Lots to dive into so I will go ahead and get started. Tagging @Peter since he asked me yesterday what I was going to be up to last night since our conversation was before I saw an announcement on Instagram that led to most of the footage I ended up filming. Also sending a shout out to @Big_un because it includes another “Trying filming in landscape and see what happens” moment.
Didn’t have anything going on yesterday afternoon and saw a message from Donny Van Slee he was going to be performing at a venue called “The Paper Mill” last night from 5:30-8:30. Jillian and Sunshine were again doing a double shift since they were performing on Redneck Riviera’s rooftop from 6:30-9:30, then, their band stint from 10:00-2:00. They have gotten plenty of coverage lately, so I went the Donny route.
The venue is located in Mount Juliet, TN whose two biggest claims to fame are it is where Charlie Daniels lived (they even named a park after him while he was still alive) and that it is located on the east side of Nashville between the city itself and Lebanon, which is where the headquarters for Cracker Barrel is located. Bring that up because it ties into what Donny was able to do during his set.
Donny’s “day job” is a chiropractor. Plays into how he got here because he was going to be traveling through Nashville on his way from Florida, which is where he is from, to Colorado to start his internship after graduation. He got an audition to perform at Tootsie’s, landed a gig, and the rest is history. Bring that up because they are one of, if not the most restrictive, venues related to artistic freedom. Because that is the only venue he has regularly played at and his set is on Tuesdays from 10:00AM-2:00PM is why I have never filmed him there. The reason I have never filmed anything there is because it is packed from open to close every day due to the name recognition.
Because of him being allowed to perform what he wanted last night he went through almost his entire catalog of released material including a song he released this past Friday, and, one he is going into the studio to record tomorrow. He also was able to perform a lot of songs that were important to him and got him to where he is so there is A LOT of material.
After the set two things happened. It was the first time when I offered to help carry an artist’s equipment they took me up on it, so since I helped carry everything out to his Jeep, I finally got to be a roadie 😁. Secondly, he was talking to the owner and in addition to the strong possibility this will become a standing gig, he told him something that ties back to the clips I filmed of him at the recording studio.
If you recall, he sent out an Instagram message looking for a videographer. I volunteered my services, but since I didn’t know how to work a fancy digital camera, he controlled that while I filmed everything on my phone. The thought was he would send what was on his camera as audition footage to “The Voice” while what I filmed he would have for his personal use. This is where Big_un comes into the picture. I filmed everything in landscape, but he wanted the footage in portrait orientation, so I edited the footage that way and sent him the links. Couple of weeks later when he sent me the message he was going to be performing at The Bowery Vault and asked I stopped by, partly it was because he had just released a couple of songs so he wanted those clips. The other reason, which he told me after the set, was the camera he filmed everything on was stolen before he could download the footage and I “Saved His Ass”. Since I went ahead and filmed everything in landscape he had footage he could use for his submittal. The reason I hadn’t brought it up before now is because I wasn’t sure what happened. He told the owner he is flying to “The Other L.A.” in the May/June timeframe to start the process of being on the show. That means footage I filmed helped get an artist to be considered for a nationally televised program. Will have to wait and see what happens if he actually makes it on air, but if he does, guess all of you automatically have someone to root for. Once again I have to thank everyone for all the support as I have gone through this journey. If it wasn’t for all of you, this is another thing that if you would have told me last April where this would go, I would never have believed you.