On January 11th, my friend and South By Southeast founder Jeff Roberts died suddenly from heart complications.
So with the loss of Myrtle Beach’s “Minister of Music”, a big void opened in the promotion of Americana music in the area.
Thanks to many of Jeff’s friends like Sam Hannaford and Nell Ciaccio, they have decided to continue the series in his honor.
Last week we made this video in Jeff’s honor and recorded some music. There are many songs on my Common Chords site, mostly spiritual in nature due to the feelings of the musicians.
Below are a few of the songs I sang and I noticed even I sound good with the right backup.
Please go to my Common Chords blog to see more performance videos and audio clips of the afternoon.
I’ll Fly Away with Nell Ciacco, Bob O’Connor, Mike Millsaps and George Marshall
One Too Many Mornings Dylan Cover with Nell Ciacco, Bob O’Connor, Mike Millsaps and George Marshall
There were a lot of things I liked about the man but one thing I admired was his beautiful mandolins and the passion he had for finding the right owner for each instrument.
He treated them like children and I had the blessed opportunity to be the first to play #71 at his workshop outside of Conway.
Sunday I did this short video taken from a memorial concert held in his honor at Conway High School.
Click here for a gallery I did from Jennings’ 2008 Bluegrass on the Waccamaw show that featured many of the artist who performed Sunday at the memorial.
They like me were appreciative of his skills as an organizer and came Sunday to play and support the concert in his honor after he lost his battle with cancer.
Jennings was also a nurturer of bluegrass talent.
An excellent example of this can be found in 14-year-old guitarist Zeb Snyder. Jennings gave the young guitarist and his family a spotlight at his annual “Bluegrass on the Waccamaw” show and fostered the chance for folks to see the young talented family.
Also a note for my guitarist buddies out there, Zeb is playing a beautiful Wayne Henderson OM style mahogany guitar. Like Chestnut, Henderson makes very few instruments a year and it is an honor to have one.
Zeb wanted me to point out that the guitar had just came out of the case when we recorded this and was a little off in tuning. I suggested to him, no matter the temptation, that he never sell or trade this guitar. I think most who see this would agree.
I should be happy, I was blessed to be honored at Sunday’s South Carolina News Photographers Association banquet and meeting with several awards including a 1st place for the above photo.
But in reality, I’m feeling empty and at a loss as to the status of my professional organization and our inability to change with the times.
My gripe:
Multimedia is represented in the competition but as a sideline status where all forms of media are grouped into one single category.
How in the world do you expect to judge a soundslides (put together from photos taken from a winning picture story category with a sound layer added) and work that involved the complications of capturing video and sound together plus shooting stills and audio for a website.In addition, the judges, (not their fault) had zero experience or knowledge of the workings and difficulties of the craft.
I was so disappointed when my Common Chords project was presented with only one minute of the very first video in the series shown. The concept and the theme of the project were not mentioned. The judges were not told of the project and how it represented 11 different profiles on the central theme of how each musician featured gave back to the community through music. A year’s worth of work was delegated to one minute.
Let’s just say I was very angry that this could happen at a place that should honor the work and place close attention to details. I don’t have the warm and fuzzy feelings I should have about feeling “Brought up” after the contest.
And I’m glad I’m angry cause it means I’m still kicking and fighting for what’s right. This anger is not personal or directed at anyone in the SCNPA. I’ll take some of the blame for not pushing the contest this way before now. However there is too much to lose if we don’t change. If we don’t move forward more quickly, I feel the organization will go away like so many of our jobs. We must embrace the new media and ride it like a wild horse. We need to push ahead and not exactly know where to go with the reins. Hell, maybe we should try losing the reins and letting the beast guide the journey.
I don’t have all the answers but I not writing this just to rant. I do offer some solutions…..
1) Scrap the entire way the contest is carried out. The judging should take place at the judge’s convenience and at his or her own homes and on their own time frames. Initial judging should be done before the meeting takes place. This way the judges have time needed to dive into complex entries and rash decisions are not made. Plus this takes the flow of the judging out of the hands of folks who have stuff entered in the contest.
2) The 12-photo picture story concept should be replaced with an entry that reflects the addition of video and audio and writing. This category would reflect the best of the all-around journalists working at newspapers who are pushing their readers to the web as a source of news. I’ve entered the photo story competition and was lucky to win several places on Sunday, but let’s face it; the category is becoming more of an art exhibit than a true representation of what we do.
3) A teamwork award designed to bring newsroom staffs together. At the South Carolina Press Association’s competition you can enter a staff project and one of The Sun News’ winning entries this year was our combined work during the April wildfires. The entry was fun to put together with everyone taping his or her favorite days work to the project. The final entry stretched across the newsroom and was a 1st place winner in the contest and the talk of the newsroom for several days.
4) Innovative concepts should be honored, like projects designed to gain reader viewership to websites at our papers. Or concepts designed to integrate web and print media.
