Waterbug #0047, barcode 753114004722
BOX 6605, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS 60204
PHONE/FAX 800-466-0234 or 773-761-8141
Producer: Andy May maymusic@pobox.com
Design/Photo: Edie Gale Hays edghays@umr.edu, and Jorge Krger graphics@oasisCD.com
Mastering: Erik Wolf http://www.wolfmastering.com
Duplication: Oasis, http://www.oasisCD.com
Mixing: Nathan Smith, Mainframe, 2100 15th Ave. So., Nashville, TN, (except "These October Days," Tabby Crabb tabman@bellsouth.net, Flatwood, Lebanon, TN)
1. "Bear," 3:25, © 1979, 1997, Andy May maymusic@pobox.com, Swift River Music, BMI
Rick Lee ricklee@pobox.com, vocal and keyboards; Andy May, guitars; recorded by Huck Bennert smalex@earthlink.net at Wellspring www.wellspringsound.com
"'Bear' is about the experience of living--of challenge and the choice to face that challenge honestly.
"I was probably singing this song in some form soon after I met Rick in the late 1960's. I first recorded it in 1970 for a project that was never completed. I recorded it again for my first solo LP, 'Ride With Me,' released in 1982. Rick played magical piano on that cut, along with Jim Heffernan on dobro, whose playing also graces two cuts on this CD. " -- AM
2. "The Come Heres and the Been Heres," 4:16, © 1998, Chuck Brodsky CBrodsky@aol.com, BMI
Rick Lee, vocal and banjo; Andy May, guitar; recorded by Nathan Smith at Mainframe
I first heard this extraordinary new song when Chuck Brodsky sang it in a Waterbug showcase in Toronto in early 1997. He generously sent me a cassette of the work in progress. Chuck sings it on his new Red House CD, "Radio," released August 18, 1998. Andy and I reset the song in the "Old Time" tradition with banjo and guitar.
"Got the idea for The Come Heres and the Been Heres while singing in a little town in Virginia...that's how the people there referred to each other...either as Come Heres or Been Heres. Soon after that I moved to N. Carolina & began playing a bunch in the Southeast & saw how it was the same all over, and up north too, and out west, and in Canada, and...everywhere it seems." -- CB
3. "The Ballad of Harbo and Samuelsen," 6:38, © 1988, Jerry Bryant Jerry.Bryant@kp.org, Old Fashioned Music, BMI, 63 Hildreth Ave., S. Hadley, MA 01075
Rick Lee, vocal and keyboards; Andy May, guitar; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring, Concord, MA
Long before hearing Jerry Bryant, I learned this version in Norfolk, VA, from the Seattle-based duo, William Pint and Felicia Dale pintndale@aol.com
"I had to write this song (1985) because it was astounding to me that these two men had accomplished such a feat over 100 years ago and NO ONE REMEMBERED. I am amazed at the perserverance, guts and stamina it took for them to cross the ocean in an 18 foot open boat, without the benefit of freeze-dried food, GPS navigation systems, radios, flashlights, nylon, aluminum, and everything else modern adventurers take for granted. My hope is that my song will allow an awareness of Harbo and Samuelsen's achievement to reach a wide audience, and will provide an inspiration for folks to keep trying no matter what obstacles confront them." -- JB
4. "Indian Neck," 1:52, Rick Lee © 1990 Natick Music, BMI, Rick Lee, banjo and keyboards; Andy May, guitar; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring, Concord, MA
An instrumental celebration of gatherings of musical friends.
5. "Lunatic Asylum," 3:57, © 1982, Tennesee Folk Heritage/Tennessee Folklore Society (TFS-103), Charles K. Wolfe cwolfe@frank.mtsu.edu
Rick Lee, banjo and vocal; recorded by Nathan Smith at Mainframe
I learned this true folk song from Richard Blaustein RBlaustein@aol.com
"This song was collected in the field by Tony Cavender of the ETSU Sociology/Anthropology Department in 1974 when he was interviewing the late Mrs. E. B. of Limestone, Washington County, Tennessee concerning a variety of subjects including midwifery.
"Tony Cavender and I published an article about the song -- Richard Blaustein and Anthony P. Cavender, 'The Lunatic Asylum: Folksong As Healing Process?', Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, vol. XLV, no. 1, March 1979. and the field recording itself was issued on an LP edited by Charles K. Wolfe for the Tennessee Folklore Society, 'Tennessee: The Folk Heritage, Vol.2, The Mountains,' TFS 103, 1982, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Traditional Folk Music category in 1982.
"We did not refer to Mrs. B. by her full name in either the article or album notes but instead called her 'Mrs. E. B.' to preserve her anonymity and protect her family from any embarrassment because of the theme of insanity in the song.
