IMC Volume Two
The New LP
Thanks to a generous grant from the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, we released IMC Volume Two in early 2025. This limited-run LP is a vinyl-only compilation featuring live recordings from the first fifteen years of the IMC Concert Series, including performances by Adeem the Artist, Richard Buckner, Ryan Culwell, Tim Easton & Cary Hudson, the Heligoats, Patterson Hood, Will Johnson & Anders Parker, Abe Partridge, Josh Ritter, and the Tumbleweeds.
The Record Release Party
In conjunction with the Annual Songwriter Keynote at the University of South Alabama, we held a record release party for IMC Volume Two at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center (Mainstage Theatre) on the evening of Saturday, March 22, 2025. This special event featured an acoustic performance by critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter James McMurtry. Local artist Abe Partridge opened, following remarks from former USA Writer-in-Residence Frye Gaillard. All attendees received a free vinyl copy of the album.
The IMC
For the past 15 years, the Independent Music Collective (IMC) has been an odd little engine of culture in Mobile, Alabama. Since its founding in 2009, the student-led nonprofit has organized scores of local events—more than 70 concerts at local venues and nearly as many book fairs on the campus of the University of South Alabama, turning donated books and records, at a buck or two a pop, into one of the most unique concert series in the Southeast.
“Y’all are bad at capitalism,” one student said with a grin, as he shuffled away from a recent fair with an armload of almost-free books. Perhaps. But we’re pretty good at culture. In the past decade-and-a-half, we’ve redistributed tens of thousands of used books and introduced several thousand people to music they might otherwise have missed. We’ve given some of America’s preeminent roots musicians a solid stopover between bigger venues—and many clamor to return, charmed by our unorthodox funding model and delighted with the attentive reception they receive.
From our first show in 2009 (which featured an up-and-coming act from New Orleans called Hurray for the Riff Raff) through 2023, Satori Coffee House was the IMC’s primary venue partner. In that battered backroom, we caught lightning in a bottle more often than is probably fair. And thankfully the tape was always rolling. Alas, after 34 years, the West Mobile institution, which began its run as Satori Sound Records in the late 1980s, was finally shuttered for good.
We are exceedingly grateful, however, to have found a new partner in Callaghan’s Irish Social Club, which began hosting IMC events this past season.
Indeed, there are too many people to thank individually. The hundreds of students over the years who have volunteered their time and effort. The thousands who have attended our book fairs and concerts. Everyone who has donated secondhand books and music. The many musicians who have taken a chance on our weird little series. Thank you all. It’s been a good run.
–Justin St. Clair, IMC Faculty Advisor
