INTERVIEW
HILLGRASS BLUEBILLY ENTERTAINMENT
by Christer Davidsson, May 2006
Hi guys! How are you?
We are great! We just had our 1 year anniversary and we are looking forward to many more to come!
Hillgrass Bluebilly Entertainment works with roots music promotion, band representations, booking and you have a label. How come you started this thing up in the first place?
Actually, it started when the Weary Boys started touring. For almost 3 years prior to Hillgrass Bluebilly Ent. we would buy anywhere from 10 - 20 tickets to go see artists like Dale Watson, Weary Boys, Wayne Hancock, Hank III etc. We realized there is a major promoter hole in the U.S. for roots music! So we decided, with nothing, to do what has to be done....representation of artists, venues, concerts & events!
Have you always been into this style of music?
Yes, as well as a lot of other things too! Its not far fetched to see us listen to N.W.A. then throw in a CD of Weary Boys & finish off with some Buddy Holly or even RL Burnside...we are all over the place!
What is it about this kind of music that you like so much?
The fact that its the truest form of music coming straight from the heart, not trying to sell us something, ok, so take Bob Logs helmet off, unplug his guitar, and we can GUARANTEE if you play depression era dirty mississippi delta lo-fi stomp blues, then you WILL be taking lessons from Daddy Log! The music we choose to represent is homegrown, its our job to get the fans there, the musicians we choose to represent does the rest!
Are you guys playing any music yourselves?
Ryan - Yes, a one man band
Keith - Some for fun, not to entertain!
You’ve been doing shows for a little over a year now. How has everything been going? A lot of people showing up at the shows? 
The Hillgrass Ghost has definantly made itself present, an is starting to take over! We are constantly weeding out scenesters and gaining TRUE music lovers as a fan base! Its not all about pussy, drugs and rock and roll, we get that through charm and just being 2 of few men with balls in this industry, so we are allowed to dedicate our time to the same people, the same musicians with the same goal of bringing music from the heart. When our artists are finished with each song, there are heartfelt roars throughout the venue, hands clap til they bleed! People go home knowing, that we just presented them with one DAMN GOOD concert! We get NO LOVE from newspapers or magazines, simply cause we are roots promoters, not everyones gets that, but will after 1 -3 shows all depending on how fast they get the clue! So its basically street credit and word of mouth! There are newcomers at every show, so you if you see people in zombie mode with their jaws dropped on the ground, you know they are a music lover, and you know right then they are a first timer. Now, again....promoting roots music, we are finding we are getting the working class men and women, your Dave Matthews and System of a Down listeners will never attend because most of that crowd does not comprehend what we are even about, plus we constantly bash Cross Canadian Ragweed, Kenny Chesney, Tim Mcgraw, Shooter Jennings and Rascal Flatts, amongst 100's of others, its so much easier to just talk shit, rather than trying to make sense to that fan base without getting frustrated all to hell, we have a lot of single mothers and daddy's so that makes it hard on the parents, but we do reach enough of them to usually pack a concert! We can tell you this, almost every show the 1st 50 people through door are usually people we have never seen before, thats when we know our hard work has paid off! The people we see and know, are people we actually take the time to find and talk to, be real to, and give music to and we do A LOT of that, shameless promoters we are! To answer your question Id like to give you examples of some of our shows:
Wayne Hancock - we give him a crowd close to 400 people...Twice in 1 year, both on Tuesday nights, at the Rhythm Room (best venue in Phoenix), its an eyes front venue, no pool tables, no dart boards, no NTN, no JukeBox just 360 some odd fans screaming the words to every song that he did! Oh I did my homework, I called the other bars & promoters, they all did around 100, of course, I called the smaller cities, but that just makes this interview sound better for us statisically, but no shitten, we do this all on weeknights! RL Burnside (r.i.p), Leon Russell, Pinetip Perkins, Rodney Crowell, Leroy Parnell all have smaller crowds than Wayne the Train Hancock, that shows us right there that we are pretty damn good at what we are doing.
Jesse Dayton - Sells almost TRIPLE the amount of merchandise in Phoenix, than he does in Houston!
Weary Boys - went from 30 or less people in attendance to 60 when we started going (before HBE) now on June 8th we will certainly have over 200 people in there on a Thursday nite, which I personally still don’t like being that I can sit outside and watch over 200 people drive by in less than 5 minutes! I’m a dreamer, but I am still PACKIN venues, we are happy, but we want millions, we will get millions, we are only into our second year and Bob Log & Scott Biram are tourin’ France together and they played only twice together, here for us, in Phoenix! There are A LOT of lil’ things like this going on! Maybe we just swooshed in at the right time, maybe we are the glue bringing musicians and a fan base together....who knows, we just know we have been doin’ it and with interviews and documentation like this, we are sure to have stuck the flag in the ground in the music promotion world for music that has NEVER been promoted right to begin with!
