web site back up

The Your Place or Mine Digital web site has been undergoing a renovation and repositioning with another web service provider. Actually it is the same provider as before but they’ve figured out a way to charge the folks like me that did not sign up for any of their premium services. Well I guess it couldn’t last forever, but it’ll still be more economical than what I can get from other services. I’ve changed the format to include individual pages for all my artist/writers.

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Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy birthday Dad wherever your spirit now resides!  Yes, today, April 1, 2012 you would have been eighty-three years old if younger half-brother Stump had not hit you in the head then run over you with his John Deere Bulldozer.  Hard to believe its been two decades since Stump and his mother plotted murder and killed you in what they hoped would look like an accident.  At least Stump did not get to enjoy the million-dollars New York Life paid him for the life insurance policy he took out on you just four months prior to your death.  You didn’t know how right you were when you told my youngest half-sister that you had just signed your death warrant when you signed that life insurance policy.  You see when Stump received the summary judgement from the Federal Court in Alabama two years after the crime he decided to hide the money with his then girlfriend (not his wife) till any problems that might come up would blow over.  But quite amusingly the girlfriend vanished with the money once Stump was sentenced to Life Without Parole.  I tried to get New York Life to put a little more effort into proving that Stump murdered you for their insurance money during the two years after you died but they got antsy and paid the money into the court system and let the Feds deal with it.  And of course the Feds went ahead and paid out the money because even though there was sufficient evidence on Stump at the time of your murder it took four years to get the case opened back up and brought to its end by the Alabama State Attorney General.  And with that same evidence AG Jeff Sessions put Stump in prison for the rest of his life.  The US Supreme Court refused to listen to Stump’s final appeal a few years ago and Life Without Parole is now truly Life Without Parole.  We can thank Senator Jeff Sessions for heeding my plea and ordering the case reopened after I sent him that last ditch effort letter.  I’d actually given up on ever getting justice for you when I put that letter in the mail.  I mailed that letter and took a job outside the entertainment business at about the same time.  I don’t believe I can ever forgive Stump or my wicked stepmother for what they did to you but I do forgive you for what you did to me and to mom.  I forgive you and everybody else that deserted me over the course of my life and especially over the course of this little adventure.  Yeah, desertion is a theme you started when I was a toddler that has followed me around to this day.  Lots of people I love have deserted me over the years but I forgive them all and I hope they see fit to forgive me one of these days.  I only have one true friend left that was around to witness me going crazy on Nashville’s Music Row after your murder.  My peer group and so-called friends at the studio I worked most at all thought I’d lost my mind till the day I threw down the newspaper front page headlines showing Stump’s guilty verdict for your murder.  You made front page news in Montgomery just about every day for the two weeks of the trial.  It’s kind of funny that I was the only family member that stayed the course until Stump was finally arrested.  And really, that was just luck of the draw as I was truly giving up the effort after I sent Jeff Sessions that letter.  But I forgive you for leaving me Dad.  Happy Birthday Dad wherever you are and Rest In Peace!

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Korean Culture and The Drama of Life

The drama of life!  Lately I’ve been caught up in watching Korean period dramas.  Watching drama set in Korea in the 1st through the 15th Centuries produced in Korea by Koreans is a very interesting method of learning about segments of this amazing Asian culture.  I never imagined getting this involved in watching multiple series of dramatic programs in a language that I don’t understand verbally and must depend on the subtitles for verbal content.  And I’m not always confident the translations are accurate, but I’ll just have to take the translators words for it – seems to be pretty close, but I get the feeling some of the nuance is lost in translation.  The emotional content expressed by the Korean actors is clear enough, and that combined with the translation in the subtitles is enough to drag my emotions through the entire gambit  – I find myself with tears welling up in my eyes more often than not.  I do so relate to the drama and situations played out in this culture’s stories it is not funny!  Family conflict seems to always be at the core of societal drama.  And the scenery is beyond compare with anything we are accustomed to in the United States.  Korean and Asian architecture in general go back thousands of years and the sets used for the production of the programs I’ve seen so far are truly amazing.  And the scenery of the mountains, forests, lakes, oceans and streams in Korea remind me so much of the scenery I’ve grown up with in the Southeastern United States.  I’m learning that today’s societal problems we face in western culture are nothing new by any stretch of the imagination.

The Korean caste system is an interesting study in humanity.  Being brought up in America the caste system is so much more subdued but nonetheless it is here.  America is the land of opportunity where you can buy or cheat your way into higher levels of the system, but much still depends on when, where and to whom you are born just as in Korean or any other culture that’s survived for any length of time on the face of this planet.  Watching drama set in Korea and produced by Korean people is a truly educational and inspirational event for this uninformed uncultured westerner, but I’m willing and happy to learn.  In America we try to break it all down into three classes – upper, middle and lower.  Most Americans have always been guilty of oversimplification – after all most of us have been taught to be that way from birth.  Decide what you want and go after it – simple, huh?  If only it were that simple!  But in ancient Korean culture the lines were most clearly defined and much more complicated.  From the top of the chain of Korean Royalty down to the bottom of the chain most lowly Peasants covers many, many links and side-chains – all of which theoretically go together to support the state and the wishes of the privileged minority at the top.  And like in American culture the rich and powerful use the ‘looking out for the people’s best interests’ card as one of their major excuses to maintain dominance and control over the less fortunate and less privileged majority of people.  Power, greed, control, dominance and subservience are all played out in a society built on rules handed down from the top.  And Korea, now basically two countries at odds with each other philosophically since prior to the Korean War (it was a war, not a conflict as our historians tried to glaze over it) sprung out of multiple Kingdoms and numerous tribes all vying for land and power under the guidance and direction of the most powerful people occupying and fighting and scheming to hold on to the highest ruling positions in their societies.  And they believed the only way to hold on to that power was to extend it by invading their neighbors and making them subservient to the needs and desires of the most powerful -the ancient ‘Last Man Standing’ rule.  It was a society where transgressions were often punished with death, torture or dismemberment – powerful motivators to get the defeated, weak and poor to serve the rich and powerful.  In many instances when an individual in a family screwed up the entire family ended up paying the ultimate penalty for that single family member’s transgression – that is some pretty stiff punishment for one screw-up in the group.  In some cases they would either kill and/or enslave entire populaces to gain and maintain their power and control.  Your rank and position in society meant everything when it came to the level of comfort you would experience as you made your way through life on planet earth.  Just like it does for the majority of folks in the good old U.S. of A.  Plots and schemes abound in a system where gaining wealth, prestige and the King’s favor were the ultimate goals.  Some things never seem to change!

Western culture is very young compared to most on this planet but still has so many similarities they can’t go unnoticed.  We’ve only been at it in the United States of a bit over two-hundred years so far.  ‘The rich get richer and the poor get poorer’ is a concept as old as humanity itself.  Our forefathers founded this county on the land, blood and backs of it’s native inhabitants.  The United States of America became the melting pot of the world after our diverse range of ancestors pushed their way across the continent converting the land and the original cultures into the so called ‘land of the free.’  I hear it said we came to this country to escape religious persecution, yet we started persecuting the native Indians as soon as we got here.  Our current society seems to persecute any religion or idea that does not meet the standards or current belief systems of the incumbent powers that be.  Yes, we are free to elect the people we authorize to tell us how to live and how to behave.  We are told we have freedom of religion, but religious freedom sometime boils down to the freedom to select which religion we prefer to support financially and voluntarily as long as we at least pick one to publicly bow to.  Some folks are born into specific cults or religions and are raised to accept a dogma without question so they might not ever know the precept of religious freedom even though they were born and raised on American soil.  Freedom to travel anywhere within the continental USA as long as we can afford to travel or don’t mind sticking our thumbs out and chancing rides with total strangers (a prospect that seems a bit scarier now than it did in the 60′s and 70′s).  Freedom to blame anybody but ourselves for our problems.  Freedom to criticize even when we know next to nothing about the areas or peoples we choose to criticize.  Freedom to be just as smart or just as ignorant as we want to be.  Freedom to be dishonest, hurtful, disrespectful, rude, crude, socially unacceptable, narcissistic – lots and lots of freedoms to choose from.  But as Kris Kristofferson so succinctly put it in his song “Me and Bobby McGee” – “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”

I appreciate hulu including Korean drama as part of their content.  It is really giving me the opportunity to look at another culture, an ancient culture as seen and defined by itself through it’s very own self-produced dramatic programming for the first time.  The communication age – where will it all go now that we just about have the whole planet talking and streaming data?

