Tony Nelson: “Hootenanny: A Community”

The Mad Ripple Hootenanny is the simplest idea- that music and stories bring people together. Started in the basement of Java Jack’s Coffeehouse in what Hoot founder Jim “The Mad Ripple” Walsh always called “Sexy South Minneapolis,” the weekly circle of singer-songwriters quickly drew a devoted following and attracted musicians from all corners of the city, state, country and globe. Songs like Brianna Lane‘s “Porchlight” and Stook!‘s “A Song Is More Than Just a Song” became favorites, with everyone joining in on closing tune “Pay Me My Money Down.” It is the most economic and expansive of entertainment, a collective sigh of relief from over-priced madness of workaday life. It is church for the modern era.

Photographer Tony Nelson was there from the beginning, documenting the burgeoning scene, a project that grew to a portfolio of portraits of musicians who played the Hoot. That portfolio is being shown at The Gallery @ Fox Tax under the title “Hootenanny: A Commnunity.” CakeIn15 caught up with Nelson before Friday’s opening to talk about the scene, why it is unique to music and translating that visually. If you want to experience the full sensibility of the event, stick around after the opening for a Hootenanny at the Red Stag Supperclub down the street, hosted by The Mad Ripple.

CakeIn15: Why did you want to make these portraits of Hoot musicians away from the Hoot, in their creative spaces?

Tony Nelson: I got really interested in this notion that Jim [Walsh] had built this community where there really was none before. I mean obviously, there was a singer-songwriter scene around town but he gave people a chance to come together on a regular basis, whether they were pure singer-songwriters like Brianna Lane or people from bands who would do stripped down sets, and by putting them together and making them play together he really built this community. Now you’ll see things like Fran [King] and Duncan [Maitland] from Ireland coming in to record with Ed Ackerson who they probably met at a Hoot. So I got interested in this idea of the Hootenanny being this place where people came together, a really diverse group of people. You know, people who are know internationally to people who have never recorded professionally and have a few songs on a Myspace page and the Hoot is the thing that ties them together. So I got tot thinking, “Where do all these people come from?” If the Hootenanny is the hub and the center, then what are all the spokes of the hub?

C15: That kind of scene seems unique to music, do you think there is something analogous in visual art?

TN: Music is so nice because it is a collaborative process, you write something and start playing and someone can chime in and it’s more difficult to do as visual art is more of a solitary process. I don’t know how else it could happen. I tried to think how this [show] could fit into a larger picture, you know; could there be a book, or are there other hootenannies [to document]? I was trying to think about this and it is really hard. You [could base it around] a venue, and lots of people play in the venue but you don’t have that collaborative element. I imagine there are circles of artist that meet together and writers that write together, but because of the performance aspect, the Hoot is unique.

C15: What was your process with capturing the creative space? Were people receptive to it?

TN: Just about everybody was receptive. There were some people on tour that were hard to pin down, we really tried hard to get Tom Morello when he was here on tour. It was also a little bit tricky because the people on tour I had to not be so literal with their “creative place”, I just sort of had to acknowledge that the road is part of their creative place and that’s sort of their home away from home. But for the most part people seemed pretty into it. I had suggested we do some shooting at day jobs and that didn’t go over too well [laughs]. For the most part what I tried to do was not give them a questionnaire, but a list [asking], where do you create, where do you write, where do you feel inspired? And then I didn’t make them be so literal, it didn’t have to be a physical place so much as where they felt inspired or what they liked to do to get away from it all. [Jenny Dalton] likes to record things on tape and then drive around and listens to them and tries to put them together before going into the studio and trying to put it all together. So we did things like that, and I just tried to be flexible with my premise.

C15: I like that parallel that as the Hootenanny was growing and building the ideas and photos for this show were simultaneously growing.

TN: During the first season of the Hootenanny, I thought it was an important, a unique thing to document as something that I hadn’t seen before. It was a great way to reconnect with the local music scene that I was feeling a little out of touch with. So at first I was just documenting what was happening. And then at the end of the first season, I started thinking to myself, where am I going with this and the idea of the portraits came around. Obviously there have been so many more people who have played then are included here and that’s been the thing that kills me is figuring out who to include.

C15: How many photos are you showing?

TN: There are two components of the show. The bulk of [the show] are these portraits I’ve been doing of these Hootenanny players, and there are 28 of them. Then, to give the photos some context, there is a large number, I haven’t counted them, of the documentary shots of the shows. The portrait shots are showing where these people are coming from that come together, and then a lot of little shots to show what the scene is like.

C15: Did Fox Tax approach you or did you bring the portfolio to them?

TN: I brought it to them. I knew people at Fox Tax and I also knew Kristoffer Knutson, [Fox Tax curator] Emma Berg’s partner at MPLSart, so it seemed like a natural place to bring it.

C15: Have you been showing in galleries much?

TN: Not a lot. When I started I was just trying to make a living. The [art program at the University of Minnesota] is a real fine arts program not a commercial program, so I got out there and was floundering a little bit on how to make a living. I kind of felll into commercial work as an assistant to other photographers and then shooting on my own. I haven’t done a lot of galleries, the last was the ‘05 Musicapolis show, a group show, and one in ‘98.

C15: So this your first solo show in a while?

TN: Yeah, definitely at this scale. I’ve had a couple things here and there at offshoot galleries, and events like Art-a-Whirl. But this is my first big solo show. It may not be a big show, but it feels big to me [laughs].

HOOTENANNY: A COMMUNITY
A Photo Exhibition by Tony Nelson

Opening Reception: June 19th, 2009 6:00-11:00 pm
On View: June 19th – July 24th, 2009
The Gallery @ Fox Tax: 503 1st Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 55413

A Hootenanny will be held immediately following the opening reception at the Red Stag: 509 1st Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 5541