Trip to Noiseland

On Monday Lynn and I met with the folks at Noiseland, in Northeast Minneapolis, to initiate the design and manufacturing process for our CD tentatively titled Blue-Eyed Boatman.

We first met with the owner/manager (Andrew?) and discussed packaging. We hope to go with the 'digipak' rather than a jewel case (compare here); however, the digipak adds $$ to the project (about 40 cents per CD). Noiseland is local and both our recording and mixing engineer are familiar with the company (and the folk at Noiseland knows both of them!).

After some of the business discussion , Andrew brought over Dan, one of their designers, who has an interest in old-timey music - at one point he brought over the Yazoo CD, The Stuff That Dreams are Made Of, which is a collection of rare 78s with artwork by Robert Crumb (himself a 78 collector).

Lynn, who is fronting the artwork from our end, had brought her computer and showed Dan the photo shoot by Tracy Nielsen taken at Lake Harriet in October. Some of the pictures are on our page on facebook and should be on our myspace site soon.

As they looked through the photos, both Dan pointed out a picture he thought might make a good album cover: Lynn had been looking at the same picture. We are starting to feel pretty good about choosing Noiseland. Here's the picture (before the photo-shopping to make us look like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie):



At the Noiseland office, I also noticed CDs from local bluegrass artists like The High 48s and Becky Schlegel plus one from our friends 'The Roe Family Singers', that we had just bought at the latest 416 club concert at the Cedar Cultural Center. We're in good company ;-)

Andrew is preparing a contract and estimate: Dan is going to start with a mockup of the cover. We'll get in touch with David Gardner from Magneto to send over the final master. There will be PDFs, feedback and tweaking going over email, but once the final design is set,the time for production will be about two weeks. We will definitely have our first CD out before the snow melts!

Thinking about "Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes"

The Carter Family song "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" is one of the first Carter Family songs I learned and it has been in the Bob&Lynn Dixon Band's repertoire since we first started playing out. I have always sung the chorus:

Oh, I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
Who is sailing far over the sea
I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
And I wonder if he/she ever thinks of me

( I sing "if she ever thinks of me")

Recently, I heard a slightly different chorus done by Doc Watson and in two different Jams it seemed that the other singers were using the 'altered' version - this goes:

Oh, I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
Who is sailing far over the sea
I'm thinking tonight of him/her only
And I wonder if he/she ever thinks of me

This got me wondering if I just learned it wrong or if there just two versions of it.

So the other day I checked my recordings of the Original Carter Family: they recorded it at least twice and both are the way I learned it. The Doc Watson recording with the 2nd version is from the album the 'Vanguard years' so he recorded in the '60s or '70s.

I went on Google and found the following in published lyrics for other versions (these don't always match what is actually sung):

• Gene Autry (1942) & Ralph Stanley(2006) use the 'original' version.
• In addition to Doc Watson, Dolly Parton and June Carter sing the 'altered' version.

It may be that June Carter created the altered version or that Sarah Carter changed it at some point. In a biography of the Carter Family, there is the story of how Sarah sang this on the radio appealing to the man she loved to contact her - maybe she sang the altered version.

As for me, I'll continue to sing the original chorus. I'm used to it and it is the one I prefer.

Dulono's this weekend

Lynn and I are pleased to be playing at Dulono's both nights this weekend. We're billing it as our 2nd annual post-holiday palate cleanser (no carols or cookies, just pizza, beer and old-time music).

Last year it seemed like everyone we knew came to see us and many could not find a seat or had trouble hearing us. We're hoping to get the same big crowd spread over two nights, plus we've upgraded our sound system.

A year ago January was our first Dulono's appearance and we've played 2 other times. (March, 2008 we played a full weekend and a Friday night in September). We usually plan 3 sets with a 15-20 minute break in between and so fill the 8-midnight slot.

The set list for each night will contain about 45 songs and tunes. We're working on Friday's set list now and then will rearrange things and swap out 5-10 songs for Saturday's set list. We've added around a dozen songs and tunes in the last year and will be playing 3 songs for the first time:

Rambling Boy (Carter Family)
Cannonball Blues (Carter Family - with 12-string!)
The Highwayman (Charlie Poole)

We've also worked on some new 'dance' tunes arranged for mandolin and fiddle. All-in-all we have a dozen new songs/tunes to share this time around.

