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BEHIND “SHENANDOAH SUNRISE”
I came up with the song idea, music, melody, and the basic refrain for “Shenandoah Sunrise” while spending a week in Skyline Drive, Va. I finished the lyrics to the song a few months later, in of all places, on the beach in Ocean City, MD.
It’s been on my mind for a long time and a labor of love creating this video. For years we’ve made family trips to Skyline Drive, VA, and Harper’s Ferry, WV.
We always took along cameras and finally in the late 80’s we started taking video cameras. So, in this video there are a few shots from the early days. When we recorded the song a few years ago I knew I wanted to make a video of the song. I wanted it to look like a home movie but realized early on that the old footage wouldn’t cut it. So, in March of 2024 me, my wife Karen, and the grandkids went to Skyline Drive and started shooting footage on a 4K, hand held camcorder. We drove hundreds of miles, shooting moon rises, sun rises, the mountains, the caverns, etc.
In April, 2024, Me, Karen, and Mark went back to Skyline Drive and recorded footage of Mark and I playing guitars, on rocks and various other places on the Skyline. Some of the footage looked really good and some not so good, so Karen and I made more trips to the mountains in September and again in October, 2024.
I kept looking at the sunrise footage and was never happy with it. Finally on Saturday, October, 12, 2024 I woke up Karen and the Kids at 4 am and said “We are going to Harper’s Ferry today, and I’m going to shoot a sunrise, and we’re going to have fun”. |
