My friend Ann in North Carolina just sent me this article yesterday letting me know that Phred Rainey died. Or passed, as they say back there. Nobody dies in North Carolina, they all "pass." However you phrase it, one of the coolest people I met in my decade in NC is no longer among us.
I met Phred after a couple of hippies saw me doing my Sharpie art drawings in McDonald's by Hanes Mall, in Winston. I was homeless at the time, and trying to break into Winston's art scene, and sell my work, hoping to get my life back on track. The guys said, "Hey, that drawing is cool, you should show it to the guys at the music shop across the street. They have art on the walls, but this drawing is better than what they have up." I figured it was worth a shot, and walked over there later that day. I showed my drawing to the manager, and he liked it. He told me to come back the next day, when the owner of the shop would be there.
I went back the next day, and met a bearded, really friendly guy name Phred Rainey. I showed him a couple of drawings, I think I had a Jerry Garcia drawing, and one other one. He really liked it, we talked for a few minutes, and he put me in contact with Jane Buck, who handled the local art for Earshot Music.
Earshot music was a great indie "record shop" as we used to call them. They had all kinds of classic music on vinyl. They had every genre' you could think of. They had box sets, they had CD's, and some videos. They always had something I couldn't identify, but found cool, playing in the shop. It was just the old school type music shop you wanted to go hang out in, look through the bins, find that one thing you could buy at the moment, and find 25 more albums or CD's that you wanted to buy but couldn't afford at the time. It was a great music shop that reminded me of a smaller version of Amoeba Music in Hollywood, or Vinyl Solution in Huntington Beach, CA, but with a much wider selection, not just punk. But Earshot was a great shop... in Winston-Salem. With the move to digital music over the last 25 years, the cool record shop to hang out in and find new music has largely been lost. Earshot was one of those shops. I say "was" because I'm out west now, and I don't know what the future of the shop is.
Over the next few weeks, Jane and Phred put a couple of my Sharpie drawings up on the shop wall, and people like them, and one sold. While Jane handled the art, every time I went into the shop, Phred was usually who I talked to. They helped me get cheap frames I couldn't afford. He shot photos of my art, because I didn't have a phone or camera. He made the flyer above. We talked about ideas, and he was always just a really cool, really helpful guy. He didn't ask for anything, except a very small cut when a drawing sold.
I wound up doing a solo art show at Earshot, in November of 2017, and Jane lined up an interview with Lisa O'Donnell, who did an artist profile with me, for the Winston-Salem Journal. She, too, became a friend, and I later did a drawing for her daughter's birthday. I did eight drawings for the show at Earshot, and Phred put them up the night before. The Kurt Cobain drawing above, sold an hour after it went up on the wall, the day before the show. A handful of people showed up for the show. Because of that little show, and all the help from Phred and Jane, my Sharpie scribble style drawings started selling. And selling.
I had sold several drawings earlier, but the real sales came in late 2017 and the first months of 2018, almost all through Earshot Music. Phred knew I was homeless at the time, and often didn't take the shop's normal cut to sell my drawings. My point here is that Phred Rainey was one of those really great people, who continually went out of his way to help people find great music, discover new music, and help local musicians and artists to get some exposure, and get going in the Winston-Salem music and art scenes. I actually sold far more drawings through Earshot music, thanks to Phred and Jane, than when my art was up in a gallery (or or two) in Winston's Trade Street art scene downtown.
So I'm really surprised and sad to hear Phred has left this world. He was just a cool, solid human being, who went to great lengths to help those around him. I wrote this post about my interaction with Phred, but I'm just one of the hundreds, probably thousands of people who wandered into Earshot Music over the years Phred owned it. I had no idea he had leukemia, and it's really sad to hear he's gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment