The Billsbabe’s Shoppe added t-shirts with the text I want Bill to be my maker and I want Eric to be my maker. They come in white and in black.
The Billsbabe’s Shoppe is a non-profit – at cost fansite store. With every item purchased a small charitable donation will be made to the Brentwood Theatre in Essex, UK, of which Stephen Moyer is patron.
Article on Nola.com by Dave Walker
It is not such a long way from New Orleans to Bon Temps, La.
The Crescent City and the fictional setting of HBO’s “True Blood” cast similar shadows.
They’re both places where you can comfortably change your shape, howl at the moon and acquire unexplained bite marks. The trip from suburban Maryland Avenue in Metairie to Bon Temps is a different kind of journey.
Sam Trammell, who plays the Sookie-struck roadhouse owner Sam Merlotte on the saucy vampire drama (Sunday, 8 p.m.), traversed that route via West Virginia, Brown University, the New York stage, prime-time TV and feature films. Born at Ochsner Medical Center in 1971 while his father was in medical school at Tulane University (both his mother and father earlier attended LSU), Trammell bounced around with his family early on but they landed long enough on Maryland Avenue for him to compile glowing childhood memories.
“I remember it being pretty big,” he said during a recent telephone interview. “I went back a few years ago and it’s just so tiny. I remember playing kick-the-can right before dusk. It was such a great neighborhood to grow up in. I also remember going to Mardi Gras parades and just yelling at the people, ‘Give me something, mister!’ That was what I was taught to yell. I think that’s what all the kids yelled back then. I remember the doubloons and the beads. It was really fun, really exciting.”
Trammell’s family moved to West Virginia when he was midway through elementary school, but he’s still got tons of Louisiana kin, a fact he was reminded of during location shooting for the first season of “True Blood.”
“We shot in and around Shreveport, and one day we were going to shoot this scene and we were driving and driving into the country and all of a sudden we turned this corner and go over this railroad crossing and I realized we were in Doyline.
“Doyline is a tiny town where my father’s side of the family all grew up. I have 13 relatives buried in the cemetery.” The scene itself was shot near Lake Bistineau, on land that Trammell’s great-grandfather once owned.
“I was tripping out,” Trammell said. “I am born in Louisiana. All of my family are from there. I moved to West Virginia, New York, went to school in Rhode Island, California, and here I am shooting a scene for an HBO series on this land I used to go to as a kid. It was so circular.
“Nobody could believe it. I told everyone on the set and everybody was freaking out. We were so out in the middle of nowhere.”
Just as well. Trammell was running through the countryside naked in the scene, which appeared in an episode about halfway through the first season. This is a series that does not squander liberal premium-cable standards for adult situations.
It’s a weird claim given Trammell’s character’s ability to change into a dog, but Sam Merlotte is one of the most grounded of all the Bon Temps tribe.
“I’m kind of the clear eye in the maelstrom,” he said. “The things that he knows that nobody else knows are so massive, it’s just hard playing high stakes like that.
“You have this rich material to work with, and the (fantasy) element sort of demands that you play very high stakes — stakes you probably haven’t experienced in your own life. It can get very heavy. It’s a challenge to do that justice.”
So far, it’s working. The second-season “True Blood” premiere drew HBO its largest audience since “The Sopranos” finale.
The network has done its part, with a clever marketing campaign that grew from viral to almost inescapable: Four full-page ads in The Los Angeles Times — one wrapping around the entire front page — trumpeted the second-season premiere.
But creator and executive producer Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under,” “American Beauty”), working with characters from Charlaine Harris’ series of Southern vampire novels, has created a hot-blooded hit that lives up to the best opening-credits sequence on TV.
“We’re all stunned,” Trammell said. “When I first got this project, it was Alan Ball and HBO — I wanted to do it and I hadn’t even read it.” Shooting on the first season was completed before the series premiered.
“We were shooting on the smallest lot in Los Angeles,” Trammell said. “It felt like we were doing this tiny little backyard production. We didn’t have any feedback.
“We sort of knew HBO was happy and that was good, but we had no idea if people were going to like it.
