"Porch Songs" is the debut album of the Dixie Porch Loungers, which took the newly revived country music scene and the almost forgotten world of lounge music by storm in 1995, simply by combining these supposedly incompatible genres. The album was recorded on an actual porch, though not the one featured on the cover, and the open-air feeling comes through in the sound mix (the call of crickets during "Dumplin', Where Can You Be?" could not have been better timed).
The cover photo was taken at Crash Onnalevy's childhood home. As Crash explains, "that's the same guitar my Daddy used to hit me with." The photo is all natural except for some calculations in the green and red channels to make it black and white, then some curves to lighten it up and finally some USM.
======post-challenge
a dose of reality (much as I dislike reality). This was a porch we just happened to drive past. I just made us drive past it several times to make sure I got a good shot. This is suburban, NJ, folks! heehee
p.s. I'm proud to be in the 65th percentile of a challenge with so many great entries (not necessarily the ones that scored higher, btw :P ).
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Place: 52 out of 153 Avg (all users): 5.9907 Avg (commenters): 6.3636 Avg (participants): 5.6795 Avg (non-participants): 6.1691 Views since voting: 946 Views during voting: 354 Votes: 214 Comments: 22 Favorites: 0
So, New Jersey is good for something after all, eh? (I can say that, I'm a NJ native) :) "Same guitar my Daddy used to hit me with", LOL - great story. Like how you arranged everything, font too.
At the western end of Twelve Mile Post Road in Georgia, there used to be a Dew Drop Inn called Gummy Stu's by the locals - don't look for it, it burned down in the mysterious swamp fire of '98. Legend said that Perry Como played there one night, lost and insane on one of his legendary White Jesus binges. Folks say that it was this appearance that turned the boys known now as the Dixie Porch Loungers on the way to greatness.
Listen... the Dixie Porch Loungers played music that would get your older brother to second base but at the same time get your daddy tapping his feet. Inbred, but not ostentatiously so, these southern born down home folks didn't hold with book larning, but gleaned all they needed to know from pappy's reminiscenses of the fateful night Ol' Perry came to town and crooned for the folks until the moonshine ran dry. Folks at home told them that it wasn't right - but the boys' long-lost and enigmatic Uncle Rufus, in a gesture designed to atone for old sins he refused to name, bank rolled the boys' first legendary recording. Rufus, a greasy combination of entrepeneur, audio engineer and short order cook was the right man at the right time, recording the boys right there out front of their home. And Porch Songs was born.
Jeez, almost a 6. Love the title, it cracks me up. Extra points just for the story. You probably got dinged a bit by the contrast police so prevalent on this site, but I think it works perfect as a cover as is.
This would have been an 8 for me if the subject had been so close to center. The white colum between the guitar and the window divide the image in two and make it look a bit static IMO. Great choice of B&W which show off the peeling paint nicely.
I wouldn't call it sub-par, but it isn't great either. I appreciate the simplicity, but the contrast is so low that it doesn't really have any one central point of interest to pull me into the image.
Might be better a little brighter or more contrast. I'd also crop out all of the roof and show some more porch. The mood of the photo really goes with the type of music I think would be on this album.
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