SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS GALLERY
1331 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
E:
P. 213.213.0078
F. 213.213.0077
Juxtapoz Magazine made a list of the top 100 galleries and museums and we're #10! They're also taking a readers poll so vote for us if you like what we're doing.
http://www.juxtapoz.com/Top100/subliminal-projects-los-angeles-california
Opening Reception:
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 / 8-11PM
Exhibition Dates:
February 6th - March 6th, 2010
New Works by Andres Guerrero and Albert Reyes, opening February 6th at Subliminal Projects, features a pair of artists and longtime friends whose contrasting bodies of work show both ends of the contemplation spectrum. On the introspective side lies Guerrero, who describes his skull imagery as "symbolic self-portrait representation... a descriptive means of living through death." Reyes, on the other hand, blends his own experience into the contextual spheres of pop culture, politics, religion and life in L.A. "My view of the world is from L.A.," says Reyes. "My view is through the L.A. media, taking in the culture, the people, the vastness of L.A. No one can escape the Hollywood impact."
Stylistically, the two artists are equally divergent. Reyes' works often consist of pencil and pen line drawings, rendered on the backsides of book covers, wood panels and the occasional found object. While they vary in detail from folk-like simplicity to photorealism, they always seem to carry a quality of surreal wisdom, with subject matter that is both stranger than fiction and funny because it's true. Guerrero, conversely, paints rich layers and webs that express the fluid impermanence of life and the duality of confusion and comfort in his emotional struggles with personal loss, connection and reconnection. Together they combine to express life's tension in its many forms - personal, cultural, spiritual - rendered meticulously and fluently.
Check out the exclusive interview that Juxtapoz did with Andres:
http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/exclusive-interview-with-andres-guerrero-plus-sneak-peek-at-new-art
Antonino's books, Let Fury Have The Hour and A Heartbeat And A Guitar, are now available for purchase in our online store. Both are really great reads that give you some insight into the lives of two influential but rebellious musical heroes, Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash. Plus, A Heartbeat And A Guitar is signed by both Shepard Fairey and Antonino D'Ambrosio.
Welcome to 2010! Photos of the work from A Furious Heartbeat and the opening reception are now up in the Current section as well as a great video about the event featuring interviews with Shepard Fairey, Steve Jones, and Antonino D'Ambrosio. You can also check out the video here: http://vimeo.com/8557097
Video by Josh Gibson, Treeline Drive
Check out this article with a Furious Heartbeat collaborator Antonino D'Ambrosio interviewed by writer Harvey Kubernik about the Bitter Tears book.
A Heartbeat And A Guitar Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears By Harvey Kubernik © 2009
“A Heartbeat And A Guitar Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears” is a truly absorbing book on Cash and the making of his seminal L.P. “Bitter Tears: Ballad of the American Indian” by author Antonino D’Ambrosio published in October 2009 by Nation Books. The literary work features cover art by Shepard Fairey, and thirty-four never-before-seen photographs from Jim Marshall and Diana Davies. Writer D’Ambrosio previously penned “Let Fury Have The Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer” and just directed a movie version slated for late 2009 viewing and planned 2010 theatrical distribution. His most recent film is “No Free Lunch,” starring comedian Lewis Black. Chuck D of Public Enemy declares Brooklyn-based Antonino D’Ambrosio as “the voice of a new generation—passionate, intelligent, and fierce—whose work educates and inspires. He now brings his unique voice to tell a unique story of Johnny Cash’s recording of the protest record ‘Bitter Tears.’ It’s the album no one knows about but is perhaps Cash’s greatest record—and Antonino proves it.” In his new examination of Johnny Cash and the “Bitter Tears” album, featuring the “controversial” Peter La Farge song “The Ballad Of Ira Hayes,” D’Ambrosio not only brings us into an overlooked and important Cash disc but in the process delivers a stirring portrait of an American force of nature. The D’Ambrosio sheds light on the forgotten history on the collaboration of Cash and little-known folk musician and songwriter, Peter La Farge, as well as providing insights into the plight of Native People. