One of the year’s most notable music-centered films has served as the impetus for the formation of a brand-new, roots-based music label. Filmmaker and actor Ethan Hawke, musician-actor Charlie Sexton and Louis Black, co-founder of the Austin Chronicle and South by Southwest festival, have announced the launch of SexHawkeBlack, a label based in Austin and an imprint of the Nashville-based music company Dualtone.
As their first artist, the founders have signed actor and musician Ben Dickey, who portrayed singer Blaze Foley in Blaze, the critically acclaimed, Hawke-directed biopic released earlier this year. Black served as an executive producer on the film and Sexton appeared as another Texas music legend, Townes Van Zandt.
Austinite Erika Pinktipps will serve as president of SexHawkeBlake, which will, according to a statement, focus on “some of the best and brightest emerging artists working in Americana, country, folk, blues and rock music, as well as spotlight collaborative projects and newly unearthed and reissue releases.”
Dickey’s full-length debut studio album for SexHawkeBlack Records, entitled A Glimmer on the Outskirts, is due for release next spring. Dickey earned the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting for his portrayal of Foley, the beleaguered musician who penned the Merle Haggard song “If I Could Only Fly” and died tragically at 39.
“After we finished the film… I thought it was important for Ben Dickey to step forward with his own music,” says Hawke, noting the label partners’ shared passion and creative vision for music. “Much the same way Blaze introduced Blaze Foley’s music to a wider audience, Charlie, Louis and I hope to introduce Ben Dickey’s music to fans near and far.”
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