I first heard Irene Allen when I went to see a production of a play about Zombie clowns. It was a play done in silence with only a musical sound track produced by Irene. She performed the music herself with a band of other musicians that she directed. Before the performance she sang some blues and old time music to get the audience warmed up. That when I knew that she was an incredible performer. She has one of those resonant female voices that can seem to express a whole range of emotion at once. When I asked her to do this project she got all excited. She said she wanted to perform in labyrinth of hand hewn concrete caves that are at the gut of City Museum. I had no problem with that, except that, well, caves are dark, and we were shooting video. We looked around a bit for a place that might have enough light and settled on a large room with a crystal formation in the center of it. There is a colored light that changes gradually over time. I thought it was a nice effect.She sang two songs for me. One My Country is a song about St. Louis living in the city specifically. About how its sort of a wilderness unto itself. The other song, a blues number, is one of those knock you dead pieces that can rattle around in your skull for days if you let it.

The first thing you notice about Jesse Irwin when you meet him, is his contagious smile. The day I met him for the first time he shook my hand and said, Glad to meet you! and really seemed to mean itlike few people ever do. He has a kind of infectious charm that leaves an impression on you.A few months after this first meeting, I saw his band, The Doc Ellis Band, play somewhere and discovered that Jesse is more than a carpenter, and that his charm works as well for him on stage as it does off. The Doc Ellis Band plays classic Country & Western covers, the kind I heard and loved when I was a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s. The kind of Country music thats so far removed from the stuff they play on Country radio these days that it could be another genre all together. It must have been a good year later that I had a chance to see Jesse perform solo, playing his own music, and thats when I realized that he was more than just a charming guy who probably grew up listening to the same music I did. He could write great simple, well crafted songs too. Songs that were simple, funny and told the truth at the same time. I was an instant fan.So when I started this project Jesse Irwin was definitely on my mind. It wasnt hard to get him to do this. He seemed particularly honored that I would ask him. But seriously, Jesse, the honor is all mine.

Bob Reuter met me at City Museum on Martin Luther King day, after hours. He had a rental car for the day so I didnt need to pick him up like we originally planned when we arranged this impromptu show on a phone call before the weekend. We made a little small talk as we walked around to find an appropriate place to shoot. He decided on the nautical themed room on the main level. There are fish tanks there with actual fish that are native to Missouri, some big Carp and Gar—which Ive only seen dead before washed up on the shores of the Merrimac while camping in the summer time.Bob, is a main-stay of the current music scene in St. Louis. Ive heard third hand that he played in some of the cities first punk bands back in the late 70s. Ive also heard whispers that he was somewhat of an early musical mentor to some performers whove gone on to become rock stars on the national stage. Hes also known for his photography which was a subject of an earlier video I made about him several years ago. Hes a punk rock troubadour, and a raconteur. I love to read his stories on his myspace bloghe could be a serious writer if he wanted to be. Once we determined the performance space, he took off his hat, tuned up his guitar and we rolled. We walked around each other like fighters before the first blows of a prize fight. He played a song about South St. Louis called Dirty South. The southside of St. Louis being at the bottom of the city that is a gateway not just to the west, but also the Northern border of the southern part of the USthe dirty south as Bob calls it here. The title of this song also shares its title with one of his bands. Then, almost as soon as he started, he donned his hat, packed up his guitar and we were done. He had a rental car to return.