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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.

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Here is the music only version of the video.

rlh

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.

Corporation Blues in DADGAD ©2009 Hippiedog Produce

Corporation Blues in Standard ©2009 Hippiedog Produce

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

______________

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

_______________

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)

They got those Corporation Blues

_____________ 

You might be black, white or any color in between

Corporations don’t care only when its green

Oh’ baby, I got those Corporation Blues

Greed is the motto

We got those Corporation Blues

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Words and Music © 2009 Hippiedog Produce

Photo by Janet Blackmon Morgan

All images and songs on this site can not be used without permission.

rlh

I had a wonderful time this weekend when my old friend and first band mate Don Wright joined me and Jeff Watson of Conway for a Hippiedog Produce jam Saturday night at the South by Southeast show at the Train Depot in Myrtle Beach. We were the opening act for the featured band The Youngers at that evening’s show.

I was happy that my cousin Iva Clayton joined us for the weekend of jams and photographed us during rehearsals for the concert. With her permission (Iva is it okay?) I publish here some of my favorites.

Look at the bottom of the post for audio clips during the concert. Please don’t notice my lame attempt at recording the concert. I positioned my digital recorder too far right and at an input level that was too low. It’s still good enough to post and to get an idea of the concert for those who couldn’t attend in person.

Here’s a photo of Don at rehearsal Saturday afternoon at my house. Don and I were in a band together when we were teenagers. From time to time we get together and jam when I make the drive home to visit with my father.

Iva took this photo of my memorial to my grandmother Lola Hill. This photo and candle stood at the center of the stage during our performance.

Here’s a photo of Jeff and I sharing a hug just before leaving for the concert. A professional working musician, Jeff helped me deal with the fear of the stage by being upbeat and light before the show.

Jeff rehearsing Brain Damage Saturday afternoon.

I played two songs on my Gibby AJ with the Baggs M1A and the rest with my Martin 00-18v with an IBeam active pickup. Both I ran through the PA with a Baggs Para D1. During our sound check, I wish I’d had time to play with the EQ a little because the notch filter could of cleaned up some feedback I was getting on the open G string on both guitars. I was not experienced enough with live sound to do it during the performance.

Here we are at the concert Saturday night.

Dead Flowers (Townes style)

Brain Damage (Floyd cover, Jeff on vocals)

Big Blue World ©2009 Hippiedog Produce

Don’s Cover of the Floyd Cramer tune

The Mountain (S. Earle cover)

My Girl (via Motown)

We played 8 songs but the first two were difficult to hear because of ambient conversations near my recorder.

rlh

Thanks to my buddy Joe Weiss, the creator of the Soundslides program, I had a way to continue my Common Chords column and blog despite 2-weeks away from the office this month.

The documentary style videos I’ve been doing take endless amounts of time to put together, dealing with long render times in Final Cut Pro as you convert the Canon 5D codec.

So last Sunday I recorded sound and took still images and put together this quick audio gallery for my column.

In my opinion, a soundslide is no less effective in getting a message across. The power is in the quickness one can put together a presentation and post it on the web.

This presentation took the better part of two hours to work together and I still had time to have dinner with my family.

Please check out my story and some more audio clips on this month’s column at TheSunNews.com

rlh