Friday, August 23, 2013

ZamBamBooGee Poster- Pittsboro Roadhouse Grand Opening


After I posted the recent poster for my band, ZamBamBooGee's upcoming performance at Carolina Brewery, I realized that I am delinquent and tardy in posting the slew of other posters that I have had the honor to create for these momentuous events (often working in tandem with artist and ZBBG bassist, Bruce Saunders).

So I figure, I had better play catch up!
And what better place to start, than from the start!

The poster you see here I drew up to celebrate a performance occassion that was special to us in ZamBamBooGee on a number of levels.


The event was the grand opening of the Pittsboro Roadhouse and General Store, in Pittsboro, NC.
Now, if you are from Chatham County, or maybe even if you are from another place nearby,
you will know that this venue has historically been a critical gathering place in Chatham County, for the last say 30 years...

THE GENERAL STORE CAFE
To appreciate this poster, it is important to get a little bit of background...
I don't know the venue's entire history, save that it was once an auto shop of some kind, and then maybe a healthfood store, and then a really sweet cafe and restruant.
What I liked about it was that you could go in and grab a key lime soda on a hot day, but they would also be holding fancy dinners and fundraisers in the back for local nonprofits.
They hosted alot of great bands from the area, and showed a lot of art.
All in all, the space was a major treasured resource for a 'scene' in Chatham County that has been (and still is) rich in community.
Tragically, the venue had to close. It seemed that, for all of the richness that their expansion provided, economically, it was just too much for a struggling economy to bear.
When those doors closed, we all felt a cold shudder, realizing we had lost not just a good restruant, but an important connecting point.

Fortunately, miraculously, about a year later, a nice family, Greg and Maria, who already ran a catering business (Catering By Design) in nearby Cary, decided to revive the establishment, bringing their own take and style sensebilities to the venue. And their vision was The Pittsboro Roadhouse. While this title was probably puzzling to Chatham county's more rural population, who might consider being on the circle of 'Circle City' to be about as downtown as you can get (and ok, they have a point), I had to admire the flair of this vision (which interior designer, Ricky Lindley played on with relish).

And SO, when ZamBamBooGee, who practices up off of Hwy 87, out towards a REAL roadhouse (UCLACC), was invited by Tommy Edwards to have the honor of performing an innaugrual gig for the opening of the new venue, it was an oppurtunity that we treasured as a band, and that I relished as a poster artist...

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