“You never know, even if you think you’re doing something good. You don’t know if people are going to watch it and you don’t know if it works until it comes out.”
Trammell’s middle name, Foote, reveals that he’s a distant relative to historian Shelby Foote, star of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary “The Civil War.” Trammell said he borrows some of Merlotte’s accent from Foote, who died in 2005.
“I feel like the South is in my body and in my brain and in my DNA,” Trammell said. “I just love that feeling of being a Southerner. It’s just great that I’m from there and get to do this role.”
Pre-”True Blood,” Trammell’s career included starring roles in films (“Beat,” “Followers”), lead and guest roles on TV (“Maximum Bob,” “Going to California,” “House,” “Dexter, “Cold Case”) and a Tony Award nomination (for a late-1990s revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Ah, Wilderness!”).
The road to Bon Temps has taken him back to his roots and to the big time simultaneously.
“Nobody’s been too weird or crazy,” Trammell said of fans. “One thing that’s strange is that people will come up and ask me if I’m Sam Trammell. They’ll know not just that I’m a character on a show — that has happened before — but they know my actual name, which is pretty wild.
“I was in a Starbucks and one of the baristas sort of was looking at me and came up really timidly and asked if I was Sam Trammell. ‘Yeah, it’s just me. I live right down the street. I’m nothing special, but I’m really flattered that you’re so impressed.’
“Sometimes I’ll be somewhere and somebody will come up and say something and I’ll realize they were looking at me for the past 10 minutes I was in that room, and I’ll go, ‘God, I hope I didn’t do anything embarrassing.’ You start worrying about what kind of habits you have when you know that people are looking at you.
“It’s all exciting. At this point, I’m not even going to pretend that it’s a hassle. It’s awesome. It’s great to be in something that people like.”
TV columnist Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3429
Alexander speaks to poptv.com about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
Hollywoodlife.com interviewed Deborah Ann Woll
A recent arrival to “True Blood,” Deborah Ann Woll plays Jessica, the difficult, teenage “daughter” of Vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer), who’s thirsty for blood and attention. Here, Deborah Ann talks about taking vampiric inspiration from Animal Planet, and plays coy about the ingredients of Tru Blood, and which celebrities have influenced her character.
You’re from Brooklyn, born and raised. Was it hard to perfect a Southern accent?
It was a little bit difficult. As weird as this sounds, that kind of Yankee-Brooklyn sound is actually very similar to the Southern. We tend to both drop our “R’s” and it’s kind of an urban sound versus a Southern sound. So I would find, in the beginning, when I would try to do the Southern accent, that I would actually slip into my native Brooklyn accent, and that would be totally inappropriate. I had to be very conscious of it in the beginning and now it’s gotten much easier. I feel much more comfortable, but for a while I couldn’t quite tell where I was from.
Your character, Jessica, was a sheltered girl who transformed into an outspoken, bratty teenage vampire. Could you relate to any of that from your teenage years? What were you like?
I was nothing like Jessica. I was very shy. Very quiet. I was a hard worker and I really just did my own thing. I was very un-popular. I certainly was not in the in-crowd. I was a big nerd. I did not have the attitude or the sort of self confidence that Jessica has. And part of me wishes that I did, because I wouldn’t have been such a doormat my whole life. She really doesn’t let anybody tell her what to do or tell her she’s inappropriate. And I think that’s a great quality in a way. Jessica will learn to balance that out a little bit, I hope. But, no, I didn’t really draw on my own experiences. I tended to watch a lot of specific celebrities who maybe had a similar feel to them, and I just thought a lot about what it would be like to have never been allowed to express yourself. To always have been told that what you thought and felt were wrong, your entire life. And what would it be like to finally be able to say ‘Never again am I going to let someone marginalize me or make me feel less than.’
What celebrities did you study?
I don’t think I should say. I think that part of the difficulty of being a celebrity is that you may have to hide what you’re feeling and you aren’t totally allowed to be yourself, because you’re in the public eye. And I think the breakdowns that we tend to see sort of have to do with maybe finally trying to break free and say ‘I am who I am, whether you like it or not.’ It’s an overwhelming experience.
