Category: Video

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Twelfth Day of Christmas

It’s Epiphany, the last day of Christmas, so it’s my last chance this season to share the Composer’s Voice Holiday Show presented by Vox Novus.

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My banjo tune “Shepherd’s Crook” kicks it off. Stay tuned for vocal music, chamber music, arrangements of holiday favorites, and even a piece by Stockhausen!

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Smoot’s Good Foot

Here’s a funky tune from my recent collaboration with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis. We’ve been working for the last year on a group of new old-time tunes. We’ve performed them in a series of concerts beginning in Spring 2024, and we plan to release a recording of them soon. Here’s a performance of my tune “Smoot’s Good Foot” from our concert at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega.

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Smoot’s Good Foot; Esther Morgan-Ellis, fiddle; Holland Hopson, banjo

Here’s the tablature for the banjo part and a representative melody line.

Download Tablature for Smoot’s Good FootDownload

Notes About This Tune

  • “Smoot’s Good Foot” is in D, played in Double D tuning (aDADE) using the clawhammer style.
  • This is a deeply crooked tune that nonetheless has a great groove.
  • I usually play the quieter, groovier, unpredictable A part as many times as I like, before signaling to move to the louder, straighter B part.
  • Esther and I have been playing “Smoot’s Good Foot” as the closing tune for a set.
  • The tune gets its name from MIT student Oliver R. Smoot, for whom the smoot unit of measure was named. See Robert Tavernor’s Smoot’s Ear: The Measure of Humanity for more.

Give the tune a try, and add a comment to let me know what you think!

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Banned Books Exhibition

Two of my artworks were juried into the Banned Books Exhibition at The W Galleries in Columbus, Mississippi. The show is in Summer Hall on the campus of Mississippi University for Women, and it runs from September 23 – October 25, 2024.

If I Hate Fairyland, Feelings….Fruits Basket, Plural: Detail

If I Hate Fairyland, Feelings….Fruits Basket, Plural (2024) is a generative computer image plotter print that shows a speculative list of banned book titles generated from PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023).

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Rated PG-13 For (2022) displays an ever changing list of reasons films were rated PG-13. The words slowly fade in and then dissipate even more slowly. The rating descriptions are pulled at random from a database that includes every PG-13 film released as of 2021.

September 23 – October 25, 2024
Banned Books Exhibition
The W Galleries
Summer Hall
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS

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Pale Blue Dot Blues

Pale Blue Dot photo of Earth taken from the Voyager space probe (source: Wikipedia)

This is a fun finger-picked tune from my recent collaboration with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis. The video is of our performance at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, of my tune “Pale Blue Dot Blues.”

YouTube player
Pale Blue Dot Blues; Esther Morgan-Ellis, fiddle; Holland Hopson, banjo

And here’s the banjo tablature:

Download the Banjo Tablature for Pale Blue Dot Blues Download

Notes About This Tune

  • “Pale Blue Dot Blues” is in C, played in an open C tuning (eCEGC) using the two-finger, thumb lead up picking style.
  • I like the way this tune sounds on a fretless banjo with Nylgut strings–a low, mellow tone with some nice slides thrown in for color.
  • The piece isn’t really a blues. It’s not in a blues style or blues form, though its ABABC structure could be a nod to the typical AAB phrases of a 12-bar blues.
  • The title comes from the Pale Blue Dot photo (above) of earth taken by the Voyager I explorer.