Not sure where the most appropriate section for this is but I figured since it is a chance for people to critic my work, this is as good as any.
In past years on Labor Day weekend I usually recorded the Rhythm and Roots Festival in Charlestown RI for my TV show, “Rhode Isand Live”. I did that for five years but in the end it took up almost all of my free time throughout the year to produce. It was a labor of love. This year due to COVID, the festival is not happening. In its place, the festival owner is doing a virtual festival that features 5 years of the videos I shot of the festival. Some of the 30+ acts performing are:
The Mavericks
Keb Mo
Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers
The David Grisman Sextet
Rosanne Cash
Shinyribs
Los Lobos
If you are looking for something to do/listen to over that weekend, the footage will be streamed on www.rhythmandroots.com, their facebook page and a number of other platforms. Go to the website for more info and I hope you enjoy the artists as much as I enjoyed recording them. Let me know what you think of the show.
A bit on the technical side, I used a 48 track mobile system to capture the audio, recording to two Blackbox hard disk recorders. We had anywhere from 6 to 14 cameras depending on the year.
I wrote a song called Practicing Retiring while working from home a couple years before I did retire!
So tomorrow it begins! I will attempt to check it out, Kent. This is quite a nice collection of performances you have saved for posterity. And it sounds like the quality is going to be better than your average bootleg.
This time of hunkering down has felt like Retirement Rehearsal to my wife and me as well. It will be interesting to see which facets of this life will persist once the main battle with covid is won (and it will be, eventually). There are parts of virtual meetings I really like, such as the fact that everyone’s little square on the screen is the same, or it’s decided by the software – very level playing field. I’ve been in meetings where folks I know are the kind that typically hang back and just listen actually engage and speak up more, they feel more comfortable perhaps. Definitely a good thing. And having the chat window going along the side while the conversation is happening really adds a useful dimension you just can’t get with people sitting in a room. I don’t want to give that up!
Well, seems the virtual festival has gone over pretty well. I am told day 1 was close to 10K hits across the three platforms. Last artist on now (Rosanne Cash). She sure can write a tune, and what a sweetheart she was to work with…
