Siouxland guys win Alan Jackson video contest
By Joanne Foxjfox@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Friday, January 02, 2009
Clay Ashley revels in his recliner for the "Country Boy" video. (Submitted photo)
Three Siouxland friends have proven they are as much "country boy" as singer Alan Jackson.
Clay Ashley, Dan Hair and Mark Trotter entered an internet contest sponsored by the most popular country western singer of the '90s, in which Jackson invited fans to submit a video that would be incorporated into his hit single, "Country Boy," from this year's studio album, Good Time.
The video the guys worked up was one of 10 winners and parts of their video can be seen in the Alan Jackson production online.
"It was Dan's sister Andrea who saw the advertisement on YouTube and thought we should do it," Ashley explained.
Because they're musicians?
"No, no," said Ashley, a 2006 graduate of Woodbury Central High School. "It's not so much about music. We're actually closer to being country boys."
Being a county boy includes the daily stuff the three guys engage in, such as putting lift kits in their trucks and hunting and goofing off, Ashley explained. Trotter was called in to help with the video expertise and the three went to work, much in the way Steven Spielberg or George Lucas might have first started out.
They first headed out to a dirt road east of Climbing Hill, Iowa, with their trucks and a farm tractor. Ashley's girlfriend Ivannova Blancarte was given the responsibility of filming.
"She wasn't feeling well that day, so that's what we had her do," he said. "Now, that the video won, she wishes she would've been part of it."
Once in place, Blancarte began taking video on the side of the road of the antics on a "cheap, $100 digital camera" that Trotter owned, Ashley said.
"We first soaked down the dirt road with water from a thousand-gallon tank," he said.
A 1,000 gallon tank?
"Dan has that," Ashley explained. "It's part of a farming operation."
Once the road was soaked, the filming included each of the guys driving their Ford trucks back and forth on the road and alternating standing in the bed of the truck, waving or in Ashley's case, acting like he was bull riding. Ashley added an important prop to the mix: an old recliner that he had used to relax in at bonfires.
"We hooked the chair to a log chain and drug it back and forth," he explained.
The results resembled mud bogging and the guys not only had video but still pictures to illustrate that. Ashley then came up with another perspective -- having Blancarte film from the back of the truck, while he "rode" the recliner.
"Dan was driving the truck then and I was in the recliner," he noted. "I fell off the chair a couple of times, which was pretty funny. Plus I got hit with a lot of mud."
Hair also provided his 1973 Dodge Charger and 1972 Cadillac limousine for a kind of a "drag" race segment on a paved street in the same area
Once the filming was completed, the raw copy went to the editing room of Trotter who put it together and submitted it just before the contest ended on Oct. 6. Ashley estimated there was four hours of video.
"Mark added the 'Country Boy' song and got it to just under four minutes," he said. "Then, he sent it online and we waited."
Ashley admitted he thought nothing would come of it.
"But a month later, they contacted Mark and asked him to send a high resolution of the video and that we were one of the winners from 250 other videos that were submitted," he said.
"I saw a lot of the other videos that were submitted," he added. "They weren't very exciting."
The video was posted Dec. 1, the day after Ashley's 21st birthday. For their efforts, the three guys won an IPod and two autographed Alan Jackson CDs.
"We let Mark have the IPod because he did the bulk of the work," Ashley said. "I was happy with a CD."
The final video, which can be seen on YouTube, shows Jackson and his band on top of a bunch of junked vehicles, singing the "Country Boy" song. While he performs, there are televisions positioned around the junkyard that show the winning videos. The Siouxland trio's video is spliced in seven times.
Ashley is now somewhat of a celebrity as more and more people become aware of the video.
"Christmas Eve, it was shown over and over to anybody who wanted to see it," confessed the son of Blaine Ashley of Moville, Iowa and Lori Ashley of Anthon, Iowa.
Now that the friends have this first successful video to revel in, Ashley said he would do it again.
"In fact, I'm thinking of just videotaping more stuff we do," he said. "Just to have some nostalgic memories."
See the video
See the video in our Heard Mentality music blog.
Check it out
You can see Clay Ashley, Dan Hair and Mark Trotter in the Alan Jackson "Country Boy" video at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alan+jackson+country+boy&search_type=&aq=1&oq=alan+
Hair appears in the recliner about 1:14 in the song. Hair and Trotter are in the truck beds about 1:25 and the cars race at 1:26. Ashley falls off the recliner at 2:34 and then does his "bull-riding" in the truck bed at 2:53. Finally Hair rides his tractor at 3:41.
