Music video for Goodwater, Alabama 1982, a track from the album Nighty Night.
Shot on and around Halloween 2014 in New Orleans.
In 1982, my dad takes a flight from Dallas, Texas to Birmingham, Alabama. On a lengthy tape recording, he captures the hum and drone of the cabin, the voices of the pilot and flight attendants. In these times, you can still smoke on airplanes. At the central bus station in Birmingham, he’s impressed by the exotic voice of the woman calling out destinations and departure times over the loudspeaker in her intense southern drawl. After recording this to tape, he boards a bus headed southeast to Goodwater, home of Madix, Inc., “an innovative leader in the store-fixture industry,” where he’s been hired to photograph their products and facilities. The clanking rhythms of the pneumatic machinery fascinate him and he makes several recordings. The cassette is orange and labeled “Madix plus airline.”