Rebirth of Cool: Inside The Billy Reid Shindig

“This place used to be cool,” said Austin, the shaggy-haired high schooler who’d shouldered his way through the crowd to stand beside me at the Alabama Shakes show on Friday night.

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I looked around us. The Shoals Theatre, a mid-century auditorium filled with old-school carpeting and rickety seating, looked cool enough. I asked Austin to clarify.

“I mean this city,” he explained. “Florence. The Shoals. Baby boomers used to listen to good music here, and bands like the Rolling Stones used to come to town, but now the baby boomers have grown up and no one cares about cool music anymore. We’ve become a retirement community.”

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Rebirth Of Cool: Inside The Billy Reid Shindig

“This place used to be cool,” said Austin, the shaggy-haired high schooler who’d shouldered his way through the crowd to stand beside me at the Alabama Shakes show on Friday night. 

I looked around us. The Shoals Theatre, a mid-century auditorium filled with old-school carpeting and rickety seating, looked cool enough. I asked Austin to clarify.

“I mean this city,” he explained. “Florence. The Shoals. Baby boomers used to listen to good music here, and bands like the Rolling Stones used to come to town, but now the baby boomers have grown up and no one cares about cool music anymore. We’ve become a retirement community.”

On this particular evening, though, Florence seemed like the coolest town in the South. Billy Reid, hometown hero and international clothing designer, had chosen Alabama Shakes to headline his fourth annual “Shindig,” a weekend-long party revolving around music, fashion and comfort food. Musicians like the Civil Wars’ John Paul White were milling around the Shoals Theatre lobby, and well-dressed fashionistas in white pants were crowding the concession area, hoping to grab a drink between Jonny “Corndawg” Fritz’s opening set and the Shakes’ first song. No Rolling Stones in sight, perhaps… but no baby boomers, either.

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Watch: Relive The Billy Reid Shindig

Esteemed Southern clothier Billy Reid has been described as a “musician at heart.” So it’s no surprise that the designer is the perfect candidate to host the Shindig, a showcase during SXSW that featured some of the very artists that inspire Reid’s clothing line, including Brendan Benson, Delta Spirit (pictured above), Phosphorescent and Punch Brothers.

Be sure to check out our video of the event, where Reid waxes about the connection between music and fashion.

“Fashion and music are so interconnected,” Reid said. “So every six months, we’re basically putting together a new album, and then we put on a show and we’re out, trying to promote it. You just pray that people like it, and write something nice about it and people buy it … Those similarities create a lot of synergy that even behind the scenes doesn’t get talked about as much.”

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The Billy Reid Candlelight Sessions: Andrew Duhon

See part two here.

Watch: Jessica Lea Mayfield Live At The SXSW Billy Reid Shindig

Jessica Lea Mayfield, the sultry alt-folk crooner from Kent, Ohio, delivered a great set at the Billy Reid/K-Swiss SXSW Shindig Wednesday. Watch this performance of “I’ll Be The One You Want Someday,” the opening track on her Dan Auerbach-produced album Tell Me. And check out our upcoming feature on Mayfield in the May/June issue.

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Watch: Caitlin Rose, “Own Side Now” Live at SXSW

“This is a song about sleeping around and feeling miserable!” quipped Nashville singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose at American Songwriter’s Billy Reid and K-Swiss Shindig in Austin, Texas on Wednesday. “It’s pretty apropo for South By, don’t you think?”

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Inside The Billy Reid Shindig w/ Hayes Carll, Civil Wars, & Jessica Lea Mayfield

It’s so easy to hate on South By Southwest…Too big, too corporate, too much, too too too…And it’s true, kind of. But not really…

Check out Holly Gelason’s blog on the SXSW Billy Reid K-Swiss Shindig featuring Jessica Lea Mayfield, Hayes Carll, The Civil Wars, Caitlin Rose, Jason Isbell, The Apache Relay, Keegan Dewitt & The Romany Rye. 

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The Billy Reid & K-Swiss SXSW Shindig, Presented by American Songwriter 

Well butter our buns and call us a biscuit, but it’s that time again. With the 25th Anniversary of SXSW less than a month away, we’re happy to announce the line-up for The Billy Reid & K-Swiss SXSW Shindig, presented by American Songwriter.

This year’s line-up will include performances by Hayes Carll, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Jason Isbell, Caitlin Rose, The Civil Wars, The Romany Rye, Keegan DeWitt and The Apache Relay.

Join us at The Swan Dive on Wednesday, March 16th, from noon to six, for a drink and the chance to catch some of the best music coming out of the Southland. The event is free, but you gotta RSVP right away.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP