Home Grown and on the Big Screen

Keep Your Distance, Motion Picture Soundtrack (Lunacy)

Various Artists

By Kevin Gibson

How great would it be for a Louisville band to land one of its songs on a movie soundtrack? Now, how great would it be if an entire soundtrack was filled with the music of Louisville artists? That's the soundtrack to "Keep Your Distance," the latest film by Louisville's own Stu Pollard ("Nice Guys Finish Last").

"Keep Your Distance," which opens September 2, is about a man in Louisville who has it all - and suddenly finds himself in a web of deceit and betrayal that teaches him that having it all also means having everything to lose. Pollard, with help from Label X producer Todd Smith and others, has assembled a batch of songs here that run the gamut of emotions, each likely tied to the film and its main character's trials and tribulations.

The idea for this soundtrack started when Pollard made an open call to Louisville artists for song submissions - he received 1,800. He's narrowed it down to 16 tracks (which includes three bonus tracks), featuring some of the best known artists in Louisville, from Tim Krekel to Ten Months Later.

Peter Searcy chimes in with the intensely emotional "Lost" - two different versions - as well as the chunky "Happy For a While." Elsewhere, we have Digby's magnificent, slow burn of a title track, also featured with two versions, Waterproof Blonde's delicious "Ruthless," the Muckrakers' peerless "Warning Sign" and Graciela Perrone's Latin-flavored "Sepia Night."

Perhaps the best part of this disc is that we get not only the story of how it came together in a booklet-sized liner notes, but a brief bio of each band and the story of how their song was chosen. We learn, for instance, that Arte Bratton of Lexington's Artgeko had worked as a stand-in on the film. At the wrap party, Bratton approached Pollard with a CD and Pollard was immediately smitten with "But Then Nothing," which appeared on Artgeko's criminally ignored album Hurry Up and Wait and also appears on this soundtrack.

Fans of the Middle Men, the Sean Voight Band, David Grissom, the Accountants and Follow the Train also get tracks from these bands on this project and the film's trailer is attached as well. Serves not only as an effective soundtrack, but a great sampler of some of Louisville's best music.

Find out more at www.distanceflick.com.