What an extremely turbulent time of late for Austin Hartley and his band, Starrfadu. The band is basking in the glow of television love, with two songs already featured in the PBS series Roadtrip Nation and a third, “A Dispute Between Two Neighboring Towns,” will be featured in this season’s sixth episode.
That’s just the good news.
According to PBS’s website, the show isn’t airing locally in the next two weeks, if it airs here at all. However, every episode (including archived episodes from past seasons) is available for streaming on the Roadtrip Nation page. We’ll keep you posted when the show arrives in the digital realm. In the meantime, here’s how PBS describes what you’ll see:
“The Roadtrip Nation team spends time in New York, absorbing the sights and smells and interviewing graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister.
“Then they head across town to meet with Thomas Kale and Anthony Veneziale of theatre company Backhouse Productions and get to freestyle rap during the rehearsal for Freestyle Love Supreme.
“In Boston, sportswriter Joe Haggerty reminds the team that paying your dues plays a big role in getting to do what you love.”
As you may know (or may not, so we’ll reiterate), the band also had its song “Let It Out” used in a touching national Kleenex ad campaign and in the soundtrack for a documentary about the US Olympic team’s experiences.
All this positive news came to Hartley and his band as he underwent surgery to remove a golfball-sized tumor in his brain, a process he chronicles on the band’s MySpace page (thankfully, leaving out the gorier details) for fans to keep up. It’s amazing to read how he kept such high spirits through such a trying time; note how many times his blog post rates his mood as “blessed.” Thankfully, Austin is on the road to recovery, although still a little groggy and unable to operate heavy machinery just yet. Naturally, all of this translates into fantastic fodder for a songwriter who has suddenly come into a lot of downtime. We’re already waiting hopefully to hear the results.
Tags: a dispute between two neighboring towns, blog, brain, documentary, four four, fourfour, kleenex, let it out, local, music, myspace, olympics, pbs, roadtrip nation, song, starrfadu, thefourfour.com, tumor
November 14, 2008 at 1:09 am |
Starrfadu is possibly the best band in Springfield. The story is novel-worthy. If you haven’t heard And Yes… Our Thoughts Were Elsewhere, you’re not a local music fan.
November 14, 2008 at 11:26 am |
Agreed. A good band simply not seen enough onstage, and a compelling story from a guy who seems almost relentlessly upbeat. Sometimes the good guy DOES win.