Callaway, Erica and I hit the road and headed to Houston to meet Herb Remington on Monday. Remington was a member of the original Texas Playboys and roomed with Tommy Duncan when they travelled.
We arrived right on time to met Remington at 11 a.m. at the local Luby's. While eating our fruit cups and soup, we listened intently to Remington tell us about his life. By the way, he is the owner of Remington Guitars (which Erica had been trying to tell us for three weeks). Besides hearing interesting stories about his time with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Remington told us about his opportunity to play for two presidents and working with Elvis Presley.
Next, we drove to Remington's house to hold on the on-camera interview. He retold some stories and added fresh ones as Callaway and I stood behind the camera recording the interview. Meanwhile, Erica was our audio girl and asked Remington the interview questions.
Overall, it was a great day in Houston. We were very thankful for Remington's participation with the documentary. Plus, we loved meeting an original Texas Playboy and hearing first hand accounts of life with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Hillsboro
Erica and I are traveling all over Texas. This time we were having fun at a radio station in Hillsboro.
The Baylor crew meet Pam Townley and Larry Scott at KHBR.
The booth we interviewed in was tiny. Erica asked the questions, while I sat in the hallway very quietly. I do know Scott gave us great sound bites for the documentary. Also, Scott was a great guy and is giving up contacts for other important people in western swing.
Scott was so nice to meet with us today.
On the run as always. Just wanted to give a quick update
-M
The Baylor crew meet Pam Townley and Larry Scott at KHBR.
The booth we interviewed in was tiny. Erica asked the questions, while I sat in the hallway very quietly. I do know Scott gave us great sound bites for the documentary. Also, Scott was a great guy and is giving up contacts for other important people in western swing.
Scott was so nice to meet with us today.
On the run as always. Just wanted to give a quick update
-M
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Day in Whitney
On Monday, Calaway, Erica and I travelled to Whitney to meet up with Pam, Billy, Jack and Jack's wife.
Erica and I arrived at 9 a.m. sharp, which gave us plenty of time to look around the Texas Mint.
There was plenty of neat stuff and Erica thought about purchasing this gorgeous indian dress. We thought people in New York might look at her funny so we decided she shouldn't buy it.
After Billy and Callaway arrived, we headed out to the log cabin house, where Tommy Duncan was born. We met Jack and his wife at the log cabin. They were very nice to come and meet with us and talk about Tommy. Jack let us interview him on camera. It was a great interview and going to look awesome in the documentary. After the interview, Erica and I were serenaded by Billy and Jack and of course Callaway caught it all on camera!
Overall, it was a nice day in Whitney.
Since then, Erica and I talked with Barbara Martin, owner of Western Swing Monthly, about people that would be helpful with our research about Tommy Duncan and western swing.
Also, she asked us to write a column about our work on the project and what we have done so far. We are SUPER excited about it.
That's all for now. We shall keep you posted. Plus, I have some pictures to post from our day in Whitney.
-M
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Meetings and more meetings
Sorry Mandy and I haven't blogged recently, we've been really busy with meetings...and we're about to tell y'all about them!
First of all, we've been working on putting together a cohesive plan to complete a media kit for the documentary and a news release for the 100th birthday celebration in January (by the way, does the 100th birthday celebration have an event name?? Or is it just the "100th Birthday Celebration"?). We met with Callaway yesterday to talk about the media kit, the first item on our list is to determine a budget. We also need to establish what will all be included in the DVD box set. We received original photos of Tommy Duncan (thanks Pam!) that will be included in our media kit, if given permission, of course!
Today we met with Bill Green of BGM; he was extremely willing to talk with us. Bill told us memories of growing up listening to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, his work with Billy Mata and insightful thoughts about the future of Western Swing. He also gave us some more contact names for possible interviewees.
Bill recorded all of Billy Mata's albums; they've been working together since the 1980s. We asked Bill if he had an funny stories about Billy. He laughed and said he has many, but some aren't appropriate to divulge. He gave us a preview of a story and said he would get back to us once he thinks of a good one. When we go to film the recording session, I think it would be fun to get Bill on camera telling some stories about Billy for the "Behind the Scenes" portion of the DVD. It would show a fun side to the Western Swing community.
Mandy and I have a call into Pam, so hopefully we'll hear from Pam soon and we'll be able to post a little more about what we're doing.
Have a great day!
-E & M
First of all, we've been working on putting together a cohesive plan to complete a media kit for the documentary and a news release for the 100th birthday celebration in January (by the way, does the 100th birthday celebration have an event name?? Or is it just the "100th Birthday Celebration"?). We met with Callaway yesterday to talk about the media kit, the first item on our list is to determine a budget. We also need to establish what will all be included in the DVD box set. We received original photos of Tommy Duncan (thanks Pam!) that will be included in our media kit, if given permission, of course!