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” details the life of Hayes, the Pima Indian and U.S. Marine Corpsman who is one of the servicemen captured in the iconic photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. “Ira Hayes” other selections reinforce the radical spirit of the “Bitter Tears” project. Johnny Cash, Pisces, was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, on February 26, 1932. Same date as Fats Domino, Cyrus Faryar, Bob Hite, Paul Cotton, Michael Bolton, George Harrison, Jackie Gleason, Sandie Shaw and myself. In July 1950 he enlisted in the air force when the United States was embroiled in the Korean conflict. Stationed in Germany Johnny purchased his first guitar. During the four years he spent as a military cryptographer Cash practiced the guitar while reading history books. After debuting on Sun Records in 1955, Cash then inked a recording agreement with Columbia Records in 1958. Johnny Cash’s physical and geographical relationship to Southern California, Los Angeles, and Hollywood in particular has been somewhat neglected in our revisionist media defined world when Cash’s career is chronicled. Johnny Cash spent large portions of a decade of his life after leaving Sun Records, doing his first gospel LP when signed to Columbia Records, after first splitting from Memphis to Ventura County. On August 13, 1957 at a party in California Cash first met British-born record producer Don Law after a local television appearance who first touted Johnny about joining Columbia Records after Cash’s contract with Sun ended on August 1, 1958. In August 1958 Cash and clan moved to California and he rented an apartment on Coldwater Canyon Avenue in North Hollywood. Later that year Cash and his family bought a ranch house from comedian/TV host Johnny Carson on Havenhurst Avenue in Encino in the San Fernando Valley. Johnny Cash Enterprises was once located on Sunset Blvd. at the Crossroads of the World complex in Hollywood. Johnny did his first real movie work out in Southern California and countless television appearances in the area over the decades including the L.A. based “Town Hall Party” program in 1960. Johnny even did an autograph signing in 1961 at Pal Records in Topanga. In 2003 I attended June Carter Cash’s autograph signing at the Virgin Super Store in West Hollywood where the Groove Company record shop once stood.
Hollywood and Los Angeles informed Johnny Cash’s art more than most folks want to admit. Cash’s regional ties with California continued for decades, culminating in his acclaimed Rick Rubin-produced recordings, including “Hurt.”
When Johnny Cash died in 2003, writer Todd Everett told me about a 1963 Ventura College benefit Cash did for the police department, “‘cause Johnny was always getting in trouble in an area between Ventura County and Ojai California, his young girls with his first wife Vivian (Liberto) grew up there. And Cash purchased his father a trailer home. And if that ain’t country you can kiss my ass.” Riverside, Ca. raised Barbara Mandrell has another local anecdote about Johnny Cash. I met her at MCA Records in when I was in A&R for the label around the time the company purchased ABC Records in 1979. We talked for 15 minutes one evening about Johnny at a label function in Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. Years later Barbara told CNN TV interviewer Larry King that Johnny Cash saw her in 1960 when she was age 13 on the local L.A. TV show “Town Hall Party,” which was filmed near downtown Los Angeles. Johnny and his manager were impressed catching that TV slot and gave her a first out-of-state tour on a package that included Patsy Cline in 1962. Barbara detailed her first airplane trip sitting next to Cash on the flight. There is also Condors’ founder and guitarist Pat Di Puccio aka Pooch of “Flipside” Magazine fame. He fondly remembers a personal Johnny Cash event from 1966 anecdote that further sheds light on Johnny’s deep societal bond with his fans. “It was around ’66, I believe, that my Big Brother of America took me to see Johnny Cash play a show with Tex Ritter at the Ventura Theater. Johnny had informed him on how to put out his solo records, and my Big Brother never failed to support Johnny by buying his records and seeing him perform. After the theater show, Johnny was scheduled to play a set of religious songs at a local church with the Carter Family and the Statler Brothers. The trek from Los Angeles to Ventura was quite a long one, so I kept falling asleep during the program. Afterwards, Johnny had asked my Big Brother if he and I would like to go back to his house for doughnuts, a very cool gesture. Unfortunately, my Big Brother had to get me back home, as it was a school night. I always remember that, even when Johnny was a celebrity, he still found time to connect with his fans. Of course, I do wish I’d have been able to take him up on his late night offer,” muses Di Puccio.