Ah yes – and so it goes – the drama of life!  Now back to some tidying up some licensing details and pitching some music for a couple of hours before getting back to my latest mental and educational adventure in Korean culture – ‘Jewel in the Palace’… I’m up to episode 33…only 21 more to go on this one… I’m really digging Jang Geum – she’s one really determined in the face of all odds fine lady!  Makes my load seem extremely light by comparison!  The drama continues…

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Wouldn’t It Be Nice

  • Wouldn’t it be nice to have a friend that would do just about anything you wanted or needed them to do, many times without you ever even asking? 
  • Someone who would go above and beyond for you on a moments notice.
  • Someone who would support your artistry and songwriting skills without question. 
  • Someone who would support your dreams of taking your concept to the next level be it music or extreme sports or whatever. 
  • Someone who would back you up any time you needed it. 
  • Someone with multiple skill sets from engineering and production to multiple instruments to art and beyond. 
  • Someone who could design, build and manage a web presence for you. 
  • Someone that could create and provide original album and promotional art and copy. 
  • Someone that could protect and promote your music.  
  • Someone that could help you create a social media presence as part of promoting your goals and desires. 
  • Someone that could shoot video of you and for you. 
  • Someone that could edit video program materials together for you. 
  • Someone willing to travel with you when your dreams take to the road. 
  • Someone who would set up their recording and mastering studio right on your property so you would have 24/7 access to not only their large financial investment into equipment and media but limitless access to the skills and talents that they spent their entire life developing. 
  • Someone who supports your dreams while not dwelling on their own. 
  • Someone who would be straight and honest with you all the time. 
  • Someone who would do anything in their power to help you get from point A to point B with everything they had to offer. 
  • Someone who would be a friend and supporter through thick and thin. 
  • Someone who actually does what they say they are going to do.
  • Someone who actually cares. 
  • Wouldn’t it be nice?
Posted in Music, Uncategorized, Video Production | 2 Comments

Blessed Be The Black Friday Shopper

That’s the holiday spirit – shoot or pepper-spray your way to bargains galore.  The Christmas season was once set aside for Christians to celebrate the birth of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Now it seems that the holiday season has turned into an all out brawl and free-for-all aimed at anything but a celebration of Christianity.  The first thing that turned me off to the church was the hypocrisy that even I could see and sense as a small child, and now society confirms my observation with the so-called Black Friday when retailers are supposed to go from red to black on their financial profits for the year.  It’s sad that so much business depends on Christmas sales for survival.  People maimed, injured and killed while trying to save a few bucks on gifts to give to others or in many cases themselves is a poor way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Jesus taught prudence and tolerance, but don’t get in grandma’s way when she can save 50% on bedding and towels – you are taking your life in your own hands when you do.  I guess Black Friday could be renamed Blood and Guts Friday since the animalistic and materialistic nature of human beings comes out in the open that day – the day after supposedly giving thanks for all the blessings they have received during the preceding year.  If you survived the crowds on Black Friday that might be counted as a major blessing.

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The Beat Goes On

How did I get from point ‘A’ to today?  A new friend recently pointed out that I must have a lot of experience and education.  She suggested I write down a list of the jobs and education that I’ve accumulated over the years – so for those of you who ever wondered how I got so opinionated in so many different areas here’s a list that might help explain.  It’s not in chronological order, but rather by location.  All the Mt. Pleasant and Columbia stuff took place by the time I was eighteen and the remainder took place over the fortytwo years following.  What a long strange trip it’s been, and continues to be.  Making out this list helps me understand why many folks see me as somewhat opinionated.  And as far as the formal education part goes I dropped out of college four times prior to my nineteenth birthday.  My first degree was conferred when I was thirty and the second when I was thirtyseven – both while working full time with a child and a wife on board.  The kids are grown and the wives are gone and the beat goes on…

