This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world.
It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician named Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Elliott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley’s base track on headphones.In the same city, Washboard Chaz’s added metal percussions. From there, the producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals, which were assembled into this final final version — all done with a simple laptop and some microphones.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this. I’m a huge fan of street musicians and find this project magical. I wish I could leave them all a big tip in their hat.
