Filming Day in Secondbedroomville!

With the recent addition of our ridiculously awesome iMac:

I decided it was time to get back to some higher-level computer-doings... One of which is video editing. So the other night I shot some video of myself recording a cover of John Prine's "Wedding Day in Funeralville."

I recorded video with both the built-in iSight camera and a regular DV camcorder for both the guitar track and the vocal track. I imported the video into the iMac and edited it in Final Cut Express. Just wanted to get the feel for it again. Synced up the audio with the video and chopped all 4 video tracks together to form a semblance of the whole, if you will.

The song was recorded in Garageband per usual, it was just also recorded by the iSight at the same time.

Check out the video here!

Wreck of the Ol' 97!

My latest recording is a new experiment I have been working on for a while. It's something I'm pretty damn proud of to tell the truth, both for the sentimental factor and the technical know-how and prowess it took to pull it off!

I took a reel-to-reel recording of my grandfather's bluegrass combo playing the ol' standard "Wreck of the Ol' 97", captured it, digitized it, brought it up to speed, and cleaned it up.

Then I chopped it, arranged and rearranged it (this was the painstaking part), and added a second acoustic guitar, vocals, and solo. Then I mixed it all together!

So the end result is my first chance to play and record with my late grandfather. Sadly, I never got the chance to jam with him on the banjo and myself on the guitar. The combination of my delayed entry into the guitar world and my grandfather's declining dexterity didn't allow us the chance to play together.

With this recording however, I get a bit of a hint at what it might have sounded like. :)

You can hear Wendell (my grandfather) introducing the song as "A little bit of the Wreck of the '97 in the key of G" - It features my grandfather's banjo, as well as (who I assume is) Chet and Danny Stubbs on flat-top guitar and fiddle. I added an additional flat-top guitar track, as well as vocals and an electric lead.

Enjoy on the player to your right!