From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Subject: Re: Victoria Williams video available
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 13:42:02 GMT

In article <Bvnw41.I8B@ucunix.san.uc.edu> tothmd@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Michael David Toth) writes:
>
>I just wanted to let it be known that there's a WONDERFUL 30-minute film
>featuring Victoria Williams called "Victoria: Happy Come Home" that was
>released in 1988.  I found a VHS copy at a used record store a few weeks
>back.  It's basically a romp through the bayous with Victoria, her
>guitar, her dog, and unusual friends, most of which seem to just like to
>sit around the yard and play music (Peter Case & Steven Soles included).
>I showed the tape to Andy Whitman when I was visiting a few weeks back,
>and he may offer some second opinions, but I will add that, like her
>music, the film really grows on you with multiple viewings.  But people
>looking for trendy, fashionable glitz and coolness and used to
>MTV/Entertainment Tonight definitions may be thrown by her individuality
>and radical "down-homeness."  Defying a simple classification, that
>individuality she exudes, while perhaps unsettling at first, is
>wonderfully refreshing.

I agree.  I like Victoria a lot, and much of the appeal comes from the 
fact that she's just so weird.  She's like a little kid in an adult
body, and she exudes a sense of wonder and amazement with almost 
every note she sings.  Love her or hate her, she's unique.  In an
age of musical clones, I find her individuality refreshing too.
And I think she writes great songs.

(information on Victoria's video deleted)

>Victoria's MS apparently goes in and out of remission/levels of
>severity.  A few weeks ago there was a benefit concert in New York for
>Victoria, where she DID perform.  The Pennebaker crew DID videotape the
>concert, and they'd like to release a video of that as well.  However,
>getting permissions from all the contributing performers is going to be
>the tricky part.  When I asked who some of them were, he said he didn't
>have the list with him, but Lou Reed and Michelle Shocked were examples.

Here's at least a partial list of performers:

- Lou Reed (this one amazes me.  Supposedly Lou did about six solo
  acoustic numbers)
- Michelle Shocked (a *great* folksinger.  "Arkansas Traveler," her latest
  album, is definitely going to be on my "Best of 92" list)
- Lucinda Williams (another Louisiana singer/songwriter, and a good one)
- Eric Anderson (NYC folkie of long standing)
- Bob Mould (ex-Husker Du guru, and one of the fathers of thrash, who did 
  a solo acoustic set.  Go figure.)
- Marshall Crenshaw (the king of power pop) 

Quite an impressive line-up.  Victoria performed too, but her MS was
apparently *not* in remission, and she had a tough time.  Support this
lady.  Buy her music and buy her videos, and help save her life.  She
has no medical insurance. 

By the way, D.A. Pennebaker, who directed both "Happy Come Home" and the 
recent video of the benefit concert, also directed "Don't Look Back," my 
favorite rock 'n roll movie of all time, which chronicles Bob Dylan's 1966
tour of Europe.  

>If you send for a copy of the tape, be sure to mention that you'd like
>for them to send you information about the Victoria benefit concert
>video should it ever become available.
>
>-Michael. 
>
>"If yooooor looking for rayynbooows up in the clowwwds, 
>	then never look to the grouououound!"
>			-Victoria Williams from "Clothesline"

Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
att!cblpn!ajw  or
ajw@cblpn.att.com
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