(ˈwɪski slnggr) noun: 1. a person who throws liquor. 2. a high-volume bartender known for speed, memory, sales ability and oftentimes reckless behavior. 3. a mercenary bartender whose sole loyalty is to his fellow bartenders and the cash they generate.
From the late 70’s to the early 90’s this country experienced the hay-day of the mercenary, high volume wkiskeyslinger. Nightclubs, bars, live music joints, spring break clubs literally bid against each other for our services. We were like Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, John Sturges westernized version, The Magnificent Seven or the French Foreign Legion of Beau Geste come to the rescue. We worked hard, played harder, made piles of cash, then moved on once the season was over. The life blood of the biz consisted of top shelf booze and 90% pure Peruvian flake. Our daily pulse thrummed to a series of monster cash pot, after hours, illegal card games watched over by sawed-off-shotgun wielding security guards. Laws existed as guidelines to be observed only when convenient or broken, when dictated, as means to our own ends.
We were nomadic free spirits. Our compass only ever achieved a true bearing as the approach of a season pointed to the next big payday on the Spring Break beaches of Padre Island, the summer resorts of the Florida Keys or a barge on Lake Austin or some smoky nightclub in Vail or Aspen at the height of ski season. The rest of the year we scattered to the jungles of Costa Rica, the casinos of Las Vegas or the wild bush of Eastern Africa. I did some of it drunk, most of it sober. Some of us died along the way, others did state or federal time, no one escaped unscathed. Like the gunslingers of the Wild West our time has come and gone. But let it be known we always had each others’ backs, we never quit and we forever kicked ass.
It is in this spirit of adventure, unconventional thinking and loyal camaraderie that I am establishing Whiskeyslinger Productions, Inc.
Respectfully,
Courtney Suttle
Chief Executive Officer/Chief Creative Officer