One day back in 2018 I was walking in downtown Greenville when a man passing by recognized me and asked if I was Bootie. Of course I said I was, and he introduced himself as Clark. We chatted for a minute, I happily obliged his request for a photo together, and then we went our separate ways. It was just a random encounter, and I had no reason to give it any other thought. I certainly had no reason to think I would one day sing at his funeral.
At some point after our meeting on the street, Clark happened to add the photo of us into his online dating profile. And through that dating site, he happened to reach out to a longtime friend of mine, Nancy. Nancy saw the photo of Clark and me together, figured he must be okay, and a common connection was made! After some time dating, Nancy and Clark got married. This was a second marriage for each of them, and it was the happiest time of their lives. I got to reconnect with Clark a handful of times, all too short.
Two weeks ago we were all shocked to learn Clark had died in a tragic accident at home.
Nancy asked if I would sing at the funeral. They both enjoyed the old hymns. I’ve been away from these old tunes and enjoyed reacquainting myself with them. The first is “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, and also a short instrumental medley of “How Great Thou Art” and “He Leadeth Me.”
My heart breaks for Nancy and everyone connected to Clark. These kinds of moments are awful, painful reminders of how precious Life is for all of us, and each new day. Peace and Love.
From Clark’s obituary: “Clark was a certified public accountant with a career spanning over 45 years. He was a senior tax accountant at Price Waterhouse, a partner with KPMG, and the CFO of TriVergent Corporation. He was the CFO and a partner of First Sun Management Corporation since 2002. His work at First Sun provided joy and fulfillment in his daily life, as well as the friendships and bonds he developed there.
He had a deep connection to nature and raised livestock, including Tunis sheep, on the family farm in Gray Court. Later, he loved spending time outdoors with his wife Nancy hiking, biking, and traveling across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. An avid fan of the TV show “Top Chef,” he relished seeking out new culinary experiences on their travels.”
This one was fun. Listen with your good earbuds or headphones on sometime to get the full mix. You’ll miss a lot on a phone or built-in speakers.
I was around 20 years old when I watched Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” for the first time. I was fully-engrossed. There’s a lot of great stuff on that album and in that movie, and this song has remained one of my favorites. Enjoy!
Early in my guitar playing, maybe 30 years ago, I knew I wanted to one day be able to play anything by James Taylor. But I think there was a part of me that thought it might just be too difficult. Regardless, I figured I’d give it a try. So I closed the door to my room and sat with my guitar and a cassette tape of JT’s greatest hits (for you young’ns, this does not mean Justin Timberlake. Also, you can google what a cassette tape is after this is over).
I would play about a measure on the tape and then stop it, and then I’d fiddle around on the guitar until I either found it, or had to rewind the cassette a bit and listen again. After a few hours of this I sat back and realized I was doing exactly what I thought I couldn’t do before, I was playing it all the way through. It was a lesson in not doubting myself, and not giving up on something before I even tried.
I’m sure there’s plenty of debate about which Carolina is being lauded here, but I’m content to be pretty evenly divided. While South Carolina is my home, I’ve got some special connections with the North Carolina mountains, as well. I recall days of driving I-26 and I-40, windows down, listening to JT sing what I was feeling in my heart, whether it was anticipating my destination or leaving what was behind me. Or maybe a little of both.
A slight tag onto Mother’s Day… This is “Always on the Run” by Lenny Kravitz. Lenny says it was about all the good advice and instruction his mother was giving him, but he was too young and crazy to appreciate it, always running.
The guitar lick at the beginning (and throughout the song) hooked me the first time I ever heard it. Throw in that bass with the funk and the beats and it gets all my musical atoms synched up and vibing in rhythm. Slash and Lenny recorded this song together in a vodka-fueled weekend, and the energy level in their version is near 11. They are singing most everything up an octave. I tried that in my version but it just wasn’t working (and I don’t do vodka) so I dropped most everything down an octave, and I thought that gave it a vibe that worked.
An acoustic re-make almost always comes out a little slower, and more relaxed than its high-energy, amps-to-eleven original, but somehow, my version is substantially faster — at 185 bpm to their 169 bpm. That’s just what seemed to sound right to me. The faster speed pretty much assured zero chance of pulling off Slash’s solo, so I just did my own thing around what he was doing as best I could.
I always enjoy trying to use random objects, like the 8-ball, that have the sound I’m looking for, and exploring the sounds of different materials. It was a perfect hi-hat type of sound. There’s a subtle wah-wah pedal effect I stumbled upon with the main guitar while I was playing with the EQ. When I narrowed in on a some particular frequencies and raised them, it created this warpy-flangy-wave sound alongside the reverb. It sounds much like the kind of frequency-collision one might typically want to remove in the mastering process, but I thought it was the perfect way to “distort” the clean sound of the guitar without going too far.
By the way, I always post these videos to have a decent-level of audio quality so that some of these nuances can be enjoyed by anyone who is into it. I hate what computer speakers and phones have done to good music. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to listen to some of these with at least some decent earbuds, headphones or speakers to appreciate the full mix. (See Victor Wooten’s “The Spirit of Music” for more on that :)) I’m sure open to any thoughts or critique on any of my mixes. My ears are getting old, too. Enjoy!
I’ve been playing guitar for 30 years but have never taken on the challenge of learning some quality Mark Knopfler licks. So I decided to go all-in and start with one of the most difficult. I wish I was able to record all the failures of learning this song and show you what it took.
I have always loved the pure, natural sound of acoustic instruments, and those MTV unplugged sets where they’d have all kinds of rock and blues artists perform more acoustic sets. It’s a more intimate setting and sound. I hadn’t really planned on doing any kind of recording at the beginning, but as I started learning the song I was so horrible at the lead guitar I needed to record some MUCH slower backing tracks to play along with, so I started with that. Then, as I was getting it up to proper speed, I decided to add in some other percussion and bass and see what kind of mix I might get. I have been really enjoying getting back into the recording process, and all the rabbit-holes of different mixes and settings. I’ve been putting together a new, simple home studio, and this was a perfect way to get to know it and create a flow (If you’re into that stuff, I’m using a Scarlett 2i2 and recording into GarageBand on a Mac, using a few different mics depending on the application, an AKG C200B, P170, and a Shure SM57).
I consider myself a wannabe bass player and percussionist, and I have to do a few takes to fix my timing errors but I enjoy trying. I pretty much copied the bass line from the recording but tried to add a bit of my own groove in there.
Thanks to Mark Knopfler and Dire Straights for their music and inspiration.
Now, if you’ve read this far, what song should I do next??
What an appropriate song to celebrate the life of my aunt Faye! My oldest brother Clark on the piano, my nephew Raleigh, my niece Christen and I pulled this song together in about 30 minutes shortly before the funeral. The audio from the actual service didn’t come through very well so I’m glad I recorded this, our last run-through. I love this song and its message. Performed at Shelby Presbyterian Church, Shelby, NC.
This song is an old gospel spiritual, in the public domain.
One of my fav old-school JT songs… he has recorded a few different versions over the years, and mine probably has a little bit of each. I didn’t know until recently that Elvis covered this song.
Bootie Cothran 