Johnny always insisted he was part Cherokee Indian, and evidence supports his claim. In 1968 Cash toured Wounded Knee, South Dakota with descendents of the survivors of the 1890 massacre and played songs from “Bitter Tears” at a benefit performance at Cemetery Hill for the tribe. Johnny Cash offered thoughts and solutions on Native People’s problems and helped the Sioux raise money for schools. Before “Man in Black,” and his epic “Live from Folsom Prison,” Johnny Cash recorded what should have been a career-defining album. “Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian.” Waxed in collaboration with folk-artist Peter La Farge. The L.P. is a somber vinyl outing that identified Cash as an advocate for human rights and social justice. He had met La Farge who played him “Indian Songs.” The original album pressing is a collection of recordings, musical story telling and social consciousness recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, with record producers Don Law and Frank Jones anchored and grounded by La Farge’s material like “Ira Hayes,” Custer” and “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow.” Guitarist Norman Blake is on the sessions. This Cash LP, cut in 1964, his 19th album, should have cemented Cash’s reputation as social activist. However, the audio venture immediately fell into obscurity. Deemed “un-American” and incendiary, the album was banned, censored, and erased from the airwaves. The country music purists rejected the LP. So, instead of hailing and cementing Cash’s reputation as humanitarian and activist, the album fell into obscurity. Cash’s passionate and empathetic and projected career-enhancing album had all but disappeared from the airwaves, record stores and retail outlets. Months before, Johnny had been riding high on the success of “Ring of Fire” but when “Bitter Tears” was issued, Cash found himself in the middle of a controversy that threatened his career. Then, it inspired a backlash of overwhelming proportions that included hateful protests. Columbia Records pulled all advertising. Johnny Cash, now somewhat abandoned by Columbia, and without the support of the global music community, took matters into his own hands. “Billboard” magazine had earlier also refused to review Cash’s “Bitter Tears,” so then Johnny paid for his own full-page advertisement in “Billboard” in a letter to the music business and radio stations. In the ad, Cash asks, “I had to fight back when I realized that so many stations are afraid of ‘Ira Hayes.’ Just one question: Why?” Cash, and his pal, guitarist, singer and live show host, Johnny Western, along with Pat Shields, a PR guy doing promotions for Liberty Records, had a company together called Great Western Enterprises on Western Avenue in Hollywood. Johnny and the duo sent out letters and copies of “Ira Hayes,” after Cash purchased a thousand of them from Columbia and sent the entire batch to every radio station in the country. It broke into the “Billboard” top ten in December 1964. Cash during '64 incorporated “Ira Hayes” as the closing number of his Newport Folk Festival appearance that year, following “ I Walk The Line,” and Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” in his set. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is included on 40 related Cash re-releases and compilations, and has been covered by Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, Hazel Dickens, Kinky Friedman, Charley Pride, and Patrick Sky. Bob Dylan did a rendition during sessions for “New Morning” that surfaced on the 1973 “Dylan” album. In January 2009, the “Nation” magazine picked the protest song “Ballad of Ira Hayes” as one of the ten best progressive anthems of all time. On his own “Johnny Cash Show” that aired on ABC-TV from the 1969-1971, Cash booked former HUAC blacklist victim Pete Seeger who sang the anti war song “Big Muddy,” and musician/songwriter, Buffy Saint-Marie, a full blood native person, who covered La Farge’s “Custer” on the program. “The Johnny Cash Show” featured Cash’s road band with Carl Perkins. "One reason country music has expanded the way it has is that we haven't let ourselves become locked into any category. We do what we feel,” Johnny Cash explained to me in a 1975 interview we did when he was staying in Orange County. “Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian” is now a tiny footnote on Cash’s biography. The original album was reissued as an expanded edition import item in 1984 from the German Bear Family Records label. In fact, Cash composed “Big Foot” after his profound experience at Wounded Knee. When “Bitter Tears” was scheduled for re-release, it was added to the lineup. In the late ‘80s, Steve Popovich, who formerly worked for Columbia Records since 1962, and was an advocate of Cash during his label tenure, became vice president of marketing for Polygram Records and brought Cash to Polygram.
“A Heartbeat And A Guitar” is the story of “Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian.” The subsequent print journey has D’Ambrosio recounting the album’s creation and delineates the influence of “Bitter Tears” on the Native People’s rights movement, the legacy of Peter LaFarge, the actual story of Ira Hayes, the Pima Indian whose heroic efforts as a U.S. Marine and dismal life as a civilian are the subject of the album’s only single. D’Ambrosio’s effort on Cash also illustrates the enduring, and endearing friendships between Johnny Cash and LaFarge, Pete Seeger, record producer Bob Johnson, and Bob Dylan.
