Kat

Twenty-something years ago, I was reading an article about Hank Williams. Legend has it that in 1946, when he first showed up in Nashville, pitching his songs to Fred Rose, Fred challenged him to write a song about a poor boy who fell in love with a rich girl, whose family lived in a fine house on a hill high above the town. The result was “Mansion on the Hill.” It was the age-old story of romance and class struggle. I love to write “short stories as songs,” so I thought I’d take the same topic and write my old “romance-and-class-struggle” song…only leave it with an ending which could go either way (in my mind, I was thinking “happy”). I mentioned it to my old Nashville songwriter partner, Lee Ownes, and he suggested I drive up to Nashville and let him record it on his Teac 2-inch, multi-track, reel-to-reel. Again, that was 20-something years ago. A few weeks back Lee surprised me with a new mix that he had done with his fancy-shmancy ProTools and digital recording software. I’m singing and playing acoustic guitar and banjo; Lee is doing just about everything else. The final result inspired me to turn it into a video. Thanks, Lee!