Sookie (Anna Paquin) has been mothering to you. Do you think you’re an opportunity for Sookie and Bill to test out their parenting skills or to sort of play house?
Yeah, if they get a moment to breathe. It’s a pretty action-packed season, so I don’t know how much house-playing time they’ll even have. But I think it’s an opportunity for Sookie, with Tara being so occupied, who has maybe lacking a little bit of female companionship. There was the loss of her grandmother. I think for her, the importance of being able to give guidance, and love, and support to another female, whether it be motherly, or sisterly, or whatever we end up finding in that relationship, will be an interesting growth for her as well.
Sex and sexuality are a big part of the show. When are we going to see Jessica have a relationship?
Well, you know, Jessica is a teenager and we all have romantic experiences at that age that shape us for the rest of our lives. I think about my first sort of serious boyfriend and how he became the man to which all others were compared. The rest of them have had to measure up to him and I think we’ll see some experiences. You know, Jessica’s never been kissed, or never been touched by a man, and not to get too graphic or anything, but I doubt that she’s ever explored herself and that will be interesting to watch.
The HBO shop has added a new Eric t-shirt to the True Blood collection.
This T-shirt features a signature photo of Eric from Season 2 of True Blood, the True Blood logo and the phrase, ”It hurts so good.”
Check it out in the HBO shop – Click here
Daemonstv.com recently interviewed Rutina Wesley.
This article contains a few spoilers.
Congratulations on getting such good ratings for season two. How does it feel?
Rutina Wesley: It feels really, really good, and I’m telling you, I’m sort of shocked at the ratings. I knew that we had a huge following, but the fact that so many more people are loving the show, it’s all great and positive.
Had you originally read all the books, or have you read them since doing the show?
Rutina Wesley: Well, I read the first book. Tara is very different in the books than they’ve decided to take her in the show. So after the first book I sort of didn’t read anymore so that I could then create my own character along with the rest of the creative team since they had taken her in a different direction. But my mother has read all nine [laughs].
Did she like them?
Rutina Wesley: Yes, she loved them.
Do you think you’ll eventually read them, maybe at the end of the show?
Rutina Wesley: Maybe at the end because if I read them I’m going to know what happens. So I want to sort of wait for it to be over and then go back and read them and see some of the things that they took out and all of that.
What was your process in creating Tara since you didn’t have more than the script to go on?
Rutina Wesley: Right. Well, I mean, I would say that the script gave me a lot of life and then my own life experience, friends that I know, also living life and also knowing people like Tara who have this wall up, but if you look closely they’re just this little flower inside that needs to be taken care of. I think we can recognize that in a lot of people. A lot of people have defenses that are earned. I do think that Tara’s defenses are earned, but as the season goes along, and as you saw in season one, she’s just never learned to be a child. She never got to be a child. She never got to be taken care of and so that’s why she sort of walks around like a brick wall, so to speak.
We’re seeing a lot more of her vulnerable side this season, especially with Maryann. Do you think that’ll be a good thing for her or will it smack her in the face?
Rutina Wesley: Right. Well, it is drama. It is ‘True Blood’. There has to be some sort of chaos of course. But I do think that Maryann is definitely taking on that motherly role that Adina Porter who plays Lettie Mae didn’t necessarily give to Tara. So we’re going to see her getting taken under someone’s wing. Then of course a little bit of romance hopefully with Eggs. Tara has never really been good at romance. Maybe this time around she’ll have some luck. Fingers crossed.
Can you talk a bit then how Tara evolves throughout the season?
Rutina Wesley: Like I said, we’re going to see Tara getting taken care of. There’s going to be some romance and then there’s chaos of course, but without giving too much away I do think that just generally it’ll be a softer side of Tara that we’ll see this season. I mean, her edge is still there, but she’s not as edgy as she was last season. She’s definitely a lot more vulnerable and I think it’s very beautiful to see a Black character on TV that the writers have given so many levels to and so much complexity. She’s not just the angry woman. She’s got so much more to her and that’s why I enjoy and love playing her.
Written by Shadaliza for The Vault
Jace Everett: True Blood musician. We all know his voice and we all know his song. “When you came in, the air went out. And every shadow filled up with doubt. I don’t know who you think you are, but before the night is through, I wanna do bad things with you.”
