After a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, Mike Farris had a graveside revelation in the winter of 2004 — he was going to get clean, and quickly, with the aid of his family, his church, and his songwriting. He turned to the music of his roots (“When I was growing up, we had five records in my family . . . and three of them were by Johnny Cash. I didn’t realize how much that stuff was ingrained in my being.”) and infused it with the deep spirituality of Southern gospel. The result is a gem of an album called Salvation in Lights. Julia Clarke will tell you more.

 

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Here’s Mike in his own words:

I went to see the Dixie Chicks on Friday night. When I arrived, I was relieved to see that there weren’t protesters there–enough is enough and it’s time to let that one comment lay to rest. I was always surprised that Natalie’s having made her remark “on foriegn soil” seemed to be part of the reason for her critics’ ire. In my opinion, if there’s one person to thank for our deteriorating relationships overseas, it’s not Natalie Maines.

Okay, on to the music… The show was at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, and to my delight, it was filled to capacity. There wasn’t a lot of glitz and glamour; just great musicianship, passion, and hard playing. I am a sucker for beautiful harmonies and Natalie, Martie, and Emily were made to sing to together. They played songs off their new CD, Taking the Long Way, as well as faves like “Landslide,” “Longtime Gone” (written by Darrell Scott), “Travelin’ Soldier,” “Goodbye Earle,” and of course “Wide Open Spaces” (which was written by Americana artist Susan Gibson).

Natalie kept the sarcasm at bay Friday night, but she couldn’t resist encouraging us to visit “Pink is the New Blog” to get a glimpse of Britney Spears’ business.

This was my first time seeing the Chicks, and I’m glad I went.

–Leslie Rouffe

I had a chance to see Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration this weekend. Fans of his past films (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) know that he and his gifted casts of improvisers tackle institutions that are so much a part of our pop culture that we tend not to notice their bizarre cult-like tendencies. This time out he pokes fun at the weasels in the film biz. Guest does not let us down with his dry sense of humor; my belly ached at the end of the movie.

The story line features a group of “B” list actors filming the production of Home For Purim. (Take your Yiddish dictionary to the theater!) Their acting is over-the-top bad, but a blogger on the set’s sidelines writes a brilliant review of the resulting movie and cites one of the stars, Marilyn Hack (Catherine O’Hara), as Oscar-worthy. Before you know it, the buzz starts, and the cast ends up on all the heavy-hitting entertainment shows. (One host is played by an overtanned and hilarious Fred Willard.) All the actors get caught up in the award-show frenzy and go to strange lengths to win.

If you don’t see this movie, you are meshugeh ahf toi’t!

–Leslie Rouffe