otis gibbs

I woke up and found this photo in my messages this morning and it put a big smile on my face. I’m not the sort of person who goes around patting himself on the back, but this photo made me happy. We all need that every now and then.

My film is playing at a cool arts theater in Portland and a lot of people are coming out to support it. That feels pretty dang good. The first screening is sold out and the second screening will sell out by tonight.

I grew up going to theaters like this and they were a big part of my education. I’ve never been to this theater, but I know that it serves as a cultural lifeline to folks like me. It also makes me happy to see Rocky Horror on the same marquee.

Thank you to everyone who helped spread the word about this film. It’s a DIY effort. It’s held together with duct tape, chewing gum and good intentions. I’m a firm believer in doing what you can, with what you have and good things will follow,

This film has been a great example of that.

The film will live on my youtube channel later this year, so that everyone can watch it for free. That’s been the plan all along. I have to keep repeating it because a lot of folks are reading this for the first time.

I’m heading to Amsterdam and then to the UK for a tour in a week or so. I’m hoping to see a lot of y’all at the shows. Remember, those are not film screenings. If it says “tour,” it’s a gig.

Does anyone know who took this photo? It made me very happy and I’d like to credit them. If any of you have photos of theater marquees on the night of a screening, I’d love to get a copy from ya. I might even hang it on the fridge at home. Send them to info @ otisgibbs dot com.

Thanks for giving a damn,

-Otis

Screenings and ticket info can be found by clicking this link.

I met this guy a couple years ago on Route 66 in Missouri. I was stopping to see the World’s Largest Rocking Chair. You can see it in the background of the photo.

He climbed up on my shoulder and stayed there for ten minutes or so. It’s probably safe to say we enjoyed each other’s company. I was worried that he might be living on the streets, but he said he worked at the general store next to the rocking chair with his brother. They guard the chair and greet visitors as they stop in. Not a bad deal, we’ve all had worse jobs.

Making friends along Route 66.

“The more cats you have, the longer you live. If you have a hundred cats, you’ll live 10 times longer than if you have 10. Someday this will be discovered, and people will have a thousand cats and live forever. It’s truly ridiculous.”

-Charles Bukowski

I recently interviewed Matt Combs and he shared personal stories about his friendship with the great, John Hartford. It’s good stuff, I promise.

Here’s a copy and paste from Matt’s bio. “Matt Combs is a composer, arranger, producer, author, educator, and Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist known for his work across American roots music, orchestral composition, and film and television scoring. He has provided string arrangements and performances for artists including Kacey Musgraves, The Black Keys, Sturgill Simpson, Brothers Osborne, Yola, Marcus King, Wilco, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Stephen Sanchez, Ashley McBryde, and CeeLo Green. His screen credits include Yellowstone, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Menu, The West, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Matt is the co-author of John Hartford’s Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes, and his compositions span film, television, and concert music.”

https://www.instagram.com/combsmattstrings

https://mattcombs.com

I’m happy to report that we’ve added a screening in Portland, Oregon. It goes on sale this Friday, but you can get on the waiting list right now. I’d act fast because this one will sell out.

We’ve also added screenings in Connecticut and Alaska. Both of those went on sale this morning.

I’m particularly happy that a small theater in Homer, Alaska will be showing my film. I was a faithful listener of Tom Bodett’s radio show, The End Of The Road back in the late 80s. It was set in Homer, Alaska and it was a thing of beauty. I’ve never been there, but there’s a small group of Todd fans who wanted to show the film and celebrate Todd. We were happy to oblige.

The first screening at The Belcourt Theater in Nashville is sold out, but there are still tickets available to the second showing. Come on out and join us. It’ll be a good time, I promise.

Get tickets here:

If you work at a movie theater and you’d like to show the film, fill out the form at the link above. If you make it easy for us, we’ll make it easy for you. This is a completely DIY project and we’re flying by the seat of our pants. Who wouldn’t want to get involved in such nonsense?

If you’re lucky enough to have a mom and pop arts theater in your town, let them know you’d like to see it. But be polite with them, they’re probably very busy. They’re the good guys and they’re doing the best they can. Just let them know you’d like to see the film.

Thanks for giving a damn,

-Otis

Photo by Matthew Aaron.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Indianapolis screening of my film, A Love Letter To Handsome John. Both screenings were sold out and I met a ton of nice folks. I wasn’t prepared to see so many people crying as they left the theater. It moved me more than you could ever know. Thank you to everyone for being so sweet and kind.

I put together a 30 minute video of that evening and shared it with my Patreon supporters. As of this morning, I decided to make it free to anyone who wants to watch a bunch of nice folks having fun in a movie theater. It’s good stuff, I promise.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/kan-kan-cinema-154782415

If you work at a movie theater and you’d like to show this film, fill out the form dow below and we’ll try to make it happen. Its very simple. If you make it easy for us, we’ll make it surprisingly easy for you. https://alovelettertohandsomejohn.paperform.co/

The film will stream on my Patreon page later this year and then it will stream on my YouTube channel, so that everyone can watch it for free, for all eternity.

What could possibly go wrong.

Thanks for giving a damn,

-Otis

Cry For Love was written by Iggy Pop and Steve Jones. I’ve always liked Iggy’s version of the song, but I hadn’t thought of it in a while. One morning, I found myself humming it around the house, so I picked up a guitar and started singing it.

I liked the way it sounded when I played it and I’ve always liked the words, so I recorded it at my buddy, Thomm Jutz’s place. Tammy Rogers of The SteelDrivers played some fiddle on it and I put it out into the world.

