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Here’s the main video for my latest Common Chords column. It’s hard to believe this is the 18th post featured.

Nathan Belt was a pleasure to work with and an excellent musician and craftsman. His love for music is genuine and he has a good sense of life outside of his time on stage.

Please check out the last video on the post where some of the tribute artists at Legends In Concert get together for an impromptu jam covering a famous Beatles song.

Here’s the link to the Common Chords blog.

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My latest Common Chords column is on a 17-year-old North Myrtle Beach singer/songwriter named Steve Pethel.

I first heard Little Steve (he’s a junior) sing and play at the local open-mic I attend on Thursdays at Fresh Brewed Coffee House in Myrtle Beach. I noticed right away he was different and his songwriting skills were well beyond his age.

His playing is unique because he is left-handed and plays a right-handed guitar just flipped over. So the treble strings are at the top of his playing approach instead of the customary bottom. This gives him a sound that is opposite to most.

Being slightly different has not hindered his playing for he has adapted well and knows his way around the fingerboard.

This kid reminds me so much of me at that age. I too struggled to fit in with my peers at school and the guitar and writing helped soothe the pains of disappointment and rejection.

Steve’s advantage is he lives in a different time where uniqueness can be nurtured and encouraged. I know for sure his life will be better because of this trait, whatever path he chooses to take with his music.

For this CC, my friend James Rimes brought along his recording rig and he took care of the sound so I could concentrate on the visuals. This was a big plus and I hope you notice how well this one sounds.

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On Saturday July 24, I will be playing my second solo show at Fresh Brewed Coffee House in Myrtle Beach. I hope to highlight the hours and hours I spend nailing down songs I’ve worked on over the last few years. Some originals and covers of songs I’ve grown to love over the years. Many of the songs I’ve honed down at the Thursday night open-mic at the same location.

The show will be organic with me on acoustic guitar and blowing my harps as a backup. I’ve also asked a few folks to come and sit-in on some songs.

Fresh Brewed is a unique venue for musicians. The place serves coffee and smoothies but no alcoholic beverages. I feel very much connected to the people who offer such an inviting place.

My friend James Rimes will be doing the sound so I hope my performance equals his talents on the sound board.

Folks often ask me what my goals are with my music. I often respond that performing takes me away from the stresses of my life at the newspaper and gives me a venue to express myself without the title of photojournalist.

When I’m on stage I can’t be an observer and document what others are doing. I’m the one doing so I have to be engaged in the process from a more intimate role.

Performing makes me able to understand the struggles working musicians go through and helps me tell their stories better as a journalist.

The show will start about 7:30 and last till 10:30.

Fresh Brewed is located at

933 A Broadway Street
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
843-251-8282

http://freshbrewedcoffeehouse.com

Recorded May 22, 2010 at Fresh Brewed Coffee House in Myrtle Beach

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It’s hard to believe this is my 16th Common Chords completed and done.

On this installment I met with the jam band Ten Toes Up for music and interviews about how they travel together and then live together in a small home in Murrells Inlet.

The challenge for these videos was the sound. Recording multiple instruments from several different sound sources in the bands practice area and without a stereo point made for some muffled recordings.

In the end I found the best solution was to place the Edirol close to the source of the lead vocals and then let everything fall below that in the mix. This worked and so I feel the sound is as good as it could be in this situation.

I’m getting pretty good at working with the Edirol and it’s fun to see if I can find a limit for it. So far it has shown no limits. It is the perfect field-recording tool that lets me worry about other things like the 2 cameras and 2 tripods I have to juggle while shooting these.

Go here to the Common Chords blog to read my story and see performance only videos of the band.

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Last Tuesday I put together this video after I finally sat down and learned how to convert the Canon h.264 codec to one that is compatible in Final Cut Pro without rendering. After a few experiments I found the Apple DVCPRO HD 720P60 codec was the best to covert to and worked with very little flickering.

Converting the codec saved me a lot of time but the conversion process still takes time.

With the converted codec, I was able to complete my images for the paper, a gallery of still images for the web and a video and still get home for the home cooked meal made by my fiancé.

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My latest Common Chords was fun to shoot as I got the opportunity to hang out with a group of awesome sisters for a warm evening of fellowship and music.

The Bellamy Sisters have one of the most loving relationships I’ve seen in my career and it was an honor to tell the world about them.

They have used this love to transcend hardship and sickness and make the world a better place for others. This is the heart of what my column is about.

I spoke with Jannett Bellamy soon after this video published and she liked it but for the close-up of her shoes. The sister’s claps and toe taps are the drums of the acapella group so I felt the need to show them working. Plus her shoes are the same color lime green as most of the rooms of her home. She said her daughters and nieces gave her a hard time about her shoes.

I’m having so much fun with this column and I’m hoping folks enjoy it as much as I do. It’s a lot of extra work but I’m learning so much about life and music from my subjects.

Go to the Common Chords blog page to see my story about the sisters and view extra music-only videos.

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Sunday I had the honor of witnessing a memorial service for the 65th anniversary of the liberation of German prison camp Stalag 17-B by allied forces.

Now In their late 80’s, many of the survivors are wonderfully vibrant and clear about the day when Patton’s army came riding to them in Sherman tanks.