Skills
and Positions
Source Main Location
Band Member – The Gopher Broke Band Bobby Don Bloodworth Blue Ridge, GA
Web Master Bobby Don Bloodworth Blue Ridge, GA
Band Member – David Price and the Price
Tags
Traditional Country Drummer Centerville
Commercial Plumber Commercial Columbia
Bookstore stocking and sales clerk CSCC Columbia
Monsanto Slag Furnace Cleaning Manpower Columbia
Victor Carolina Kiln Cleaning Manpower Columbia
Cook Maury County State Fair Columbia
Tow Motor Driver Phelps Dodge Aluminum Columbia
Cook Rose’s Columbia
Food Counter Clerk and Cook Rose’s Columbia
Stock Boy Rose’s Columbia
Cook Shoney’s Columbia
Curb Cook Shoney’s Columbia
Computer & Software support (always) for friends and family everywhere
Bass Player Now everywhere
book collaborator Now everywhere
Drummer Now everywhere
DVD Editor – Now Now everywhere
Guitar Player Now everywhere
Mandolin Player Now everywhere
Photoshop Editor Now everywhere
Singer Now everywhere
Cameraman – Now YPOM Digital everywhere
eBay sales YPOM Digital everywhere
Mastering Engineer – Now YPOM Digital everywhere
Musician – Now YPOM Digital everywhere
Producer – Now YPOM Digital everywhere
Publisher – Now YPOM Digital everywhere
Video Editor – Now YPOM Digital everywhere
Web Site Designer – Now YPOM Digital everywhere
Audio Visual Library Tech University of Tennessee Knoxville
Cook Boxwell Scout Reservation Lequardo, TN
Survey Crew Instrument Man Winsett Simmons etc. Memphis
Survey Crew Leader Winsett Simmons etc. Memphis
Survey Crew Rodman and Chainman Winsett Simmons etc. Memphis
General Laborer – Manpower Laborer Middle Tennessee
New Motorcycle Assembly Honda of Montgomery Montgomery
Draftsman – traditional lead and ink Rail Road and Trucking Axel Plant Montgomery
Band Member – The FunKings Drummer and Vocalist Mt. Juliet
Webcaster FunKings from Slim’s basement Mt. Juliet
Band Member – Slim and Ric Monstagrass Mandolin and Vocals Mt. Juliet
Paper Boy route delivery Banner/Tennessean Mt. Pleasant
Paper Boy street sales Banner/Tennessean Mt. Pleasant
Stock Boy (first job) Couch’s Mt. Pleasant
Tricycle Assembler Couch’s Mt. Pleasant
Tobacco Cutter/Hanger Farm Worker Mt. Pleasant
Band Member – The Hangmen High School Dance Band Drummer Mt. Pleasant
Band Member – The Teacups High School Dance Band Drummer Mt. Pleasant
Band Member – HLHS Marching and Concert Bands High School Music Program Drummer Mt. Pleasant
Bag Boy Lovett’s Mt. Pleasant
Salvage Crew Lovett’s Mt. Pleasant
Flyer Delivery Western Auto Mt. Pleasant
Soda Jerk Wright’s Mt. Pleasant
Sound Systems Installer Alan Rumbaugh Nashville
Sales Auditor American Ace Nashville
Steepelton’s Nashville billiard table technician Nashville
MCI tape machine, console and automation
repair
Blevins Audio Nashville
Adult Leadership Training Instructor BSA Nashville
Assistant Scoutmaster BSA Nashville
Boy Scout Knots Instructor BSA Nashville
Cub Scout Den Leader BSA Nashville
Eagle Board of Review Member BSA Nashville
Merit Badge Instructor BSA Nashville
Webelos Den Leader BSA Nashville
Wood Badge Permanent Patrol Leader – Owls BSA Nashville
Wood Badge Trained Assistant Scoutmaster BSA Nashville
Order of the Arrow Brotherhood Honor
Camper
BSA Nashville
Pathfinder Award BSA Nashville
Checkout Auditor Cajun’s Wharf Nashville
Head Waiter Cajun’s Wharf Nashville
Limo Driver – English Rolls Royce Cajun’s Wharf Nashville
Waiter Cajun’s Wharf Nashville
Actor in Hot Tub Commercials Cal Spas Nashville
Hot Tub Salesman Cal Spas Nashville
Audio Doctor Synth and Amp Technician Carlos Sound Nashville
Dry Wall Framer Commercial Nashville
Interior Painter (new construction) Commercial Nashville
Pre-fab table carpenter Commercial Nashville
Electrician Commercial, Residential Nashville
Band Member – Three Way Split Contemporary Country Drummer Nashville
Band Member – E. L. Smith Band Country Music Drummer Nashville
Cook Dalt’s Nashville
Baby Sitter – the unpaid unappreciated
variety
Daughter Nashville
Wood Shop forms builder and prototyper Davis Cabinet Company Nashville
Audio Engineer Denny Music Group, YPOM Digital Nashville
Studio Manager Denny’s Den Nashville
Showroom Sales Rep Direct Buy Nashville
College Instructor Studio Electronics at Belmont Fill-In for Kevin Nimmo Nashville
Band Member – Fresh Air Band Folk Rock Original Music Drummer Nashville
Ice House on 8th grinding giant ice cubes Nashville
Recording Studio Designer and Installer Homestudio Consultants, Tree International Nashville
selling beer and bags of ice Ice House on 8th Nashville
Cajuns Wharf Rolls Royce Limo Driver Nashville
Promotional Drawings Artist Mac White Records Belmont work study Nashville
Record Promoter Mac White Records Belmont work study Nashville
Elec. Dimming Ballast course creator and
trainer
MagneTek / ULT Nashville
HID Troubleshooting Course creator and
trainer
MagneTek / ULT Nashville
Neon Transformer troubleshooter site
inspector
MagneTek / ULT Nashville
Technical and Catalog Customer Service
Trainer
MagneTek / ULT Nashville
Technical Application Consultant MagneTek / ULT Nashville
Technical Field Rep (National and
International)
MagneTek / ULT Nashville
Technical Troubleshooter MagneTek / ULT Nashville
Technical Engineering Services Rep Magnetek/ULT Nashville
Studio Tech Many Studios & Blevin’s Audio Exchange Nashville
Assistant Engineer to Milan Bogdan Masterfonics Nashville
Audio Digital Remote Control Designer Masterfonics Nashville
CD-ROM Premastering Researcher Masterfonics Nashville
Chief of Technical Services Masterfonics Nashville
Digital Editing Assistant to Milan Bogdan Masterfonics Nashville
Patch bay designer and builder multiple audio and one film studios Nashville
Assistant cameraman Nascar Marty Robbins 400 Nashville
Computer & Network Tech Nashville Business Machine Company Nashville
pyramid scheme sales rep National Safety Association (NSA) - Nashville
Banquet Houseman Opryland Hotel Nashville
Bellman Opryland Hotel Nashville
Valet Opryland Hotel Nashville
Bellman Bus Driver Opryland Hotel Nashville
Wardrobe Assistant – Manpower Opryland Theme Park Nashville
Homestudio Consultants, Inc. President Nashville
Photographic Album Sales Rep Pyramid Scheme Nashville
Carpenter Residential Nashville
Land Scaping Residential Nashville
Waiter Sailmaker Nashville
Commercial Restaurant Food Prep Shoney’s (Danner’s) Commissary Nashville
Cook Shoney’s (Danner’s) Commissary Nashville
Audio to Film Synchronization Engineer Soundshop Nashville
Audio Circuit Designer Soundshop,  Independent Nashville
Circuit Board Design, Layout and burning Soundshop, Masterfonics Nashville
Audio and Digital Device designer Soundshop, Tree, Masterfonics, Spotland Nashville
Waiter Spats Nashville
voiceover studio tech (advertising
business)
Spotland and Archer Productions Nashville
Studio Furniture and Rack Designer Spotland Productions Nashville
Recording Studio Maintenance Engineer staff at various recording studios Nashville
High Speed Tape Duplicator Maintenance Tape Factory, Spotland, Al Jolson’s Nashville
Cook TGI Friday’s – Elliston Place Nashville
Food Prep TGI Friday’s – Elliston Place Nashville
Band Member – The Dusters Top 40 Show Band Drums and Vocals Nashville
Band Member – Whiskey Creek Band II Top 40 Show Band Drums and Vocals Nashville
Band Member – Whiskey Creek Band I Traditional Country Drummer Nashville
Assistant Scoutmaster Woodbadge, Advancement Chairman Nashville
House PA Sound Mixer Woodmont Baptist Church Nashville
Live TV Broadcast Announcer Woodmont Baptist Church Nashville
Live TV Broadcast Sound Mixer Woodmont Baptist Church Nashville
Live TV Cameraman Woodmont Baptist Church Nashville
Publishing Administrator Denny Music Group, YPOM Digital Nashville, everywhere
Dry Wall Hanger Commercial Nashville, Franklin
Carpenter’s Helper Commercial Nashville, New Orleans
Dry Wall Finishing Residential Nashville, New Orleans
Dry Wall Hanger Residential Nashville, Tampa
Exterior House Painter Residential New Orleans
Piano Mover Residential New Orleans
Hay Bailer/barn worker Farm Worker Pegram
Electronic Technician Recording Studios Southeastern US
Chain Link Fence Installer Tampa
Laundry worker at Spa in Florida Spa Complex Industrial Washing Tampa
McDonald’s Survey Team Manpower Tullahoma
College and Schools of Hard Knocks Source Location
College Student Belmont College / University BBA 1981 Nashville
College Student CSCC dropout three times Columbia
College Student Nashville State Technical Institute AET 1987 Nashville
College Student University of Tennessee dropout once Knoxville
Student due to job position Commercial Wiring of Alan Rumbaugh Nashville
Student due to job position Electronics of Kevin Nimmo Nashville
Student due to job position Electronics of Randy Blevins Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Benny Quinn Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Chuck Ainley Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Ernie Winfree Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Gene Eichelberger Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Glenn Meadows Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Jim Lloyd Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Mike Bradley Nashville
Student due to job position Engineering of Milan Bogdan Nashville
Student due to job position Film Productions of Thom Ferrell Nashville
Student due to job position Otari Tape Machine Training Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Ben Holland Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Bil Vorn Dick Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Bob Montgomery Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Brad Shapiro Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Buddy Killen Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Craig Deitschman Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Eddie Kilroy Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Gene Clark Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Jimmy Bowen Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of John E Denny Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Jon Schullenberger Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Nick Archer Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Norbert Putnam Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Pat McMakin Nashville
Student due to job position Productions of Tony Brown Nashville
Student due to job position Solid State Logic Technical Training Los Angeles
Student due to job position Studer Tape Machine Training Nashville
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YPOM Digital On Location at Drum-O-Farm

August 21 – Labor Day – YPOM Digital ON LOCATION in Portland,
Tennessee at Boo McAfee’s Drum-O-Farm doing some
Drum-O-Projects including some video pre- and post-production projects as well
as some musical endeavors.  And Your Place or Mine Digital Music
never rests, no matter where we’re set up.  Actively pitching all songs
and projects in the catalog including the brand new album ‘Songs from
the Mountain’
as a completed MASTER ready to distribute for Bluegrass /
Americana / Gospel Artist and Songwriter, Daniel Lee
Parkin
.  Daniel’s songs, including the tune heard in Debra Granik‘s Oscar
Nominated film ‘Winter’s Bone‘ titled PALM OF HIS HAND, are all available for
licensing opportunities. All YPOM Digital Music, BMI songs are available for
mechanical license through HFA or you may contact us for more
information.  Your Place or Mine Digital Music also offers Country / Americana
Artist and Songwriter Bobby Don Bloodworth’s poignant anti-war ballad
‘Some Sunday’
for licensing opportunities, as well as Rock & Roll
Artist and Writer Slim Stephenson’s edgy Rock music from
his YPOM Digital CD  ‘Who Needs Cable With A Life Like Mine’  – Bobby
Don’s and Slim’s music is
currently available on YPOM Digital
Records
at CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, etc.  Check it all out the YPOM Digital Music
Store
for more info.

