BLAZE FOLEY

DUCT TAPE MESSIAH

A documentary film about an Austin original

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Documentary Videos

All shot at Blaze birthday bashes, Blaze memorials and the documentary film tour

Supper in a Bottle by the Ramblers

Recorded at the Blaze Foley Tribute, the Hole in the Wall, in Austin. The Ramblers are Elliott Rogers on guitar and Janice Rogers on bass.

Oh Darlin’ by Gurf Morlix in Chicago

Recorded at Fitzgeralds in Chicago as part of the October 2011 “Blazing Across the Midwest” tour.

Clay Pigeons by Gurf Morlix

Recorded at the Haven Social Club in Edmonton, Alberta as part of the June 2011 “Blaze Across Alberta” tour.

Anything Less by Gurf Morlix

Recorded at Communitea in Canmore, Alberta as part of the June 2011 “Gurf Blazing Across Alberta” tour.

Oh Darlin by Gurf Morlix

Recorded at Geomatic Attic in Lethbridge, Alberta as part of the June 2011 “Gurf Blazing Across Alberta” tour.

Ooh Love by Gurf Morlix

Recorded at the Blackbird Coffee House in Coleman, Alberta as part of the June 2011 “Gurf Blazing Across Alberta” tour.

Cold, Cold World by Gurf Morlix

Recorded at the Monarch Theater in Medicine Hat, Alberta as part of the June 2011 “Blaze Across Alberta” tour.

Mike Goes to Memphis

In the documentary, Mike Fuller (aka Blaze Foley) moves from Texas to Memphis to try and out run his father.

How to Prevent a Career in Music

Originally intended for the documentary movie BLAZE FOLEY: DUCT TAPE MESSIAH, this fake ad for a self-help DVD was removed when all the fake commercials were removed. Having all the commercials in the film was a bit confusing and pulled people out of the movie experience.

But it was a lot of fun making this video with songwriter John Emery and there’s more, it’s an entire DVD program so who knows? Maybe we’ll actually create that DVD program!

Blaze Sings Girl Scout Cookies for a Girl Scout

Ryan Rader threw birthday, anniversary and sesquicentennial parties in his south Austin backyard, complete with stage and songwriters. This is around 1985, and in this video, Blaze spies a Girl Scout selling cookies to the crowd and strikes up his popular GSC song. A fellow partier goes up to him to tell him there’s a Girl Scout there and Blaze tells him, “You think I didn’t see that?”

Alternate ending from SXSW 2009

Before it was BLAZE FOLEY: Duct Tape Messiah, it was DRUNKEN ANGEL: The Legend of Blaze Foley and was scheduled to have its World Premiere at SXSW in 2009. Due to technical issues beyond the control of either the festival or the filmmaker, that premiere screening never happened. This is the ending from that version of the film and it’s one of the best endings I’d ever seen, created by Rita K. Sanders for that SXSW screening.

You Gotta Move by Blaze Foley

This song by Mississippi Fred McDowell was a favorite of Blaze’s and he sung it at many of his gigs, as attested to by Larry Monroe who always wondered why he sang it instead of one of his (Blaze’s) songs. Larry understands now. (You gotta move, when the Lord gets ready, you gotta move.) Blaze incorrectly attributes this song to Robert Johnson, but it’s definitely a Fred McDowell song. Videotaped at Ryan Rader’s birthday party in 1985.

Oh Darlin by Toni Price

This was a lucky catch, please excuse the shaky video at the beginning — I was at a benefit concert at La Zona Rosa here in Austin and Toni Price began singing Oh Darlin’ off her Midnight Pumpkin (2001) album. On stage is the late, great Champ Hood, a close friend to Blaze Foley. Thank you, Toni, for recording this wonderful song of Blaze’s.

Mike to Blaze

This is a clip from the career segments of the documentary. If you haven’t seen the film yet, there are short segments that Larry Monroe narrates. These segments focus on Blaze’s roller coaster career. This clip is from the first of five such segments, in which we quickly see Michael David Fuller became Deputy Dawg and then Blaze Foley.

Sad Songs – Blaze Foley

A fake television commercial, in the style of those classic K-TEL commercials, originally intended for inclusion in the documentary. We eventually, and sadly, pulled it out of the documentary and that made a big difference. So now we make it available here for the first time, your own SAD SONGS from BLAZE FOLEY, 30 ORIGINAL HITS by the ORIGINAL ARTIST! Not from KTel, never was.

The Kerrville Story

This was the most popular legend of Blaze Foey, especially among the Austin folks. Another example of why his was not popular among the promoters. This is a scene from the documentary film about Blaze and shows how we used animation to help tell his legendary stories. Illustrations by Blake Buesnel

Election Day by Sheri Frushay

Recorded live at the Hole in the Wall in Austin, 1999 to celebrate the re-release of Blaze Foley Live at the Austin Outhouse on CD. This was the first official Blaze Foley album release to the public and started the wave of subsequent releases. Sheri recorded ELECTION DAY for the Blaze Foley Tribute CD project and performs it here live for the audience. David Waddell on bass, Gary Craft on guitar, Paul Anderson on drums and the incomparable Sheri Frushay on smoking vocals.

Girl Scout Cookies by Blaze Foley

Recorded May 20, 1984 at the Loading Chute in Temple, Texas, a tribute for the late Clyde Buchanan. This video features Blaze with Townes’ “Blues Band” featuring Leland Waddell on drums, David Waddell on bass, Elliot Rogers on rhythm guitar, Janis Rogers on harmony, Don Ray on piano and Donny Silverman on sax. (Can anyone help me out on the name of the steel guitar player?) Courtesy of Ed Heffelfinger for the Austin Pickers show. Thanks Ed!

