The Legend Hank Cochran: Music and Film Production

I suppose the last rewarding thing about email is the possibility that you might, on any given day, receive a welcome surprise.  This past thursday Brian Owens, artistic director of the Nashville Film Festival emailed to say my short film The Legend Hank Cochran was picked to premiere at the festival in April 2010.  TLHC was my first solo flight as a filmmaker.  Last year I produced the Ten Out Of Tenn feature film Any Day Now with Kristen Dabbs, Marcus Whitney, and director Jeff Wyatt Wilson.  Though I was in charge of the music, most of the heavy lifting was handled by JWW and my co-producers.  The Hank short was a very different story.  With TLHC I wore producer, director and music producer hats along with writing copy and designing an opening title sequence.  Risk or rust is what I often tell others.  This little film was a dose of my own medicine.

The Legend Hank Cochran got its start in June of last year (2009). I was hired by BMI to make a short film of a surprise party for legendary songwriter, Hank Cochran honoring 50 years of hits (co-sponsored by Sony/ATV).  Hank's songs include such country classics as “Make the World Go Away”, “She’s Got You”, “I Fall to Pieces” and “Set ‘Em Up Joe.”  He's had songs cut by a hall of fame list of performers from Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello and hundreds of other marquee names like Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash.

Merle Haggard, Bobby Bare, Jamey Johnson, and Lee Ann Womack, were a few of the musical guests invited to sing acoustic versions of Hank Cochran classics.  Elvis Costello, Cowboy Jack Clement, Jeannie Seely, Jim Lauderdale and fifty more or so celebrities and music industry folks mingled and listened.  Willie Nelson didn't make his flight but graciously called in and spoke to Hank via speaker phone.  Merle acted as master of ceremonies.  It was sweet, surreal, and about as stressful a recording/filming scenario as you can imagine.

The Variables: live sound company, event coordinator and caterer, restriction on nearly all the lighting we brought, three distinct areas of the room that needed mics for the recording, no official soundcheck, a three camera shoot but subjects weren't supposed to be aware of the cameras, and the stars were positioned up against a window with the sun shining in.  This scenario was as far away from the comfort and control of my home studio as it could be.  When Willie Nelson decided to call in to congratulate Hank I was so thankful I had rented a Shure UR4D-H4 wireless mic system.  They put a speaker phone on a table in front of Hank so he could hear Willie clearly.  I wove a Shure PG185 condenser lav mic into the fabric of the tablecloth, applied a little white gaff tape and hoped I'd be able pick up Willie's distinctive voice.

There were many highlights to the day, most notably the presence of Elvis Costello and his gracious deference to the country legends in the room, Willie Nelson's phone call, and Jamey Johnson's pathos drenched version of Hank's “Is It Raining at Your House.”  But then there's the iconic Merle Haggard.  Smithsonian is all I can say.  Smithsonian.  For evidence check out the attached clip of Merle playing a fairly new Willie Nelson song, "Back To Earth."  It's hard for a producer to record anything of lasting value if an artist doesn't have a unique essence.  The Hag has essence in spades.  Put a mic in front of him and get out the way.  Listen and for a moment you can hear some of the history of America.  Not all of it, but some of it, and that's no small achievement.

Before the music tribute portion began I watched Merle walk up to the acoustic guitars provided and strum an open chord with his index fingernail.  He did this four times to four different guitars and walked away.  I took it as mild disinterest and asked him if he wanted to play an older Gibson.  He said nothing but looked at me with a cobalt eyed stare and lowered his head about 3/4 of an inch.  I handed him my son Sam's Gibson J-50.  He strummed a chord, kept the guitar, and walked out of the room.  That guitar has a way about it.  Bono played the same guitar when he came to our house several years ago (see picture at our fireplace and then Merle playing it in the video).  Artists tend to know when an instrument invites music and contains it.  Sam's J-50 does both well.  Rock trivia: The J-50 was Dylan's guitar of choice in the early 1960s.

I love the challenge of overseeing both music and images.  It's heightened my senses and hopefully made me a better record producer.  I'm currently finishing up a feature concert documentary And The World Opened Up on the iconoclastic Brooke Waggoner.  Watch for a blog on this winsome artist and project in the near future.  Until then there's a lot of music to make.  Currently in the oven: k.s. Rhoades, The Civil Wars full length, My Tyger co-produced with Joel McAnulty of De Novo Dahl, and Nathan Tasker (with Shane D. Wilson mixing as I write).  

There you have it. Bring good things into the world, love your neighbor, and be at peace with everyone as much as it is possible.

Gear and People:

All our audio recording mics were run directly into a Presonus M80, essentially an 8 channel mic-pre with a stereo summing amp.  This is a great sort of Swiss army knife box -- dependable and very portable.  From the M80 we went into my Pro Tools 002 with the Black Lion Audio mod.  A MacBook Pro drove the PT software.  No compression or limiting was used in the recording.  Engineer Richie Biggs kept a very close eye on levels, which was essential given the diversity of performers.  We mic'd acoustic guitars with Neumann KM84's and vocals were captured with Shure SM58's.  Earthworks TC-30K's provided us with a very clean ambient room picture.  Kip Kubin, Ryan Hamlin, and Sam Ashworth shot with Panasonic HVX-200A cameras, two of which had 35mm lens adapters for more of a film look.  Aspect ratio 16:9, 24pn, using P2 cards which I love (no more pesky tape!).  Interview footage was shot at Hank's home.  Richie and I recorded Bobby Bare's opening narration at the Sound Emporium.  Jeff Wyatt Wilson and Kip Kubin both edited with final edits by Sam Ashworth.  I wrote the music for the opening title sequence and Sara Groves' "This House" is featured at the end.

 Bono in the Art House living room with Sam's Gibson J-50

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