RTP-area local music and culture

[local506 AT gmail.com]

This article ran in the Chapel Hill News last month, but thought some
of you would be interested...glenn

Laurie Paolicelli the director of Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors'
Bureau called me two months ago to talk about reviving the downtown
trolley and running it on biodiesel fuel, instead of conventional
fossil fuel.  In the midst of giving her the three paragraphs that
comprise all I know about biodiesel, a spirit whispered into my mind
"Tell her about the WALL OF MUSIC". Suddenly the conversation jump-
shifted  from combusting French fry grease to setting up a display at
the Visitors Center that promotes our amazingly deep, diverse,
talented music scene as a way to bring visitors to town or get them to
stay a little longer. I think Laurie's angling for one more night
each, from what I recollect reading.

As we talked, the WALL OF MUSIC (can't help the caps, my spirit guide
told me to use them) began to take shape. Laurie ended the meeting by
saying what one rarely hears from bureaucrats, "When can we start?"

Now a young Chapel Hill native and avid music fan, Robbie Paul and his
design
partner Zoe are building a display that will house at least fifty CDs
at a time from local
working artists. A computer and I-pod combo will hold all the music
from these and, we
hope, other CDs.  All will be uploaded for a visitor's listening
pleasure and include
eventually a 'live, updated, interactive  calendar of musical events.
The display will have
a couple of  pairs of headphones and be a listening post for those
13,000 or so who drop
in each year at our local Visitor's Center at 501 W. Franklin Street
and the 230,000 who
visited the Bureau's web pages from afar.

Are you reading this, musicians who can't get airplay, can't sell
songs, can't fill a room
because no one knows you're playing? Send a CD to the visitor's center
and write WALL
OF MUSIC" on the envelope or drop it off at WCOM Radio in Carrboro on
the corner of
West Weaver Street at 201 North Greensboro Street.  This is for
working, local groups
only with at least one foot in Orange County.

As a county, we're kind of pretty and nice with a good personality,
but we're not beautiful, dramatic and spectacular. People don't come
here for the magnificent scenery. They head to the beach or the
mountains, not Oconeechee Mountain or the Eno River.  But we do have
great food and music.  The Lantern recently was voted one of the Top
Fifty Restaurants in the nation by Gourmet Magazine and the Southern
Foodways Alliance (www.southernfoodways.com) annual meeting descends
on us next month.

The music scene is well known in fragments, but together it presents a
striking mosaic. Rock aficionados name the thirty-something year old
Cat's Cradle as the cradle of the "Chapel Hill sound" (excuse me
Carrboro). Local record companies Yep Roc and Merge have lots of local
bands on their rosters.  Our line-up of string bands and old time
musicians is second-to-none. I think of course of the Red Clay
Ramblers and their friends, alumni, hangers-on and spinners-off as
just one nexus of creativity and musical nourishment over the past
thirty five years. Google 'Mike Craver' of the original Ramblers, if
you want to be amazed at one man's doings as a composer, musician,
actor and playwright.

All of it's here to hear all the time, often free or cheap.  Last week
I heard two hours of the Original (Red Clay) Ramblers featuring Craver
and friends Jim Watson, Joe Newberry and Bill Hicks on the Village
Green at Southern Village for a five dollar donation.  How 'bout world
class mandolin player Tony Williamson serenading just twelve of us at
the Cave last June on his birthday?

While I am not a classical music lover, that scene too is rich and I
name only those I've heard in recent years: Mallarme'Chamber Players,
Ciompi Quartet and the musical UNC couple Richard Luby and Susan
Klebanow. Choral music ensembles also abound including the community-
based Women's Voices Choir and nationally known Loreleis from UNC.  A
small jazz scene includes the ubiquitous Jim Ketch at UNC, the
versatile and multi-genre-crossing pianist Richard Tazewell. The blues
scene is anchored by stalwart Armand Lenchek who often pairs with the
incomparable Will McFarlane. Cool John Ferguson's been compared to
Jimi Hendrix. Cyril Lance's genre-bending blues guitar work has won
international awards. The 'ethnic' scene's premiere and most worldly
group is Jane Peppler's Mappamundi, whom I had the pleasure of
recording in 2001. Magnolia Klezmer band is another local favorite
blending Klezmer with Russian, gypsy, Tin Pan Alley and Dixieland.
I've heard no Indian or Gamelan, but I've heard tell of some.

So many great players hang their hats here, I'm sure I've already
insulted many of them by their absence from the list, but you get the
idea and so could many of our visitors if they only knew.  As CD sales
fall through the floor and live music venues shrivel for want of
patronage, all that talent is still irrepressible. One could go out in
only Orange County seven nights a week and feast his ears on nothing
but homegrown compelling, listenable and original sound.

Perhaps the WALL OF MUSIC will help give the lie to my friend
Elliott's bumper sticker "Real musicians have day jobs".  So if you
recognize yourself above, inscribe a plain brown wrapper with the
words WALL OF MUSIC insert your CDs and send them to the Visitor's
Bureau or drop them off at WCOM radio.  Thanks to the fifteen or so
musicians who have already generously contributed sounds to the
cause.  Frank Heath tells me I'll have no problem reaching my goal of
fifty.

Blair Pollock lives in Chapel Hill and listens to live, local  music
once a month or so.