Some new songs

Between the recording project and the Dulono's gigs, I haven't spent a lot of time on new material; however, I have been working on a few new songs. The following may break into the bob-i-lynn repertoire at some point this spring or summer (Farmer's markets are a good venue to try new material):

Pretty Little Miss In The Garden: this is a 'folk song' that the Stanley Brothers got from the New Lost City Ramblers to put on an album in the early 60's. I first heard Big Medicine do it (live , I think, but I have their CD as well). When I decided to learn it, I bought a Stanley Brother's Collection as well. Although the approaches are similar, we'll probably do it closer to the Stanley Brothers version. The New Lost City Ramblers do it as well, but I haven't heard their version. Tim O'Brien has a variant called 'Pretty Fair Maid in the Garden' and I also have a unaccompanied version of 'Pretty Fair Damsel' by Tom Ashley that Mike Seeger recorded in 'Close to Home'. Currently, I am doing it in the key of F# - capo on the 6th fret and playing out of 1st position (Lynn will be on 4th fret playing in D).

The Raging Sea, How it Roars: I first heard the New Lost City Rambler's version of the song but knew it was originally released by Ernest Stoneman and the Blue Ridge Cornshucker's on 78. The only recording I could find of this (other than the original 78) was on an LP that Rounder released in th 1970's. I started looking for it an EBay and was able to get it within a few weeks after starting my search. Both recordings are similar, but it's good to have 'the original'. This is based on a Child Ballad called 'The Mermaid', but there is no mention of the mermaid in this song. Lyle Lofgren has an excellent article on the song which was originally published in MBOTMA's Inside Bluegrass magazine. In addition to these two recordings, I also have an unaccompanied version by Crockett and Perline Ward (originally on 78). Norman & Nancy Blake have recently recorded 'The Mermaid' which actually preserves the mermaid. The current plan is to play in the key of E flat using two guitars, but we're still working out the arrangement.

Deep Elem Blues: part of the reason I picked this was that the Lone Star Cowboy's version features 'old-time' mandolin: I am always looking to add to our vocal/mandolin/guitar repertoire. according to this link, 'Deep Elem' apparently was the red light district in Dallas. The song describes trips to Deep Elem as life altering events:

Now I once knew a preacher,
Preached the Bible through and through,
He went down into Deep Elem,
Now his preaching days are through.

There is also a variant called Black Bottom Blues - turns out I have versions of these, including a version by Gene Autry with yodeling. We're doing it in D, the original may have been in C (it sounds like C# on our recording). I'm on mandolin and Lynn has tried it in C-position with Capo on 2nd fret.

I Got A Bulldog: We heard Troublesome Creek at MBOTMA's Winter Bluegrass Weekend a year or so back and this is on their CD. However, hearing the original 78 got me thinking about adding it to the bob-i-lynn repertoire. Nothing profound here, but it fits into the male bravdo/vulnerable genre (I'll figure what that means later). I have various collections that contain this, but they all are the same version by The Sweet Brothers and Ernest Stoneman.
We haven't done much with this so far, but it looks like a fiddle/guitar combination in G.


After I had started working on these songs, we received the latest issue of The Old Time Herald:
one of the articles in the issue (April/May 2008) is entitled Essential Hillbilly Commercial Recordings on 78s; interestingly, both Raging Sea and I Got a Bulldog are on the list of 100 or so essential sides. Note that the online version contains the introduction, you need access to the print addition to get the actual list. I'll be checking this list to both fill up gaps in my collection, plus maybe find another song or too to learn.

I have some other songs that I'm considering, but nothing that has percolated up far enough as something to spend a lot of time on. Lynn is working on a couple of songs, so we hope to add one or two that she sings this summer as well.

Harmonica?

Last Saturday (our 1st spring like day), I took the guitar out to the porch to play (it's a 3 season porch and it was well over 70 degrees). Lynn joined me and at some point brought out the 4-string tenor banjo which she'd tuned to g and we played through I Gotta Bulldog, which is a new old-time song I've been working on. The original has guitar, fiddle and banjo, so I thought I'd do a little experimenting of my own: I got out my G harmonica and placed it in the harmonica rack. Truth be told, we didn't sound too hot, but it got me to thinking about whether I should invest some time in harmonica. The harmonica was my first folk instrument and I was got reasonably
good at it. However, I never did really integrate it with my guitar playing, although I've have two harmonica racks and currently have decent harmonicas in 5 keys. I of course associate this with Bob Dylan (who emulated Woodie Guthrie), but I never opted to emulate that style.