5) Best photo blog entered by a photographer and maintained to advance the flight of multimedia and/or the still journalist. Or a blog used to tell a bigger story over a length of time. A photo journal might be the entry.
6) Community Service by our membership should be honored. Did you teach a photo class to inter-city youth, or help the fire department as a volunteer? Honoring noble deeds and volunteerism should be a high priority.
Here are a few and I will think of more but man I need to get to work and produce that multimedia today.
I’m hoping it helps me keep my job. It is the only thing that will. One things for sure, being only a photographer will not.
Here is my latest Common Chords video and the challenge was in getting clear recordings of the instrument. Let me tell you from first hand experience, bagpipes are loud and my Edirol R-09’s input level was set pretty low in order to get a distortion-free recording.
Peggy was great and the best so far at being interviewed. She made my work so easy.
To read the story go to the Common Chords blog at TheSunNews.com
Over the course of the last year or so I’ve been traveling around with my little Edirol R-09 recorder sometimes bugging friends to play and using the device to hash around ideas and songs that come into my head.
I also use the tool for practice as it gives me a close rendering of how I must sound to others.
This can be good and bad because some of the recordings will never see the light of being published.
The device allows me a chance to give thanks to gifted songwriters with whom I honor by recording their songs.
I can assure you I make no money from the music on this blog.
For that, I’m honored to have the profession of photojournalism to keep food on the table.
Music is my hobby, my antidote for a stressful day at work. In my opinion there is nothing better than a strum of a G chord on a Martin or Gibson guitar to soothe a bad day.
With this I thought (good or bad) I’d publish some of my favorite recordings made over the course of the last few years.
Some recordings I ramble a bit too much and some I give equipment details. Some I make bad mistakes and some are pretty close to the best I can do.
The honor would be mine if you listen. I value all opinions.
I’ve recorded this song several times but this was a recording I made last month with a G Special 20 harp and too little breath. I’m learning the harmonica as a way to supplement my guitar playing and the instrument has rekindled my love of folk and blues music.
ColoursDonovancover
This is one of my favorite songs and was recorded during a jam session with Don Wright and Melanie McCory in North Carolina. Don is playing upright bass and Mel and I are on guitars. If you listen close you can tell how I botched the words on one of Donovan’s celebrated verses.
This a song I wrote about my hometown and working at the cotton mill during my youth. I have several recordings of this song but this one is raw and to the point. It’s a simple song and needs to be heard simply.
I’ll Fly Away Traditional
I was feeling blue about the recent death of my friend Jeff Roberts and I made this recording in his honor.
One Too Many Mornings Dylan cover
I made this recording with my new Seydel G Blues Favorite harp. I like these German harps too much.
Dead Flowers Stones cover
For those who know me and have played music with me know that for some reason I have an obsession for this song. I made this recording with a Bushman “Souls Voice” harmonica. This is currently my favorite harp and A is my favorite key to play in.
Like a Rolling Stone Dylan cover
Thanks to a recent subscription to Acoustic Guitar, I found a way to get this song into my mix of songs. I play it quiet different from the “King of Folk” but unlike Dylan I refuse to get an electric guitar.
The Mountain Steve Earle cover
Over the course of the last year I’ve played this song more times than I can count. Over Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to meet some of the musicians that played with Earle on the album. It was cool to get some inside stories about the songs.
Mr. Tambourine Man Dylan cover
What can I say? I love this song despite the fact it’s still too high for my voice played a full note lower than the original performer.
I wrote this song for my girlfriend and have gotten lots of love because of it.
Norwegian Wood Beatles cover with Don Wright
My 00-18V was less than a week old when I made this recording with Don Wright. He is playing this modified archtop guitar adapted to play like a mandocello.
I like this recording with Don on Banjo but the last verse of the song had not been written when this was recorded.
My Girl Cover with Don Wright and Jeff Watson
This was a recording I made with the Edirol during my Hippiedog Produce gig at the SxSe. This night was one I will always remember and thanks to my friend Jeff Robert for the idea of the music series. May he rest in peace.
For the last week and a half I was covering an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition house build in rural Horry County and unable to find time to get to my blog for posting.
The show, which coordinates volunteers to build a home for a needy family, loves and hates the pesky journalist hanging around covering the event for the local media.
This week I felt like a herded cow as the local media reps where directed by some of the show’s production assistants to “ideal shooting points”.
Nothing changes folks as much as when the opportunity arrives for them to be on National TV, and this week I saw that first hand. Folks stood out in the sub-freezing weather hours just for a remote chance to see a celebrity or be on TV.
In fairness to the human spirit, I met many others who worked during the wee hours of the morning on the house, not caring about TV or its celebrities but wanting just to help a family in need. Most had been laid off from their jobs in the building trades and just wanted an opportunity to again do what they love.
Even though it’s glitzy and over the top, the family does get an incredible home made by neighbors and built solid in just over 109 hours. Wow.
The above video is an edit of the week in review.
During the build, I was responsible for the week’s video coverage and this was a first for me. Some days I produced and edited story line videos and some days I produced video clips and posted them quickly. The idea on these days was to post before the local 5PM newscasts.
