My evening with a musical GOD! Shawn Phillips 07/20/2010

Here is where it all started. 

I have been busy creating sites for Shawn on ReverbNation, YouTube and Zazzle to help promote Shawn, as if he needs my help right, lol. Anyways, I created those 3 sites for him in early 2010. His ReverbNation site has his “No Category” CD for sale and ringtones plus you can listen to his entire Second Contribution album there as well. YouTube has lots of videos of Shawn in concert, 3 concerts from my video camera plus his instructional videos which is where all this is taking you, but in due time. On his Zazzle site you can purchase T-Shirts, Cups, Mugs, Caps or Posters and or TIES, yes you heard that right, TIES, with photos of Shawn on any type of item one can think of. So I set all of these sites up with Arlo’s permission and his help on ReverbNation and we all knew that Shawn was on his way to Minnesota for his concerts in July; July 23^rd TPT TV Station, then July 28^th at the Guthrie Theater and last but not least up in St. Cloud for two nights in a row, July 28th and 29^th. I saw him at the Guthrie and one night up in St. Cloud and both are more stories to come. And as a wish on my part early on in 2010 I asked Arlo Hennings if Shawn would be up for recording some instructional videos with me for the YouTube site I created for Shawn called “ShawnPhillips” and in the back of my mind I was truly realizing it was most likely going to be a long shot. But after that conversation with Arlo he told me he would think about it and see if Shawn was up to it and kept it in the back of his mind, time passed and then sometime in July Arlo contacted me on FB and we had this conversation:

Between You and Arlo Hennings

Arlo Hennings July 19, 2010 at 2:08pm Report

Hello Scott -
Remember we talked about shooting a number of guitar instruction videos? Shawn's up for the idea. R U available tomorrow night? I suggest to spend like a minute on as many songs as you can get him to do. Show the intro, verse, chorus, licks, finger picking style to each song. R U up for it? Let's rock - let me know.
Thx

Scott Rode July 19, 2010 at 2:39pm

For sure, I will get the camera and batteries ready, I get off of work at 5:30 so I could drive straight there from here and be there by 6pm

Arlo Hennings July 19, 2010 at 2:59pm Report

OK Scott - let's plan on it. He's at the Super 8 room ??? on the frontage road off ??? near Nicollet in Bloomington. His number is ???-???-????. Should be fun! I think you should think of a script e.g. This song is called Song for Sagittarians, it's in the key of C. Here are the chords etc., etc. So, were looking for instruction more than a song biography. I think you've seen guitar instruction video so you know what I mean. When I watch Carlos Santana do one he even got into his amp and guitar settings - but I don't think we need to do that. You're a guitarist so ask guitar questions. 

Scott Rode July 19, 2010 at 3:02pm

sounds like a plan Arlo, I will give him a call and let him know about what time I can be there, are you going to be there as well? if so see you over there.

Arlo Hennings July 19, 2010 at 3:06pm Report

I would even do half speed and tempo cuts.

Arlo Hennings July 19, 2010 at 3:09pm Report

Yes, I will be there

So, Now that I have brought all of you up to speed and to this point in my adventure, I shall continue. My story brings me to the hotel in Bloomington,  I drove up to the hotel parking lot and parked my car, got out of my car and opened my trunk to get my guitar and tripod for the camera out, stood back a bit, assessed what I was about to get myself involved in, Talking with and creating videos with Shawn Phillips, WOW….DYNOMITE….
I enter the hotel and walked into the lobby headed to the elevator, nervous as all get out at this point mind you, but I push on and try to forget about my nervous jitters, the elevator stops on his floor, I get out and, step by step, inch by inch I head towards his room, I’m sweating at the palms at this point, as I approach his door I knock on his door and Shawn yells out “HOLD ON” in his true TEXAN style accent so I patiently wait, he finally opens the door a few moments later and I greet him with a big smile and shake his hand and he does the same and welcomes me in.
All the while mind you he is trying to scramble to buckle up his pants and get composed as I’m sure he was sleeping up until the moment I knocked on the door, lol.

