Virginny Music

I spent the first month of summer in Charlottesville, VA, working on "Evan Almighty" with Tom Shadyac. It is a beautiful place, with lots of live local music, much of it right outside my door on the 'downtown mall' and in the clubs, bars, lounges along the mall.

The Slate Hill Show consisted of Slate Hill Phil (Phil Slate) and whoever else he could dredge up that night. He and a girl fiddle player mostly played outside in the afternoons on the mall, and then he had a regular gig on Thursdays at the Outback Lodge down the road. He was something right out of 'Brother Where Art Thou' and I could never decide if he was some kind of anachronism for real, or if it was a constructed persona. In any case, I really enjoyed his singing and picking. These sketches are from his afternoon on the mall show. . .(on Thursdays he sported a wool pin-striped suit complete with vest and braces).