We really look forward to showcasing the full extent of our repertoire, but are well aware that this will be a marathon session. Each night is the equivalent of 2 normal shows, plus we need to set up and tear down all the sound. (We're hoping to engage our 23 year old son as a roady).

I do have the week off from my day job, so we should have plenty of time to review songs and get "plenty of rest" before the gig.

Quick note on a 'new' song.

The Raging Sea is a song I started to learn last summer and has now become part of the Bob&Lynn repertoire. I learned it first from the New Lost City Ramblers, than located their source: a 78rpm Ernest Stoneman (which I found on an LP). Both feature a fiddle doing the melody and Stoneman's version adds banjo and harmonica. I worked out a Carter Family type lead and we ended up on two guitars - Lynn is singing harmony on both the verses and chorus.

On my way back from the office today (right after lunch because of current and impending snow), the shuffle on IPod played The Wave on the Sea by the Carter Family: this is a 'variant' and sure enough Maybelle was doing a nice guitar part - different from but similar to what I had worked out. I don't know if what she does will change the way I do it, but I like what she does and feel that using the guitar as a lead instrument can still be 'true' to the original source material.

Searching through my itunes, I also discovered that the Mill City Grinders do the Carter Family version on their album No Corn in the Crib --- with fiddle and banjo picking up the melody. What goes around comes around!

About last Saturday's Contradance Band...

In 1996, shortly after I started playing the mandolin our family started going to the Danebod family camp in Tyler, Mn. Folk dancing is an important part of the Danebod tradition and the June camp had a strong 'live' band tradition. Although guitar is my main instrument, I started playing mostly mandolin with the Danebod Folk Band. Around the same time, Tommy was taking fiddle lessons from Brian Wicklund. Lynn and I alternated driving duties and also took a fiddle(Lynn) or mandolin (me) lesson from Brian as well. So I started learning 'fiddle' tunes on the mandolin.

Twin City musicians in the Danebod band would play live dance events under the name of 'Wild Rhubarb' and eventually even held formal rehearsals as part of the Twin Cities Urban Folk School.

Ken Steffenson, another musician who attends Danebod, has played fiddle for contra dances for over twenty years. About 4 or 5 years ago, Lynn played a dance or two with Ken as the rhythm pianist and I started tagging along (mostly to haul her keyboard, but I'd try to keep up on mandolin). In 2004 or so, Ken formed Danebodium, which added Daniel Leussler on bass to Ken, Lynn and me. I think it was Sept 2004 that we played our first dance at the Tapestry Folk Dance Center. I practiced for weeks trying to learn about 30-40 tunes. I also discovered that 'dance speed' was at a much faster tempo than I was used to playing. However, as Danebodium continued, my proficiency on mandolin improved and playing for these dances become 'easier' and actually a lot of fun. As a group we also started playing at a higher level and have been called one of the most 'mature' contra dance bands that play at Tapestry.

Ken works out the booking with Tapestry: we played a dance in September and in October he booked us to play on December 13th (last Saturday). A couple of weeks ago Lynn had a recurrence of a back problem which took a turn for the worse last Tuesday. At that point she wasn't sure if she could play piano for the dance; however, I didn't worry too much since with Ken on Fiddle, I could play more rhythm guitar and we could make it as a trio. However, on Thursday Ken called saying he had a conflict and would need to get a substitute for himself. At this point it was clear that Lynn would probably not be playing so we were really short 2 musicians. Ken called Pat O'Loughlin who has played in various bands over the years and he was available (Pat plays concertina and banjo). Thursday night I was headed for Bill Cagley's Roots Showcase at the Coffee Grounds - Ken joined me with the idea of seeing if Bill could cover rhythm guitar for the contra-dance. Bill was late and it wasn't until my 'set' (with Bill and Ken accompanying) that we asked him if he was available - he wasn't, but afterwards Stew Leleivre, one of the other guitar players at the Coffee Grounds said he could play, but didn't have any experience playing contra-dances. Ken was still trying to contact a couple of experienced rhythm players he knew so I told Stew I'd let him know as soon as the scoop.