I woke up in Chicago in the middle of a tour and realized the song was live, so I should probably make a video for it. I sat down with my buddy, Todd Fox and we came up with a game plan while eating breakfast. We walked out of the hotel in Chicago and filmed this. Then, we drove to Ann Arbor for the next gig.

The Stooges were from Ann Arbor, so it all felt connected and strangely organic.

I like the idea of doing things for the hell of it and this is a good example of that. It was fun to do this, so I did it. It won’t be on an album and it’s just gonna be a random song on a streaming service.

Sometimes that’s enough.

If you enjoy doing something, that’s all you really need. Just make stuff and put it out into the world. Thanks for giving a damn, -Otis

You can stream the song here, if you’re into that sort of thing.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/73SEI8878pZkAdhWHNoc11?si=djHk6iHXRqeFntmXMIqL5Q

Photo from last night at The Madison Theater in Covington, Kentucky. It’s just across the river from Cincinnati, but don’t call it Cincinnati. Folks get upset about such things. I learned that one the hard way. Photo by Todd Fox

The Lucero tour has been a blast. Wonderful cats who throw down hard every night, laid back and mellow backstage and they have a deep connection with their fans. It’s a pleasure going up and down the road with them.

The tour continues tonight in Bloomington, Indiana, then Nashville and Knoxville.

This snuck up on me, but I have a new song that went live this morning on Spotify. It’s called Cry For Love. It was written by Iggy Pop and Steve Jones. I was humming it one morning, picked up a guitar and started singing it. I liked the way it sounded when I played it, so I recorded with my buddy, Thomm Jutz , Tammy Rogers of the The SteelDrivers played some fiddle on it and I put it out into the world.

Just because I wanted to.

Take care of each other and I’ll see you at a show.

Tickets for the Nashville & Indianapolis screenings of A Love Letter To Handsome John go on sale this Friday.

April 3: Indianapolis, IN – Kan-Kan Cinema
April 9: Nashville, TN – The Belcourt Theatre

Get more information and RSVP to receive a reminder just before tickets go on sale.

An intimate portrait of Todd Snider in the last year of his life. What starts as a film about gratitude, and a way to say thank you to John Prine, becomes a rare glimpse of the artist at home in his most quiet moments.

The East Nashville music community is mourning the loss of our friend, Pete Finney. I’m not really sure where to start, so I’ll just blurt out some random memories.

This photo was taken in 2016 in a historic studio on Music Row. We were filming a Sarah Gayle Meech session for my Pandora show and Pete was playing steel. Pete and I spent most of the day begging the studio manager to tell us Kris Kristofferson, or Tom T Hall stories. I remember asking the manager if there was anything in the studio that only the most hopeless music nerds would find interesting. Luckily there was.

I remember looking through boxes of 70 year old quarter inch tape while Pete whispered to me, “I can’t believe we’re actually getting paid to do this!”

That was Pete.

He didn’t like having his picture taken and seemed most comfortable staying in the background. I asked him if I could snap a picture of him behind his steel. He told me I could take one shot, so make it a good one. This is my one blurry phone photo from that day. I don’t think I’ve ever shared it before.

Pete and Kenny Vaughan were hotel roommates for 2 years while playing with Patty Loveless. Imagine the great conversations those two must have had.

He was over the moon when Chris Scruggs asked him to play with him in The Stone Fox 5. He told me that he thought Chris was the best C6 steel player in the world and was honored that Chris asked him to do the gigs. He seemed to be more excited about playing with his peers than playing with famous artists. And he played with quite a few famous artists.

You may have heard Pete on my podcast talking about playing with Doug Sahm, or about curating the Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats exhibit at the Country Music Hall Of Fame. He was a great storyteller and those were excellent episodes. I tried to get him to come back on the show for years, but he didn’t really dig the limelight.

I’d sometimes run into him 4, or 5 nights a week at shows. If there were 9 people in attendance, Pete would usually be one of them. He’d joke that he liked seeing me at shows because he’d know it must be the place to be. He started greeting me with, “This must be the right show because Otis is here.” I started greeting him the same way and it went on for years.

I just saw him maybe 3 weeks ago at a Jon Byrd show in East Nashville. I snuck up next to him and whispered, “I must be at the right show because Pete Finney’s here.”

That was the last time I saw him.

Rest easy, Pete.

Looking forward to hitting the road with Lucero in March. We’ll be stopping through some cities I haven’t had the chance to visit in a while. Tickets are on sale now, and you can find them on my tour page.

See you down the road.

This is my roommate, Malcolm. He showed up on our front porch 13 years ago today. He introduced himself and explained that he needed a place to crash, so he was moving in. He made a pretty compelling argument, so I took this photo (for security purposes) and let him inside. He’s been my buddy ever since.

When he first showed up, he was too skinny and it was obvious he’d had a rough start to life. When Amy and I fed him, he’d gobble it down as fast as he could. It seemed like he thought someone was gonna take it from him, so he ate quickly. We fed him quite a few times a day for a month or so in hopes of putting some weight on him. Then one day out of the blue, he stopped eating, left his bowl half full, layed down and took a nap. Amy and I immediately realized it was the first time in his life that he got “enough” food. It might sound weird, but we got all sentimental over it. We still get choked up and sentimental whenever we mention the first time Malcolm got enough to eat.

Malcolm sits on my lap every morning while I drink my coffee and he loves to sleep under the blankets when it gets cold at night. He’s a good roommate and I’m glad I snapped this photo when he showed up on my porch.

Happy Halloween, Mr. Malcolm.