“The Center of Nowhere” premieres in Nashville
Ozarks portrait courtesy of Jim Mayfield.
I learned many things from nearly 30 visits to Springfield, Mo. over the past ten years. but paramount is the way to live through the spirit of music. Unfiltered rhythms of life are everywhere in the “Queen City of the Ozarks” ; in the bars, the cars, the art , the photography, the food. Music cannot escape these influences.
Our 90-minute documentary is called “The Center of Nowhere, The Spirit and Sounds of Springfield, Mo.” It premieres May 20 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Robbie Fulks appears May 19 in a songwriter session and his performance will be streamed live at countrymusichalloffame.org/streaming. A panel discussion follows with Eric Ambel (Del-Lords, Joan Jett), Fulks, Grammy-winning record producer Vance Powell, Music Row artist manager Scott Siman and Springfield singer-songwriter Abbey Waterworth. Waterworth also performs at 1 p.m. May 20 before our documentary screening.
“The Center of Nowhere” is based on a saying from the late Springfield musician-producer Lou Whitney. Nestled outside of hills and lakes like a penny in a blue jean pocket, Springfield is difficult to get to. That isolation is why there is such purity in the art. And that is why of all the mid-sized cities in America, Springfield has the most overlooked music scene.
We never tried to create a pure music documentary. “The Center of Nowhere” is also about community and how its unique culture influences the music.
Springfield (pop. 165,000) is where Route 66 was born and where Springfield-style cashew chicken was created. It is where Brad Pitt grew up and where John Goodman went to college. Religion is everywhere. I’ll never forget a Saturday night visit years ago when the Skeletons covered Ronnie Self’s “Waiting For My Gin To Hit Me” at the Outland Ballroom in downtown Springfield. Outside the bar window it was easy to see a small group of religious zealots with placards announcing “THE END IS NEAR.” That dichotomy was one early gotcha moment on Springfield.
Community is more important now than it was when we began this project five years ago. People must listen to each other and celebrate the unique threads of community. The late independent filmmaker Les Blank was the north star for me. With zero budget and a lot of faith from friends, I wanted to illustrate how environment informs music. Of Blank’s work with traditional musicians, the New York Times wrote in 2014, “Blank liked to film communities, large or small, in which everything–the language, the music, the food, the ways people relate to one another–seems to flow from the same source, places where nature and culture move to a single mysterious rhythm.”
The success stories of American communities have always been bottom up. The failures have been where the community bottoms out.
Big Smith in the Ozarks (Courtesy of Jim Mayfield.)
Lou Whitney was my vessel into this project.
In 2002 under the direction of editor Jeremy Tepper, I did a two-part series on Springfield music for The Journal of Country Music, The Magazine of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
The first part focused on Springfield’s then ; the Ozark Jubilee, the first television show to broadcast country music across America. Of course this was before endless e-mails and texts. Lou scrawled out important phone numbers on a white sheet of notebook paper and handed it over to me.
The magazine’s second installment looked at all the musicians to make the considerable effort to get to Springfield to record with Lou and his own “Wrecking Crew”: Robbie Fulks, Dave Alvin, Wilco, Jonathan Richman, The Del-Lords, Mary McBride, Syd Straw, the Bottle Rockets and many more. When Lou wasn’t with those artists, he recorded Springfield church groups and up and coming rockers. He was the first to take a chance on the popular Springfield alt rock band Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Lou recorded more than 1,000 bands in his lifetime. I learned a lot about American music from visiting Springfield.
Commercial Street. Springfield, Mo. (Jim Mayfield photo)
Community is dead without discovery.
Through Lou, Donnie Thompson and the late Lloyd Hicks, I learned how the Springfield based Wayne Carson wrote the hits “The Letter,” “Always On My Mind” and those great Gary Stewart drinking songs like “She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Doubles)” out of Springfield.
Wayne Carson told me, “Springfield is nearly the dead center of the United States. It’s the wheel and the spokes go out from there.” Ozark Mountain Daredevils co-founder John Dillon got his first job as a session musician from Carson. He said, “Those cats wrote country songs that were way out there in the way they turned phrases. A lot of them weren’t smart in the terms of the books they read, but they had an incredible way of telling a human story. Springfield, during those years, was a magical place to be.”
I learned about flamed out Springfield rockabilly singer Ronnie Self, who wrote “I’m Sorry” for Brenda Lee and “Waitin’ For My Gin To Hit Me” among others. The Skeletons were more than great musicians. They were impeccably detailed storytellers who loved the history of their town. If you listened, you had to learn more about Springfield.
Over the years Lou and I tossed around the idea of turning the magazine series into some kind of documentary. Time passed by. We began shooting and interviewing around Springfield in the summer of 2013, about 9 months before Lou passed away. Lou had taken a fall on the Saturday morning of one shoot and showed up with a gash on his head. But he was always there for anything we needed. Lou loved history and this was important to him.
Sometimes the music “business” shakes down to whats inside and whats outside. Whats outside is always more compelling. That’s why I fell in love with the Springfield vibe. Almost all of the characters we encountered lived on the periphery of convention. Their show-me spirit is unbending. We thank them for sharing their time and their stories. A place isn’t a place until it is remembered and a story isn’t a story until it is told.
Springfield music is a very big story from the center of nowhere.
Dave, We met at the Moxie and later at Big Mommas Coffee, out back with Lou and the dudes. I will be involve with the Springfield premier June 28. Thanks Have fun, and good luck!
Thanks so much Bob,
Anything you can do to spread the word—this shines a meaningful light on Springfield. There’s many points of discovery, lots of smiles and a few tears.
I’ll be in a few days early so let’s get together.
p.s. Will your film be screened anywhere in the west? I know a couple of people in Seattle that may be helpful in making that happen, if you’re interested.
Hi Dave, I guess I must’ve hit the wrong button this morning, and only my post script came through. Anyway, you don’t know me, but I sure appreciate you. I heard about you through a friend in St Louis. I cut my teeth, live music wise, at the old Amador Mining Co in Springfield, back in the late 70’s. I was there the night Steve Forbert sat in with them and stole them away from us for awhile. I’ve sung the praises of Springfield from Kansas City to Honolulu to Seattle to anyone who’d listen (sometimes with rolling eyes). So it’s particularly gratifying to read your words that so eloquently sum up my similar feelings. Kind of like a good song. Thank you.
Dave,
I was unable to attend the premier last night. I am very interested in seeing it, in part because my Uncle, Bill Ring was a member of the Ozark Jubilee cast. Are there any plans for future showings?
Mark Ringenberg