Brian and Bill: A Pairing of Music and Art
Musician Brian Gore and artist Bill Russell collaborate to tell California stories
As much as I like to define myself as ‘the loner artist’, holed up in their studio creating masterworks, I’m anything but. There are windows in my studio so passersby can look in. I often sketch in public settings, so people can look over my shoulder. I teach and write about my art and process. The truth is I get enormous benefit from working in collaboration with others; like clients, art directors and creatives of other disciplines.
Brian Gore is an extraordinary finger-style guitar musician and composer. We began a friendship 30 years ago and soon after began a creative collaboration that combined his music making and my art making to tell stories about California. I talked with Brian about that experience.
Bill Russell (BR): International Guitar Night, the guitar music concert series you created, is celebrating its 25th year. Collaboration is not new to you. Every year you bring together a diverse group of world class guitar players, to play, record and perform music all across North America and Europe. It’s a challenge that you seem to make work.
Brian Gore (BG): Yeah, I put these musicians together. They practice three days before a tour, get organized and produce some original music to record for a CD. Our next IGN tour begins this January. I won't be joining them this time.
BR: I remember meeting you in San Francisco back in 1994 and hearing you play. We became friends. Later you told me you’d written some songs about Santa Cruz. Is that how our collaboration started?
"For many, the words conjure up outré concoctions of torn, paint-spattered canvases, discordant music played at ear-splitting levels, and angry poetry howled in dingy basements. Brian Gore and Bill Russell produce (and perform) an entirely different brand of art…one that blends Gore’s melodic acoustic guitar compositions with Russell’s whimsical illustrations crafted in real time." - a review from the Los Gatos Times
BG: Santa Cruz, California was and remains a special community for me. It’s where I first saw the ocean. I got my degree at UC Santa Cruz. It’s an inspiring place. I often begin an acoustic guitar piece by writing some lyrics, which helps me imagine a narrative. For instance, I wrote a song while on a hike on the John Nicholas Trail. My song Monarch Forest is about the monarch butterfly habitat at Natural Bridges State Beach. You and I both brought our sons there to play. The animation you made has the same child-like sense of wonder that’s present in the song.
BR: That was the first and very rudimentary animation I made. I too got inspired by visiting Santa Cruz…watching the surfers from Lighthouse Point, and sitting by the waterfalls at Castle Rock State Park. You wrote ten original compositions in all, correct?
BG: Yes. I recorded them for the CD, which you used in the animations and in the iBook. We called it Santa Cruz in Song and Image. Our first performance was at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
‘You and I were in sync about the wistful feelings we shared in the California landscape.’ - Brian Gore
BR: Our next collaboration was Wine Country Tales.
BG: I realized there were stories to tell about the wine-growing regions of Napa and Sonoma…about its beautiful landscapes, unique people and in some untold historical dramas. I wrote about Robert Louis Stevenson’s honeymoon in the Napa Valley, and the establishment of the Last Spanish Mission in Sonoma. My song Vagabond Eddie tells the story of Dr. Edward Bale, who in 1837 became Chief Surgeon of the Mexican Army under General Mariano Vallejo. He was a bit of a rogue.
BR: The narratives in your songs conjured up images for me. I used the Procreate app on my iPad to create the illustrations and animations. I thought the story about the 19th C. Chinese Laborer was quite journalistic.
BG: That one was about a Chinese immigrant who helped dig wine caves around Napa. While fictional, it speaks to how all Chinese suffered horrible racism. I don't think most people know about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. I had to do some deep research to inform that song, as you did to make the animation.
BR: Then there were the live shows.
BG: We performed a few gigs. We told these stories through my songs and your drawings. I don't think anyone had seen anything like it.
BR: You got me out of the comfort of my studio when we performed as a duo in live shows in towns around California. I ran the multimedia program as you played. From the stage I projected the images and animations I made from my laptop to the large screen behind us. I also used my iPad as a digital sketchbook, to draw in the moment. It was improvisational and quite challenging.
BG: Audiences appreciated the custom art you created for those venues, like the characters you met during Wild West Day at Upper Lake or the string of nine volcanic morros near San Luis Obispo.
BR: I would draw particular people, aspects or themes of the host locale. We travelled far afield sometimes. For the show in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, I made drawings from the town’s past and present, including the historic Fort’s founder and a sheep shepherd.
BG: We used all those images in our social media marketing, in order to promote other gigs. We also approached wineries and their vintners to feature.
BR: I extended the Wine Country Tales brand in album art and website. We monetized with a set of prints, a CD-DVD package and other merchandise to sell online. It was a lot of work. So what happened? Why didn’t we keep at it?
BG: The audiences enjoyed how unique the show was. Maybe the corporate-owned wine establishment didn’t get it. They couldn’t see the promotional opportunity we provided. But I think we were successful in what we brought creatively to the project and I'm proud of that.
BR: You produced some great music. I made some great art. It was a great collaboration. Let’s do it again sometime.
When collaboration is anchored in trust, it creates a space where individuals feel empowered and challenged. Engaging across disciplines offers an opportunity to learn, push boundaries, gain new perspectives and develop innovative hybrid experiences. While the journey may have its obstacles, the lasting rewards of such collaborative efforts are profound and transformative.
In this video from The Creative Pulse series, composer Philip Glass talks about how he collaborates in theater, dance and film. Glass says, ‘All collaboration comes from earth, fire and water.’
Check out: Wine Country Tales | Guitar Poet | Song and Image | Listen to the Songs
Oh my; there is a lot in these music pieces and images. What a terrific collaboration. Very inspired! Fire is your creative impulse; Air is the mental process in concert with Water's feelings and sensations aka the Imaginarium's workshop, which in turn produces, gives birth to, Earth's most interesting collaborations! Spirit made manifest in all the arts! Plus, it looks like you both had a lot of fun in the process - Bravo !!