“Antonino D'Ambrosio's book on the making of Johnny Cash's album "Bitter Tears" is much more than the story behind those extraordinary songs,” suggests political historian and author, Howard Zinn.” It is a rich history, not only of Johnny Cash's life, but of the Indian struggle for justice, which inspired Peter La Farge to write the song ‘The Ballad of Ira Hayes’ and Cash to sing it. The book is full of fascinating character sketches of the great folk singers of the Sixties, and their part in the social movements of that exciting era. I believe D'Ambrosio has made an important contribution to the cultural history of our time.” In my 1975 “Melody Maker” interview with Cash conducted in Anaheim, California, later excerpted by author Robert Shelton in his “No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan,” I asked Johnny about Bob Dylan. "I became aware of Bob Dylan when the 'Freewheelin'' album came out in 1963. I thought he was one of the best country singers I had ever heard. I always felt a lot in common with him. I knew a lot about him before we had ever met. I knew he had heard and listened to country music. I heard a lot of inflections from country artists I was familiar with. I was in Las Vegas in '63 and '64 and wrote him a letter telling him how much I liked his work. I got a letter back and we developed a correspondence. "We finally met at Newport in 1965. It was like we were two old friends. There was none of this standing back, trying to figure each other out. He's unique and original. I keep lookin' around as we pass the middle of the 70s and I don't see anybody come close to Bob Dylan. I respect him. Dylan is a few years younger than I am but we share a bond that hasn't diminished. I get inspiration from him." As a teenager, Dylan once hitchhiked from Hibbing, Minnesota, to Duluth to see Cash and the Tennessee Two (Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins) at the Duluth amphitheater. Johnny Western reveals to Antonino D’Ambrosio in an interview witnessing a Dylan and Cash exchange where Dylan proclaims, “Man, I didn’t just dig you; I breathed you.” Apparently Cash stuck his head inside the Columbia Records studio when talent scout/A&R man John Hammond was producing Dylan’s debut record, “Bob Dylan.” Dylan was also grateful that Cash would constantly endorse his talents to skeptical Columbia Records executives after the initial weak sales of his first platter, some calling it “Hammond’s folly,” a jab at Hammond who signed Dylan to the label after Peter La Farge. It is no surprise that Johnny and June Carter Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, a music producer and an Executive Producer on the their “I Walk The Line” biopic movie, told an amusing story describing Bob Dylan’s initial encounter with his dad for the first time in the December 2, 2005 issue of “USA Weekend.” “Dad would chuckle when he’d tell me how Bob Dylan acted like a silly kid when they first met. He burst into Dad’s hotel room and began jumping on the bed, shouting, ‘I met Johnny Cash! I finally met Johnny Cash!” “I enjoyed the songs that I recorded. I like to go into the studio with my own musicians and record my own songs,” Johnny confided to me in our 1975 dialogue. “I'm open to other songwriters. I like to do things different all my career.”
Harvey Kubernik and Antonino D’Ambrosio:
Q: You first discovered “Bitter Tears” album in 2005. And, consequently this lead to the writing of the Cash book.
A: It was a conflation of things. He looked so different on the cover of the record. I saw the letter he wrote to radio stations inside this Bear Family Records 1984 reissue, it was so cinematic in many ways. The letter was filled with just this fierceness and spirit. Also, it’s scathing. I was so moved. Those two things initially when I put the record on had already filled my heart in such a way that I was gonna hear it in this completely unique way. Compared to anything I had heard from Cash before. "I’m learning about the record that was made in 1964 and it’s shocking to me. That this record even happened in 1964, let alone could have happened in ‘68 or ’76. The reason I feel that way is it matches, in the spirit, something very similar to what The Clash were doing in the late ‘70s. Even what Public Enemy was doing in the mid to late ‘80s. It was so direct and intense in its purpose and I really, really respected that. And I felt that there was something here that was really a truer portrait of him as a person. A citizen living in the world. In terms of how he saw himself and what he was trying to do. “The album was ignored, and the single ‘The Ballad of Ira Hayes’ initially was ignored. Johnny Cash was sincere and had no idea there would be a backlash against it. It was authentic and not a pose. That was one of the reasons he joined Columbia Records after Sun fought him all the way through about doing these concept records. These Americana records. The only reason he was about to do the ‘Bitter Tears’ album was because he had just had the monster hit ‘Ring of Fire.’ It gave him coverage.
