It all started with a cello, an acoustic guitar, a single camera and one of Detroit’s architectural treasures, long vacant.

In February 2009, a small crew assembled at the Traffic Jam on 2nd and Canfield. We ordered coffees and waited anxiously for two adventurous and unassuming musicians to arrive. A brief meet-up turned quickly into a caravan down Michigan Avenue, a careen down Grand Boulevard and a one-by-one hop into the hollows of Lee Plaza.

6 hours later we emerged in all states of frozen, but immensely excited about an experience that is still pretty difficult to categorize. What can you say about a day that involves stumbling upon old Coleman A. Young campaign paraphernalia, stepping onto a snow-covered 17th floor rooftop with a seldom seen view of the Detroit skyline and watching as Charlene Kaye sings a Bessie Smith tune from the late 20’s with a winter sunset as a backdrop?

We’ve done this – in varying degrees of ceremony – 12 times now. And for just over a year, we’ve been sharing these experiences with you on our site.

Well, we’ve finally had a chance to catch our breath and make some enhancements to the site.

This is the start of our official blog. We will have regular posters, a few celebrity bloggers, and you’ll likely see a post or two from us as well. Our regular contributors will be introducing themselves to you shortly so we hope you stay tuned.

We added a FEATURES box so now we’ll be able to share our special projects that don’t exactly fit into our traditionally defined Single Barrel Shows. Check out the ‘dAP festival videos featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Silverghost and Charlie Slick. And then a just-released-today feature on the Hanging Gardens project at the soon-to-be-redeveloped-but-for-now-an-awesome-blossoming-urban-garden at Forest Arms in Midtown.

You may also notice we released a brand new Single Barrel Show today. We’re excited to share The Juliets @ the Forest Arms Hanging Gardens. We shot this while documenting the project mentioned above and we hope you enjoy it.

So that’s it for now.

Thanks to all of you who’ve been following along and supporting us over this past year. We really hope you like the changes. Leave a comment or two. And if you’re interested in contributing, we’d love to hear from you.

– Andy and Jared