's Arcade

Wally's Arcade. Jellico. TN. September, 2009.

BEWARE.

Get Out! Help. Ghost Haunted. Dollar General Store. Jellico, TN September, 2009.

Just a shot for the season. Boo.

The Life, Art, and Times of Joseph Delaney

"The Life, Art, and Times of Joseph Delaney, 1904-1991" by Frederick C. Moffatt. University of Tennessee Press. 2009.

This book is on the boat, and soon to hit stores...and was a real pleasure to work on! I can honestly say that working through these pages enlightened me to the work of Joseph Delaney, and made me realize what a treat his paintings are...

This book is the first in-depth treatment of the life and work of the prolific African American painter Joseph Delaney, a gifted artist whose impressive achievements on canvas were somewhat overshadowed during his long career by those of his older brother Beauford. Frederick C. Moffatt deftly interweaves biography, art history, and critical analysis in his study of this neglected African American artist.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of a Methodist preacher, Delaney renounced his family and moved to New York. Here he studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League and thereafter devoted a career to figure drawing, portraiture, and to humorous interpretations of city life.

Joseph Delaney’s impact on the New York art scene was notable. Though he didn’t arrive until a decade after the flowering of the Harlem Renaissance, he kept pace with a leading echelon of African American painters and graphic artists over a fifty-year period. This group included such veteran practitioners as Palmer Hayden, Ellis Wilson, Lois Mailou Jones, and, until his 1953 departure for Paris, Beauford Delaney. Late in his life, Joseph returned to his childhood roots, accepting a visiting artist’s appointment at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Vividly drawn, judiciously researched, and copiously illustrated with both color and black-and-white reproductions, Moffatt’s critical biography draws liberally on his subject’s own diaries, essays, and poetry, as well as on numerous other sources, to offer an illuminating narrative that firmly establishes Joseph Delaney’s importance within the history of twentieth-century American art.

PRE-ORDER HERE - The University of Tennessee Press

United Workers of America...

United Workers of America building / North Broadway / Knoxville, TN

Another piece of the in-progress window series.

Army of One.

Army of One. Jellico, TN. September, 2009.

We stopped for this one between Jellico and Newcomb, TN. The more I look at it, the more I like it...I only wish it was taken with different film...anyway, there is ALOT going on here.

June Jam...

"June Jam". Green Acres Flea Market. September, 2009.

I went to Green Acres Flea Market a few weekends ago for brunch and browsing, and as I was walking around I kept seeing this gentleman sitting in front of the building...leaning on a window I was stalking (my window preoccupation is getting weird). Anyway, I realized that this must be his spot, and that a picture of this window needed to include everything...so I grabbed this. I like it.

At Home in the Heart of Appalachia...

Front Porch - Graves Farm. Sharp's Chapel, TN. Spring 2009.

I'm revisiting some shots I took this past spring to try and arrange them into a book featuring the poetry of Mr. Jesse Graves. The shots were taken at his parent's home in Sharp's Chapel, and as I look back over them, it really is dawning on me how Jesse's poetry is seamlessly connected to his home place. At first glance this is a shot of a purple chair on a porch, and I guess one can take it in that context...as just that...but as I think about the pictures, they are obviously much more than shots of objects at someone's home...they are part of the Graves' home, part of their history, and part of their future. Who sits in the purple chair? What kind of dogfood is that, and which dog gets what food? The horse's name? When was that porch painted, and what kind of wood was used for the house? What gets talked about at night on that porch? Or, in the morning over coffee? Decaf or regular? I imagine regular...

These are the kinds of things I think about when I take pictures (or look at others' shots), and I'm glad. It gives my brain someplace to be for a good part of my day. Thinking about everyday stuff, and how that's what is most important. This book of poetry will be the first in line of (hopefully many) books produced by REFUSE! Press...a venture brought on by the need to get the everyday into view. There will be more info on that soon enough, but for now I leave you with a purple chair...at home in the Heart of Appalachia...

Links:
Interview with Jesse Graves via Town Creek Poetry
Title taken from the book "At Home in the Heart of Appalachia" by John O'Brien