Fuck You I'm From Austin Film Talk

Last night's entry in my music documentary travels was The Wrecking Crew a 2015 film directed by Danny Tedesco. It took Danny a long time to finish this work of love for his father Tommy and the other Wrecking Crew band members who played on so many popular albums, mostly unacknowledged in the credits and financially. Besides being yet another comment on the smarmy side of the music business, the film is a well put together tribute to those sessions players who created those albums so many of us grew up with. What I took away was just like the work these people did whose love for the music overrode the injustices of low pay and no credit - the music in the film transcends. You can't help but be inspired by the end result...the songs. The documentary pays tribute to the studio musicians that made up the Wrecking Crew - listed here in Wikipedia . Tedesco, Carol Kay, Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, Barney Kessel, Larry Knechtel (later in the band Bread,) Plas Johnson, Mike Melvoin, Don R...

A little back story first. I am in the midst of shooting a documentary about the Fabulous Thunderbirds and their huge I believe contribution to what is now known as the music capital of the world. There is a lot of information and my intention is to convey the story as I experienced it. When I first came to Austin in 1979, it was a different place than it is now. Kind of a little big college town with lots of cosmic cowboys and students. The T-Birds were really taking off and had just released their first album. It was a place of experimentation and our world here was filled with music, with art, films and people expressing themselves and learning about things. I was no different. What I remember most clearly was an introduction to French New Wave films and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Both on and off the screen I was surrounded by a real wonderment. What I want to do is to produce a documentary that gives the viewer a simulated experience much like the one I encountered here in Austin w...