You can also view their submission by going to YouTube and typing in country boys with country toys or visiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q0l7IgQI_Y
Clay Ashley, Dan Hair and Mark Trotter entered an internet contest sponsored by the most popular country western singer of the '90s, in which Jackson invited fans to submit a video that would be incorporated into his hit single, "Country Boy," from this year's studio album, Good Time.
The video the guys worked up was one of 10 winners and parts of their video can be seen in the Alan Jackson production online.
"It was Dan's sister Andrea who saw the advertisement on YouTube and thought we should do it," Ashley explained.
Because they're musicians?
"No, no," said Ashley, a 2006 graduate of Woodbury Central High School. "It's not so much about music. We're actually closer to being country boys."
Being a county boy includes the daily stuff the three guys engage in, such as putting lift kits in their trucks and hunting and goofing off, Ashley explained. Trotter was called in to help with the video expertise and the three went to work, much in the way Steven Spielberg or George Lucas might have first started out.
They first headed out to a dirt road east of Climbing Hill, Iowa, with their trucks and a farm tractor. Ashley's girlfriend Ivannova Blancarte was given the responsibility of filming.
"She wasn't feeling well that day, so that's what we had her do," he said. "Now, that the video won, she wishes she would've been part of it."
Once in place, Blancarte began taking video on the side of the road of the antics on a "cheap, $100 digital camera" that Trotter owned, Ashley said.
"We first soaked down the dirt road with water from a thousand-gallon tank," he said.
A 1,000 gallon tank?
"Dan has that," Ashley explained. "It's part of a farming operation."
Once the road was soaked, the filming included each of the guys driving their Ford trucks back and forth on the road and alternating standing in the bed of the truck, waving or in Ashley's case, acting like he was bull riding. Ashley added an important prop to the mix: an old recliner that he had used to relax in at bonfires.
"We hooked the chair to a log chain and drug it back and forth," he explained.
The results resembled mud bogging and the guys not only had video but still pictures to illustrate that. Ashley then came up with another perspective -- having Blancarte film from the back of the truck, while he "rode" the recliner.
"Dan was driving the truck then and I was in the recliner," he noted. "I fell off the chair a couple of times, which was pretty funny. Plus I got hit with a lot of mud."
Hair also provided his 1973 Dodge Charger and 1972 Cadillac limousine for a kind of a "drag" race segment on a paved street in the same area
Once the filming was completed, the raw copy went to the editing room of Trotter who put it together and submitted it just before the contest ended on Oct. 6. Ashley estimated there was four hours of video.
"Mark added the 'Country Boy' song and got it to just under four minutes," he said. "Then, he sent it online and we waited."
Ashley admitted he thought nothing would come of it.
"But a month later, they contacted Mark and asked him to send a high resolution of the video and that we were one of the winners from 250 other videos that were submitted," he said.
"I saw a lot of the other videos that were submitted," he added. "They weren't very exciting."
The video was posted Dec. 1, the day after Ashley's 21st birthday. For their efforts, the three guys won an IPod and two autographed Alan Jackson CDs.
"We let Mark have the IPod because he did the bulk of the work," Ashley said. "I was happy with a CD."
The final video, which can be seen on YouTube, shows Jackson and his band on top of a bunch of junked vehicles, singing the "Country Boy" song. While he performs, there are televisions positioned around the junkyard that show the winning videos. The Siouxland trio's video is spliced in seven times.
Ashley is now somewhat of a celebrity as more and more people become aware of the video.
"Christmas Eve, it was shown over and over to anybody who wanted to see it," confessed the son of Blaine Ashley of Moville, Iowa and Lori Ashley of Anthon, Iowa.
Now that the friends have this first successful video to revel in, Ashley said he would do it again.
"In fact, I'm thinking of just videotaping more stuff we do," he said. "Just to have some nostalgic memories."
See the video
See the video in our Heard Mentality music blog.
Check it out
You can see Clay Ashley, Dan Hair and Mark Trotter in the Alan Jackson "Country Boy" video at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alan+jackson+country+boy&search_type=&aq=1&oq=alan+
Hair appears in the recliner about 1:14 in the song. Hair and Trotter are in the truck beds about 1:25 and the cars race at 1:26. Ashley falls off the recliner at 2:34 and then does his "bull-riding" in the truck bed at 2:53. Finally Hair rides his tractor at 3:41.
You can also view their submission by going to YouTube and typing in country boys with country toys or visiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q0l7IgQI_Y
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shennon wrote on Jan 3, 2009 9:00 PM:
lilsis wrote on Jan 3, 2009 11:03 AM:
happy you guys did this.
the video is awesome!
i have had lots of people ask me if you were my brother "