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Winter’s Bone, Palm of His Hand and YPOM Digital

Birth of Your Place or Mine Digital

I took an unplanned sabbatical from the Nashville music business for eleven-years starting August 1996 to work as a technical engineering service rep for MagneTek where I remained a faithful employee until September 2007.  I was released by the company, by then sold and re-named under new management to Universal Lighting Technologies.  They moved my position to a previous plant manager at one of ULT’s ballast manufacturing plants in Matamoros, Mexico.  The shakeup occurred as the cost of copper rose and electrical equipment profits fell.  At that time I had to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life so I decided since I no longer had wives, children and grandchildren to look after I would continue pursuing my lifetime dream of a life immersed in music production and music creation.  I’d learned more than I ever wanted to know about corporate American culture and was ready to get back to where I knew I belonged – starving but happy in the music business.

The Back Story

My lifelong involvement and love of music began as a toddler.  I officially started learning about drums at age five – I’ve been told I received my first play drum kit at age three but those memories are a bit more fuzzy.  I consider learning the traditional military drumstick grip from Hay Long High School band director Don Sain in the Summer of 1956 at age five as my first official musical training.  Mr. Sain was literally my first musical mentor to whom I am eternally grateful for paying any attention at all to a snotty nosed five-year-old kid who lived just a half-block from the Hay Long High School band room.  Thanks to my mom my first full drum kit was a three-piece silver sparkle set of Slingerlands at age twelve at which time I started playing around with friends in my home town, Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee – The (former) Phosphate Capital of the World.   My first gig as a drummer was at age twelve when a friend and personal drum hero of mine, Wendell Hedrick, would allow me to accompany him and my drums to his gigs where he would let me sit in for a few songs.   So I guess I really started off being a roadie – and proof continues to show that some things never seem to change.  My first interest in playing string instruments began with a ukulele at eight and moved to acoustic guitar at ten and on to electric guitar by age thirteen.  Singing in elementary school chorus and at church was always part of the deal.  I played baritone in class brass and had some piano lessons while enrolled at Columbia State Community College.  I hacked at the tenor saxophone and the flute while living in Memphis, Tennessee in ’71 and ’72.  I also worked at becoming a percussionist with congas, timbales, Chinese temple blocks and bongos while in Memphis and even went as far as joining the Memphis A.F. of M. but never booked a session or signed a card.  Heck, I didn’t even know what signing a card was back in those days.  I originally moved to Music City Nashville at the ripe old age of nineteen with a friend named Clifton Miller and we worked together as a carpenter’s helpers doing mostly commercial construction cleanup.  We lived at his aunt’s boarding house on West End Avenue and used to enjoy Bishop’s Pub a few doors down and sitting on his aunt’s front porch sipping brews and watching the traffic go by.  Not long after we moved to Cliff’s aunt’s boarding house I got back together with a girlfriend I’d met in Columbia a couple of years earlier who became my first wife.  We moved to Memphis together and married shortly thereafter.  We moved back to Nashville a couple of years later where I landed my first Nashville band gig as a drummer / road warrior.  Needless to say that is when I learned the hard way that road musicians often did not do very well when it came to marriage.

Back To School

I gave up the idea of playing full-time with bands at age twenty-seven and returned to college (for the fifth time).  I graduated from Belmont College (now Belmont University) in Nashville, Tennessee with a bachelor degree in a new program called Music Business in December 1981.    In February 1982 I was hired as the technical engineer for Soundshop Recording Studios by one of my former college instructors, Travis Turk, who had just been promoted to studio manager by everybody’s boss, Buddy Killen.  Before attending Belmont I was a full-time musician playing drums and singing with mostly Top 40 lounge bands at military bases and night clubs across the Southeast.  I thought pursuing higher education in the new Music Business program at Belmont would give me the opportunity to learn about the insides of the music business and help me to make some inroads into the business in Nashville.  I did learn a lot about the business and I did get jobs related to the music business in Nashville.  In the mid-’80s I attended Nashville State Technical Institute and graduated with highest honors with an AET in Electronics.  I’d already chose to take the route of studio tech and attended Nashville Tech to enhance my technical knowledge beyond the hunt and peck circuit repairs I learned at Belmont.  I’d become a tech to open some doorways not realizing at the time that in Nashville once the existing ‘powers-that-be’ have defined you in their minds as a technician most of them did not have the ability to see you as anything else – especially as a creative sort.  Creative and technical just did not mix in the Nashville music production minds back then.  Most of my recording studio peer group at the time did not even know I was a musician.  I did well as a tech – I worked all the time and at lots of different studios.  There were only a small handful of studio techs in Music City back in those days.  By the late 80′s I had worked at installing and fixing recording consoles, automation systems, rack gear and tape recorders in many major and minor recording studios and duplication houses in Nashville and across the Southeast.  In 1988 after I had spent about two years as the Chief of Technical Services at one of the older major mastering labs at that time with a brand new 20Hz Tom Hidley designed mix room that I installed almost single-handedly in Nashville I found myself unemployed and back to doing freelance studio tech work.  One of my tech clients and eventual friends, John E. Denny, realized I was much more than just a tech and hired me to fulfill multiple functions at his studio and publishing company.  I became Denny Music Group’s studio manager, audio engineer, publishing assistant, copyright administrator, database manager and yes, technical engineer.  I was never a full-time employee and remained a freelance worker for the decade I spent wearing all those hats for John.  I also spent a lot of time working in and around Buddy Killen’s music empire – Tree International, The Soundshop, Praise Hymn, The Tape Factory, as well as working for Randy Blevins at Blevins’ Audio Exchange where we kept MCI and all other forms of pro studio gear alive and for sale.  While with Randy I worked installing and maintaining studios all over the Southeast.  Kevin Nimmo set me up with my first tech gig while I was still a student at Belmont with Norbert Putnam at The Bennett House in Franklin, Tennessee.  While working at Soundshop, Masterfonics, The Bennett House and various other Nashville studios I was blessed with getting to watch and learn from a wide variety of music producers and engineers at work including Ernie Winfrey, Travis Turk, Jimmy Bowen, David Foster, Norbert Putnam, Buddy Killen, Eddie Kilroy, Bob Montgomery, Chet Atkins, John Hartford, Don Cook, Tony Brown, Pat McMakin, Mike Bradley, Milan Bogdan, Bil Vorn Dick, Scot Hendrix, Gene Eichelberger, Chuck Ainley and Billy Strange among others.

One More Bump In The Road

On February 12, 1992 my father was murdered by my half-brother for the proceeds of a $1-million life insurance policy he had taken out on dad about six-months earlier and my life became much more confusing and complicated than it already was.  The crime took place on the shores of Lake Jordan in Elmore County, Alabama and I was in Nashville, Tennessee where my friends and peer group never heard any news about what was going on in the state of Alabama.  I think it just seemed like a fairytale to most of them.  I spent a lot of time telling the story of dad’s death to people who I thought might be able to help me get dad’s case re-opened down there after it seemed that the State of Alabama had dropped the idea of prosecuting my half-brother for the murder.  I started getting a feeling that my friends and coworkers were not taking my pleas for help seriously and that they had in fact began to believe that I had lost my mind.  With the pain of non-support and non-belief of my friends and peer group I decided to move away from the music business and apply for a ‘real’ job somewhere in corporate America.  I eventually landed an interview at the Lighting Products Group of a large electrical equipment conglomerate named MagneTek.  Two months after I accepted the position at MagneTek I received a call at work informing me that my half-brother had been arrested and preparations for his capital murder trial had begun.  About a year later I spent two weeks in Alabama where I sat at the Alabama Attorney General’s table through the trial and penalty phase of my half-brother’s murder trial where he was indeed found guilty and sentenced to life without possibility of parole.  Of course during all this commotion within my life I had left the music business and remained hidden in corporate America until the cost of copper made me expendable to the lighting business.  I did continue to play music almost every Wednesday night with my friend and unflinching supporter throughout the dark period and still today, Slim Stephenson.  We even did a live webcast we called ‘Wednesday Night Live from Slim’s Basement’ in 2002 just as high speed Internet was being implemented.  My chops on the drums improved and were better just playing for fun in Slim’s basement for a decade than they ever were when I was actually attempting to make a living playing on the road.  And during this same I picked up the mandolin and struggled with it long enough to finally start feeling comfortable standing in the circle with other pickers.  Learning the mandolin gave me a whole new appreciation of roots, Americana and Bluegrass music which eventually led to formulating the core mission of YPOM Digital.   After a dedicated eleven years in corporate America Universal Lighting Technologies laid me off.  I took my 401k savings and created Your Place of Mine Digital.

