A Ragged Old Man
Kate is a talented parodist. When the mood strikes her she can make a serious song silly with her word play.
The first verse of “A Ragged Old Man” begins
“ A bearded old bum, he sold trinkets and trifles”
Kate made us both giddy by changing “trinkets and trifles” to “Triscuits and truffles”. And then “trumpets and trombones” and more. Songwriters rarely like it when their songs are messed with. I don’t mind. I even make bad parodies of my own songs. It’s harmless fun.
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The Jury Set Him Free
This is another song where I use a banjo-derived fingerpicking technique on my guitar. I’m not entirely happy with how it came out. Maybe the whole thing needs a bit more “oomph”.
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Faded Rose
A friend recently told me that my guitar playing on “Faded Rose” is high on his list of favorite guitar recordings. I hadn’t remembered what I played so I listened, after 30 years. Yeah, it’s pretty good. But what knocked me out more was how well Kate and I sing together here.
I hadn’t mentioned it yet in this blog: “Heart Songs” was a Grammy finalist, our second nomination as a duo. It was probably due to the content and theme of the album but I’d be proud though surprised if it was on account of our duet sound. As I’ve pointed out to pairs of singers I’ve coached over the years, good duet singing is not the same as two people singing simultaneously. When it works there is a unity and this locking together is kind of like a third sound. It’s caused by overtones and it’s achieved through singing compatible vowels.
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John D. Lee
When I was 13 years old my aunt Greta took me to the Newport Folk Festival. There I heard Fleming Brown sing a long ballad about the execution of Hiram Hubbard. The long drawn out words were sung over a rapidly rippling banjo. Later I heard the same song on a Jean Ritchie record. Young Bruce Phillips heard it at Jean Ritchie concert hosted by his mother. The song had the same affect on both us; it was branded on our brains.
In “John D. Lee” Utah tells an execution story from the state of Utah. He uses the melody of “Hiram Hubbard” and lyrically he uses the language of old ballads convincingly.
I recorded this late at night. I sat in a chair with the many verses hand written in front of me on a music stand. Kate curled up on the floor as if to hear me sing a bedtime story. It felt good at the time. I wish I had done better. In retrospect the banjo playing is a bit chaotic. In my defense it was a borrowed banjo and not well set up. Excuses excuses.
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Golden Mansion
Utah wrote in his liner notes that he didn’t know what it was he liked about this song. We feel the same. It’s not one of his monumental works but we selected it to record. There’s just something about it. From time to time we hear from people that they especially like our recording of the song. I think we did better on some of the others but I still think the song was worthy of inclusion. Maybe someday someone will record it again and bring out it secrets more skillfully.
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I Remember Loving You
Now this one’s a whole nuther kettle of fish. It’s got so many layers. RTLN (read the liner notes) about this one. Please. We have sung this song so many times under so many circumstances. It fits in everywhere; I think we brought something to the song that realizes it possibilities.
We sing it in the key of F sharp major. Kate plays out of D position with a capo on fret 4. I play out of F position with the capo at fret 1. Who the heck capo-s in order to play in F position? Aren’t capo-s for the purpose of not having to play in F position? Well, I do. Its sound suits the song so well.
By the way, Utah writes in the notes that he never heard the alleged recording by Sheb Wooley of the original form of this song as sold to him by its alleged Canadian authors Luigi Del Puppo and Tino Chumlevich whose chorus Utah charitably characterized as “patently unsingable”.
These days it’s easily found on Youtube. I’ve heard it. It’s no “Purple People Eater”. Utah improved it in so many ways.