Q: What is your feeling about the book and album pairing.
A: Johnny Cash used his art in achieving I think the most powerful thing art can achieve. Which is telling the truth. And that is what moved me and I think that is what moved Cash. Here’s a story about this guy who is a war hero and is immortalized. His hands were the hands holding the flag in the flag-raising Iwa Jima photo. He’s asked to come back, then paraded around the country and he dies this really terrible death. When you learn about the history of the Pima Indians, which he was, and the fact that they had been these amazing engineers and created the most sophisticated irrigation system that last a few thousands years and then the army core of engineers came in the late 1800’s and destroyed it. They were dying of thirst. Because their land, which they had lived off in harmony with their river, was depleted. It dried up. And Ira Hayes died in shallow waters drunk.
Q: We tend to look and remember Cash’s 1968 California live recorded albums as San Quentin and Folsom Prison yet “Bitter Tears” was four years earlier.
A: It’s four years before The American Indian Movement. And it’s right at the beginning of the escalation of the Vietnam War in ’64. And Johnny Cash was in the army, and Ira Hayes was one of the first paratroopers, an amazing soldier. And, Peter La Farge who wrote the song was in the Navy and they were all badly, in their own way, scared by war.
Q: Numerous musicians have done versions of “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.”
A: The interesting thing is that Bob Dylan said that he believed that Peter La Farge was the best of the protest balladeers. The folk singers. In the book I kind of paint these trios, and one of these trios is Dylan, La Farge and Cash, who were all creative and all had dark sides. Which probably fed their creativity, you know. Dylan was deeply moved by the songwriting. The reality is that La Farge may have not been the greatest musician, but he really was an inheritor to the songwriting style of someone like (Woody) Guthrie or the Carter Family. And certainly in what Dylan was doing.
Q: And Dylan does the song in a characterlogical narrative manner. Like “John Wesley Harding” or “Joey.”
A: You’re exactly right. And, that’s what attracted Johnny Cash. Here’s a sophisticated, complex nuance song that tells a long history in a format you can do in 3:40. That is really, really powerful. Kris Kristofferson does a beautiful version. And, he’s got a lot more obvious reason for doing it. He’s very progressive, he had his own relationship with Cash for decades and he also did it to honor La Farge. This story is interesting in terms of native Americans and their plight are even more invisible in many ways in they were then.
Q: Is there a correlation of how Cash or this album impacts your own writing?
A: I am influenced by the storytellers of the world, including Johnny Cash. These things do not happen in a vacuum. They like to do that and calcified the myth of Johnny Cash, ‘The Man in Black’ and all those things, and I think that dishonors the kind of truer portrait of who he was. He was very intelligent.
Q: And this extends to the way he constructed his live program and the repertoire. He ended his 1964 show at The Newport Folk Festival with “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” That was taking a chance.
A: My perspective to Cash comes from a way different generation. That was one of the very first things that came into my head when I knew I was gonna write this story. What I do is tell five stories with the one over-arching. La Farge, Cash, folk revival, Native movement and civil rights. And I thought to myself as I got all the notes together, ‘cause I got all the session notes, and when he recorded. He finishes everything in June 1964. Then he goes off to do a mini-tour and his first stop is at Newport, where he famously gives Dylan the Martin Guitar. He shows up there with the entire Carter Family. Johnny Cash honored history. All the great artists do that. They don’t pretend that they were the first.
Q: Cash and Bob Dylan had a friendship. That’s something I know from talking to each of them.
A: In my book I write about Cash’s defense of Dylan helped John Hammond a lot, ‘cause Hammond, as you know, was hearing ‘Hammond’s folly’ and these comments. Columbia was very close to dropping Dylan. What is interesting is that the very first folk musician that Hammond signed was Peter La Farge. 3 months before Dylan. And I think the reason for that was because Peter La Farge’s songwriting was so valid. Buffy Saint Marie did ‘Custer.’ I think she did ‘The Ballad of Ira Hayes’ with Cash but it’s never been released.
