...in which a dream has come true.
Sometime in 2009 I met a guy named Mark "Porkchop" Holder at Tremont Tavern's open mic here in Chattanooga. He'd just finished playing a pretty killer set*, and I walked up to him and said, "So you're the guy I've been mistaken for over the past several years." (We don't really look alike, Mark and I; I'm about six inches taller and at least 250 lbs. heavier, plus he wears glasses and I do not. But I guess people see "fat guy with a guitar", we apparently all look the same.) Thus was born a long-lasting friendship that turned into a pretty satisfying musical collaboration, too.
We played several shows in Chattanooga (along with a couple of different drummers) as Mark Holder and the Co-Defendants (look up that band name along with "My Black Name" on YouTube), including one notable gig in which we opened for living legend T-Model Ford at JJ's Bohemia. But it was never anything serious, just for fun, and Mark ended up getting married and moving first to Texas, and then to California.
For a good three years he pretty much fell off the face of the Earth. His musician friends in Chattanooga worried about him and missed him, but we knew that when he was ready, he'd resurface.
Late in 2015 I got a text from a number I did not recognize, with an area code that, when Googled, said "Chico, California," and it said, "I'm trying to reach my friend, Travis Kilgore. Is this still his number?"
I called him and for the first time in years spoke to my friend. Laughs were had, tears were shed, and amongst other things, Mark said, "Remember all that music I played in Chattanooga? That was just me screwing around. I'm coming home, and this time we're doing the thing for real, T."
It took a little while, but he returned home in March of this year. Shortly thereafter we started practicing with Doug Bales, drummer for local bands Uncle Lightnin' and The Unsatisfied, becoming a band that we call Mark "Porkchop" Holder and MPH. In April, I believe it was, we went into Tiny Buzz Studios and recorded what is to be our debut album, "Let it Slide". In June, we went to Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia, to have the record mixed by none other than Dave Barbe**, which was an incredible experience of its own.
We shopped the record around to several different labels, one in France and a couple here in the states, but in the end it was picked up by Alive Natural Sound Records, a fairly large label here in the US which has both domestic AND European distribution.
And so it was that today, in the office of Millard Ramsey, Attorney at Law, Mark, Doug, and I signed a contract with the aforementioned label.
Today, I became a signed recording artist.
I'll likely post more in the near future about some of the ins and outs of what is now to come, but I'm just putting this here for posterity.
I am a signed recording artist.
Holy shit.
______________________________________________________________________
*The open mic at Tremont Tavern is not your normal "amateur hour" that you might expect from an open mic. You're apt to see highly talented locals as well as local-based, touring, professional musicians, playing covers that they like (but don't get to play during their shows) or trying out new material that they've written. The place really was the hub for much of Chattanooga's music scene for a good five years, and still is to a certain degree.
**You may or may not recognize his name right away, but he is a very big deal amongst people who pay attention to album credits. Look him up on Wikipedia.
We played several shows in Chattanooga (along with a couple of different drummers) as Mark Holder and the Co-Defendants (look up that band name along with "My Black Name" on YouTube), including one notable gig in which we opened for living legend T-Model Ford at JJ's Bohemia. But it was never anything serious, just for fun, and Mark ended up getting married and moving first to Texas, and then to California.
For a good three years he pretty much fell off the face of the Earth. His musician friends in Chattanooga worried about him and missed him, but we knew that when he was ready, he'd resurface.
Late in 2015 I got a text from a number I did not recognize, with an area code that, when Googled, said "Chico, California," and it said, "I'm trying to reach my friend, Travis Kilgore. Is this still his number?"
I called him and for the first time in years spoke to my friend. Laughs were had, tears were shed, and amongst other things, Mark said, "Remember all that music I played in Chattanooga? That was just me screwing around. I'm coming home, and this time we're doing the thing for real, T."
It took a little while, but he returned home in March of this year. Shortly thereafter we started practicing with Doug Bales, drummer for local bands Uncle Lightnin' and The Unsatisfied, becoming a band that we call Mark "Porkchop" Holder and MPH. In April, I believe it was, we went into Tiny Buzz Studios and recorded what is to be our debut album, "Let it Slide". In June, we went to Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia, to have the record mixed by none other than Dave Barbe**, which was an incredible experience of its own.
We shopped the record around to several different labels, one in France and a couple here in the states, but in the end it was picked up by Alive Natural Sound Records, a fairly large label here in the US which has both domestic AND European distribution.
And so it was that today, in the office of Millard Ramsey, Attorney at Law, Mark, Doug, and I signed a contract with the aforementioned label.
Today, I became a signed recording artist.
I'll likely post more in the near future about some of the ins and outs of what is now to come, but I'm just putting this here for posterity.
I am a signed recording artist.
Holy shit.
______________________________________________________________________
*The open mic at Tremont Tavern is not your normal "amateur hour" that you might expect from an open mic. You're apt to see highly talented locals as well as local-based, touring, professional musicians, playing covers that they like (but don't get to play during their shows) or trying out new material that they've written. The place really was the hub for much of Chattanooga's music scene for a good five years, and still is to a certain degree.
**You may or may not recognize his name right away, but he is a very big deal amongst people who pay attention to album credits. Look him up on Wikipedia.