Videos Archives - Ken Theriot

We just finished creating a music video for the song, “The Dragon,” from Ken’s album, Outlaws and Bystanders.

It seemed like a sign that shortly after the album’s release, a movie about (with a twist) the historical Dracula – Dracula Untold – would also come out. So we thought it only made sense to create our first real music video for “The Dragon,” which is a song about the real Vlad III, Prince (actually “Voivode”) of Wallachia.

We had long been fans of a traditional Ukrainian folk song that was often sung by Owaine Phyfe (who sadly passed away in 2013) called “Hutsulka Ksenia.” It was in Ukrainian, so I had no clue what he was singing:-P. But the tune was absolutely beautiful. So I decided I would learn it. Lisa, the language geek, asked me if I wanted the Urkainian translated for my version. I said I would. But when she finished the translation, we could see that it was a fairly uninspiring love song. A guy is basically asking a girl if he could sing love songs to her on his alpenhorn. Sooo, Lisa came up with a cool idea. Since the song comes from the region of the Carpathian Mountains, which is super close to Wallachia, why not make the song about Dracula? Hey, cough medication has inspired worse ideas:). So she wrote “The Dragon.”

Below is what Lisa wrote about the song on the liner notes from the album:

The Dragon
(Hungary, 1462)

Vlad Tepes was inducted into the Order of the Dragon, a Christian chivalric order, at the age of five. Vlad and his brother Radu spent six years at the Ottoman court as hostages for their father’s cooperation; Radu converted to Islam and became a vassal of the Ottoman rulers, eventually betraying Vlad and fighting against him. In 1462, the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus arrested Vlad and supported Radu, a puppet of the Ottoman empire, on the Wallachian throne. Vlad wasn’t done.

“Hutsulka Ksenia” is a beautiful Ukrainian folk song, but the lyrics are pretty dull stuff about a man serenading a pretty girl. The Hutsul tribe lives in the part of Ukraine that juts into the Carpathian Mountains, not far from where Vlad was born.

And here is the video

The lyrics are on the liner notes for the album, which you can find here: http://www.ravenboymusic.com/Outlaws-and-Bystanders-notes.pdf

We gave a 2-hour concert at Pennsic, which is the largest festival/event/”war” of the year for the medieval re-creation group, The SCA. The set was the same as the album release concert (for “Outlaws and Bystanders”) in March at “Gulf Wars,” another large SCA gathering, though we had a bit more time at Pennsic, so got to do a couple more songs, such as Lisa Theriot’s “Harvest,” and an encore performance (for which we had NOT planned:-P). We looked at each other and then the crowd, who called out for “Ban The Fencers,” a song by our friend, Thomas Bordeaux (from his album, “Prodigal Bard”).

This show was incredible for us! The new Performing Arts Pavilion is new and holds a larger audience. That, plus the last time-slot of the evening, allowed for a less rushed show that was packed with about 250+ folks. And they were absolutely wonderful! Their energy and support fed ours and seemingly vice-versa. We had an absolute blast.

I’ve spent today going through the video of the show and have sliced out one so far. It’s “Dogs of War.” That video is at the end of this post. The first part of the song, I was having trouble making my voice do what I wanted. Hence the frowny-face. I need to learn not to react to things like that:-P. Overall though, I think it came off pretty well. Speaking of music, some people may start to wonder what is you are my sunshine about.

Cheers!

Ken

Music Video For “The Dragon”

Below is what Lisa wrote about the song on the liner notes from the album:

And here is the video

Our Concert At Pennsic Was A Blast