Today we met with Bill Green of BGM; he was extremely willing to talk with us. Bill told us memories of growing up listening to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, his work with Billy Mata and insightful thoughts about the future of Western Swing. He also gave us some more contact names for possible interviewees.
Bill recorded all of Billy Mata's albums; they've been working together since the 1980s. We asked Bill if he had an funny stories about Billy. He laughed and said he has many, but some aren't appropriate to divulge. He gave us a preview of a story and said he would get back to us once he thinks of a good one. When we go to film the recording session, I think it would be fun to get Bill on camera telling some stories about Billy for the "Behind the Scenes" portion of the DVD. It would show a fun side to the Western Swing community.
Mandy and I have a call into Pam, so hopefully we'll hear from Pam soon and we'll be able to post a little more about what we're doing.
Have a great day!
-E & M
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Last night at Martinez Social Club
Last night was so much fun that I don't even know where to start... I guess I'll just do a chronological account of Billy Mata's birthday and the band's 30th anniversary.
I know Erica already recapped our time at the Martinez Social Club, but I wanted to include a photo I took of Rocco playing the drums. : )
-Mandy
After Tyler and I got a little lost, we finally met Callaway, Mandy and Kyle at the Martinez Social Club around 5:30. The plan was to do more interviews for the documentary like we did last week at the Broken Spoke. Our light guy flaked out on us, so we didn't have any lights to use :( However, Mandy and I did get some key contacts for interviews hopefully later this week:
Barbara Martin - Barbara owns Western Swing Monthly and obviously knows a great deal about Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. She also knows two Texas Playboys personally, Herb Remington and Casey Dickens. According to Barbara, these two Playboys lived with Tommy Duncan and will be able to give us some interesting facts and stories about the singer. Very exciting. Herb lives in Houston, so I'm hoping to plan a trip home soon so I can meet face-to-face with him. And maybe bring the camera crew along to film him for the documentary. Who knows.
Larry Scott - Larry is a DJ and MC at the Hall of Fame. He's met Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan, so he should also be able to tell us some personal stories to bring Tommy back to life for a little while.
Bill Green - Bill recorded Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition's newest CD. I'm sure he will be able to tell us some great stories about the band and also will be very knowledgeable about Western Swing. I'm looking forward to speaking with him.
Lori & George Becknell - Lori and George are PHENOMENAL dancers who attended the event last night. They've been taking dance lessons for two years (since they are now empty-nesters) and have fallen into the Western Swing craze. They are also very knowledgeable about Western Swing and are great contacts for light-hearted articles about people who just plain and simple love Western Swing.
The people we met last night will definitely lead to more contacts and more story ideas.
Moving on with the night, Callaway and Kyle filmed the majority of the event while Mandy ran around with her camera trying to get as many stills as possible. I only had my little point and shoot, so I took a few pictures that I'll be posting later. I got to spend the majority of the night dancing with Tyler (awkwardly). We are not country dancers, so trying to figure out how to two step (well) was a challenge for us. We kept seeing crazy-good dancers and tried to mimic their dance moves, and failed miserably. Tyler was able to get a few dance lessons with a nice woman, Ruthie, while I was off talking to different people. I, however, did not get any dance lessons from someone who actually knew what they were doing. Just Tyler. We still had a great time tripping over each other.
Billy was surprised with an amazing, and quite large, cake for his birthday and a pair of snazzy custom boots. The boots are black and red and on the front say Billy Mata and on the back say Tommy Duncan Tribute. He seemed overwhelmed and very grateful for his birthday surprises.
We rolled out of the Martinez Social Club around 11:30 p.m. and made it home around 2:30 a.m. Overall, we had a very successful and entertaining night!
-Erica
Barbara Martin - Barbara owns Western Swing Monthly and obviously knows a great deal about Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. She also knows two Texas Playboys personally, Herb Remington and Casey Dickens. According to Barbara, these two Playboys lived with Tommy Duncan and will be able to give us some interesting facts and stories about the singer. Very exciting. Herb lives in Houston, so I'm hoping to plan a trip home soon so I can meet face-to-face with him. And maybe bring the camera crew along to film him for the documentary. Who knows.
Larry Scott - Larry is a DJ and MC at the Hall of Fame. He's met Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan, so he should also be able to tell us some personal stories to bring Tommy back to life for a little while.
