Six Degrees of Jim Harris

Yesterday I showed up to document the Bacon Brothers and about 50 Mummers cut a record to benefit the future stability of the Philadelphia New Years Day Mummer's Parade. I'm not sure if I could properly explain what a Mummer is so you could check out this link for a little back story. If you don't know the Bacon Brothers, they are rock band consisting of actor Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael. They are originally from Philadelphia and perform here often. My buddy Rodney has photographed them on a number of occasions and always has good things to say about them and their music. So, Kevin wrote a song involving the Mummers called New Years Day. It's a great summer pop rock song with elements of the Beach Boys. It's about a dude that heads out to LA to take a shot, but wants to come back to Philly. Ha. On this day, they brought in Bunny Sigler, a Philadelphia soul singer best known for his work with the Ojays and Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia Sound. They also laid down a number of tracks with the Mummers horns and strings and vocals. It's going to have a big Phil Spector type sound once all these tracks are mixed in.

Due to city budget crisis etc the city has cut funding for the Mummer's Parade. Last year they barely got a reprieve and the show went on. This year they will struggle to continue the tradition. So this single will be sold to try and raise funding for this years parade. Everyone there was working for free or reduced rates.

I was brought in to document the session. I spent the afternoon in the studio shooting the performers and the goings on. I always see these type photographs in Rolling Stone. The behind the scenes in the studio,,,mixing boards, headphones and microphones. I always think that's what I'd like to be photographing. Yesterday I had a chance to do that. It was like being behind the scenes of the We are the World sessions, except it was the Bacon Brothers and the cause was decadently costumed musicians and not world hunger.

In all seriousness though, this Parade is so unique to the city. There really isn't anything else like it in the country. I've been to the parade and it's entirely grass roots and non-commercial. There are no cartoon floats or celebrity appearances. It's all about the costumes and the music.

I put in a couple more hours than agreed upon yesterday. Unlike some of the work I do, this had a real arc and story element to it....and the end of the story was the completion of the song. After all the instrument tracks were recorded, they brought the Mummers back into the recording studio with the Bacon Brothers to do some large group vocals. I couldn't photograph during the recording so I was just stuck in there with them. After hearing this particular song about 250 times I knew all the words and just sang along a little bit. The Bacon Brothers, 50 Mummers and me. Why not?

Kristen and I were having dinner last night, watching the Phillies and talking about the day. I said, I cut a hit single with the Bacon Brothers today, what did you do?