Every band has to start somewhere — and this is where Devils Horseshoe begins. Our first performance video, a Johnny Cash cover of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” marks the real start of our journey toward the Campfire Tours 2026.
Right now, I’m mainly a guitar player learning to sing, and this song was my first real attempt at putting the two together. I kept the guitar simple, pulling the chords and melody from Ultimate Guitar, and tried to stay true to the original feel. No autotune, no voice correction — just a mic, a GoPro, and a lot of trial and error.
We used Elegant Teleprompter on an iPad to scroll the lyrics while I sang. It took a bit to figure out the right scroll speed (and not lose my place mid-line). Singing, playing, and trying to hold some stage presence all at once is a challenge — but that’s the point. This whole process is about getting the kinks out before we start performing live.
Emmy handled the filming and did a great job framing everything, even though the wires were a bit cluttery in this first setup. Afterward, she made some camera and lighting adjustments for future videos. We only used one microphone, so the acoustic guitar didn’t pick up perfectly — I ended up blending that audio with the GoPro track in post using Adobe Premiere. Nothing fancy, just a bit of mixing and a touch of reverb to keep the vocals centered. My setup runs through a Mackie mixer, so I can’t separate tracks yet — but that keeps it honest.
For mastering, I used a few favorite tools — UAD, Waves, and iZotope plugins. Instead of polishing everything till it sounds fake, I left it raw and real, listening back each week and making small course corrections. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is progress — to learn the songs we’ll one day play around real campfires and on real stages.
We record every Wednesday (sometimes test on Tuesday), aiming to release new performances by Friday. Emmy and I are slowly building our rhythm as a team — I handle most of the audio and performance, and she’s behind the visuals, props, and editing. She even painted the paintings in the background and designed my hat — which, after about four tries, finally fits my weird-shaped head! 
We’ll keep tweaking the setup each week — sound, visuals, wardrobe, everything — until it feels like “us.” This first video was bright, simple, and full of lessons. It’s not about going viral or being perfect — it’s about documenting the climb. Every missed chord and shaky note is part of the story.
Thanks for following along as we figure this all out — one campfire song at a time.
If you haven’t yet, subscribe to our YouTube channel and let us know what cover songs you’d like us to try next.