The AHO started in late March of 2020 as a Facebook message to fellow musician friends of Michael Alves who sought to record an uplifiting song as a response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Alves chose the song Hard Times Come Again No More by Stephen Foster beacuse of its connections to The Great Depression and its positive message. Michael Hill quickly laid down his lead vocal and acoustic guitar tracks. After that, many fellow musicians submitted their tracks by recording them in their homes with whatever technology they had under the “shelter-in-place” directive of the time. In early April, Russell Bartholomee took up mixing the various submissions. Bartholomee also created a video for the song.
We all look forward to the day when we can leave our houses. For the time being, we hope our music makes people’s lives a little better.