Professional Digital Audio Production Anywhere

Your Place or Mine Digital Recording Services was a name that came off the top of my head that I planned to use temporarily when invited to help out with the sound at an annual ’Weenie Roast’ held at the home of one of Slim’s acquaintances.  I had purchased a hard disk based Tascam recording system along with some microphones, stands and audio production software that proved unable to handle what I wanted it to do at that very first YPOM Digital for-free gig.  It ignited my research for a package of gear and software that would allow me to do pro level tracks-to-masters audio production on location in homes or anywhere I had access to power, and to build it on a limited budget.  Through much trial and error I finally came up with a hardware and software combination that allowed me to produce music from tracks and overdubs all the way to masters that could be loaded into and on top of my SUV.  I found it almost unbelievable that in my eleven years away from the studio business that things had just now reached a point where what I dreamed of in 1992 was finally possible to really do in 2007 – just barely, but possible.  I now had all the elements in place to do professional level studio production out of the back of my vehicle.  In the recent past it would take anywhere from two to four brick and mortar studios or fully equipped mobile studios in trailers towed by tractors to do just a decade ago.  Essentially it can all be done now from a laptop computer.  Soon it may all be done from a Smart Phone…

From Nashville to Blue Ridge

Of course I decide to get back into the business at the height of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing / digital music sharing, i.e. piratcy, and after most of my music business connections had forgotten about me in Nashville.  Most of my Nashville connections looked at me as a technical geek anyway since I only stood in the shadows of their operations as the ‘fix-it guy’ back in the 80′s and early 90′s.  I learned most of what I know about studio production techniques standing in those shadows.  You had to understand how it all worked together if you were in charge of installing and repairing the equipment that make recorded music production possible.  I spent the last four months of 2007 and most of 2008 learning how to make my mobile studio package all work together in a professional manner in my big lonely house on California Avenue in Nashville.  When unable to get any steady business going in Nashville (where there’s only hundreds if not thousands of studios) I took my mobile studio to my friend’s farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia where we eventually set it up in his ~205-year old Cherokee Indian built log cabin with the intention of doing an album of his original material with present and past members of his dance band, Bobby Don Bloodworth and the Gopherbroke Band. Bobby Don had formed and been a part of Gopherbroke since his high school days in Atlanta.  I ended up doing a lot of volunteer work helping my friend with his middle school songwriting classes which I hope helped his students with their creative pursuits and gave them some motivation to pursue their creative dreams.

Producing and Publishing the Dirt Road Delight Debut Album

In September 2009 a mutual acquaintance of Bobby Don’s and mine contracted me to produce a debut album for a musical two-piece she had formed that she named ‘Dirt Road Delight.’  Tedi May signed an album production deal with YPOM Digital in September and we started cutting scratch tracks with her friend and musical partner Daniel Lee Parkin in Bobby Don’s Old Indian Cabin at BD’s farm near Blue Ridge, Georgia.  Neither Tedi or Daniel had ever worked in a real brick and mortar studio so I decided we would use the ‘scratch track’ technique to produce their debut album.  Tedi and Daniel had twelve original songs they wanted to record for the project.  One tune was Tedi’s, two they had co-written, they did a cover of one friend’s song (Barry Ross) and the remaining eight songs were written solo by Daniel.  Since I was giving them such a great per song production deal they offered me the publishing for all the songs on the project as an enticement for me to be extra dedicated and to put in whatever amount of time it took to produce a great final product.  It worked – I spent several hundred hours producing their album.  We started off with scratch tracks where they both played live – upright bass, acoustic guitar and vocals – to a click track to be used as a reference to which they would overdub all the parts individually in order to simulate using isolation booths in a traditional studio but all from a set up in a one-room cabin.  Since this was their first experience in a professional recording environment I recorded from three to six layered tracks one full pass at a time which I edited together with timing and pitch corrections as needed when we reached the edit and mix stage.  As we were nearing the end of recording Tedi and Daniel’s parts an old childhood friend of Tedi’s from Branson, Missouri, Billy Ward came to Blue Ridge to overdub fiddle and mandolin parts on the Dirt Road Delight Debut Album.  I’d never met Billy but it was quick to see he was from a traditional linear recording studio background.  We overdubbed his parts by the stop and go technique.  Billy would play as long as he knew he was nailing the part but stop me to roll back and punch him in whenever he missed a lick.  This was the best way to record Billy because his skill with the fiddle and mandolin is on a professional level and that is what he is most comfortable with.  He’s played many different shows in Branson for most of his professional life and has been a working musician since he was a kid.  He is a very talented and tasteful musician and editing his parts together was simply a matter of cleaning up the punch-ins and rolling with the last thing he played.  His additions of fiddle and mandolin to the project took the entire album project to a whole new level.  While working with Billy and Tedi I learned that Billy had auditioned and landed a role with a band that was thrown together by some Ozark Mountains’ local musicians to perform on and off-screen with other Ozark residents in a film being produced not far from Branson by a director named Debra Granik.  Debra was directing a screenplay she co-wrote with one of the film’s producers, Anne Rosellini.  The name of that film is ‘WINTER’S BONE.’

Mixing and Mastering Dirt Road Delight

Once Billy’s overdubs were in the can we were given the opportunity to move my mobile studio control room to the corner of another mutual friend’s Yoga studio near Cherry Log, Georgia – only about thirty miles from Bobby Don’s farm.  Bobby Don had scheduled a brick mason friend of his to rebuild the stone fireplace in the Old Indian Cabin so to give them room to work we moved the mix and master operation to Ken Banwart’s Yoga studio over his detached garage next to his mountain home.  Not long after we began the mixing process Tedi and Daniel had a falling out and Dirt Road Delight dissolved.  This happened after I’d already invested over two-hundred hours into their project and still had about that much more to go.  With my best efforts and even some help from Ken we were unable to get Tedi and Daniel to reconcile and continue the project as a band.  At that point I shredded the publishing contracts for their songs since they still lacked the Notary Public required on the song transfers because I did not want to be caught up in the middle of their inter-band disputes.  After Daniel went home to Cleveland, Tennessee I continued to edit, mix and master at Ken’s Yoga studio for more than a hundred-hours.  I delivered copies of the finished masters to Tedi on October 30 and the last day of October, Halloween, I packed up my studio and moved my whole operation back to my home town, Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.  I’d been away from Mount Pleasant for more than forty-years.

PALM OF HIS HAND

Not long after getting back to Tennessee Tedi contacted me and contracted me to upload the album to Dirt Road Delight’s Bandcamp account.  In December Tedi called me to let me know that Debra Granik had listened to the music on Bandcamp for the Dirt Road Delight Debut Album and wanted to use Daniel’s gospel song, PALM OF HIS HAND, for a scene within her small independent film ‘WINTER’S BONE.’  Tedi insisted that I re-sign the publishing and handle the film and soundtrack album licensing.  I told her I would but only if Daniel came to Mount Pleasant and we legally sign the publishing agreement and song transfers in front of a Notary Public.  I informed Tedi verbally and via an email that she was the owner of the Dirt Road Delight Debut Album Master which essentially made her her-own Independent Record Label and she needed to strike a separate deal with the film production company in the form of a Master License for film usage of her DRD master.  Daniel agreed to the publishing deal, borrowed one of his good friend’s truck since his would not make the trip and came to stay with me in Mount Pleasant for a few days.  While he was here we went to Mount Pleasant City Hall and finalized the agreements in front of a Notary.

