Video/Blog:Oasis clients perform live from Austin

Here’s Oasis Disc Manufacturing client Jaime Michaels a few minutes ago

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performing a mini-showcase in Austin, Texas, soon after the UPS truck pulled up with his brand new Oasis-pressed CD. Oasis is here in Austin participating in the annual Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWRFA or SWERFA, depending which way you lean), which sponsors these great little guerilla showcases for artists of all stripes.

There is nothing flashy about a Folk Alliance conference. The Fashion Police, luckily, don’t make rounds here, or they would have the whole lot of us rounded up and arrested for multiple violations. More importantly, there’s precious little snobbery here; this is as close to a level playing field as you’ll find in the music business.

The level of notoriety of the performers here ranges from not-so-much to nationally famous. At the very same time I was listening to Jaime and shooting this video clip, Grammy award-winning songwriter Jon Vezner* was performing a similar guerilla showcase literally next door, in similarly austere surroundings.

Louis Meyers, the Executive Director of the Folk Alliance and the legendary co-founder of South by Southwest, put it this way to me, earlier today: “If there’s one thing we have here,” Louis said, “It’s the songs. We may not have the flash, but we have the substance. And more and more, Nashville and LA are realizing this and are coming to these conferences looking for the hits — and licensing-friendly material — of tomorrow.”

*Vezner, in the classic “share the wealth” tradition of the Folk Alliance, in fact helps teach a new generation of songwriters at the Oasis-sponsored Songcamps run by Paul Reisler.