Q: And, the “Bitter Tears” album was developed by Cash listening, with his producer and engineer, to slew of Peter Las Farge songs.
A: They did that for him. They sat in a room and listened to La Farge material. And Don Law in particular said, ‘You can do this John. You can make this record happen.’
Q: And June Carter Cash is a lovely addition to the album.
A: He was with June before in 1964. She was a very powerful musical influence and also kind of an instrument for him. If you listen to the record ‘Bitter Tears’ she adds that beautiful depth to the backing vocals that makes the songs even more heart breaking. She is on most of the tracks. ‘Apache Tears,’ ‘The Ballad of Ira Hayes.’ She’s there and brought in some of the other Carter sisters.
Q: You also enlist the voices of John Trudell and Dennis Banks of The American Indian Movement. And, both of them cite “Bitter Tears” as a landmark.
A: The thing that was really powerful for me was the interview with Dennis Banks, the co-founder of The American Indian Movement and John Trudell in particular. Those two have different perspectives. ‘Cause Dennis Banks is more of Cash’s generation. And John Trudell is more of the Sixties generation. And there are like 15 activists that I interviewed as well , they all said the same thing. Johnny Cash helped spearhead the movement, because there was no movement in that kind of popular culture statement. And this is one of the thrusts on my book. Dennis Banks tells me that Cash in ‘Bitter Tears’ is ‘that he made it in such a way where people would listen to it and they wouldn’t even realize they were raising their shackles with us.’ And that was important. To get people to even be exposed, because that history was not even taught to me when I was a kid.
Q: Your book is not a music biography.
A: And is very important for me that this was not a musical biography. It’s really a revealed cultural history of an unknown moment in American history. To go to this level, and talk about the issues surrounding Native people, was just a bold move in many ways. I think the backlash he faced and all these radio stations and people and the last thing they wanted was someone of that stature who they had already given a second chance. “The thing was that Cash was adding another place in the case of American injustice. And this is the apex of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. This was a very sincere and authentic situation and he felt it in his heart. And then by accident in his own way he stepped into the middle of a major movement.
Q: “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” did reach the Top Ten in “Billboard” but I think it wasn’t until Cash did his Folsom Prison recording and TV show did his recording career fully recover.
A: Essentially, ‘Ballad of Ira Hayes’ becomes a hit but it took months of him doing promotions, publishing that letter, he bought his own record and he sends it out personally to a thousand DJ’s with him and Johnny Western doing this whole campaign together. It took months. Then he drifts. 1964 was probably the worse he was with pills. So it took him a little while to kind of unravel from that obviously. In ’65 Cash triumphs in his return to Carnegie Hall in New York. ‘Bitter Tears’ did cost him some bookings and of course some record sales. The album essentially disappeared even though it had a hit single in it.
Q: Besides the newly discovered photos in your book by Jim Marshall and Diana Davies, you invited the artist Shepard Fairy to do the front cover design.
A: Shepard was a big fan of my book on The Clash, ‘Let Fury Have the House: The Punk Politics of Joe Strummer.’ And we have similar sensibilities. We both came up on The Clash and punk and rap. And we always encountered each other and he reached out to me on the Strummer stuff and said, ‘if you ever want to collaborate. I’d love to collaborate with you.’ And I said the feeling was mutual. And I said, by the way, I have this idea for another book, let’s talk about it. "He loved the idea and was psyched to do this. I told him I had the picture already in mind that I wanted him to do his thing with. Because this picture on the cover he was really thin. He was a big guy. I wanted to do something that was entirely different and I gave it to Shepard and I gave him some of the writing I already I had early on, and ‘here’s where I’m going.’ "And, Jim Marshall had unpublished photos of Peter La Farge that we used in the book and I feel that added a powerful story telling dimension. Here is an up and coming photographer before he was making a name for himself and he chronicles this guy who has his disappearance from history. He did a photo shoot and portraits of La Farge for his record. "The Diana Davies photos were from someone immersed in the New York scene. Everyday life kind of photos like musicians in Washington Square Park, Photos of Arlo Guthrie no one has ever seen. She had photos of the ‘Broadside’ magazine gatherings, which no one knows about.
Q: Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer recorded a version of Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ together.
A: It’s only been released on the Johnny Cash box set ‘Unearthed.’ If you hear it then you will weep, because Johnny Cash’s voice is quivering because he’s ill. When you hear it you know they both die like not soon after.
Q: Why the title of the book.
A: As a writer I write in a way where I have to have the main points like the framing of a house. It has to be there for me. I always felt that the musicians that really touched me it was more of this very honest sincere they just picked up a guitar with their heart and performed with a heartbeat and a guitar. And that allowed them to be timeless and relevant for generations after they performed. And I had that up front and it really became an over arching theme for me. You see what the essence of Johnny Cash was. He was human. He lived with his heart. He was moved by his heartbeat.
Q: When multi-instrumentalist Chris Darrow first heard ‘I Walk The Line” on his AM radio he asked himself, "Who is that? The deep baritone voice and the insistent clip-clop of his signature beat make me know immediately that he meant business,” Darrow remembered. “You just never forget those moments in your life. Johnny sang with both grit and sincerity and with an integrity that made you think that he was telling you the truth. You could hear it in his voice.” Darrow performed at The Troubadour Club in West Hollywood at a benefit for Leonard Peltier hosted by genius recording producer and Indian rights activist, Nik Venet. After that gig, Venet gifted Darrow with a Navaho rug that previously was wrapped around the bodies of Dennis Banks and Peltier. Later Johnny Cash became “Elder Cool,” a term Chris Darrow coined after Cash’s creative and commercial recording renaissance under the guidance of Rick Rubin. Why does his legacy keep being investigated and growing? I mean, guys like yourself, who didn’t interview Johnny, or see him a dozen times in four different decades, are writing major books on a person you never met before. Is it that he’s now beyond legend status?
A: I truly believe in many ways America has become one day. What I mean by that is that there is no history. No past or no future. It only is what it is today. And tomorrow it will be what it is tomorrow. But today will be forgotten. It is a very dangerous moment in history that we are in. As you can tell with the various wars we’re involved in, the economic crisis, I think looking at someone like Johnny Cash, you are looking at one of the real icons of music. There’s only a handful.
We will be closed December 24th through December 27th and January 1st through January 3rd for the holidays. We will resume normal business hours from December 29th through December 31st and January 4th onward. Happy Holidays everyone!
We also wanted to thank everybody who came out on Saturday and made the night so memorable. Stay tuned for photos from the event and images of the artwork.
This Saturday, December 19th, we will be having a OBEY Holiday Print Sale....
From 2pm - 5pm
Selected prints from 2007, 2008, 2009
First come, first serve basis. In person only. Credit Cards Preferred.
you can buy multiple prints, but only one of each image.
Quantities are limited.
Happy Holidays from Subliminal Projects...
Presented by Shepard Fairey and Antonino D'Ambrosio
An Evening of Art and Music:
December 19th, 2009 / 8-11PM
Selected Works on Display:
December 19th - January 9th, 2010
Shepard Fairey and Antonino D'Ambrosio present D'Ambrosio's A Heartbeat and a Guitar and Let Fury Have the Hour with a unique multimedia exhibit, featuring:
Fairey's original artwork for A Heartbeat and a Guitar and the upcoming Let Fury Have the Hour film
A special musical performance by D'Ambrosio, the legendary Wayne Kramer of the MC5, and special guests
A screening of the Let Fury Have the Hour film trailer
Illustrations by Ben Scanlon, inspired by D'Ambrosio's books
Photographs of The Clash by Kate Simon, including many never before seen
Photographs featured in A Heartbeat and a Guitar and Let Fury Have the Hour
This even will launch a month-long exhibition that runs until January 9th. Copies of A Heartbeat and a Guitar signed by Fairey and D'Ambrosio will be available for sale.
We will be doing a very limited release of 25 Shepard Fairey prints in the gallery this Saturday. It will be $45 +tax and can be purchased by CREDIT CARD only. Prints will be sold in person only, one per person, and no phone orders or reservations. We will be open from 12-6pm. See you then!
In case you haven't seen it, here is the video we put together for WK's show. The work will be on view until Saturday, Dec. 5th so you still have time to come be a part of the show and get fingerprinted!
Video credits: Joshua Gibson
© 2008 Subliminal Projects