As I've started to listen to more 78 recordings (on CD), I hear quite a few old-time songs with harmonica. Often they are used to play fiddle tunes, with or without a fiddle present. If Lynn continues her quest of playing banjo (we still need to get a 5-string), I might work up some tunes on harmonica. This would theoretically allow us to do actual string band music with guitar, banjo and harmonica.

We're going to the Bluff Country Gathering this year in Lanesboro, Mn. Here's the blurb about one of the instructors:




Dave Rice With the old 78 rpm recordings of DeFord Bailey, Dr. Humphrey Bate and others as models, Dave has helped revive the lost art of old-time harmonica, once an integral part of the string band sound. He currently performs solo and with the Hoover Uprights, an award winning stringband. Dave has over ten years experience teaching harmonica. Please bring a C harp to class !




I'm planning to attend his workshops so we'll see how it pans out. Of course the real issue is finding time to get another instrument up to a good performing level. I have enough trouble keeping my guitar and mandolin chops up!

Stay tuned!

CD Recording Project

Lynn and I spent last weekend at Seabed studios and completed the 'tracking' portion of our CD Project. Altogether we recorded for a total of 4 'half' day sessions (previous recording was done the March 8/9 weekend, see http://geezerguitar.blogspot.com/2008/03/our-first-real-recording-sessions.html). Daniel, the recording engineer, will be mixing this week.

Saturday was mostly spent recording some guitar-fiddle and guitar-mandolin songs that we hadn't gotten to during the first sessions. We also re-recorded the 12 string numbers, since Daniel wasn't happy with the sound from the microphone used the previous session. (Turns out that the 12 string puts out so much sound that you need a fairly 'crappy' mike to limit it or some such). On Sunday we did 're-dos' of songs that we had had problems with in previous sessions.

Although I felt fatigued and we hadn't done a lot of practicing the week before, we ended up with good takes. The fact that we had performed almost every song twice at the previous weekend's Dulono's gig contributed to fatigue but also helped us be more relaxed and comfortable this time around.

Lynn had worked on her vocals for her two solo numbers since the last session and we've ended up with good tracks of Going to the West and Dear Companion. For Dear Companion we up changed keys from B to C#/Dflat (We just slid the capos up 2 more frets). She had tried this before, but my first time in the new key was on the recording. This kept her from hitting some problematical notes in her low range.

I was pleased to get good takes on my two instrumentals: Babbington's Hornpipe and Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine (These were train wrecks 3 weeks ago).

It turns out that all of the CD will be from live tracks. We had discussed doing some multi-tracking on both Lynn's numbers and the instrumentals, but the live takes were all 'good enough'; thus, we are ending up not that far removed from recording the way the old 78 artists did. However, unlike their use of a single mike (or single horn) setup - we used separate vocal and instrumental mikes and Daniel will apply the magic pixie dust during the mixing process to clean up a few things. However, these are live recordings in the sense that no over-dubbing or re-recording was done.

During the 3 weeks between sessions Daniel had done some mixing and set up some templates. At the end of Sunday's session, he gave us CDs with all the 'good' takes. There were 27 in all (23 on 1st CD with 4 left over for the 2nd). I've put them on my Ipod and both Lynn and I are listening to them all. Factors influencing which ones make it to the final CD include the usual suspects: good variety, overall quality (there might be some fluffs that Daniel just can't coverup), and, of course, the 'publisher royalty', factor. We only recorded 2 covers of 'living' song-writers - Billy Gray by Norman Blake and One More Dollar by Gillian Welch. However, a number of the Carter Family and other older songs may be still under copyright (blame it on Walt Disney). Since it'll cost about $90 for each license, this could be a factor.

For posterity's sake (and maybe for friends and farmer's markets), I'm tempted to create an Outake CD-ROM from material that doesn't make it into the final CD.

Steps that remain: format of the CD (jewel case or 'digi-pak'), design of CD, title!, mastering and replication. We are probably going to end up using the people who have done Daniel's other CD's for mastering and replication (both local). We have a photographer in mind for new pictures but not sure what we'll be doing for Graphical design. Stay tuned...