The song was found on Itunes and Alan Ball thought to use it until he’d found something better: ” We used this song as a temporary main title on the True Blood pilot, a placeholder while we looked for something else, but nothing worked as well, because this song and Jace’s performance of it are, well, perfect.”
Gary Calamar, True Blood’s music supervisor says: “Jace’s song has great mix of menace, humor, wit and wild romance. Against the opening sequence is was wickedly badass.”
I met Jace Everett on the internet and thanks to modern technology questions and answers were exchanged between Italy and Nashville, Tennessee. I asked him about his music, True Blood, “Bad Things” and his recently released new album “Red Revelations”.
Who is Jace Everett?
Is this a trick question? I’m a singer and a songwriter that loves a little bit of everything musically. So I mix it all up in my songs and pray to God I don’t break a string.
When and how did you love for music began?
I discovered music and singing before I even spoke as a child. I was a pointer and a grunter until I was almost three. I haven’t shut up since. But singing was always really appealing. From Willie Nelson I went straight to Kiss. When they took off their make-up I lost interest though. Church was a big part of my life as a kid in Texas. That’s when I fell in love with performing. Music has been a constant refuge for me throughout my life.
By what other musicians were you influenced when you were younger and who do you listen to now?
I was influenced by some really cool artists and some really cheesy ones too. When you’re a kid you like what you like and aren’t to worried about what’s considered “cool”. So Glen Campbell, Willie, Waylon, Elvis, and Kiss are who I remember most as a little kid. Later on I got into Petty, Tom Waits, Guy Clark, Ray Charles, Marley, Dylan and the like. I’ve always been a big U2 fan. I never really understood the “hair band” thing, which was really popular when I was in school. In recent years I really got into Chuck Prophet, Ryan Adams, and even some Jay-Z. I only listen to about 10 records a year probably. When I fall in love with an album I tend to wear it out for months.
Did you have any formal training in music?
I took the requisite piano lessons as a kid. No discipline. I dropped it as soon as I could. I wish I hadn’t.
I’ve had 1 bass lesson. Again, yawned through it. I did have some formal voice training in high school and college. A little opera, anyone? Hated that to. I guess I don’t do well with instruction.
How would you describe your music?
It’s always evolving. It has elements of country, blues, Americana, rock and roll, and even some hints of jazz; harmonically anyway. I try to let it speak for itself as I’m not much for labeling things other than “like” and “don’t like”.
Can you describe your creative process, how do you compose new songs?
It happens a lot of different ways. The good stuff usually comes with a melody and lyric at the same time. Sometimes you have to really work your ass off to make lyric happen, but the music is always pretty quick. There’s no formula. I wish there were!
Many people have actually thought you sound like Chris Isaak? What do you think about that?
I don’t think I sound like Isaak. I think “Bad Things” has some of the same elements as “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing”, similar title and a rockabilly feel. The funny thing is that I wasn’t really aware of his tune when I wrote mine. I was actually riffing on a Steve Earle tune called “Poor Boy”, which is in a major key. I made some of the chords minor and gave it a darker vibe which led me to the lyric and melody. Isaak is great and I love what he does, but we sing very differently. He’s got a smoother voice and uses his falsetto really well. I’m more of a whiskey soaked sand paper sound!
What was your inspiration for writing “Bad Things”? Is there a story behind that song?
The initial idea was one of violence and vengeance. A guy owed me money and I wanted to do “bad things TOO you” in the original lyric. About 10 minutes into it I realized it was coming off more sexy than scary and that “TOO you” sounded a little creepy; date rape… not good! So I changed the lyric to “WITH you”. Oddly enough, half the people who hear the song think I sing “TOO you”. But I don’t. I’m really a very nice boy.
How has having your song “Bad Things” featured on the hit TV show True Blood changed your career?
Well, I have one again! My career was up on blocks. I spent a couple of years in the wilderness trying to figure out what I was going to do. Alan Ball and Gary Calamar of “True Blood” really made this new record possible. All the fans of the show have been incredibly gracious to me and the song and I can’t thank them enough. So I made them a new record instead!
