10 | Arts & Entertainment
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From Buckhead Shaman to ‘Roswell Road,’
local towns show up in Bandcamp’s BIY tunes
BY ERIC DAVIDSON
The borderless terrain of the internet
has decimated lots of the ol’ charming re
gionalism of American pop music. The
days of the Standells having a local Boston
hit with “Dirty Water” before it became a
national smash, or Prince dropping details
about Minneapolis, are seemingly long
gone. If your implied audience lives every
where, you may be inclined to leave geogra
phy out. Who wants to write a song called
“The Devil Went Down to Domain Name?”
But that doesn’t mean artists have com
pletely given up on highlighting their home
base sometimes. We scoured the music site
Bandcamp for songs and albums whose ti
tles refer to local north metro towns. Then
we checked with the artists about their mo
tivations for writing a nod to someplace lis
teners way out in digital space may never
visit.
Bandcamp itself, in its own unique way,
has been able to retain some of the region
al flavor of the old townie musical habits.
Unlike the somewhat faceless interface of
Soundcloud, or the ubiquitous (and per
ceived shady) corporate enormity of Spo-
tify, the clunky-fun homepages that artists
create on Bandcamp often have the vibe of
old album liner notes, with sidebar high
lights of where they're from, contact links,
thank-yous to other local bands, and gen
erally are chock-a-block with personal and
recording info.
During the COVID crisis especially,
Bandcamp’s “Free Fridays” - where the
company waives its cut and bands often
offer all sales to a particular cause -- have
come across as a kind of digital benefit
concert where much of the monies raised
come from fans of the band’s hometown.
So here are some Bandcamp discover
ies who were directly - or misdirectly - in
spired by local towns.
‘Sandy Springs’ | Al Carmichael
Detroit, Michigan (2016)
This nice,
slide-guitar-
led stroll mu
sically dem
onstrates
this acoustic
strummer’s
pre-Rust Belt
existence in
Georgia, as his
drawl and mood sure don’t feel like the Mo
tor City. Indeed, Carmichael was a member
of Radar, a band of Atlanta’s 1960s and ’70
progressive rock scene.
“’Sandy Springs’ was part of my CD
called ‘Roswell Road,”’ said Carmichael.
“The entire record is about my formative
years living in Georgia. Sandy Springs was
my hometown. This song was inspired by
revisiting Sandy Springs and reminiscing
about my life at that time. I was in high
school then. Roswell Road is a long road
that passes through Sandy Springs.”
‘Buckhead Heist’ | Ian Deaton
Atlanta (2013)
A fizzy, techno-rock, DeLorean race of
an instrumental that might’ve been float
ing out of one of Buckhead’s malls in 1987.
“I’ve lived in Atlanta on and off since
1997, and I love crime cinema and fiction.
I wrote the song ‘Buckhead Heist’ as part
of a fake crime film soundtrack called ‘At
lanta Crime Wave,”’ says Deaton. “I was
dreaming a lot about a nonexistent 1980s
action film set in Atlanta, so I wrote an al
bum’s worth of Herbie Hancock/Harold
Faltermeyer synthesizer music. ‘Buckhead
Heist’ would be the scene in the film where
a group of thieves steal a haul of diamonds
from a high-end Buckhead jeweler and es
cape by helicopter.”
‘Dunwoody’ | The Well Wishers
San Francisco, California (2013)
This singer-songwriter, Jeff Shelton, un
knowingly named a whole EP after the lo
cal town. And while he admits on his page
that he has “since discovered” the existence
of Dunwoody, Georgia, he somehow gath
ered enough of an impression to “chroni
cle the imaginary lives of those trapped in
Southeastern suburban bliss,” via his lilt
ing, Big Star-like jangle rock.
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‘Buckhead Betty’ | The Coathangers
Atlanta (2007)
A dainty,
handclapped
singalong re
spite from the
Atlanta punk
stalwarts’ oth
erwise itchy
art-punk on
their debut al
bum.
“‘Buckhead Betty’ was on our first LP,
where we held no opinions back,” says
Coathangers drummer/singer Stephanie
Luke. “A Buckhead Betty was/is a term that
refers to privileged women in the Buck-
head neighborhood of Atlanta. Think ‘Real
Housewives’-meets-Karens of the world.
The type of woman who judges others ‘be
low’ them in status, yet are themselves mis
erable, pill-popping ladies.”
‘Buckhead Georgia' | Cedi Null
War, West Virginia (1963)
We’d ask
Mr. Null - a
one-time writ
er of coun
try hits like “I
Forgot More
Than You’ll
Ever Know” -
why he chose
to write a tune
about Buckhead, but he passed away in
2001. It’s a good bet he knew that part of
town was way different and closer to the
rural autoharp amble of Null’s minor fame
than the upwardly mobile locale it is today.
Then again, it could be named for the rival
city of Buckhead in Morgan County.
‘SandySprings GA’” | Silverfoxx ETO
Atlanta (2016)
The airy, electro drone of this tune
sounds more like background for the im
age of the spaceship floating at the top
of his Bandcamp page than anything
that might honk or lawnmower its way
through Sandy Springs.
‘Poor People’ | Buckhead Shaman
Atlanta (2020)
To catch up with this locally named
mystery figure, we checked out “Poor
People,” a slightly trippy, angelic electro-
yearner with a breezy gleam that matches
the sheen of his artistic nomenclature, if
not the song title. Mr. Shaman turned out
to be a musician named Tyler Hobbs.
“Buckhead Shaman was originally
an online persona delivering facetious
health, wellness and spiritual guidance,”
said Hobbs. “I started making music, and
realized it matched well with the sha
man character. It started as very tongue-
in-cheek - poking fun at Buckhead’s con
sumerism and pseudo-spiritual residents
obsessed with their health. Buckhead Sha
man is a total brand whore with a heart
- a beacon of healing -- repping a part of
town believed to be a cut above the rest.”
— John Ruch contributed
