#kirby warnock

[idasessions]

Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook posing with groupies Judy Jett and Audrey Hamilton in Dallas, TX, January 1978. Photo by Kirby Warnock.

[idasessions]

Groupie Audrey Hamilton with bassist Steve Fossen of Heart backstage the Texxas Jam Music Festival in Dallas on July 1st, 1978. Steve’s bandmates Nancy and Ann Wilson are on the cover of the issue of Buddy Magazine he’s reading. Photo by Kirby Warnock.

[idasessions]

Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson and popular groupie Audrey Hamilton next to a town car in Dallas during a TL world tour, August 1978. Photo by Kirby Warnock. 

[greensparty]

Movie Reviews - Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues / Spinning Gold

This week I got to review two music-themed movies:

Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues

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Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954-1990) was a guitar legend. I mean it. He elevated blues and rock with his extraordinary guitar playing in unbelievable ways. I became aware of him in the late 80s as a teen. On August 27, 1990 he died at age 35 in a helicopter accident following a performance at a blues festival. At that point and time, I was taking guitar lessons and my instructor talked about SRV quite a bit. I watched the MTV News special following his passing and began to get into his music. His 1983 debut Texas Flood and his Greatest Hits compilation are among my faves. In 2004 while visiting Austin, TX I actually saw the SRV monument. 

me with the SRV statue in Austin, TX in 2004

In 2019 when I interviewed biographer Alan Paul about his SRV bio Texas Flood, something we discussed is that SRV’s music does not sound dated at all. It is from the 80s but there’s a timelessness to his music. SRV’s older brother Jimmie Vaughan is quite an impressive guitarist as well. I first became aware of him in The Fabulous Thunderbirds (”Tuff Enuff” was featured in tons of movie soundtracks, too many to namecheck here) and I even included his solo album Baby, Please Come Home in my Best Albums of 2019 list. TX-based director (and former editor of the TX music publication Buddy Magazine) Kirby Warnock has directed a doc on both Vaughan brothers Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues, which was recently released on VOD platforms.

The doc shows the Vaughan brothers humble beginnings and their early interest in guitar and both of their musical trajectories. It doesn’t shy away from talking about their struggles with addiction and getting sober. It also goes deep into the music itself. Or course it also sadly gets into SRV’s untimely death just before the release of The Vaughan Brothers only album Family Style (pretty good album BTW). Featured interviewees include Jimmie Vaughan as well as Eric Clapton, Nile Rodgers, Jackson Browne, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and various Vaughan relatives and experts. 

I’m a fan of SRV and while I’m not expert on Jimmie Vaughan, I have a deep respect for him. Therefore I was fully on board with this doc. At times it does veer into For Fans Only territory and Warnock does seem like more of a fan than a filmmaker at times (i.e., he narrates and at one point he recounts his own experience being at the concert being shown) - but stay with it. The doc has some amazing archival footage and it makes the point of why both brothers are guitar legends who deserve their place in the pantheon of music history.

For info on Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues: https://brothersinbluesdoc.com/

3.5 out of 5 stars

Spinning Gold

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Neil Bogart (1943-1982) was the founder of Casablanca Records, which turns 50 this year. The label was ground zero for so much 70s music: Kiss, Donna Summer, Parliament, The Village People and many more. Just a few weeks ago, I scored a vinyl copy of Kiss’s Alive II and there was the Casablanca logo in the center of the vinyl! Brooklyn native Neil Bogart founded the label and he thought big and gambled even bigger. Neil’s son Timothy Scott Bogart has directed, written and produced a big music biopic about his father with Spinning Gold, which opened this weekend. The idea of someone directing a film about their father kind of reminded me of Baadasssss!, Mario Van Peebles’ biopic about his father Melvin. 

Jeremy Jordan plays Neil Bogart, who came from humble beginnings and with his trusty music-loving executives began a record label, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. The first few years they were in debt. But he had a passion for music and believed in the artists years before the public caught on. While the label was in the red, he gambled even bigger. All this while having a wife and kids (and an extra-marital affair). 

The real Neil Bogart (center) with Kiss in 1973

I went into this movie a fan of many of the artists, so I was never bored with the movie itself. But I need to say: this is the argument for a limited series instead of a movie. As a stand-alone movie this felt like so much was shoehorned in and condensed. As a limited series, it could unfold over multiple episodes and say more over a longer period of time, much like the new Amazon Prime Video series Daisy Jones & The Six, also about the music industry in the 70s. The film has loads of tropes of music biopics, i.e. that moment when a musician comes up with a song that will one day be a classic and it blows away everyone in the room (that happens a few times in this film). We got pieces of Kiss’s story, pieces of Donna Summer, pieces of George Clinton - but not enough pieces to put it all together and be bigger than the sum of their parts. I will say this - I really liked a some of the supporting characters and seeing comic actors like Jay Pharaoh, Michael Ian Black, and Chris Redd do more than their usual comedic roles. Jordan is not bad as Neil Bogart, but I couldn’t help but think about Justin Timberlake in the role as he was attached to this over a decade ago. Fans of Kiss (or Kiss Army Members) are likely to be let down by the group getting reduced to a small supporting role in the film. Overall, movies about record labels are hard to get right, but this one swings high...even if it doesn’t always land on gold.

For info on Spinning Gold: https://www.spinninggold.movie/

2.5 out of 5 stars