Debra Granik on Dirt Road Delight’s cover of Daniel’s Song

What attracted Debra Granik to Daniel Parkin’s song and Dirt Road Delight’s performance for inclusion in a pivotal and highly charged scene within the body of her Oscar® nominated film?  Here is a direct quote from the Winter’s Bone audio commentary by writer/director Debra Granik and cinematographer Michael McDonough.  Debra Granik – “For some of the very charged parts of the film it was hard to pick the music.  You know it when you hear it.  We came across a very beautiful song called Palm Of His Hand, written by Daniel Lee Parkin and performed by Dirt Road Delight.  This infused the scene with a sensibility that worked well the pictures and with Ree’s feelings and memories.  This is the kind of music that built up to making the soundtrack.  We got really taken with it.”  PALM OF HIS HAND was featured for just over a minute playing on the family radio beneath the scene where Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) and her semi-comatose mother Connie are sorting through a box of family photos with Ree’s younger siblings, Sonny and Ashlee, looking on.  This scene takes place near the very end of the film just before the film’s shocking apex where Merab (Dale Dickey) and her sister Alice come to get Ree to take her on the boat ride in the pond where she finally finds her dad.  Daniel’s inspired vocal performance with Dirt Road Delight of his uplifting original gospel song just prior to Ree finding her dad provides a much-needed lift that casts a powerful message of hope delivering a masterful segue between the horrors Ree already endured and the ultimate horror she’s about to experience.  “May the Lord light your way when you step in paths of darkness – may he hold you in the Palm of His Hand… – Daniel Lee Parkin, 2009

Indy Feature Film Synchronization License

Not long after Daniel’s visit Tedi May and Billy Ward visited me in Mount Pleasant and we went downtown to legalize the publishing agreements for her song and her two co-writes on the Dirt Road Delight Debut Album.  Once I had Daniel’s finalized publishing agreement in hand I began a brief negotiation period with Winter’s Bone Producer Anne Rosellini.  I originally wanted the contracts to specify ‘film festival only’ usage for the song with a renegotiation in the event the film was picked up for distribution.  Tedi called me late one Tuesday afternoon as I was on the way to a weekly acoustic jam with friends at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, Tennessee and told me the Winter’s Bone folks were freaking out because I had not signed the agreement they originally sent me.  I told Tedi there were two problems:  1. They had retitled the song from ‘PALM OF HIS HAND’ to ‘IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND,’ and 2.  They did not want to accept my stipulation of ‘film festival only’ usage.  Tedi informed me they had already sent a finished film print including our credits on the end roll to Sundance for the upcoming 2010 Sundance Film Festival and were worried that I would not give them clearance in time – the festival started in just over a week.  After discussing it with Tedi and deciding it was just another little small budget independent film and the best we could possibly hope for was a little exposure from the credits on the end roll I acquiesced to their synchronization contract with the only changes made being the addition of an A.K.A. (Also Known As) statement specifying the original title of the work and the re-named for the film and soundtrack title of the work.  I figured it was probably just another of thousands of independent films that would just go as far as the festival circuit anyway so I agreed to their terms and licensed the song for next to nothing.  Winter’s Bone Productions actually paid us at the high-end of the then current going rates for indy films for a featured background vocal performance.  Who knew what a phenomenon the film would turn out to be - winning multiple awards Internationally at many film festivals, seven Spirit® Award Nominations with two winners and four major category Oscar® Nominations?  So without the benefit of future-vision and keeping with my efforts to make everybody happy and be a good guy about the whole deal I went ahead and agreed to the film maker’s terms with just the minor yet critical song title corrections printed on the agreement.  The film industry buzz surrounding the film began the night of the first screening of the film at Sundance.  Roadside Attractions jumped right in and signed a distribution deal for the film almost immediately before the festival Grand Jury had their chance to decide the fates of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival entrants.  ‘WINTER’S BONE’ instantly became the hot ticket at Sundance and on January 23, 2010 was awarded the highest honor at the festival – THE 2010 SUNDANCE GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION A.K.A. BEST FILM.  In addition to the GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR DRAMA Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini were jointly awarded the WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY.  Debra and Anne penned the screenplay from Ozark resident and author Daniel Woodrell’s novel of the same name, ‘WINTER’S BONE.’

Award Recognitions for ‘WINTER’S BONE’

ACADEMY AWARDS

Best Picture – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

GOLDEN GLOBES

Best Actress, Drama – nominee

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS

Best Actress – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

SPIRIT AWARDS

Best Feature – nominee

Best Director – nominee

Best Screenplay – nominee

Best Female Lead – nominee

Best Supporting Female – WINNER

Best Supporting Male – WINNER

Best Cinematography – nominee

GOTHAM AWARDS

Best Feature – WINNER

Best Ensemble Performance – WINNER

Breakthrough Actor – nominee

Audience Award – nominee

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW

Breakthrough Performance – WINNER

BFCA CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS

Best Picture – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

Best Young Actor – nominee

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS

Best Picture – 2nd runner-up

HUMANITAS Prize

Sundance Feature Category

SATELLITE AWARDS

Best Motion Picture, Drama – nominee

Best Director – nominee

Best Actress, Drama – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL

New Hollywood Award – Jennifer Lawrence

PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Rising Star Award – Jennifer Lawrence

LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Best Actress – runner-up

VILLAGE VOICE CRITICS POLL

Best Actress – WINNER

Best Supporting Actor – WINNER

Best Supporting Actress – runner-up

INDIEWIRE CRITICS POLL

Best Supporting Performance – WINNER

ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY

Best Picture – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Best Film – nominee

Best Director – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

Best Ensemble – nominee

Best Cinematography – nominee

Best Woman Director – nominee

Best Woman Screenwriter – nominee

Best Breakthrough Performance – nominee

Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry – nominee

Unforgettable Moment Award – nominee

THE WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

Best Movie By a Woman – WINNER

Best Young Actress – WINNER

Adrienne Shelly Award: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women – WINNER

USC LIBRARIES SCRIPTER AWARD

Best book-to-film adaptation – nominee

WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA FILM CRITICS

Best Actress – WINNER

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

TORONTO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Best Actress – WINNER

SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

Best Supporting Actor – WINNER

CHICAGO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Most Promising Performer – WINNER

Best Picture – nominee

Best Director – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY

Best Actress – WINNER

Best Ensemble – WINNER

Breakthrough Performance – WINNER

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

Best Film – nominee

Best Director – nominee

LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE

Best Actress – nominee

HOUSTON AREA FILM CRITICS

Best Picture – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Best Screenplay – nominee

INDIANA FILM JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION

Best Film – nominee

Best Director – runner-up

Best Actress – runner-up

Best Supporting Actor – runner-up

ST. LOUIS FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Best Actress – runner-up

Best Adapted Screenplay – runner-up

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

Best Arthouse Film – nominee

SOUTHEASTERN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Gene Wyatt Award for Best Southern Film – WINNER

Best Actress – runner-up

Best Ensemble – runner-up

Best Adapted Screenplay – runner-up

PHOENIX FILM CRITICS SOCIETY

Breakthrough Behind the Camera – WINNER

Best Picture – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Breakthrough on Camera – nominee

SAN DIEGO FILM CRITICS SOCIETY

Best Film – WINNER

Best Actress – WINNER

Best Supporting Actor – WINNER

Best Supporting Actress – nominee

Best Director – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

Best Ensemble Performance – nominee

DALLAS/FT. WORTH FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Best Actress – runner-up

Russell Smith Award for Best Independent Film – WINNER

LAS VEGAS FILM CRITICS SOCIETY

Best Actress – nominee

Youth In Film – nominee

UTAH FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Best Screenplay – nominee

