Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit, folk singer Ginny Mitchell and her husband Marty Collins activated their extensive network of connections in the Santa Cruz music scene to pull together a benefit concert at the old Wrigley’s Chewing Gum factory on Mission Street. Despite the fact that the factory houses the couple’s business, a film production facility called the Digital Media Factory, it wasn’t until the day of the event, Mitchell says, that the two of them noticed the opportunity they were being presented with. “We looked around and said, ‘We have to film this!’”
That night 17 local artists took the stage, and Mitchell and Collins filmed six hours’ worth of live performances. The footage, along with much more that Mitchell has collected since, is housed on eight external hard drives that together make up a gold mine of live performances and interviews with home-grown talent and big-name stars that have passed through Santa Cruz since 2005—everyone from banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck to longtime Santa Cruz singer Mary McCaslin.
Now Mitchell is mining her archives to create Santa Cruz Live, a magazine-format television show that she hopes will further establish the reputation of Santa Cruz’s live music scene internationally. With that in mind, the show will stream over the Internet, accessible to anyone anywhere with a computer and a connection. According to Mitchell, there are already viewers in Germany, Sweden, “and a couple hundred people in Canada who are chomping at the bit to see it live.”
Each half-hour episode will give exposure to an emerging artist, look back at the career of an established artist, feature a local performance from a major touring act as well as an interview with a supporting character behind the music and a performance by Mitchell herself, who hosts. The first episode of Santa Cruz Live will be simulcast this Friday on SantaCruzLive.tv, DigitalMediaFactory.com and on the Cruzio homepage. For those in town for the festivities, there will be a launch party at the factory with performances by Hot Club Pacific and Kemo Sabe and a preview of the second episode following a screening of the first.
In addition to providing material for the show—Mitchell plans to use at least six more performances from that night in upcoming episodes—the Katrina benefit was the inspiration for Santa Cruz Live . To hear her tell it, the concert served as a catalyzing event for the singer. Mitchell grew up in Santa Cruz and studied music at Cabrillo College before moving to Canada, where she was named Best New Artist by the Canadian Country Music Association and was nominated for a Juno, the Canadian Grammy.
As her career wore on, though, Mitchell began to question whether touring was the best use of her musical ability and experience. She grew weary of the unforgiving schedule and disenchanted with the idea that the success of her music was quantified by “how much alcohol I was selling, which is how it is in a bar.”
It’s a common enough sentiment that Mitchell has received encouragement for the show from a number of like-minded artists, including the queen of bluegrass, Alison Krauss. Four years ago, Mitchell and Collins were backstage at a concert in San Francisco when Mitchell told Krauss of her idea. “She looked at me and she said, ‘Ginny, I’ll do what I can do to help, but I really want you to do this because the music business is changing and artists really don’t have a platform right now.’”
It all starts this week. For more info, go to www.santacruzlive.tv.
‘Santa Cruz Live’ Launch Party
Friday, Dec. 3, 7pm
Digital Media Factory
2809 Mission St, Santa Cruz
$5
