Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Bud Band

The good times just keep rolling along for Jag Star, the Knoxville group you're probably most likely to see on MTV a year or two from now. Fresh from winning a national songwriting competition and touring Middle Eastern U.S. military bases, the band was recently contacted by Budweiser. America's best selling beer will sponsor the group as part of its "True Music Live" program, says bandleader Sarah Lewis. Bud will give the band a guitar and promotional money and feature it on its website, www.budweiser.com.

In other Jag Star news, the band is losing its violinist, Erin Archer. A newlywed, Archer decided the life of a touring rock 'n' roll star ain't for her and she wants to settle down, Lewis says. Archer will help the band sell merchandise at their hometown shows.

"We'll either stay a four-piece, which has worked for the military shows so we know we can do it, or we'll replace her with another violin or another guitar," Lewis says. "We've got some ideas but we're not sure yet. We're still recording demos for some producers and we'll stay focused on that for a little while."

Help the Vets

Last Saturday's Festival Americana to benefit the Steps House was sadly a financial failure. John West of JP Stratson, which promoted the event, says although the music was incredible, they lost about $10,000 (bands donated their time but there were promotions and production costs). They were hoping to raise $50,000 to keep the house open until an expected federal grant arrives later this year.

"The concert was great, the bands were unbelievable," West says. "Probably throughout the day we had maybe 800 people. Which is not bad. The good news is we got a lot of awareness.

"We're going to do this next year. Everyone tells us sometimes it takes a while to get going. R.B. Morris and those guys said they'd help next year," he adds.

West says he doesn't know why the turnout was so bad. "The publicity was unbelievable," he says, noting that many newspapers, radio stations and TV stations got the word out. He wondered if the West Knoxville location or the lack of beer might have been a factor. They're going to look at different locations for the event next year and reconsider beer sales. No alcohol was sold at this event in-part because the Steps House is a 12-step program devoted to helping alcoholic and drug addicted men. "We talked about [selling beer]. We don't know if on the next one it would be counterproductive or not," West says.

In the meantime, the Steps House needs help. Donations can be sent to Steps House (Attention John West), 725 Boggs Ave., Knoxville, 37920; or online at www.stratsonproductions.com. Food and clothing donations are also welcome.

Empire

Writer Jack Rentfro offers his surreal impressions of the Festival Americana:

I had just called in a request for R.B. Morris' new "That's How Every Empire Falls" to WDVX that afternoon on the last day of May before going to the "First Annual Festival Americana," a fund-raiser for Steps House, a non-profit organization helping homeless veterans. The DJ said he had just played it and couldn't play it again in the same rotation cycle. Turns out, I would get another chance to hear the song that day.

We saddled up the Caravan and went on to the show which was taking place at City Streetz, a skating park in the already paved hell of West Knoxville.

There isn't anything more existential than yesterday's flyers blowing across an empty parking lot, urged along by the plaintive sound of a Telecaster played with controlled fire by a master guitarist. The band was on a flatbed trailer improvised into a stage in front of a graffiti-covered structure created for the skate generation. Only, they can't use the facility today because it's being loaned out for a fund-raiser for homeless veterans. The buzzcut kids in their baggy clothes are hanging out, right there alongside the amputees and various other disenfranchisees of one stripe or another.

They say some DJ jumped off the stage earlier in the day and got a compound fracture of his leg. Anything for a show, I reckon. I wondered if the mishap had anything to do with the Elvis impersonator who was stalking the pit area, crooning karaoke-style to women among the spectators dribbling through the sparse crowd. Various images from the indoor stage area at City Streetz: Leslie Woods and her superb colleagues putting on a heartfelt show for a couple dozen folks while kids run rampant through the Casbah-style curtain of streamers that semi-divide the room. R.B., probably having forgotten to eat anything that day, slipping behind the counter and helping himself to a bag of day-old popcorn from the unattended machine. Photographer Alan Shamblin working both stages simultaneously, it seemed, sweating to get that shot each time he snaps the shutter. It occurs to me that I have missed some performers that I would have liked to see who played earlier in the day. We were lucky enough showing up in time to catch part of Michael Crawley's and Tim Lee's sets.

A 60-something couple in matching red, white and blue casual wear slow dance their way out into the expanse of parking lot between the folding chairs and the makeshift outdoor stage, prompted by a slow tempo song by R.B. Morris. They carry on gamely as his version of "Thunder Road" explodes from the atmospheric intro to the 'left-the-road-at-90' pace of the rest of the should-be classic remake.

We shouldn't have to be raising money thousand-points-of-light-style for ex-soldiers who stood in harm's way at the behest of our government. Bless the private soldier. Bless the musicians and the private entities and individuals who volunteered to put on the Festival Americana. I wish things had worked out differently for the old boys.

—Madame "Went down to see my V.A. man, he said 'Son, don't you understand?'" Georgie with Joe Tarr