The traffic for my videos during the week was great and better than the editors expected.
As far as the Canon 5Ds are concerned, I found ways to use them on deadline and shooting strictly video I never thought possible.
S.C. National Guardsman Spc. Jonathan Miller of Andrews, S.C., gets a hug from his wife Sheila and 3-year-old daughter Keely Wednesday afternoon at the Andrews National Guard Armory in downtown Andrews as hundreds turned out today to say good-bye to the Guard’s 178th Battalion’s field artillery units in Andrews and Georgetown. Four busloads of the unit’s troop left as they set to deploy for Afghanistan for a year of service.
On Wednesday, I covered two troop deployments of a unit of the National Guard leaving from Andrews and Georgetown, S.C., going for a year of service in Afghanistan. As I was leaving both armories in these small South Carolina communities, it was encouraging to see the citizens line the streets holding flags in support.
I hope the guys a safe return but I wish there was no need for this sort of separation of families.
Below are links to the two galleries I produced from the events I covered and posted at TheSunNews.com.
It was well into an hour of the interview with this month’s Common Chords subject before I found my story. The cameras had been put back in their cases and all I had to record comments was my trusty notepad and a borrowed pen.
Ronald Ott and I had met a few months earlier at a music instruction school fashioned like the one from Jack Black’s movie “School Of Rock”. There he was teaching a 12-year-old guitar slinger the guitar solo to a 70’s rock song.
Going into these interviews, I try not to have a preconceived notion as to how they will go. I do however try to have a basic plan for a storyline.
With Ott it was teaching. My story line would be acquiring knowledge from one level (i.e. Coastal) and the handing down of knowledge from another. (i.e. School of Rock)
The problem happened when he told me he had left his job as a teacher at the School of Rock.
Then I struggled to find a story line and in the end I found a better one.
Ott had used the guitar to find comfort during his time stationed with the Army in Iraq. He had spent a year as a specialist transporting supplies to troops in and around Baghdad.
This storyline is only reflected in the printed and word version of the column and is not mentioned in the video.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to do a video about The Travelin’ McCourys featuring Rob and Ronnie McCoury, the sons of Bluegrass legend Del McCoury.
Both sons were gracious and understanding even with the band’s overnight drive to Myrtle Beach from Nashville starting only minutes after finishing their Thanksgiving dinners with family.
The band’s purpose is to carry on the traditions given to them by their father and to find a place in the music world on their own.
Ronnie brought his 1920s Gibson Lloyd Loar Mandolin and it was an honor to hear it live so close up.
I hope my readers enjoy this up close performance because I stayed up pretty much the entire night putting it together on deadline.
It’s truly amazing how powerful these professional musicians sound together. I looked up at one point while filming the video and noticed Rob’s fingers on the banjo. They were flying around the fretboard but he seemed relaxed and at ease. Sort of like a hot rod running along in 1st gear.
I recorded the sound using my wonderful Edirol R-09 and replaced the Canon 5Ds audio channel in Final Cut. The recorder was placed on a table in front of the band and is just out of frame at the bottom.
Sometimes I feel like a spokesman for Roland and Edirol but I assure you, I’m not getting compensated for my endorsements of this product.
Today while coming out of two days of misery from a bad cold, I decided to record two versions of a song I’ve recently written.
I don’t think it’s uncommon to have this happen but I can’t decide which version I like best.
The first version was recorded as the guitar was tuned in DADGAD , a D modal tuning mostly associated with Celtic music. Instead of the standard EADGBE tuning, the six guitar strings are tuned, from low to high, DADGAD.
The second recording is in the standard tuning and in the key of E major.
The recorder is my Edirol R-09 recorder, which is the most unforgiving tool I have.
This time I placed the recorder on a mic stand using the adapter and positioned it halfway between the guitar and my voice.
My readers can only be the judge if my cold and raspy voice sound better for this particular song. This was my intention and reason for recording when I was still under the influence of the cold.
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Corporation Blues
I work so hard for my pay
The harder I work the more it goes away
Oh’ baby, I got those Corporation Blues
No money in my billfold
I got those Corporation Blues
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Furloughs and wage reductions are on the way
Make my boss man’s boss men rich on their payday
Oh’ baby, I got those Corporation Blues
They’ll send my job off to China
I got those Corporation Blues
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The boss man won’t help me when I need to pay my rent
I don’t know where the money up and went
Oh’ baby, I got those Corporation Blues (yes I know where it goes)
Bonus pay for the bosses
I got those Corporation Blues
______________
Textiles, TVs microwaves and minivans
Engineered in America, assembled in Pakistan
Oh’ baby, I got those Corporation Blues
Rich folk get richer, working man get the Corporation Blues
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Oh I know its tough living in those foreign lands
50-cent a day and working hard for the man
Oh’ baby, they got those Corporation Blues
They got no money for medicine (Sometimes it’s No medicine for their children)
