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Thrillist Austin

Dust Radio

Old guitar. Old soul. New movie.

Texas rarely fails to honor its native sons -- LBJ's name graces everything from libraries to expressways, and even though he's only 30, plans are surely in the works for a memorial Paul Wall. Help exalt the name of one of the Lone Star's most extraordinary, yet underappreciated talents, by contributing to Dust Radio.

Dust Radio is a feature-length documentary covering the entire career of Chris Whitley, the Houston-born ethereal bluesman who made devoted fans of musicians from Keith Richards to Dave Matthews mainly with his 1931 National and possibly the loneliest voice ever possessed by someone from a city of 2.1 million. Both producers knew Whitley well, and their experiences serve as bookends to his story: one, a former head of video production at Sony, followed the artist into small clubs and onto the stage opening for Tom Petty right after his discovery by Daniel Lanois in New Orleans; the other, a photographer-turned-documentarian, both chronicled and befriended him shortly before his untimely passing in 2005, by which point he'd recorded approximately that same number of hellhound-hounded classic tunes.

What they captured isn't a fairy tale -- the turn from humbly triumphant to sagaciously bleak is pretty jarring -- but if you just watched Nicki Minaj's Grammy performance, it could help you believe in music again. First they've got to fund the editing process, and every dollar counts, so instead of buying grillz, lend them a hand and it'll be your name that's exalted.

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Dust Radio (Emailed on February 16, 2012)

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