Welcome to Culture Connection

Grass Valley-Nevada City Cultural District's newsletter,
featuring the events, stories, and people of our community

GVNC: What is your medium?

McCutcheon: Documentary cinematography with a strong musical flare. 

I’ve made my career in drone piloting - for film, journalism, mapping, utility inspections, etc. - and have made some sweet artful drone films like “drift” or this wintery scene of my Banner Mountain neighborhood.

But these days, my main videography passion is more musical, centered around a youtube channel called Sweet Harmony Sessions, for which I make field recordings that capture pockets of acoustic music here in Nevada County. 

GVNC: At what point in your life did you realize your calling

McCutcheon: In my early 20s, I spent seven months living and studying in Kham, Tibet and Yunnan, China. I remember feeling like video and audio recordings were the best way to communicate some small portion of what I was experiencing and learning, so thus began my videography passion.

At that time, I was set on becoming an ethnomusicologist - studying the use of music as a social and cultural phenomenon - in my own culture and beyond. I loved learning about people, their experiences, and what they care about through how they expressed themselves in music.

Only recently did I realize that my current art is a revival and continuation of that old ethnomusicology thread.

GVNC:Tell us about your creative process.

McCutcheon: It’s a lot of following my curiosity, tending to what lights me up. Three of my biggest passions are cinematography, music, and wild outdoor places, so two years ago, some friends and I decided to combine all three. 

We now film our friends making musical magic in a stunning Sierra Nevada landscape, and release about one video per month through Sweet Harmony Sessions. (With short excerpts on instagram, too!) It’s important for me not to charge musicians for videos featured on our channel, so it’s mostly a side passion project, with very occasional donor or partnership support. 

GVNC: What inspires you?

McCutcheon: I love pairing someone’s musical vibe with a matching local landscape. 

For example, our most popular video so far (with about 43,000 views on youtube at the time of this writing) features Jason Dea West, a gritty folk musician who spent his younger days as a freight train hopper. Much more so than a river scene or a wildflower meadow, I thought the gritty and striking feel of Greenhorn Creek would fit him well. He covered a great song by the Sierra Nevada cowboy-songwriter, Dave Stamey, in that environment, and people seem to think it worked well together.

Another example of scene-pairing and homage-paying is one of my next releases, with Dusty the Kid and Two Runner (local favorites!), that pays homage to the famous labor organizer and folk singer, Utah Phillips. Phillips spent his last 21 years in Nevada City and helped start the Hospitality House, among other things. Upon his death, the band Mischief Brew wrote a song called “Nevada City Serenade,” so of course we had to film a cover of that song outside a cabin on the Ridge, near where Utah once lived.

GVNC: Name two Nevada county artists you admire and why.

McCutcheon: Hmmm… Tricky to narrow it down! 

Alasdair Fraser is way up there, the local Scottish fiddle player who is also one big reason there is such a thriving Celtic music scene here. I just attended his Sierra Fiddle Camp at the Shady Creek Outdoor School as a student, and was blown away by the experience. I’ve long played instruments myself, but have always had a fear of playing with or for other people. But WOW, the power of playing tunes in a sea of 200 fiddles and cellos. Such a special experience.

I’m gonna cheat on my second one - there’s a neat network of musical friends in their 20s-30s here who grew up steeped in the music of this place, and have chosen to stay here in adulthood (I hope they can and do keep choosing to stay!). They play on each others’ albums, support each other’s shows, and just generally add to the musical scene of this place. 

Some folks in that world are: Delphine & the Moss Collective, Beau Askew, Emma and Robin of Child Mosey, Kalyja Rain, Paige and Emilie of Two Runner, and Davia. To name a few! I’ve been lucky enough to make videos and build friendships with a lot of them.

GVNC: What’s coming up for you?

McCutcheon: More music playing (fiddle, piano, guitar, ukulele), and always more video releases! Subscribe to Sweet Harmony Sessions on youtube, follow along on instagram, and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date. 

PS - I do wish I could film with everyone who is interested in making a Sweet Harmony Sessions video, but it’s mostly just me and I unfortunately only have so much capacity!

Learn more about Ellie McCutcheon’s work through her website, Instagram @SweetHarmonySessions and YouTube.

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