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| Mark Hallman at Congress House Studio |
THE SHOPKEEPER
A film by Rain Perry
I first discovered
singer-songwriter Rain Perry in 2003
when Tom Russell sang her beautiful
song “Yosemite” on a promo EP sent out in conjunction with his Modern Art album. I believe he recorded
the song during the sessions for that album at Mark Hallman’s Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas. About a decade
later, I wrote about Rain’s album Men,
which was also recorded at Congress House with Mark as producer, principal
accompanist and occasional songwriting collaborator.
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| Rain Perry |
Rain’s latest project is a
highly interesting and engaging documentary film called The Shopkeeper which, on the surface, tells the story of Mark
Hallman’s career as a musician – he was a principal in the ‘70s band Navarro and worked extensively as a
sideman with Dan Fogelberg and Carole King – recording engineer and
record producer, and of his Congress House Studio, by now the longest-running
recording studio in Austin, one of the great American music cities.
But, more than that, the
film looks at how the music business has changed over the decades of Mark’s
career and at the existential issues facing artists, recording studios and
record companies in an era where the public wants to consume music without
paying for it.
Rain effectively uses
comments and commentaries from artists – some who I know well, some whose music
is familiar to me, some who I’d not heard of before – including Mark Hallman,
of course, Tom Russell, Eliza Gilkyson,
Ani DiFranco, Andrew Hardin, Sarah Hickman,
Iain Matthews and many others. These
artists lend much insight both to the stories of Congress House and to how the
underlying issues of a changing music business have affected them and their
careers. There are several terrific segments where singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham uses facts and figures
(with charts) to show the financial changes in the music business over the
years.
Along the way we get to
hear some of the great music that has been made at the Congress House over the
years and bear witness to Mark’s struggle to keep the studio economically viable.
The Shopkeeper is a film that should be seen by anyone interested
in understanding what it means to be an independent roots music artist in these
times.
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--Mike Regenstreif
