ST. LOUIS BLUES dvd now available!

DATELINE, LOS ANGELES: The classy music video is coupled with behind-the-scenes footage, over an hour of live performances and more. Featuring Fletcher Rhoden (Last Tango With Marlon) Robbie Rist (Soul Cancer) and more! Over 90 minutes! Featuring R&B singer Kina!
https://www.createspace.com/266091
This is a special release, folks. As part of the Fletcher Rhoden.com dvd roll-out, this is the first official music release (FLETCHER RHODEN LIVE! was held over for a chronological release pattern). Basically, these two dvds are the Fletcher Rhoden career overview, musically speaking (an EVA JAMES BAND LIVE dvd will round things out later this season). ST. LOUIS BLUES not only includes a fresh print of the classy video and fun behind-the-scenes stuff (fans of Robbie Rist must have this dvd) there is over an hour of vintage live performances by my '90's jazz/rock band Dance Hall Racket (featuring Rist) and also some Avenue Out performances, my pre-DHR pop/punk club band featuring future PROMISE KEEPERS drummer Rich Johnson. Good stuff all around.
One interesting thing about this dvd is that it captures several of my major collaborations: long-time partner-in-crime Robbie Rist, also Mighty One Productions mainstay April McKay, who appears in the video as the flirtatious waitress. And the whole video was directed by Patrick Francis, a lifelong friend who has worked with me on several things, including THE CHRISTOPHER WALKEN ECSTATIC DANCE ACADEMY, he did the camera work for SOUL CANCER and others. Great guy, very talented. Then there's Rich, a wonderful friend and awesome drummer. We'd played for years before these Avenue Out sessions, although he isn't the only drummer, as Jose Murillo rounds out the set as a fill-in player (he also did some time on some of the DHR performances.)
The other big collaboration that appears in the ST. LOUIS BLUES DVD (it must be addressed) is with DHR rhythm guitarist Jeff Greene (then called Jet). He was my first true collaborator of any sort, and since I've had many in music, literature and so on. ST. LOUIS BLUES is the last thing we did together (the video was really our last thing, the dvd is just recently compiled and released), and it's basically the best of our many years working together. Good to have gone out on a high note. (One point: the Avenue Out performances on this DVD, from 1988, are as far back as the new dvd releases are likely to go. Before that it's all school plays and baby pictures anyway.)
And of course, THE CHRISTOPHER WALKEN ECSTATIC DANCE ACADEMY represents a lesser collaboration I had with the producer of that short. This was another working and social relationship that I brought to a close.
Now, as I enter a new and very exciting phase in my writing career with a new and extremely talented and trustworthy collaborator, it makes me consider what elements make a great partner and which make a bad partner. Certainly, it's a matter of chemistry, but that's only enough to get a partnership started. After that, it's a matter of respect -- earning it, having it and showing it. It's also a matter of carrying one's own weight and evolving creatively and socially and, more importantly, not devolving in those same areas. Do I speak of my collaborators or myself, or both? I'll let you decide.
But for a look at some of my most significant collaborations, check out ST. LOUIS BLUES and enjoy what must be considered, in retrospect, a very productive and accomplished time in my creative life. Next week, FLETCHER RHODEN LIVE presents the next chapter in my musical evolution -- or is it devolution?
Or both?
Stay tuned.
FR