Venue Profile

The Lyric Oxford Historic Building Meets the Great Bands of Today

After many months of tough, intricate restoration, The Lyric Oxford reopened as a major 1,500 person venue earlier this year. The historic building has incredible character, with a glorious past as a movie theater from the 1920s to ‘60s. It’s high point came in 1949 with the world premiere of William Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust, which was filmed around the area.

The building has come a long way from its birth as a silent movie theater in 1913. The venue’s current owner, Bradley Bishop, took over the building from his father Watt Bishop, who bought the building in 1983. At that time it was a complete shell, but was finished to house a dental office (belonging to the elder Bishop), a dance studio, a copy business, an apartment for the owner and even local restaurant Two Stick. Luckily, Bradley Bishop managed to stop his father from selling the building, and along with Tim Sims, a friend from college, he took on the task of recreating The Lyric as a key music venue in the region.

Having earned a degree in history from Vanderbilt University and completed some work on a graduate degree in architecture, Bishop took on the task of working on much of the building himself, with Ken Hudson of Architecture Inc. (Memphis, Tenn.) heading up the renovation.

The Lyric has already seen the likes of Neko Case grace the stage in the past few weeks, and this month Drive-By Truckers, Shawn Colvin and Rebirth Brass Band will all play the venue.

The hope is that The Lyric will continue to bring attention to Oxford as a touring city, as well as music city with its own scene. With a venue this size, the owners hope that more major acts will be encouraged to come to the city.

CAPACITY: 1,500

GEAR: Midas Verona 480 house console,

Klark Teknic DN 360 EQ, 8-channel

DBX Noise Gates, 8-channel DBX

Compression, I2 Meyer MSL-4 Speakers

Mid/High, 4 700-HP Subwoofer, LD-IA

Processor, Yamaha M3000 40-channel.

GENRES: Rock, country, indie rock, altcountry,

singer/songwriter, jam band

Contact Kyle Pilgrim

Phone (662) 234-5333

Email kyle@thelyricoxford.com

IN THE NEWS

- The new 7” single by John Barrett’s Bass Drum Of Death came out in midsummer and is now available to purchase on the website of his record label. The Aside includes the track “Stain Stick Skin”” while the B-side is “The Ballad Of BanditX.” A release party concert was held in his hometown of Oxford, Miss. at The Lyric Oxford to support the record. Barrett has also been busy playing drums for Dax Riggs,also on Fat Possum. Riggs took Barrett on tour with him when he opened for The Kills for two weeks. Earlier in September, Barrett joined Riggs in Austin to start working on Riggs’ new record.

www.fatpossum.com

- Americana band Blue Mountain released two new CDs on August 19 via Broadmoor Records. The CDs are the band’s first

releases since reuniting in 2007. Midnight in Mississippi features all new material recorded at Elmwood Recording in Dallas. The album was produced with the help of Grammywinning producer/engineer Stuart Sikes, who has worked with Cat Power, The White Stripes and Loretta Lynn. The band’s other August release, Omnibus, is a collection of new recordings of old songs recorded by Andrew Ratcliff at Tweed Recording in Oxford. Blue Mountain performed on Woodsong’s Olde Time Radio Hour on September 22nd. They have also been touring extensively in support of the new releases.

www.bluemountainband

oxfordms.com

- Taproot Audio Design recently finishedmastering a single for The Aaron Hall Bandwith a full-length record due soon. The studio also mixed and mastered a CD for CountryBoy Rolling Stone, featuring Bill Crowder, Bud Bays, Jim Dickinson and Danny Lancaster. The CD was originally recorded on 8-track in 1974, and is seeing daylight for the first time. Taproot is also continuing editing and mastering for The Wang/Rodgers Duo, a classical piano duo, as well as finishing mixes for a solo rockabilly project by Kevin Guyer of the Okratones. The studio is also proud to have upgraded their CD duplication equipment to include color, on-disc printing and color glossy inserts for short run duplication.

www.taprootaudiodesign.com