Last night I spent six hours at Cut the Mustard Recording Studio here in Moscow, ID. Brad Crooks the owner and engineer spent a bit of time working out the kinks in his new equipment but after we got rolling we cranked out 11 tracks. What a surprise, I had only come in to record maybe 3 or 4 tunes but things were progressing so fast we decided- what the hey? Why not just go for it.
This album will be a bit of a departure for me since it is composed entirely of clawhammer banjo and harmomica. We will also be adding some drums and maybe bass and organ. Usually I like to mix as many instruments as I can in a recording but since I've been focusing so much on the banjo recently I thought a banjo album would be appropriate.
here's the tune list
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red rocking chair
good old timey hard times tune
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once more a lumbering go
logging song from northern new york that travelled to the midwest
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out on the ocean a-sailing
great piedmont blues tune from Reverend Gary Davis
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sandy river belle/ john brown's dream
old timey fiddle tunes
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don't let your deal go down (little girl)
more of an old timey archaic version of the ragtime tune
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rueben's train
bluegrass classic, learned from Doc Watson's recording
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the invisible american
original, about a guy I met in cincinnati, a homeless veteran who could hardly speak from having a stroke, who had no coat, no money, and no one who gave a damn. These folks need care, but they alway end up getting forgotton about and thrown away by our heartless society.
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hook 'n line/the bucket of the mountain dew
the first is a foxtrot I hear off a "mammals" CD, and the second in an irish tune that crosses over into old time style nicely
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whiskey in the jar
classic irish bar song
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wild bill jones
good wild west tune I learned from Charlie Parr in Duluth, MN
-lochaber no more
Scottish aire I listened to a lot as a kid
We'll upload some sample tracks as soon as we have some finished product done. This promises to be something of a richer sounding and slightly more modern album, a new kind of thing for me but exciting! Stay tuned.