Best Actress – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

FLORIDA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

Breakout Award – WINNER

DUBLIN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

Best Actress – WINNER

Breakthrough Award – WINNER

CENTRAL OHIO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Breakthrough Film Artist (Jennifer Lawrence) – runner-up

Best Actress – runner-up

Best Film – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee

Breakthrough Film Director (Debra Granik) – nominee

VANCOUVER FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

Best Actress – nominee

Best Supporting Actor – nominee

BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS

Best Foreign Film – nominee

LONDON EVENING STANDARD AWARDS

Technical Achievement Award (Dickon Hinchliffe) – nominee

A List of Top 10 Lists on which the film appears:

New York Magazine (David Edelstein) – #1

Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)

Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)

Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey)

The New York Times (Jeannette Catsoulis)

The Wall Street Journal (Joe Morgenstern)

The New Yorker (David Denby)

The New Yorker (Anthony Lane)

Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)

San Francisco Chronicle (Amy Biancolli) – #1

Associated Press (David Germain) – #1

Associated Press (Christy Lemire)

Sight & Sound

National Board of Review

AFI

Film Comment

Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)

The Village Voice (FX Feeney)

The Village Voice (Dan Kois)

Time Out New York (David Fear) – #1

Newsweek (David Ansen)

Newsweek (Seth Colter Walls)

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Stephen Rea)

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)

San Francisco Chronicle (Peter Hartlaub)

The Christian Science Monitor (Peter Rainer)

Time Out New York (Joshua Rothkopf)

Cleveland Plain Dealer (Clint O’Connor) – #1

NPR (Ella Taylor)

Variety (Boyd van Hoeij)

San Francisco Bay Guardian (Cheryl Eddy)

The Kansas City Star (Robert W. Butler) – #1

Time Out Chicago (Ben Kenigsberg)

A.V. Club – #1

Thompson on Hollywood (Anne Thompson) – #1

A.V. Club (Keith Phipps) – #1

Chicago Reader (J.R. Jones)

Movie City News (David Poland)

The Observer (Philip French)

indieWIRE (Eric Kohn)

indieWIRE Critics Poll

Village Voice Critics Poll

MSN Movies (Sean Axmaker)

MSN Movies (Jim Emerson)

MSN Movies (Richard T. Jameson)

MSN Movies (Don Kaye)

MSN Movies (Dave McCoy)

MSN Movies (Kat Murphy)

MSN Movies (James Rocchi)

MSN Movies (Glenn Whipp)

A.V. Club (Noel Murray)

A.V. Club (Tasha Robinson)

A.V. Club (Scott Tobias)

A.V. Club (Nathan Rabin)

The Arizona Republic (Bill Goodykoontz)

Slant Magazine (Ed Gonzalez)

Slant Magazine (Nick Schager)

IFC.com (Alison Willmore)

IFC.com (Matt Singer)

The Tufts Daily

Southeastern Film Critics Association

Oklahoma Film Critics Circle

Austin Film Critics Society

Light Sensitive (Patrick Z. McGavin)

GreenCine Daily (Aaron Hillis)

Fox 4 News (Shawn Edwards)

Las Vegas Film Critics Society

Dallas/Ft. Worth Film Critics Association

Movie City Indie (Ray Pride)

Tikkun (David Sterritt)

CNN.com (Tom Charity)

Creative Loafing (Matt Brunson)

eddieonfilm (Edward Copeland) – #1

Anthony Kaufman

World Socialist Web Site (David Walsh)

Mike D’Angelo

Sarasota Film Festival (Tom Hall)

The Herald (Robert Horton)

The Star-Ledger (Stephen Whitty)

Pullquote (Amy Monaghan)

Film Comment (Laura Kern)

Sydney Film Critics

Encore Magazine (Miguel Gonzalez)

Sunday Telegraph (Nick Dent)

Drum Media (Ian Barr)

Trespass Magazine (Beth Wilson) – #1

DVD Bits (Richard Gray)

Pick of the Flicks (Giles Hardie)

Drum Media (Scott Henderson)

CinemBlend (Katey Rich)

Movie City News (Kim Voynar)

Badass Digest (Devin Faraci)

Marshall Fine

Beaver County Times (Lou Gaul)

About.com (Rebecca Murray)

D Magazine (Peter Simek) – #1

BBC’s Talking Movies (Tom Brook)

Sound on Sight

Dragon Paradox (Kevin Williamson)

Dragon Paradox (Liz Braun)

Dragon Paradox (Jim Slotek) – #1

Seattle Weekly (Sheila Benson)

New York Magazine (Bilge Ebiri)

Lance Goldenberg

Larry Gross

Cinema Scope (Michael Sicinski)

Critic’s Notebook (Martin Tsai)

For Those About to Rock (Nick DeCicco)

San Antonio Current (Steven G. Kellman)

San Antonio Current (Ashley Lindstrom)

San Antonio Current (Kiko Martinez)

The Loft Cinema

St. Petersburg Times (Steve Persall)

Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)

The Miami Herald (Rick Bentley)

The Bowling Green Daily News (Michael Compton) – #1

The Dallas Morning News (Chris Vognar)

St. Louis Beacon (Harper Barnes) – #1

The Allentown Morning Call (Amy Longsdorf) – #1

Austin American-Statesman (Charles Ealy)

Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow)

Chicago Reader (Andrea Grunvall)

Empire

Parallax View (David Coursen)

Parallax View (Andrew Wright)

Gli Ultracorpi (Mariella Lazzarin)

Gli Ultracorpi (Andrea Mattacheo)

Gli Ultracorpi (Chiara Pandolfo)

International Business Times

Entertainment.ie (Mike Sheridan)

Living in Cinema (Craig Kennedy)

Minneapolis Star Tribune (Colin Covert)

St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt)

Dublin Film Critics Circle

Surrey Now (Julie Crawford) – #1

Gapers Block (Steve Prokopy)

Tallahassee Democrat (Mark Hinson)

The Wrap (Steve Pond)

Remorse Code

Random Ramblings

City Brights (Dean Rader)

The Seattle Times (Moira Macdonald)

Denton Record-Chronicle (Todd Jorgenson) – #1

Denton Record-Chronicle (Boo Allen) – #1

River Cities’ Reader (Mike Schulz)

Box Office Magazine (Mark Keizer)

Box Office Magazine (John P. McCarthy)

Toronto Globe & Mail

New Orleans Times-Picayune (Mike Scott)

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The Portland Oregonian (Shawn Levy)

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New Haven Advocate (Donald Brown) – #1

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Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)

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A Matter of Perspective

Infinite Choices

An object exists in space and time.  The observer’s perspective of that object is relative to the observer’s vector and distance from the object and the ‘now’ that must become the ‘then.’  By then an infinite number of perspectives of any solitary  object is available as time precedes to and proceeds from the point we perceive as the ‘now.’  ‘Now’ is where we all physically exist in theory as long as you don’t get too deep into string or wave or whatever other theories you might subscribe to.  So it should be easy to understand that many perspectives of the same object can and do exist and change as time marches on.  Should be!

Location Assessment

One of the challenges to recording good sounding acoustic instrument tracks is microphone placement.  It’s all a matter of Perspective.  The tracks for Dirt Road Delight’s recording of Daniel Parkin’s song ‘Palm of His Hand’ used in ‘Winter’s Bone‘ as well as the entire DRD Debut Album were recorded inside a log cabin originally built by a Cherokee Indian around 1795.  This cabin now belongs to singer, song writer, musician and friend Bobby Don Bloodworth.  It sits near the Toccoa River in the Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia and is one of the most scenic locales on the face of the planet.  It is a two century old structure that witnessed an amazing part of American history and at the time of the DRD sessions the mortar was gone – as in all gone.  The logs of the cabin are chestnut and the tin roof is laid on Lodgepole Pines – both trees extinct in those woods for well over a hundred years.  The ceiling of the room where control room and recording area are set up is 3/4″ plywood on top of log floor and ceiling joists.  The outside walls contained two windows and a crumbling stone fireplace on one side, a door with planks on the other wall, and two more plank walls on the interior – the entire usable space about 18′ by 18′ of varying densities, materials and shapes.