Al Nash, one of the survivors, had great photos of himself and his plane from that era.

With 10 crewmembers on his plane, 7 were killed under heavy German anti-aircraft fire while they were bombing submarine forces in 1943.

Getting shot down in Italy, the air force sergeant was eventually placed with other airmen and transported to Austria for two years at the camp before their liberation.

The Ocean Dunes Resort has a special room for military guests called the Hall of Heroes designed to honor all veterans of America’s wars. It’s not unusual for me to get reunion requests at the resort.

This was a special one because they where POWs and their story needs to be remembered.

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Over the last several months, I’ve been honing my musical chops at a weekly open mic sessions at Fresh Brewed Coffee House on Thursday nights in Myrtle Beach.

During that time, I was impressed with the musical selflessness of the open mic’s host Brian Roessler.

I was hesitant at first to include Brian as a subject for my Common Chords column because I didn’t want the other musicians that frequent the session to feel left out. Brian’s community of songwriters is strong and there are several excellent musicians and writers that frequent the event.

After realizing the column is more about community action with music than about musical prowess, I decided the others would understand.

The video was difficult to piece together. I recorded two songs and the interview footage during our video session last Thursday afternoon. The first song “Fine Print” was an up-tempo, fast paced song and the other, “Never Meant To Last” was a slow beautiful song about the fleeting status of love.

For the interview video I chose “Fine Print” as the background. The fast paced rhythms of Brian’s guitar at times were a little overpowering when I inserted the interview footage because of Roessler’s soft pitched voice. No matter how low I took the volumes on the song, It still seemed to distracted from what he was trying to say. In hindsight “Never Meant To last” would have been a better choice.

On the Common Chords blog I was able to include both songs as music only videos so nothing was lost.

The time I’m spending on these posts is phenomenal. Because of codec issues with Final Cut Pro using the Canon 5D Mark IIs, the render times are taxing and causing me to reevaluate the process.

It is not unusual for a typical post to take 3 days to put together. Here’s a break down on the last post.

Day one:

Shoot and upload video to my computer. Place both A&B footage of the recorded songs in the FCP timeline and render.

Day two:

Edit and remove unwanted raw footage from the b-roll camera footage. Synchronize the clips together with the better audio recorded from the digital recorder.

Create all the title slides for the two music-only videos and then export self-contained .mov files out of FCP for compression to the web.

Create main interview video by adding edited interview footage over one of the finished music-only videos.

Export that video to a .mov file from FCP.

Day 3:

Convert all .mov files to a working web ready file using the On2 Flix .flv converter. This process takes a while because I export two different file sizes for use on the Common Chords site and the Zero Comments site. I also use the double pass option for better quality.

Edit and caption the still images for the photo that will appear in the paper.

Write and submit the story to the editors.

After the story is edited, I format and upload the information to the blogging software for publishing on the web.

Day 4:

Sleep and then back to the daily grind.

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Last week I was given a few days to gather photos and video for an anniversary story on last April’s wildfires. The video went together smoothly as most of the residents have rebuilt their homes and are ready to go on with life.

The only tough decision I had to make was not to use a piece of music I’d recorded for the video. I tried hard to incorporate the music but it was just better and less distracting without it. If music doesn’t carry the story forward then why use it.

rlh

With the fragile condition of my father’s health, I journeyed home for an emergency visit to check him back into a rehabilitation center he was in two-years ago.

My hope is he will return home again and the nurses at the center can use their wonderful healing tools to once again make him better.

Things are different now and he seems weaker and in closer need for long-term care. His face just doesn’t give me indication he is ready to fight the hard battle of physical therapy needed to get back home.

My brothers and sister hope he can and we are ready to give him the chance but we are also preparing for the need for an extended stay.

During the week, I spent most of my time gathering documents and information for Medicare and insurance companies. The paperwork and preparations were the focus for the first few days but later I did get a chance to spend some quality time with him.

I found over the course of the week, to get dad to smile and wake-up, all I had to do was open the case to my Martin 00-18V.

Named after my dad, “Lit’l Billy” has always come through for me. The little Martin that could has changed my life and made our relationship better.

It hard to imagine how a guitar could do this but I have to advise one to try it if you are needing to salvage a parental relationship. Name your guitar for them and play it often in their presence. It’s an honor they most likely will not forget.

And the wounds will be healed with it’s music.

The last day I was in Eden, I stopped by the home of my friend Melanie McCrory for a little music jam.

Her ex husband Don Wright came over and we played for a few hours. Don played in Myrtle Beach with me during my SxSE gig back in November of 2009.

It was nice to relieve some stress with music and make the 5-hour journey back to the beach a pleasant experience.

Below are some recordings we did during the afternoon jam. We are playing outside and listen as the cars travel down the country road beside Melanie’s home.

It’s good to have friends.

Hickory Wind / Byrds cover-I’m playing Don’s 63 D-18, Melanie is on Bass, Don is on Mando and we spend the first few moments getting the chords straight.

Hide Your Love Away / Beatles cover with Don on Banjo, me on “Lit’l Billy”.

Ring of Fire / Cash cover with my little twist on the arrangement. Don is on his beautiful Stelling banjo and I’m playing “Lit’l Billy”.

rlh