Will more of your songs be featured on True Blood in future episodes?
Possibly they will. Of course, it’s not up to me. A few of the tunes on this new record were really inspired by Season 1; “Damned If I Do” is really a love song for Bill and Sookie. Not literally, but their relationship inspired the music and lyric pretty heavily. “Burn for You” is kind of the same thing. The episode where Bill walks into the sun and begins to burn up in an effort to save Sookie really got that lyric started. Several other tunes took some inspiration from the show as well, but those two are definitely in homage to the great characters in “True Blood”.
You can listen to the songs on Jace’s MySpace page.
I read in an interview that you don’t have cable, did you have it installed yet, so you can watch True Blood?
I’m seriously considering the cable thing. I have an amazing ability to waste a lot of time. Between HBO and all those extra C-Span channels I’m scared I’ll never leave the house!
How do you like the show?
The show is great. It’s funny, sexy, creepy, and sometimes even scary. (What the hell is with that wheel Lafayette is chained to!?!? Creeps my out). I love the fact that it’s more than vampire story. I enjoy how Alan Ball allows the writing to be all over the place. It’s an honor to be a part of the “True Blood” world.
Can we expect to see you in a cameo on True Blood? Performing in Merlotte’s?
I’d like to do a cameo as a janitor in Merlotte’s… some where in the background whistling “Bad Things” while I mop up blood and beer. Who knows?
Last month you were honored with the BMI Cable Award for your musical contribution to True Blood. Is it important to you to be an award-winning musician?
It’s important to be making a living. Awards are weird. I enjoy being respected by my peers, who doesn’t? But it always feels strange to me to get a trophy for art. It’s an honor, but it’s far more exciting to sell a CD to someone who loves what you do.
On June 22 your new album “Red Revelations” was released. What can we expect from this CD?
A lot, I hope! The CD has 11 new songs. Half were produced by the amazing team of Chuck Prophet and Brad Jones; they really helped me develop a new sound. The other half I produced myself. The band is made up of the guys I write and perform with who happen to be some of my closest friends. It runs the gamut from spooky dark stuff to really up and clapping rock and roll. You can check out some tunes at www.jaceeverett.com to get a taste. Also, on the CD version we slapped a twelfth tune on there; “Bad Things” in it’s original form.
“Red Revelations” will also be released on vinyl. Does vinyl still sell or is it making a comeback?
Vinyl is actually growing in popularity right now. I think a lot of us miss the artwork and the ceremony of sitting down with an LP. I love my iPod, but when you sit down with a vinyl record you have to make a commitment. You really listen to the music.
Where can we buy your new album?
You can get it at my website (www.jaceeverett.com), my label site (www.westonboys.com), Amazon, and of course digitally at iTunes and the like.
Where can we see you perform live?
Hopefully this fall we’ll be touring properly.
Check out Jace Everett’s website
photo credit: David McClister
Evan Rachel Woods made an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night (June 25), she discusses her new movie “Whatever works”, Spiderman on Broadway and her role of Sophie-Anne on True Blood.
Her latest film “Whatever Works” premiered on June 10 and Evan Rachel Wood is ready for her role as vampire queen Sophie-Anne in True Blood. Evan will make an appearance in the last two episodes of Season 2 and she has started to film her scenes.
In this interview with Artisan News she talks about her role on True Blood and meeting Stephen Moyer at the premiere of “Whatever Works”.
Click image to go to the video
no spoilers
Remember the very first scene of True Blood? The boy and the girl driving on that dark road with that catchy song playing in the background? That song is called Y’All’d Think She’d Be Good 2 Me by C.C. Adcock.
John Wirt of 2TheAdvocate.com interviewed musician C.C. Adcock.
C.C. Adcock
After making swamp-rock and -pop for years with his band, the Lafayette Marquis, as well as Acadiana super-group Lil’ Band O’ Gold, C.C. Adcock is getting the greatest mainstream exposure of his career through a song featured on the recently released True Blood soundtrack CD.
