Cottonwood Practice

In 1994, our friend Cap Hamilton attended a practice and video taped it. The entire raw video is at the bottom of this page, but I’ve taken a few individual songs and made them into short videos below. In some cases, none of our faces were visible for stretches, so I clumsily pieced in video that has nothing to do with the song we’re singing. A few times I experimented with improving the lighting or color, maybe tried adding a touch of reverb to some of the songs or pumping up the lower frequencies so we could hear the bass better. But then the picture changed too dramatically for my limited skills to overcome and I pretty much gave up. So this page isn’t done yet, but I’m not going to try to transform the basic recording. It is what it is.

Further warning: This was not our best night. Barb had a bad headache. I was coming direct from an after-work “business meeting” at which it’s possible I imbibed just enough to forget words and chords. Bill was still learning many of our songs. We were all still exploring the harmony possibilities a fourth voice provided. Cap was still developing as a film maker and there are some weird and funny moments during which the ceiling, or my back, or the film-maker’s back are documented in extended detail.

On the other hand, this may be the only surviving video of the group, so here you go.

Cottonwood practices the Gordon Lightfoot song “Second Cup of Coffee” Mid 1990s. L to R: Kenn Amdahl, Barb Henry, Bill Wilton, John Brady

Dust in the Wind. John Brady sings lead

Cottonwood practices the John Brady song “Never a Lonely Night”

Cottonwood practices the John Brady song Never a Lonely Night. John is mostly off camera, hidden behind Kenn

Barb sings Love is a Rose

If I Needed You



Here is the entire video, about an hour and a half. A few more songs, more chatter, but the songs above are probably the highlights and certainly more than enough to give you a sense of the group at that point in its “career.”