Fayetteville Flavor

Compilation CD the taste of the town

By Richard Davis
TFW Staff Writer

The Fayetteville 2011 Compilation Album will be unveiled at a show Saturday night at George’s Majestic Lounge. Jeff Kearney from local musical group The 1 oz. Jig came up with the compilation CD idea and was a driving force behind it’s creation. Jeff was kind enough to sit down for a coffee at Common Grounds to talk about the album and answer the Freekly’s goofy questions.

TFW: Will everyone on the compilation play Saturday or is that too many to pack in?
Jeff: Yeah, yeah, there’s 14 tracks on the record, and I was really sad that I didn’t get to put more people on there. There’ll be five bands at the show. I think it’s going to go Perpetual Werewolf, 1 oz. Jig and MSG in that order on the inside stage and then the Commoners and Randall Shreve and the Sideshow on the outdoor stage.
TFW: Where’d the idea come from?
Jeff: Well, the 1 oz. Jig made a record last year, and there were so many other people I knew that were making records last year. I was thinking about the NAMA (Northwest Arkansas Music Awards), thinking about album of the year, thinking “Who’s going to get album of the year?” And there were just too many bands to list.
I’ve always loved compilations. I used to sit in my room making compilations, recording songs off the radio on my tape player when I was a kid. I’ve always been fascinated with those. I just suddenly got the idea that it’d be good to put all those … everybody that’s been working to make music and record music this year on one thing so people can get the flavor of the town all from one disc.

(Photo: Courtesy) Jeff Kearney of 1 oz Jig had the idea to create a compilation CD full of tracks from Fayetteville musicians. A release party with groups appearing on the CD will be held Saturday, Jan. 15 at George's Majestic Lounge.

TFW: So you weren’t looking for any particular sound or style?
Jeff: Really, like as multigenre as I could get. I really wanted every kind of genre to be respected there and to be represented.
TFW: Is there anybody who didn’t get on that you’d like to have?
Jeff: Yes, there are a few bands that I was bummed out that I didn’t get on there. And to those bands I will say “Volume Two.”
The way it’s going to work is that every band that’s on it … we’re just going to split it up among all the bands on the CD. That way each band gets to sell those to their prospective fan bases and everybody kind of gets a taste of what’s going on — what’s going in Fayetteville.
TFW: Was it more costly, producing a CD this way?
Jeff: It was fairly costly. Hopefully, I’ll make my money back at the shows. It wasn’t too bad. I’ve had worse.
But John Moore was really great about donating his time and helping me along, and Adam Putman who mastered this CD from Insomniac Studios, he was really great about calling me and cheering me on to keep my motivation going. I owe those guys a lot for helping me out and pushing me through the thing.
John Moore helped me produce it. He was pretty much there every step of the way. He did the cover. It was good to have another person there, in case I went out on some weird tangent he could pull me back.
TFW: Was there anybody, after including them, you look back and go “God, why did we deal with those jokers?”
Jeff: (Laughs) No, no, everybody was really excited about it. Everybody that I talked to and asked if they would care to donate tracks were really excited about and thought it was a great idea and were really willing to donate their music to it. So I was really happy about that because I really wanted it to be a community effort. And everybody’s been really good about telling people and promoting it.
TFW: If you can’t make it out to one of the shows, is there a website or can you buy it at Sound Warehouse or elsewhere?
Jeff: I’m thinking about maybe doing a website because I was even thinking about doing this annually … or biannually or whatever. You can most likely get it at Sound Warehouse. And like I said, every band gets a bunch so any band that’s on it, just hit one of their shows up and they’ll probably have them for a little while.
TFW: Does every band on the compilation already have their own album out?
Jeff: Not everybody. Some people used tracks off albums that they’d released this year, and some people used unreleased tracks. Some people even recorded tracks specifically for this.
TFW: So, some of it is stuff you can’t get anywhere else.
Jeff: Yeah, some of the tracks aren’t on other CDs. Some are alternate takes and some are
B-sides.
TFW: What’s some of the unique content?
Jeff: Hardaway and the Commoners recorded a track for this. I think they were going into the studio anyway to record one song so it was pretty serendipitous. They were just like, “We’ll use that song.”
Matt Smith put an alternate take off his album. Matt Smith just made a great record with a national drummer — Jeff Cipe — and a great bass player — Reed Mathis — that played for Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey and several others.
Benjamin del Shreve put a B-side. And there were a couple of people that had different records going.
It’s so varied, going from country to punk to funk to heavy metal. So when you listen to it all the way through, there’s definitely some ups and downs in it.

The compilation will include tracks from Shannon Wurst, Perpetual Werewolf, The 1 oz. Jig, Randall Shreve and The Sideshow, Kory Montgomery Band, Candy Lee, M.S.G., Charliehorse, The Commoners, Benjamin Del Shreve, Guta, The Counterlife, Tiffany Christopher and The Arrowhead Project.