This evening at 8:00 p.m., East Tennessee State University and their bluegrass Pride Band are set to make history. At least in the bluegrass world.
The Departments of Bluegrass, Old Time & Country Music Studies and Mass Communications will jointly present an online concert using the Facebook Live video broadcasting system. But unlike most such videos which you may have seen, which are often little more than someone lifting their phone up in the air, this will be an in-studio concert using multiple cameras and a professional audio crew.
The Pride Band will perform a full set of bluegrass music to promote the official release today of their new single, Did You Hear Me Say Goodbye, and getting a taste of how the world of professional video production works at the same time. Sending the feed out in real time also puts the students in Mass Communication under the gun to produce the shoot live, with no do-overs.
This is all very much in the spirit of on-the-job training which ETSU uses to prepare their students for real world employment after graduation.
The band consists of Max Etling on bass, Troy Boone on mandolin, Aynsley Porchak on fiddle, Brady Wallen on banjo, and Aaron Foster on guitar.
To watch, just visit the ETSU Pride Band Facebook page at 8:00 p.m. (EDT) and click on the video play icon. Voila!
Should be fun.