Now on the downside - We have had 3 shows between 64 - 90 people. They have all been bands noone had ever heard of. They were ALL on Monday nights, still tho', great crowd, but this is our 1st year, we done made our changes and are packin’ ‘em in every show! With those same artists! But still...those are GREAT shows, I know, I have worked at music venues all over the south for well over 10 years!
We do know if there was a HBE back in the 30's 40's & 50's there would be a roots scene now, and we know we are a big part in starting a roots scene, waiting for our children!
How big is the scene in this kind of music? I mean its not exactly on the charts nowdays.
Ha Ha......what ROOTS scene? Well I can tell you this the dirty foot family (as we call it) are joinin’ up with us EVERY DAY! Its tough, lemme tell ya! But as soon as we get them there...WE GOT EM!
What artists are you promoting right now? 
As HBE we have just started managing/promoting Busted Hearts & The Red Mountain Drifters, both from Phoenix, locally we also love Flathead! But when in town from another state... Here are the folks that call us:
Weary Boys, Bob Log III, Wayne The Train Hancock, The Earl Brothers, Scott H Biram, Hacienda Brothers, Hillstomp, Possessed By Paul James, Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band (Best Roots Blues Band EVER), Truckstop Honeymoon, Jesse Dayton, John Schooley and his One Man Band, Heather Rae & the Moonshine Boys, O'Death, Moot Davis
I hope I didnt leave anyone out!
What would you say is the best night you’ve put together so far?
Its a toss up between Wayne Hancock and Bob Log III with Flathead our runner ups were the Halloween Hillbilly Hodown & White Trash Carnival that included Bob Log III, Scott Biram, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Honky & Pudding Wrastlin' from the Renegade Rollergirls based here in Phoenix & Weary Boys with Jesse Dayton & Busted Hearts!
Any funny stories from your events?
Lets see Keith knocked a drunken Indian out in 1 punch. He also dragged a guy out by his leg at the last Weary Boys Show. We had a Pie eating contest at a show that involed the messiest drunkest PIE FIGHT in HISTORY! We put Bob Log in an intertube while he had remote control headgear and guitar and crowd surfed him across the Rhythm Room dance floor. We get all kinds of famous musicians at our shows, members of Social Distortion, Meat Puppets etc. etc.
There's a couple stories I can't even MENTION!
We have a black rollerskater that has "Fuck The Police" written all over his clothes and he video tapes all our shows.
We have only been doin shows for a year, ask us agian next year, we might have something more exciting!
What's this thing called "Monday Madness"?
Monday Madness is put on by Last Exit, a bar here in Phoenix.
The 1st monday of every month you can see The Bindlestiffs and Chip Hanna, and Chips wife Erin, works behind the bar, the ONLY place to be in Phoenix on Mondays....Kys Place has Meleah Mondays, thats cool too!
How is the label going? What have you released? 
A bunch of free compilations I made on my computer at home......( 1000's)!!!
Are you planning further releases?
Well we are planning on gaining all the above named artists in due time...we are earning our stripes now! I currently push all the artists material and am currently setting up our own section in music stores throughout Phoenix!
Who is behind the artwork of the posters? I really like the drawings.
Ben Strawn does our Show Posters, Shelby Kelly made THE GHOST and Joshua Finley is doing the majority of our Stickers & Tshirt artwork to be released this year!
It’s gotta be a lot of hard work doing something like this, am I right?
Doin it out of love to be honest, its something that has to be done, like being a man, or knowing how to treat your woman, daddyin up when you have kids! I cant think of it as hard work when its something that has to be done in order for us to even be alive! Its our role....its what we do!
You were the ones who put the Busted Hearts release-show together. I wish I could have been there. How was it?
Well......give me your address, let me send it to you...we recorded it! as we do ALL of our shows!
We personally think it was the best show we have ever done for them as a headlining act!
What bands would you recommend to the ones reading this?
Weary Boys first and foremost!, Bob Log III, Wayne The Train Hancock, The Earl Brothers, Scott H Biram, Hillstomp, Possessed By Paul James, Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band ( Best Roots Blues Band EVER), Truckstop Honeymoon, Jesse Dayton, John Schooley and his One Man Band, O'Death.
What tips would you give someone who wants to start something like this of their own?
Stay the hell out of our way, seriously! We will be giving promoters the oppurtunity to become part of HBE in their own town but not until April of next year, we have 4 cities ready to open, but we are still establishing ourselves in Phoenix!
Any last words?
We barely began!
Ok, thanks for answering my questions and thanks for supporting MUTINY!
Links:
http://www.myspace.com/hillgrassbluebilly