Been in the Lowands Too Long: this is by Gillian Welch - I picked it for Lynn because she sometimes misses the mountains of Washington State and Montana (sometimes going to the North Shore helps). Gillian's version has drums and electric bass, so a 12-string treatment seems to fit. Lynn is adding fiddle and singing harmony on the chorus. We are working this up for the Stone Arch Festival Performance on the 16th - so far, I seem to remember the words. This isn't exactly old-time, so we'll mostly be doing at coffee house and other non-oldtime-bluegrassy events. (Actually, when we play old time, I leave the 12 String at home).
Story of the Might Mississippi: Mike Seeger does this on an Folkways LP I got on EBay : FA 2325 Oldtime Country Music (1962). He does it on the autoharp, which led me to do this on the 12 string. I do another autharp song he does on the 12 string, When First Onto This Country. I'm still working on learning the words; Lynn is playing guitar and will probably sing harmony, although we are still working out the arrangement. As far as I know this song came out of the 1927 Mississippi flood and has some resonance with the Katrina flooding. I'm not sure what the orignal source is (At some point I might check the LP and update this blog... or not).
On the 6 String (using finger picks), I am working on :
What Are They Doing in Heaven Today: I am basing this on the version by Riley Baugus (Tim O'Brien is playing guitar and doing fiddle.) This is in F - I am using Drop D tuning with the Capo on the 3rd Fret (sounds like Tim did the same). Lynn is adding a fiddle part and singing harmony on the chorus: on the chorus she is playing the fiddle while singing (fiddle is doing the 3rd harmony part). We hope to learn this well enough to do it at the gig in Milbank, SD at my cousin's Methodist church. Unlike most gospel songs concerning heaven, you don't have to die to re-unite with your family and friends - this one is just wondering 'but, what are they doing there now'. At Lanesboro, we picked up a CD by Washington Phillips that has the version that is Riley's source. I haven't had a chance to listen to it. This was written by Charles Tindley in the early 1900s. He also wrote Stand by Me and I Shall Overcome (which became the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome).
Another song that I might learn is Bear Creek by the Carter Family. I have their version, plus several others by Reeltime Travellers, Jody Stecher/Kate Brislin, Big Medicine and maybe one or two more. This is one of those songs that on first hearing I didn't particulary think of as a bob-i-lynn tune, but then the original Carter Family version came up on 'random-play' on my ipod and I was struck by it. Maybelle's guitar part is kind of funky (and doesn't come through in the other verisons). They appear to do it in E, although I'm thinking that she may doing it in G position with her Gibson L-5 tuned low. I am trying to keep it in E with the capo on the 4th fret. If Lynn plays guitar using open E, we might get the right sound So far I don't really have the guitar part the way I want it but I'll keep working on it. The fact that there is a reference to Jesse James means we might do it at some point with the Rhubarbarians - I do the bluegrassy version of Jesse James and Bob Estes has an original song referencing Jesse as well.
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