Adcock’s “Bleed 2 Feed,” the first single from the soundtrack, is infiltrating rock radio. The soundtrack album, too, has sold an impressive 50,000 copies and the newly launched second season of True Blood, that racy HBO series about vampires in rural Louisiana, is drawing big ratings.
Adcock and the Lafayette Marquis appeared in episode 10 of True Blood’s first season. Playing themselves, they performed five songs at Merlottes, the bar where main character Sookie Stackhouse works. There’s also a “Bleed 2 Feed” music video.
“I’ve always been in the cracks, between the lines, so to have something played at rock radio is kind of funny for me,” Adcock said from Lafayette this week. “But it’s on the strength of the show, and maybe the strength of the song.”
Adcock, knowing that True Blood creator and executive producer Alan Ball was already interested in his music, wrote “Bleed 2 Feed” specifically for the show.
“I went to Los Angeles and Alan showed me the pilot,” he said. “I went home that night and wrote the song. It didn’t make the theme, but it ended up on the soundtrack CD.”
Chances are very good that “Bleed 2 Feed” will be among the songs Adcock performs Thursday during the Louisiana songwriters night at the Manship Theatre. Adcock joins Baton Rouge blues artist Larry Garner; Joe Stark, a singer-songwriter from Houma who’s one-third of pop-rock band Sons of Williams; and Kristin Diable, a singer-songwriter from Baton Rouge who spent five years in New York and now lives in New Orleans.
“We’ll all get out there and sort of pass the song around, tell stories about how the song came to be,” Adcock said.
The four singer-songwriters have much in common even though they work in different genres.
“People always identify Louisiana music as Cajun, zydeco, funk and brass-band music,” Adcock said. “A lot of times people identify it by the instrumentation. And certainly people identify Louisiana music by that second-line beat or that zydeco beat or that Cajun beat or blues beat.
“But I think the great legacy of Louisiana music is the storytelling. Down here, we’re naturally good storytellers. And the way we can play with words and syllables and dialects really is conducive to telling a good story. In south Louisiana, you can make any two words rhyme.”
Adcock has performed solo acoustic before and toured as opening act for one of the great songwriters from Louisiana, Lucinda Williams, in a duo format with the fiddle- and accordion-playing Cedric Watson. Even so, performing on his own is still a novelty for the normally electrified Adcock.
“I didn’t grow up playing folk tunes in a coffeehouse,” he said. “It’s nice to scratch that itch, but I promise you I won’t strap on a harmonica or read poetry.
Given Thursday’s circumstances, however, spontaneity is guaranteed.
“Larry might do a song that’ll make me remember something I’ll wanna do or that’ll be a nice segue. And there’s a little bit of one-upmanship, too. You get four people on the stage playing songs, you wanna get a good rally going between the performers, you wanna hit the ball back and forth.”
Adcock’s recent projects include The Promised Land: A Swamp Pop Journey. A documentary about Lil’ Band O’ Gold shot before and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the film was screened during the Cannes International Film Festival last month.
Adcock’s friend and long-time collaborator, the late Tarka Cordell, suggested making the film in 2005 upon hearing Lil’ Band O’ Gold’s plans to work with Phil Phillips (“Sea of Love”), Tommy McLain (“Sweet Dreams”) and other classic south Louisiana artists.
“Tarka was like, ‘Hey, we need to capture this before it’s gone.’ Of course, we never thought he would be the one to die.”
Cordell, the 40-year-old son of a famous record producer, Denny Cordell, committed suicide in London in 2008. The Promised Land, which Cordell co-produced with Adcock, may become a major part of his legacy. The film is scheduled for several more screenings at international film festivals.
“I think it was part art project for him, but also a good excuse to go eat and drink for six weeks in Louisiana,” Adcock said.
Cordell brought his fellow Brit, director Matthew Wilkinson, to the project.
“Being an Englishman, Matthew was able to make what we do bigger than some of its parts,” Adcock said. “I love the Band O’ Gold, I love swamp pop and the life that we all live down here, but Matthew’s lens caught something beautiful and elegant that I don’t see as I walk around in 100-degree heat.”
WHEN: Thursday, July 2 (7:30 p.m.)
WHERE: Manship Theatre
ADMISSION: $25
