Music Videos
in Ratz Nest Studio
Delta Badhand Videos
Hot Off The Press Videos
When the live version of this song was posted on a Redditt group, it generated a lot of interest. So I did a new studio version with ghostly images of me playing the instruments I played on the recording. These are actually multiple, recorded Zoom calls to myself!
Video version of the original Ratzlaff & Webb song that appeared on the Hot Off The Press album.
Green Screen Videos
This original song is from the “Papa DooWop” CD. There’s a rumor going around that my wife was the inspiration for this song. That rumor was started by our friends! There’s absolutely nothing to it.
An original song inspired by the loss of someone special. This was my first experiment with using the Zoom software which has a green screen option.
This cover song was really folksy when it was done by the Cyrkle, which makes sense since it was written by Paul Simon. I always saw some other potential in it, though. This is more rock, but it would also make a great bluegrass song.
This song, written by me and my brother-in-law Gary Hopper, fell by the wayside. It doesn’t appear on any CD, but it makes a great video. This is my neighbor Caroline’s first video performance… at least in a green screen production.
Just me and my accordion, singing a Ratzlaff / Hopper song about some woman, while my wife slowly drives over me.
A rather non-secular set of lyrics G. Hopper came up with, speculating on the origin of our creativity. I put them to music and used it to test some ideas for a virtual sound stage. The camera shot from above posed some problems till I realized it didn’t need to ACTUALLY have the camera above me.
Early test of the Blender software to see if I could make my neighbor’s garage door open. Low and behold…Them Beatles!
Live Performances
I was all setup to record an older original Ratzlaff & Webb song, when my webcam went wacky (as you can see). I ordered an new one, but I just didn’t want to wait to record. And, really, it was kind of a cool, like I had put some colorization effect on it. It turned out to be one of my most interesting videos.
Most recent Ratzlaff & Webb composition as of February, 2022. Doug had the song basically done, and I threw in the bridge.
Here’s the studio version that departs substantially from the live version…
Call On Me
What a great song by Keith Urban! The speed and asynchronous nature of the lyrics make it quite difficult to play. His performance is flawless; mine not so much .
Love me some Steve Earle!
Love me some Big Al Anderson, too! This was filmed on my phone (LG G5) which kind of got out of sync for some reason. Also, the percussion is my finger on the edge of the sound hole, of the uke.
This is a little gem of a song I found on the bonus track of a band called “Gypsy”, one of my favorite ’70s groups. I almost wore out the vinyl record, and when I ordered a CD version, there was the bonus track, “The Innocence”, recorded over a decade later. Nice.
Here’s an old blues favorite, originally sung by Muddy Waters and written by the equally legendary Willie Dixon.
Rather rough version of Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkle. Got a new sampler keyboard and found a great flute and acoustic guitar sound. Harmonizer had a fit with some of the odd chords, ha ha. I filmed this by myself with two cameras and the zooms are post edited using the Blender software. Instead of relying on the phone’s mics, the keyboard and vocals were recorded real-time using Herb Bennett’s cool little Zoom R16.
Okay, not actually a music video, but still…a video about music. Had a blast creating this with my grandson Jonathon.