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Many moons ago, at an indie shindig in North Carolina called WE Fest, I met this guy Rich Mackin. He called himself a Consumer Defense Corporate Poet and was their reciting excerpts from his books of letters. These letters were honest yet humorous questions sent to real corporations in the hope that they’d respond.
There were questions like the one he asked Herbal Essences about how stearyl alcohol could be considered ‘herbal’. Then there’s the one where he was angered at Ivory Soap for making masturbation lubricants as evidenced by their slogan, “Mild on hands hard on grease.” He once accused the Conform Latex Glove company of being run by aliens bent on conquering Earth. They actually got the joke, closing their reply letter with, “Live long and prosper.”
We had lost touch for a while until I got an email about his new, musical project. Rich’s girlfriend Blair Vail has been singing and writing songs since 1996. Then, one Christmas day, Rich got hold of a drum and started to bang along. Initially it was to accompany Blair’s songs, but eventually the two began collaborating and the inevitable pun of a band name came to be.
The Blair-Rich Project is fiery, Americana. It’s a sound seeming to come from deep mountain woods to smack you in your urban complacency. ‘Pieces and Parts’ is one of five tracks on their self-released EP available now.
See Also:
The Blair-Rich Project
Rich Mackin