AKA — Raw Material

Warning: this is a long clip!

I thought of calling the film “AKA” or “AKA: The Strange Tale of Deputy Dawg” but then thought it might be silly or imprudent without Blaze’s name anywhere in the title. But I think the fact that he changed his name is one of the many mysteries of Blaze. This clip is for Blaze fans who want to know more about his various stage names and is just raw video, it is not from the documentary.

This is a good example of an “assembly” — a collection of clips assembled together that we studied and then took bits and pieces from to construct the documentary. So this gives a peek into the process of making a documentary. An assembly is much longer than any scene will ever be, but it guides the editor in creating the story.

This assembly is interesting, but it will probably have more meaning once you’ve seen the film. It shows that there is much more information about Blaze than could ever fit into a reasonable length film.

In this assembly, Lindsey Horton is the only friend of Blaze we’ve met that knew him as Mike, Deputy Dawg and Blaze Foley. Lindsey was his friend from late high school years until his untimely death. Will, Glyn and Billy’s interview took place in Carroll county Georgia, near Atlanta, where Deputy Dawg transformed himself from musician to songwriter.

Sybil Rosen knew him as Dep’ty and she witnessed his intense transformation into Blaze Foley. Her interview took place in Carroll county as well, not far from where the tree house stood, where they both lived.

In any documentary, especially one about an artist who has passed away, and for whom very little material remains, a number of interviews have to be conducted. In Blaze’s case, because he knew so many people, we recorded well over 300 hours of interviews. Using even a small fraction of that material would have resulted in a very dry film, something filmmakers unlovingly refer to as “talking heads.”

Fortunately, Austin in the 1980s was teeming with video producers who documented the music scene. Blaze was under the radar but he impressed video producers like Hank Sinatra, Rob Klein, George Dollis, Ed Hefflefinger, Tim Hamblin and Ingrid Weigand. Other friends who knew Blaze, like Lew Andre Mathews and Ryan Rader, arranged to videotape Blaze and other artists performing at their parties. It’s through these people’s generous nature that we’re able to include them in the documentary, helping to make the film more interesting.

We’re also fortunate that Blaze wrote about his life experiences in his songs. Throughout the documentary, Blaze tells his story with music and lyrics. Using a clever interplay of songs, video archive, photos, animation and interviews, the documentary tells a compelling story of Blaze’s life, and showcase his unique music and art.

I hope you enjoy this long clip!

Picture Cards Can’t Picture You by Mandy Mercier

On special interviews, like Mandy Mercier’s, we would ask to hear a Blaze Foley song. Mandy has been performing Blaze’s songs for many years and this is my favorite of hers. While we don’t have any of these performances in the movie, I’d like to include them on a DVD special features disc, with the artist’s kind permission of course.

Mandy was our very first interview, the first of over 130 interviews! The lighting is not the best, we got better as time went on and even re-interviewed Mandy several years later (thanks, Mandy!) but I wanted to include this clip on the site for your enjoyment.

The Pawn Ticket Story

Townes Van Zandt searched for the pawn ticket to his guitar that Blaze had pawned, just before he died. In fact, Townes had given the guitar to Blaze, so technically it wasn’t his guitar anymore, but nevertheless Blaze apparently wanted Townes to have his guitar if he ever died.

During the course of interviewing people for the Blaze Foley documentary, we were told plenty of bizarre stories about Blaze, but this one takes the cake. I think it says a lot about Blaze’s friends and the mythology of Blaze that continues to evolve. Sadly, this story was cut from the movie because it really wasn’t about Blaze (well, okay, it is about Blaze but then it isn’t, is it?). It’s more like a Townes story. But it’s still a great story and just goes to show all the fantastical stories that await you in the documentary film! (Just had to get that plug in, hope you don’t mind. It’s true, there are lots of funny stories in this film about a truly tragic character.)

Faded Loves by Blaze Foley:
The opening that got cut

In creating the documentary about Blaze Foley, we considered many different openings. A good opening is hard to create, because it has to do a lot of work: set the theme, establish expectation for what the film is about, and build anticipation so that the viewer wants to watch the rest of the film. Although this particular opening works well (it shows Blaze and establishes him as a character with killer songs), it’s not the best first impression for a number of reasons. But I love his performance of this bitter sweet song and his jokes and his banter with the audience (which people tell me was one of the things they loved about his shows). courtesy Lew Andre and Sharon Mathews

Lovin’ You by Tom Smith

Written by Blaze Foley and performed by Tom Smith for the Blaze Foley Tribute project (Volume 1) in 1991. Players on this cut include Jim Frechette on steel guitar, the late Champ Hood on fiddle, George Coyne (who also is the recording engineer) and Tom Smith on guitars, PLUS the incomparable, brother power duo of David Waddell on Bass and Leland Waddell on drums.

This was my first music video ever, back when I was learning how to make films and tell stories, so if it’s any good at all, it’s pretty much beginner luck. It has some weird stuff thrown into it, like I filmed Tom driving around and then just came up with the idea of suggesting that the two houses have something to do with the song’s story. In fact, it does pertain to my cousin’s life story, but it’s best to leave that topic be and just interpret what it might all mean. See if you can spot some of the tricks I did, to make the video work! (A bit of trivia: this is the first Blaze Foley song I ever heard - and it was this here version with my cousin Tom Smith singing it, to boot! — Kevin)