THE BLUE BOURBON ORCHESTRA

Carson Mell is a writer/filmmaker whose stuff mainly falls into the deserts, drugs, and music genre. His characters, at first glance, are the type of men who would eat a few peyote buttons and chug a handle of whiskey before fucking your girlfriend. If you look closely however, you realize that while they would indeed plow your woman, they would at least regret it and probably give you some of their drugs or whatever the next day.

When I spoke to Carson about his work a few months ago he told me he had just finished his second novel, The Blue Bourbon Orchestra. His first, Saguaro, The Life and Adventures of Bobby Allen Bird, is about a washed up musician and recurring character in Carson's films who stumbles through middle age with a bottle fucking whatever stray groupies he's got left. Eventually he befriends a monkey named Chonto before finally getting his life back together. It's hilarious and great and obviously there's a lot more ins and outs, but thems is the cliffnotes.

Carson has just released a teaser trailer for The Blue Bourbon Orchestra, which I've watched a few times now and has left me feeling a little scared and a lot confused. Here's what Carson has to say about it:

"Spanning the late eighties to the present, The Blue Bourbon Orchestra is an epic novel narrated by an alcoholic guitarist named Charles Leslie deBeau. With great candor, humor and regret, he tells the story of the greatest force he ever encountered, so powerful that it completely changed the direction of his life and many others: the fading alt. country band The Blue Bourbon Orchestra, and its silver-tongued lead singer, Guy Fisher.

Guy Fisher appears in the trailer in the animated chef mask, playing his character 'The Warlock' in one of the many homemade music videos that he and Charles make out behind his house."

Here's the trailer:

And here's Carson's short, Chonto, a supplement for Saguaro.

JONATHAN SMITH

You can read an excerpt and buy Saguaro now on Carson's website. The Blue Bourbon Orchestra will be available soon.