SHENANDOAH
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SHOOTING ‘CHURCH ON CUMBERLAND ROAD’ VIDEO
It’s early 1989 and the dates we did last year and the 300+ dates we will do this year will keep us away from our families for over 600 days AND we’re still in that little cramped up van.
Some of the guys had babies that were born during this time and being on the road had caused them to miss ‘first steps’, ‘first words’, birthday parties, and ballgames. That part of it was HARD for them. But we were ‘hittin’ on all eight cylinders’ as far as radio goes. We were on the verge of having #1 record after #1 record. We were on top of the world and it seemed nothing could go wrong.
We shot the album cover to ‘The Road Not Taken’ in early January just outside of Brentwood, TN late one afternoon just as the sun was going down. The photographer, Randee Saint Nicholas was a no-nonsense kind of woman. A couple of the guys were caught smiling in the pictures and she stopped the photo shoot just to let us know that she had never let anybody smile in any of her photos and she wasn’t about to start now.
‘The Road Not Taken’ Album cover. Taken by Randee Saint Nicholas.
That’s why we look so mean on that cover. Even on the back on the black and white picture, we look like a regiment from the 22nd Alabama from one of of those photos out of the Civil War. I remember her being in a hurry because we only had a limited amount of light with the sun going down.
The back cover of the ‘Road Not Taken’ CD
I’m looking at that photo now and remembering those jeans I’m wearing with the hole in the left leg. A lot of people thought I cut that hole but it was actually beaten into those jeans from hitting my snare drum with my left hand. I don’t know how I did that. None of my jeans now are like that. None! Go figure.
We were coming off the success of our first Top-5 record with ‘Mama Knows’ which they had released before the album came out and they were getting ready to release ‘Church On Cumberland Road’ as our next single. Our manager called and said the label wanted us to shoot a video on this one. WOW! A video!
All of us in the truck in the Cumberland Road Video
We were in ‘hog-heaven’ and so excited. So when the day came to shoot the video, we drove up to a little town just north of Nashville called Orlinda, TN, and there was this little church up there where Bill Johnson from the art department at CBS wanted us to shoot this video. So we got up at 4am and arrived at the church around daylight. The video company was already there setting up and they immediately took us to makeup. Now we’d never worn makeup before and that took a little getting used to.
Cranking up the truck.
I remember we sat there and watched each other getting a little ‘base’ and then a little powder, and we sat there and giggled like 13 year old girls while the one in the chair sat there embarrassed as they could be. Of course we had to get our hair done too, but that wasn’t so bad. Once we finished up with all that ‘girly’ stuff, they took us to wardrobe to pick out what we were gonna wear. They had all kind’s of stuff to pick from but we pretty much got to pick out what we wanted to.
I think she’s ready to hitch a ride outta here.
Not having shot a video before, we didn’t really know what to expect. We didn’t know there was gonna be so much ‘hurry up and wait’ on these things. Once we had one thing shot, they had to tear all the cameras down and set up for the next shot. It takes a LOT of time to do that, and I really felt for those crew guys. I think the first shot we did was the closeups of us in that ole red truck. Marty, Jim and me were in the cab, and Ralph and Stan got stuck in back on that ole flatbed…and it was cold outside. While it looks like we’re driving down the road, we were actually hooked up to another truck by a tow-bar and they were pullin’ us down he road.
Jim, Ralph and Mike on the lawn playing on the video.
The camera crew and director were in bed of the truck in front of us getting all the shots. As I recall, we all looked kind’a goofy as none of us are actors. They just told us to act like we were driving down the road in a hurry to get Marty to the church to get married….we were suppose to be running late. So we found a map in there and opened it up acting like we were lost on top of it. Marty said, ‘Open that map up and hold it in front of your face while you’re driving.’ So I did and Marty grabbed the steering wheel like I was about to run off the road. They had to shoot some closeup stuff too…the key in the ignition, the empty fuel gage and Marty stomping my foot on the gas pedal as to ‘hurry up’. Well that HURT! My foot had a bruise on it for a week. Then there were the ‘individual shots’. On EVERY video we ever shot, it was these shots that we dreaded the most.
She’s still waiting at the Church On Cumberland Road
‘Individual shots’ are where they single you out of the band and shoot shots of JUST you! We didn’t know what to do with ourselves or how to act with the camera on us by ourselves and it was just very intimidating. But it was on this video shoot that we learned how to make it work.
I remember Marty doing his and they were trying to get him to smile and be upbeat. So when they ‘took-five’ he came over to me and said, ‘Man, can you stand over there in front of me and make faces and just do something to make me smile?’ So me and Jim both went over there and made a fool of ourselves trying to make him smile. It worked! So thats what we always did.
When it was my turn, it was the rest of the guys acting like idiots to make me smile. If that video company had been smart, they’d have gotten some of the best shots of the video just by turning the camera around.
By now, we were about to wrap it up and it was just about dark. We had been there all day and we were exhausted. So we drove back to our hotel not having a clue what this thing was gonna turn out like. Nothing was shot in sequence so we didn’t know what to expect. About a week later we got to actually view it as a finished video. We couldn’t believe how good it looked. Of course there were all the expected laughs, smiles and pats on the back. By springtime ‘Church On Cumberland Road’ made it’s way all the way up the charts to #1…and it stayed there for two weeks. It was our first one and we were so proud….so VERY proud!
The following week CBS rented a little wedding chapel that’s been there on Music Row for years and we had our first #1 party there. I still remember pulling up to that chapel in our van pulling the trailer. There we were #1 in the nation and still didn’t have a bus. But that would soon change.
Here we are arriving at the wedding chapel on Music Row for our #1 party for ‘Church On Cumberland Road’.