Evaluation of the Givens

The sound of any room depends on building materials, shapes and angles of walls, floors, ceilings, how acoustic treatments are applied to surfaces and what pieces exist within the space that react to acoustic energy.  YPOM Digital travels with assorted panels of acoustic foam.  In Bobby Don’s Old Indian Cabin I placed most of that foam on the plank wall that was about six feet behind the listening position of the mobile studio control room setup.  I used four pieces of foam to create an acoustic baffle by clamping two sheets of foam together at the top and hanging them over a boom microphone stand in a position to shield laptop computer fan noise from the live microphones.  The laptop fan was usually the loudest thing going between BD’s dogs (who were actually pretty good most of the time) and the Air Force Base over the mountain.

Sonic Variables and Alternating Techniques

YPOM Digital recorded the DRD Debut Album in Bobby Don’s log cabin during October 2009.  Depending on time of day we might experience a number of variables to the recording environment.  During daytime we had to be on the look out for tractors or other farm equipment.  There were even a few days when we had to listen for campers partying down next to the river – those folks liked to get down and we did not want to rain on their parade so we’d patiently wait till lulls in the action to continue live recording.  Early evening and night-time the crickets came to life.  You always had to be listening for military jet, transport plane and helicopter traffic.  Thanks to modern digital editing software it was possible to completely remove jet noise on a fiddle track where the jet was missed during traditional style linear overdubs – possible but tedious and time-consuming so not cost-effective.  The fiddler was experienced and proficient in traditional linear tape recording techniques where we would stop whenever he missed a lick, roll back a bit then punch back in to continue the track.  His tracks proved to be the easiest tracks to piece together but required listening to the entire mix during the recording process to get the punches right so the jet noise was buried by the mix as we were working.  The jet only got us on one song so that was not so bad.  The method of laying down individual stacked tracks for the other instruments with musicians not experienced in traditional studio recording techniques allowed us to solo the control room mix to listen for outside noise sources during the recording process resulting in very clean tracks but proved to be the most difficult and time-consuming to edit together at the beginning of the mix process due to the number of track choices combined with pitch and timing corrections required for some of the parts.  So there are pros and cons to both methods as we can see here.

Flexible Cue and Mic Techniques

Recording acoustic instruments is something I normally do with two microphones.  In the musician’s cue I’ll sum the mics mono for the pickers cue mix but use a stereo feed in the control room mix panned hard left and hard right on the instrument mics.  I then get the picker to play as I physically adjust each microphone to get the best sonic character and clarity while listening through the control room headphone mix.  The hard Left and Right pans allow me to discern exactly what I’m getting from each microphone without affecting the quality of the cue mix going to the musician.  Later for mixdown I’ll adjust the pans and levels according to where in the mix spectrum I want the instrument to show up.  Recording fretted instruments I start off using a bridge and 12th fret technique placing two ST44a tube condenser mics a few inches away from the bridge and the 12th fret and adjust the positions till I hear the clearest loudest output with minimal phasing between the two feeds.  I normally record flat with a touch of compression through the optical compressors built into the Focusrite preamps.  If the natural sound of the instrument in the room is good equalization and reverb may not be required once we get to the mixdown stage.  The goal is to get hearty levels recorded with the cleanest most natural sound of the instrument possible.  To maximize signal to noise ratios for those of us who enjoy tech terminology.

Gaining some Perspective

It is all a matter of perspective and the final test is how it sounds in when played back on the control room monitors and on your stereo reference point.  On the road my stereo reference point is the CD player in my vehicle so after all is said and done I base my final decisions on how it sounds in the car.  The bottom line is maximizing level and sonic quality during the recording phase so minimal to no processing is needed during the mixdown phase.  Your ears are the best tool you have at your disposal.  Awareness of potential outside noise sources and paying strict attention to the part being laid down is your best defense.  Perspective – it’s always a matter of perspective!

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Living In An Analog World

The Digital Age

I now produce music with my laptop computer.  There was a time when what can now be done on a laptop computer required a recording studio for recording the initial tracks, the same or sometimes different studios to record overdubs and oftentimes vocals, then perhaps still yet another studio for comps and to mix the tracks down to an unmastered raw finished mix.  Once the mix was finished if you wanted to stay competitive you would take your mixes to a mastering studio where final edits, eq enhancement, sequencing and track to track level matching would occur.  We’re up to anywhere from two to four or more brick and mortar facilities so far.  If you were mastering for a vinyl product the mastering facility would run a lacquer master from which the duplication facility would create a mother from which the stamper parts would be manufactured.  And before packaging still yet another brick and mortar facility would be required along with the requisite talent to create the artwork for the liner notes and the album slick.  In the 1980′s mastering for Compact Discs became the norm and things started shifting away from traditional mastering techniques.  Digital techniques allowed still yet more control over the production of the delivery systems for music.  Before the Internet started allowing peer-to-peer file sharing mastering studios were needed to create the formatted files necessary for the disc duplication plants to use to create the glass masters from which copies of the albums could be mass duplicated and then physically distributed.

Paradigm Shifting and the Digital Age

Today if you have a decent laptop computer, the proper software, computer interfaces, microphones, a printer and disc burner you can create the same product from anywhere you can power your equipment.  In 1987 I attended the Second International Conference on CD-ROM hosted by Microsoft in Seattle, Washington – not far from their headquarters in Redmond, Washington.  One of the buzz phrases I kept hearing at the conference was ‘paradigm shift.’  I did not realize the implications of this phrase until a number of years later as digital technology started being rolled out to the masses.  Compact Disc digitally stored audio was the consumers first real taste of digital and computer technology on a wide scale basis.  The CD Player became the most popular and successful computer controlled device ever rolled out to consumers.  The acceptance of the CD Audio disc paved the way for data discs and only hinted at the mass storage devices which continue to go down in price and up in efficacy.  I recently purchased a 1.5 Terabyte Hard Drive for $70 and it is barely larger than a baloney sandwich.  Talk about paradigm shifts!  Now we can store more information on our desktops than can be stored on paper in all the libraries all over the world.  But do we need to?  No, not really – simply because now we are in the high-speed Internet age where all that information can be stored on remote servers all over the world and we have access to it via our smart phones.  Yes – we’ve gone from multi-facility production to the ability to produce audio and video from smart phones – talk about paradigm shifts.  And the hits just keep on coming.

 Producers Everwhere

But even though we’ve evolved technologically to the point that audio and video production is possible from a smart cell phone we have not evolved past the need to be in the analog world for the creation and consumption of music.  Live music is still best as far as I’m concerned.  Technology allows us to do amazing things with sound, music and visual arts, but to consume the final product it must always come back to the analog world.  And just because everyone has access to the technology does not mean they have the skills and requisite knowledge required to produce professionally produced music or video.

Back in the day and back to today!

When I first became interested in music I was a very young child – preschool age to be precise.  I learned to hold drum sticks from the high school band director in my home town at the age of five.  I lived right next to the high school and had easy access to the band room which was a separate building from the main building in my home town.  I would wander over to the band room and rag the band director for the opportunity to play a snare drum.  He finally acquiesced to my desires and showed me some basic technique then left me alone to bang on the drum in a little room where the drums were stored.  I’ve been hooked on music for my entire life.  I’ve lived to witness many amazing changes in music and the way music is made, stored, shared and enjoyed.  But the basis of music always remains the same.  Music starts off in the analog world and ends back up in the analog world in order to be perceived and enjoyed.  The differences are not in the music but in the way music is shared with the masses.  I don’t think Thomas Edison envisioned the paradigm shifts that would follow his more or less accidental invention of the record business.  No, I don’t think he could foresee music evolving from storage on a wax tube to cloud storage accessible to the masses via another offshoot of his labors, the telephone.  We may store our music and video digitally up in the clouds these days but it still must be converted back into the analog world before we can perceive it.

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