Friday around supper time, Lynn talked to Ken - he had not found anyone, but hadn't been able to get a hold of Jim Parker who plays with Pigs Eye Landing. Ken had a phone number for Jim, but when Lynn tried it she found it was wrong or out-of-date. Since she had once played piano with Pig-eye (as Jim's substitute), she had the phone number of their fiddler, Tim Reese. She called Tim and found that Jim was just walking through the door - Jim was available so we were set for Saturday. Pat, Jim, Daniel and me - 2 melody players and 2 on rhythm. (I emailed Stew that he was 'off the hook', but that he was now 'on our list of players'!).

Friday night, Pat and Daniel came over and we found the sets of reels and jigs from the Danebodium repertoire that we had in common. Since Pat had played for years with Ken, he knew most of the tunes. We had a couple sets with some tunes I wrote and after playing through them a few times, Pat picked them up, we ended up with a set list of 8 reels, 4 jigs and 2 waltzes (at the break and at the end of the contradance, the band plays a waltz for couples to dance to). We played through most of these and by the end of this rehearsal I was feeling a lot better about Saturday night.

Then on Saturday, a little after 6:30 just before I was getting ready to go, I got a call from Jim Parker: his mother had a health emergency and he was going to have to deal with it since other family members were not available. I said we'd be pretty thin without him , but that we'd set up a mike just in case he could make it. After Jim hung up, I remembered Stew's offer so I gave him a call - he was home and willing to play, but his wife had the car. Stew lives in St. Paul so I said I'd pick him up. By this time it was 6:45 - the contradance starts at 7:30 but the 1st 1/2 hour is teaching so I figured we'd get there in time to do a sound check before the 'real' dancing starts at 8:00. Lynn said she'd try to get in touch with Daniel and/or Pat to let them know what was going on.

Fortunately, traffic was light and I got to Stew's a bit after 7:00 (I overshot his house, but by that time he had seen me and was outside waiting). We used the Ford bridge to get over to Minneapolis and after a few wrong turns finally pulled in to the Tapestry parking lot at 7:30. During the ride, Lynn called me to say that she'd heard back from Daniel that Jim was at Tapestry. (Jim's brother, who was supposed to be 'on duty' had finally appeared). So we ended up with a 'big' band: bass, 2 (or 3 guitars) with mando, banjo or concertina. We added a chair & on extra mike for Stew and were ready to go by 8:00.

Fortunately, I had made copies of the music for a '3rd' book (Lynn and my Danebodium books were the 1st and 2nd). Lynn had also made a clear and big type version of the set list with medleys numbered according to their position in the master Danebodium book. We had a copy for David Kirchner so he would sometimes pick a specific medley rather than just a reel or jig set. We ended up using 11 out of the 12 medleys so we had 'just enough' music with one jig set left over.

We had a blast - Pat, with decades of experience, always set the initial tempo and warned us when we going too fast. The new thing for me was that I was 'The Leader of the Band' - for Contra dances I had never played with anyone but Ken and I was used to him taking the lead and indeed 'leaning' on him at times. I was in the middle and was the person calling the changes and 'setting the tone'. Of course, having Daniel on bass was another life-saver - he worked with Jim to set a steady rocking rhythm. We had a number of musical high points. I brought a guitar, even though I wasn't expecting to use it much, if at all. However, for a couple of sets I switched to flatpicking the guitar and on one piece, Over the Waterfall, all three of the guitar players were flatpicking the melody. Jim had a blast and even said I did a great job on mandolin and as 'leader'.

A final note: Stew told us about a party at a musician friend (who I knew slightly) in St. Paul close to his house. He gave Pat directions and on the drive back to St. Paul, Stew pointed out the party house to me (we saw Pat arriving). At the party, I immediately saw a number of the usual suspects (musicians I knew). Stew and I ended up in a jam with some folks we knew and played until 2:30 - I got home about 3 AM. Exhilarated but exhausted.

