 "A Long Way From Home" CD on Fellside Recordings FECD196 August 2005 Reviews |
Dedication Introduction 1. Lazy John - listen 2. Pretty Crowin' Chicken - listen 3. Barbara Allen - listen 4. Derry Dems OF Arrow 5. Last Chance 6. Down In Mississippi - listen 7. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry 8. The Prodigal Son 9. Nellie was A Lady - listen 10. Five Nights Drunk 11. Black Water 12. Sweet Sunny South 13. Pretty Saro 14. Old Smokey 15. Ducks On The Millpond Ben Paley Acknowledgements Credits |
| Dedication This recording is dedicated in loving memory to my dear friend, Norman McDonald. His love of traditional American music has been an inspiration over the years and one of my greatest pleasures has been to make music with Norman and his wife, Betty. (top of page) Introduction Each time one is lucky enough to hear Sara Grey live, her love and respect for the traditional songs she sings is apparent. Her unique voice has a quality that transports the listener in time and space. When she chooses to accompany that glorious voice, it is always done tastefully, allowing the story to unfold. On this CD, she is joined on many tracks by her son Kieron, a fine singer in his own right. Together they can make magic happen. Suzanne Mrozak & Danny Spooner (top of page) 1. Lazy John Play Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal & guitar Ben – fiddle This come from the singing of Dana and Susan Robinson. 'Lazy John' is on Brad Leftwich's CD titled 'Say, Old Man,' produced in 1996 by County Records. The liner notes say, 'Clyde Davenport of Monticello, Kentucky is the source for 'Lazy John.' The first two verses were written by Dana Robinson and the last two verses and the chorus, with some minor modifications, are Clyde´s.' (top of page) 2. Pretty Crowin’ Chicken (Trad.) Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal & guitar This comes from the singing of Frank Profitt. Sandy Paton collected a version of the ballad, The Grey Cock, from Hattie Presnell of Beech Mountain, North Carolina. It's on The Traditional Music of Beech Mountain, NC, Volume 1, Folk-Legacy C-22. Hattie called it "Pretty Crowing Chicken," and it's very clearly a revenant (one who has been absent for a long time or returns from the dead) ballad. (top of page) 3. Barbara Allen (Trad.) Sara – unaccompanied Whether originally a “stage” song as Samuel Pepys’ diary indicates in 1666 or not, Barbara Allen has become the most widely sung ballads in the Child collection. I learned this version from Jerry Epstein, who, in turn, learned it from a New York Jewish Cantor (would you believe), Eli Mallon. He claims to have learned it from a collection of South Carolina folksongs. (top of page) 4. Derry Dems Of Arrow (Trad.) Sara – unaccompanied From the singing of Mrs. Lola Stanley, Fayettville, Arkansas on December 30, 1958. Its found in the The Max Hunter Collection in Springfield-Greene County Library in Springfield, Missouri. This ballad is a version of “The Dewy Dens of Yarrow” (Child #214) which was first published in Scott’s Ministrelsy of the Scottish Border where he says he found it easy to collect a variety of versions. Scott says that the ballad refers to a duel fought between John Scott of Tushielaw and his brother-in-law Walter Scott of Thirlestane in which the latter was slain. It is also known as Fair Willie Drowned in Yarrow. However the story also occurs in the Scandinavian ballad “Herr Helmer” and in various others. This version is a continuation of it migration. What I like about the Ozark version is the simplicity of her actions as she lowers him into the grave. It’s such a stark contrast to the imagery in Scottish versions of the woman binding her long hair around her dead husband to lower him into the grave. (top of page) 5. Last Chance (Trad.) Sara – banjo Banjo tune from the playing of Hobart Smith of Smyth County, Virginia. The Black influence on this tune is very strong. Hobart said, "I got this piece from my uncle, my mother's brother, and he called it 'Last Chance.' That's all I know about it and I just took it from him." (Dock Boggs, old-time banjo picker from Norton, Virginia, knows this tune by the title of "Davenport.") (top of page) 6. Down In Mississippi (J.B.Lenoir) Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal & guitar Written by J. B. Lenoir With the arrests in 2005 of men accused of one of the worst crimes of the civil rights era, justice may finally be reached in a case dating back to 1964 – the death squad killing in Mississippi of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. There’s been some great songs about those terrible days in the South, and one of the best is J.B. Lenoir’s "Down in Mississippi." J.B. Lenoir was a gifted southern bluesman who made his career in Chicago and died tragically after a car wreck in 1967. In Lenoir’s last appearance in London, England in the early 60’s, he was getting a bit forgetful and sang one of his blues three times in his second set! I reckon that he was so good that it probably didn’t make any difference! (top of page) 7. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams) Sara – vocal Kieron – guitar, chorus Linda - Chorus Ben – fiddle A well known classic written by Hank Williams. Its such a heartbreaking song and perhaps reflects the demons that Williams so often had to deal with most of his adult life. Williams’s given name is Hiram Williams, and he was born in Mt. Olive, Alabama in 1923. He died on January 1, 1953, in the autopsy report it stated he had had a massive coronary, meaning his heart had basically exploded.. (top of page) 8. The Prodigal Son (Trad.) Sara – unaccompanied This rather different whacky parody of the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son comes from the singing of Fred Smith of Bentonville, Arkansas on June 23, 1958 and is in the Max Hunter Collection. It is most likely a version that passed into the music hall tradition from its more archaic biblical form. The abbreviation ‘prod’ is just short for Prodigal and not for Protestant! (top of page) 9. Nellie Was A Lady (Stephen Foster) Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal I learned this Stephen Foster song from the singing of Helen Schneyer and I cry every time I hear her sing it. Stephen Foster was born in 1826 in Lawrenceville now part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1846 he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and became a bookkeeper with his brother's steamship company. In 1849 he published Foster's Ethiopian Melodies, which included the hit song "Nelly Was A Lady", made famous by the Christy Minstrels. Many of Foster's songs were in the minstrel show tradition popular at the time. However, rather than simply caricaturing African-Americans, they show an empathy for the sufferings of the slave rare in works for the mainstream white audience of the time. He was the first white composer to portray blacks as loving husbands and wives, as in this song. This song was written in loving memory of an old slave’s dead wife. (top of page) 10. Five Nights Drunk (Trad.) Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal & guitar This is also known as “Our Goodman” (Child #274), “Seven Nights Drunk” or “The Traveller”. It appears among the songs collected by Sandy Paton on The Traditional Music of Beech Mountain, NC, Volume 1, Folk-Legacy C-22. I learned this version back in the late 50’s or early 60’s from the singing of Peggy Seeger. (top of page) 11. Black Water (Jean Ritchie) Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal & guitar Linda – vocal This was written by Jean Ritchie. Jean was born in 1922 in Viper, Kentucky, the youngest of the 14 children of Balis and Abigail Ritchie. Her family were poor farmers, but what they lacked in money they more than made up for in music. Their Scot-Irish heritage was rich in songs sung by generations of mountain people, tucked away from the world in the remote hollows and valleys of Appalachia. Jean learned all the sad old English ballads that her ancestors had brought with them when they came to the New World. She learned the made up songs they sang while at work or play. She learned the hymns that they sang in the little board church down the road. She learned the instrumentals -- the dances and reels and jigs that they danced to at weddings and ice cream socials. From an early age Jean wrote poetry of a remarkable caliber for someone of her age and many of her poems she set to the traditional music with which she was so familiar. I was very fortunate in the early 60’s to live for a brief spell in Port Washington, New York where Jean has lived for many years with her photographer husband George Pickow. It was at that time that Jean was setting a lot of her poetry to music, and she needed someone to transcribe the traditional tunes on to manuscript paper and she asked my ex-husband, Charlie Grey, who was a music teacher to do this in preparation for her book “A Celebration of Life” for which I still have some of the original manuscripts of the music for her songs. I felt at the time very much part of that project and I still have some of the original manuscripts under the pseudonym of Than Hall. My son Kieron and I are paying tribute to Jean’s wonderful written material in our CDs. When Jean wrote this amazing environmental protest, she was just a young woman. It has survived as one of the strongest protest songs of the past 45 years. (top of page) 12. Sweet Sunny South (Trad.) Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal & guitar Ben – fiddle Linda – vocal I got this version from Wally Macnow. Originally Wally, a fine singer, was from the Washington DC area, he has lived for several years in Vermont. This version of the song came from Mrs. Lucy Cannady via Sharp who collected in at Endicott, VA on August 23, 1918. In the book, the song is entitled "The Sunny South". The song is often identified with the Carter Family, but his modal, somewhat ‘crooked’ version is my favourite. (top of page) 13. Pretty Saro (Trad.) Sara - unaccompanied This was sung by Cas Wallin, Madison County, North Carolina. It has been collected in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, the Ozarks, Indiana, and Iowa amongst other states. The Frank C Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore suggests that that the odd line "banks of said brow" might be a corruption of the line of the another version which has "the mountain's sad brow" The use of the word “freeholder” places the song’s origin in England as the term is not used in the United States. It appears that "Pretty Saro" and its doppelgaenger "At the Foot of Yonder Mountain" are mostly derived from "The Streams of Bunclody." The 1749 date looks good too. There is a local tradition that "The Streams of Bunclody" was written from America by an immigrant from County Wicklow and sent back to Ireland. If this immigrant or a son or daughter or someone who had the song from him was among the early European settlers of the Appalachians, the American versions could easily have been adapted from the immigrant's song. 1749 could be the date of the immigrant's arrival in America, although the stanza with the date did not go back to Ireland or was dropped there. Of course, there are a lot of floating lyrics here, and John Moulden points out the dangers of taking such material as a basis for identifying oral texts as versions of the same song. What one must look for is distinctive stanzas; otherwise there would be just one song of which "Pretty Saro," "On Top of Old Smokey," "It was in the Month of January," "The Wagoner's Lad," and countless others would be examples. But these do have distinctive content and it seems that "Streams of Bunclody" begat "Pretty Saro." (top of page) 14. Old Smokey (Trad.) Sara – lead vocal & banjo Kieron – vocal & guitar From the singing of Roscoe Holcomb and from Madge Moore. This is not the saccharine version which is commonly sung, but a hard edged mountain song with floating verses everywhere. When Roscoe Holcomb sang “Old Smokey " its notes were so drawn out that it was easy to imagine Roscoe harmonizing with himself as the echo of an earlier note came back at him from across the valley. Old Smokey is the Smokey Mountain range which stretches from Tennessee to North Carolina. (top of page) 15. Ducks On The Millpond From the playing of old-time banjo player, Kyle Creed, a traditional Old-Time Breakdown- North Carolina- Mt. Airy, Virginia-Grayson County. Alan Lomax collected the tune from Galax, Va., musician Fields Ward in 1937. It is also known as "Deaf Woman's Courtship." (top of page) Ben Paley [Another transatlantic baby] Ben’s exposure to traditional music began in the womb, from his father, Tom Paley, his mother, Claudia, and continued later from his step-father, Ron Gould. Having grown up with old-time American music, Ben became interested in the Swedish tradition in 1980, and later in Irish fiddling in 1989, which influences may be heard by the careful listener in his playing. Ben has worked with Tab Hunter, Maggie Boyle, Duck Baker, Damon Albarn, The Levellers, Michael Nyman and McDermott’s 2 Hours to name but a few. (top of page) Acknowledgements I can’t express how exciting and rewarding it has been to work again with Paul, Richard and Linda Adams of Fellside Recordings. There is no one I respect more in the field of acoustic recording than this team. Its been several years since I last worked with them so I give them my heartfelt thanks for giving me the opportunity to do it again.. I have been singing and performing with my son, Kieron, for some time now and nothing gives me more pleasure or pride. Singing and playing with Kieron is just the most wonderful and exciting thing I’ve ever experienced in all the years I’ve been making music My great thanks also to Ben Paley. Making music with Ben was one of the most enjoyable and funny experiences I’ve ever had recording. The sheer pleasure and understanding he has of traditional American music is remarkable and his fiddle playing is sublime! Linda Adams adds her lovely harmonies to a couple of tracks, thanks so much (top of page) Credits Produced by Paul Adams Recorded by Paul Adams and Richard Adams Art work by Mary Blood Photographs by James Walker Photography except group by Paul Adams |
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