Double Vision

Rob Brown sends us "Double Vision," the first widescreen 7-minute flick we've seen since he and Lisa (her film debut, she's pretty good) moved to Nashville from Los Angeles.

Rob is an old school pal who still maintains the good sense to check in for a concert tip. He called me up one day not long ago askin' about Robyn Hitchcock... didn't I like him... should I go... that kinda thing. Hitchcock's always worth seeing in any incarnation (solo, w/ the egyptians, soft boys, venus 3, etc.) but I had to ask....who's the band? It was billed as "Robyn Hitchcock and the Nashville Crawdads."

"That's a must-go, Rob" and so he and Lisa went for a Sunday night show. Who are the Nashville Crawdads? There was no way to know, but this was obviously some kind of special event. RH recently made an album w/ Gillian Welch and David Rawlins, so there was a local clue.

Turns out the crawdads were Gillian and David and the Venus 3, and ALSO Peter Buck (of REM, of course) and John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin, of frickin' course). NOw there's a band for you! Hitchcock led the ensemble through his own songs ("Brenda's Iron Sledge", "Baloon Man"), some Gillian Welch material, and a luscious countryfied version of the Grateful Dead's "Candyman".

Needless to say it was a good thing they went! Small, intimate venue to boot. Somebody recorded the show and posted it to dimeadozen, so we listen to this show all the time. At one point Robyn says "of course this show is being recorded. Everything is recorded these days. But it will never be mixed."