New 'new' songs

In a previous post, I went over some 'new' songs that we played at our gigs in November; however, I have also started to look at some other songs. Lynn and I have started to work out arrangements and I'm hoping that a couple of them might be ready for our Dulono's gig in January. But at the moment they are definitely works in progress:

The Rambling Boy:

This is from the Carter Family - I was struck by Maybelle's guitar part, so I tackled that first. There is a slight 'swing' rhythm with almost a triplet feel. They do it in G with Sara singing the lead but in 3 part harmony for most of the song. At times AP's and Maybelle's voices are stronger than Sara, so it made it a little hard to pick out the actual melody. But with some help from Lynn and using the guitar interludes I came up with a melody line that makes sense to me. Initially I pitched it in F playing in the C position with the Capo at the 5th fret. When I started going over the song with Lynn, we slid it up to F#, but she couldn't get her guitar part to sound right (playing in D at 4th fret). We finally tried in G with my guitar capoed at the 7th fret while Lynn is playing open. This is a combination I've seen other duos used, but the first time that we've had our capo's that far apart: we like the sound and it turns out that once again I am singing in the same key as Sara Carter. I also have a version by the New Lost City Ramblers that appears to be based on the Carter family version, although they have straigtened the rhythm and to my ear, have a less interesting melody. They also changed the last verse to something more bland, here's what the Carter family (and we) sing:

Now when I die, don't bury me at all
Just place me away in alcohol
My forty-four laying by my feet
Please tell them I am just asleep

However, I did find words in the New City Ramblers version that I am using instead of some Carter family words that I found 'problematic'. A version of the lyrics that is close to what we do is here.

Joan Baez also does a version she calls 'the Rake and Rambling boy' and from Wikipedia I found that the original source is from an Irish song: Newry Highwayman which dates to the 1830s.

The Highway Man:

This is a Charley Poole Song with a 'ragged waltz' rhythm. It's a variant of "Slack your rope, Hangman" which Lynn and I remember from the 60's folk era. Both the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary had versions of 'Hangman' and Lynn said she used to do it as well.

However, The Highway Man has a different melody and dispenses with all the relatives: only two verses refer to 'paying the fee'. Lyle Lofgren's article describing Pool's version and origins is here. This original 'original' source is the Child ballad #95 which is found here.

It was mostly the tune and fiddle part that got me first thinking about the song and it wasn't until I was learning the lyrics that I figured out the 'Hangman, slack your rope' relationship. We're keeping in the key of C and Lynn is playing fiddle throughout.

Louis Collins:

This a Mississippi John Hurt song which I first thought about doing after hearing a version by Lucinda Williams on a tribute album. I have two versions by Mississippi John Hurt, one from around 1928, the other from about 1963 after he was rediscovered during the 'folk revival'. I've ended up using the words from the 1928 version, but I raised the key to E-flat (Capo on 3 using the C position). So far I'm finger-picking it but not trying to exactly replicate his version. I worked on it once or twice with Lynn but we're a ways from coming up with a performance version. This should be a nice contrast to some of our usual old-time songs.

Cannonball Blues:

The Carter Family recorded two versions of this: one where AP is singing the 'lead', the other with Sarah. A few years ago, before I heard the Carter Family versions, I started to learn a variant called 'Solid Gone' by Doc Watson, but never ended up doing much with it. There is also a youtube version with Sarah and Maybelle (from the 1960s?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlFyGPNmOvI.

I knew of AP's version first and since it was singable for me in 'F', I started working out a 12-string arrangement - instrumentally, the breaks contain a 'bridge' followed by the melody: this meant that there was about a 2 to one ratio of guitar-breaks to vocal. At some point after I started learning this I heard a couple of local groups do it. The Mill City Grinders move it to a string band setting with banjo and fiddle but otherwise follow AP's version. A number of months later I heard a version by The Roe Family Singers. This had an additional verse or two and Kim was playing the washboard so it had a rollicky-rhythm: I don't recall the rest of the arrangement. After their set, I was talking to Quillan and Kim and Quillan clued me in to the youtube video of Sarah and Maybelle.

Then a couple of months ago, I was walking and listening to my IPod on shuffle and I finally heard the version that Sarah recorded a few years after the AP version (in the 1930's) which had additional verses. So lately I've been working on learning that version and have played it a few times with Lynn. We seem to be sticking to the 12-string with Lynn on guitar (6-string capoed 3 playing in D position) and full duet harmony throughout. The 'bridge' is still there but only done every other verse: the instrumental and vocal are more balanced.

In all 3 Carter Family versions, Maybelle is finger-picking with the melody on the treble strings. For the 12 string, I use finger picks, but I'm using the thumb for the melody notes (this is the typical way I play 'old-time' 12-string).

Both Lynn and I think this is a fun song to do and we can't wait to perform it (once we actually learn it!)