Marshall Crenshaw Announces Kickstarter for Film Project: "Tom Wilson's World"

Courtesy: Marshall Crenshaw Kickstarter

Celebrated singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw is taking a break from his own music to focus on making a documentary about legendary record producer and visionary Tom Wilson who played an important, and sometimes forgotten, role in the legacy of popular music. For instance, Wilson signed The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa, produced Dylan as well as Simon and Garfunkel and "discovered" Sun Ra and The Arkestra, producing and releasing their first two albums on Transition Records, a label that Wilson himself established right after graduating Cum Laude from Harvard in 1955.

Crenshaw became hooked on the idea of making the documentary about Wilson in October 2013 when his friend Irwin Chusid launched www.producertomwilson.com. Crenshaw writes, “I looked it over, then wrote to Irwin and said, ‘Irwin, this guy was a f#cking giant! And where's the recognition?’ I then proceeded to do two weeks in a row of my radio show ("The Bottomless Pit", 10 PM EST, Saturday nights on WFUV) in honor of TW; these shows were wonderfully well-received, but the whole story stayed in my head and wouldn't leave. Finally, I wrote to Irwin again and said ‘I'm thinking that I should make the documentary myself. Am I nuts?’ He wrote back and said ‘Not necessarily..’, and so now, here we are. At this point it's an obsession: I wake up in the morning and I'm thinking about it, go to bed at night and I'm thinking about it, etc.”

In order to make the project a reality, Crenshaw has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the documentary for which he has already begun shooting and conducting interviews. Achieving the fundraising goal here will enable him to move things to the next phase and see the project to completion.

“I'm determined to make this happen, won't rest until it happens! At the risk of sounding cute, I've already seen the movie in my head, and it's GOOD” writes Crenshaw.

​Visit his Kickstarter page to learn more about "Tom Wilson's World" and support this project.

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