Bill Green - Bill recorded Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition's newest CD. I'm sure he will be able to tell us some great stories about the band and also will be very knowledgeable about Western Swing. I'm looking forward to speaking with him.
Lori & George Becknell - Lori and George are PHENOMENAL dancers who attended the event last night. They've been taking dance lessons for two years (since they are now empty-nesters) and have fallen into the Western Swing craze. They are also very knowledgeable about Western Swing and are great contacts for light-hearted articles about people who just plain and simple love Western Swing.
The people we met last night will definitely lead to more contacts and more story ideas.
Moving on with the night, Callaway and Kyle filmed the majority of the event while Mandy ran around with her camera trying to get as many stills as possible. I only had my little point and shoot, so I took a few pictures that I'll be posting later. I got to spend the majority of the night dancing with Tyler (awkwardly). We are not country dancers, so trying to figure out how to two step (well) was a challenge for us. We kept seeing crazy-good dancers and tried to mimic their dance moves, and failed miserably. Tyler was able to get a few dance lessons with a nice woman, Ruthie, while I was off talking to different people. I, however, did not get any dance lessons from someone who actually knew what they were doing. Just Tyler. We still had a great time tripping over each other.
Billy was surprised with an amazing, and quite large, cake for his birthday and a pair of snazzy custom boots. The boots are black and red and on the front say Billy Mata and on the back say Tommy Duncan Tribute. He seemed overwhelmed and very grateful for his birthday surprises.
We rolled out of the Martinez Social Club around 11:30 p.m. and made it home around 2:30 a.m. Overall, we had a very successful and entertaining night!
-Erica
-Mandy
Friday, September 10, 2010
Research, research, research
Mandy and I are still sitting at Chili's Too on Baylor's campus completely engrossed in researching Tommy Duncan and organizing the numerous files we already have regarding this project.
I've already found opposing accounts about Tommy Duncan's early life and start with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. However, all the information I have found I find extremely interesting and would love to find someone to interview (possibly Glynn Duncan? Who better to give the account of Tommy Duncan's early life then his own brother?) to get the cold, hard facts. I'm also hoping to meet someone tomorrow at Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition's 30th Anniversary at the Martinez Social Club in San Antonio who may have a personal connection to the Western Swing legend.
Speaking of the event tomorrow, I can't express how excited I am to attend. Last Friday at the Broken Spoke in Austin was such an amazing experience. Interviewing Carolyn Martin, Billy Mata and Floyd Domino for the first documentary I have ever worked on was truly awesome. Everyone was so helpful, nice and so willing to cooperate with Baylor PR!
By the way, Mandy and I have created all of our accounts with ME BUPR, which stands for Mandy Erica Baylor University PR, but we are open to any suggestions on what we should be calling ourselves now that we are in business together!
-Erica
I've already found opposing accounts about Tommy Duncan's early life and start with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. However, all the information I have found I find extremely interesting and would love to find someone to interview (possibly Glynn Duncan? Who better to give the account of Tommy Duncan's early life then his own brother?) to get the cold, hard facts. I'm also hoping to meet someone tomorrow at Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition's 30th Anniversary at the Martinez Social Club in San Antonio who may have a personal connection to the Western Swing legend.
Speaking of the event tomorrow, I can't express how excited I am to attend. Last Friday at the Broken Spoke in Austin was such an amazing experience. Interviewing Carolyn Martin, Billy Mata and Floyd Domino for the first documentary I have ever worked on was truly awesome. Everyone was so helpful, nice and so willing to cooperate with Baylor PR!
By the way, Mandy and I have created all of our accounts with ME BUPR, which stands for Mandy Erica Baylor University PR, but we are open to any suggestions on what we should be calling ourselves now that we are in business together!
-Erica
"Oral Memoirs of Glynn Duncan"
Today, I searched for information the Baylor library might have on Tommy Duncan and western swing. Luckily, Baylor has several books about western swing. On top of that, I found a interview of Glynn Duncan conducted by Jean A. Boyd on July 29 1993.
Glynn talked about his personal journey with music. (He learned how to play the bass while on a ship during World War II). A majority of the interview focused on Tommy, who was about 12 years older than Glynn. Glynn mentioned Tommy's 19-year career with Bob Wills and Tommy's band called Tommy Duncan and the Western Allstars.
A great start to research, but so much more to go!
-Mandy
Glynn talked about his personal journey with music. (He learned how to play the bass while on a ship during World War II). A majority of the interview focused on Tommy, who was about 12 years older than Glynn. Glynn mentioned Tommy's 19-year career with Bob Wills and Tommy's band called Tommy Duncan and the Western Allstars.
A great start to research, but so much more to go!
-Mandy
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