I brought my Takamine 6 string with me as well as the camera and tripod to setup the camera on as this will make for a steadier less shakier recording.

I sit down on a chair and look around and he has his Mac on the bed along with a 1985 EMT training manual and he shows me a pair of brand new shoes he bought at the mall that they forgot to remove the plastic theft mechanism from them and his animated story about hese two Brand New shoes was priceless, he was just livid about this, we laughed about his shoe dilemma and went on to discuss the way to approach how to setup the angles to record the vids. He also told me about his misadventure concerning his new tour bus which is still down in Indiana at this point in time getting fixed. I noticed off in the corner his three new Godin guitars leaning up against the wall and stacked one atop the other sitting there just begging for Shawn to pick em up and play them but he had to wait and let the strings stretch as he had just spent about 3 hours replacing the strings on all of them so he was very glad I brought my Takamine guitar.

I could tell by looking at his Godin’s that they were very sad, Shawn was playing my guitar, lol.
Meanwhile I setup the camera on the tripod and get it dialed in all the while he was re-tuning my guitar to his liking which is in the key of D# as I have it in the key of D to accommodate my vocals, he strums and pics for a bit as I continue dialing in the camera to get the best possible view and angle for the recordings..

We recorded four songs; but first he talked about his picking method which was dubbed “The Claw” and demonstrated that to the camera, then to a song with chords and as he plays the chords he names them off.

Link to where you can view his instructional videos I recorded and uploaded  

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL31C065D210A28CB7

We did an angle from the guitarist view, an angle which will work out nicely as I can edit that in to the whole scheme within the video for that one song, slow it down and stuff like that. The recording went well and after all videos were done I packed all my equipment up and as I did so we talked about other things, like his son Liam who knows more about dinosaurs than I or Shawn apparently could ever dream of, lol, shawn was telling me that one time Shawn and Liam were having a conversation about dinosaurs and Shawn pronounced one of the them and Liam corrected him on the pronunciation of that particular one, Shawn was surprised and pleased. Shawn told me he asked Liam what he wants to be in life when he grows up and Liam said a Paleontologists, little Liam is one intelligent boy which we both agreed upon. We talked about Sciences and some movies like Avatar, which we both felt was simply phenomenal and talked a bit about the processes they had to develop to film that movie. I also asked Shawn about his orchestrated pieces he composed which I had heard stories about and had a desire to hear them if Shawn was willing to let me hear them, so he pulled them up on his Mac and we listened and while we did he narrated to me what he invasions will be happening on stage with the orchestra and people as the OPUS unraveled itself to the crowd, I was impressed with the composition, but who am I to say anything about composition of some orchestrated pieces Shawn wrote, am I an expert, not by a long shot, but still told Shawn it sounded very very good indeed. I told Shawn they were very enjoyable to listen to, mind you he composed all of these pieces from an interface attached to his Godin guitar, that blew me away to know you can do all that with a guitar and simply synthesizing all of the instruments in each movement. I truly would love to see this performed on stage live someday. Mr. Phillips’ OPUS, lol. I said goodbye to Shawn as we shook hands and told him it was an extreme pleasure and an Honor to spend some quality time with him that day and I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door, so elated and excited knowing I spent a afternoon with Shawn Phillips and to get back home and mix the sound and create the videos for YouTube.

All in all Arlo it was a chance of a lifetime and an Honor to sit down and talk with a person that I have looked up to and admired for most of my life; due to his musical genius and his wonderful way towards people, life, nature and being able to see the world with an uncanny ability to paint a picture through words and sound and his voice bringing that artistic vision to fruition through his musical genius, piece by piece, song by song, to his fans telling us of his existence, which most of us couldn’t even dream of being able to see and understand the way he does, with such wonderment, joy, anger, beauty or delving into political views or human despair.  I will never forget this day.

Thank you Arlo for making that happen. 

Scott Rode aka Acoustic Phases

P.S. He signed my Takamine guitar and I have attached the photo of it. AWESOME…….