Havre's Beaver Creek Jam to be featured in band documentary

Havre residents may soon see their hometown on a popular streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime as a documentary is being filmed about The Southern Satellite, one of the bands performing tonight at Beaver Creek Jam prior to Warrant.

The Southern Satellite will play starting at 7:30 p.m. followed by Shovels & Shotguns. Warrant begins playing at 9 p.m. The rock legends made Beaver Creek Jam part of their 30th anniversary tour for the hit song, "Cherry Pie."

The Southern Satellite, the brainchild of musician T.J. Broscoff of Dallas, has been on tour for roughly a month and has had a camera crew embedded with them.

The band has what is known as a development deal which means the documentary, "Road Show," currently does not have a home but Nick Duva of Road Show Prods said there have been talks with multiple streaming services, which Broscoff addressed, as well.

"So, yeah, it's going to be on a major streaming service. We're trying not to say the word Netflix because it's a development deal, right? So the way the industry works is, you have somebody put a bunch of money behind it, you film it, then you edit it, and then you see where it goes from there," Broscoff said Thursday.

"So it's not a guarantee that it's going to be on Netflix, per se, but it will be on, you know, Amazon Prime and Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, it's going to be on, it's a major show, let's just put it that way," he added.

The band's website describes its music as "high-octane, honest, original Americana."

"When people ask me, I just say we're either an alternative country band or an Americana band. And probably Americana is a better point of reference, really. We're not two-step country, we're not Nashville country, but we're also not Marshall Tucker, or southern rock. So we have so many different, so many different plays and influences that come into our style of music, that it pretty much has become our own," Broscoff said.

The band website says by being raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Broscoff was afforded the opportunity to surround himself with legions of music and friends, but he eventually fell into addiction. Broscoff said Thursday he has been off drugs and alcohol for 14 years.

The goal of father and son Nick and Alex Duva of Plano, Texas-based Road Show Prods is to tell the story of a working class band and crew on tour for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and to document whether fans are coming back out to see live performances.

"Nick and Alex, their goal is to document this. So they don't want to get close to the band. They're not friends, they don't want to be friendly. They're friendly, but they don't want to be their friends, right? Because if the camera crews all of a sudden become part of the team, then you're going to lose some of that magic," Broscoff said.

"With that being said, they're more than super respectable. They're great guys. I know them both personally. I mean, as we're speaking right now, there's a camera four inches from my face. Eventually, you just get used to it, and you forget that there's a camera staring at you all the time," he added.

Broscoff described Nick Duva as shy but when discussing Duva's background in film, said he has worked on noteworthy projects including "Natural Born Killers."

What Duva thought could be maybe a 90-minute or two-hour movie about The Southern Satellite has turned into an episodic venture. Duva speculated this could be a six to eight episode series.

Time spent on the road will be followed by an epilogue after the current tour before the band heads out on a following tour.

"I think a lot of people, they go to a venue, they go to a club, they go out, they order their drink, they order their food, there's a band playing, maybe they even look up from their phone once or twice, maybe they clap. Many times they don't know how hard any band works, let alone The Southern Satellite," Duva said

"After the research that we did, we chose them as a project that we felt was extremely important coming out of the pandemic. And the question is, Are people going back to live music venues? Do they even care? And do they know what these bands go through on a day by day basis, as a working band, going from city to city? This band traveled over 2,000 miles from Dallas, Texas, to get to their first venue on this tour in Emmett, Idaho." he continued.

Duva did not give an exact time when the documentary would be finished as it is still being filmed and then will be edited. Duva said a goal is to show the documentary at film festivals.

Both Duva and Broscoff mentioned the project being done in time for South by Southwest, an event centered around technology, culture, music, comedy and film. The next South by Southwest event is scheduled for March 11-20 in Austin, Texas.