"The basic story about the 'Lunatic Asylum' is that Mrs. E. B.'s aunt apparently composed the song with another patient while they were in what was then called a 'lunatic asylum,' probably Eastern State Lunatic Asylum in Knoxville, now called Lakeshore Hospital. Mrs. B's aunt suffered some sort of mental illness or emotional breakdown after her husband was killed in a train wreck returning from military service sometime around the turn of this century.
"Apparently Mrs. B. learned the song after hearing her aunt sing it at family singing sessions; they would get together on Sundays after church and have singing sessions at home. After so many years, Mrs. B. was understandably vague about names, places and dates." -- RB
6. "Rainbow's End," 3:18, © 1993, Bob Stuart bbjjm@mint.net, Rainbow's End Publishing
Rick Lee, vocal and keyboards; Andy May backing vocal and guitar; Heidi Basgall, backing vocal; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring and Nathan Smith at Mainframe
I've loved this song of Bob's for many years. It came to life in a new way in the Spring of 1997 when Bob and Andy May and I played it several times a day for three days.
7. "Don't Say Goodnight," 3:06, © 1997, Lauren LeCroy May maymusic@pobox.com, (lyrics), Swift River Music, BMI and © 1990, Rick Lee (music) Natick Music, BMI;
The Rick Lee Trio: Rick Lee, vocal and keyboards; Dave Howard dchoward@ct2.nai.net, guitar; Bill Walach billw@javanet.com, mandolin; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring,
"Rick's wistful, dreamy melody brought the setting of this song to mind--the kind of night that is almost unbearably romantic. I found his music to be so evocative that the images just popped into my head as I listened. All I had to do was find words to suit the mood. " -- LLM
8. "The Ballad of the Tinker's Daughter," 7:19, ©1955, Sigerson Clifford, in "Ballads of a Bogman," © 1986, The Estate of Sigerson Clifford, published by The Mercier Press, P.O. Box 5, 5 French Church Street, Cork and 24 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin; and ©1986, Tim Dennehy, Mullach, Co. Clare, Ireland, "Thimbleful of Song"
Rick Lee, vocal and piano; recorded by Nathan Smith at Mainframe
While working on notes for my first Waterbug CD, "Natick," I received e-mail from Peter Burnham pxb@leicester.ac.uk
He offered to send me the full-length version of The Tinkerman's Daughter. The version on "Natick" was shortened and reset by Mickey McConnell. The one here contains the full text by Sigerson Clifford set by Tim Dennehy, and includes the death in childbirth, murder, suicide, and ghostly revenant...
9. "Daemon Lover," 3:28, Traditional, arr. ©1996, Rick Lee, Natick Music, BMI;
Rick Lee, vocal, banjo and keyboards; Andy May guitars; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring
Child #243, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)," found as early as 1737, generated 146 versions collected in Bronson, Bertrand Harris, "The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with their texts, according to the extant records of Great Britain and America," Princeton University Press, 1966, pp. 429-496.
This melody comes from Bronson's version 103, "'Well Met, My Old True Love' Sung by Mrs. Pearl Jacobs Borusky, Antigo, Wisc., I940. LC/AAFS, rec. No. 4175(B)-4176(A). Also in LC/AAFS, rec. No. L58(A4). Collected by Robert F. Draves."
My text is a paste-up from Bronson and Scottish oral sources, restoring the supernatural element of the daemon/devil lost in most American versions. Lorraine and I sang this for many years as a duet in open fifths. I set it to banjo accompaniment only recently. Andy May's electric influence is even more recent.
10. "April Fool," 2:04, ©1990, Rick Lee, Natick Music, BMI;
The Rick Lee Trio: Rick Lee, keyboards; Dave Howard, guitar; Bill Walach, mandolin; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring, Concord, MA
I've had the great pleasure of playing with Bill and Dave for the past three years. They have made this old tune of mine into a fresh experience for me every time we've played it.
11."Dives and Lazarus," 3:20, Trad. arr. Rick Lee, ©1997, Natick Music, BMI
Rick Lee, vocal and banjo; recorded by Nathan Smith at Mainframe
Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31.
I heard my grandfather sing a version of this song but learned it only years later from Bronson's version 10:
"'Lazarus' Sharp MSS., 3366/2464. Also in Sharp and Karpeles, I932, II, p. 29(A). Sung by Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel Coates, at Flag Pond, Tenn., September 1, 1916. a D/M (nearly pi squared) tune."
Bronson (Vol. II, p. 17) writes: "CHILD NO. 56: As Child's note informs us, something on the order of this ballad was in print in early Elizabethan times, and seventy-five years later was still matter for common allusion as 'the merry ballad of Diverus and Lazarus.' No early text survived, how ever, and Child had to resort to nineteenth-century reprinting: of eighteenth-century broadsides for his copy."
12. "These October Days," 3:07, © 1995, John Lincoln Wright, Lincoln Lines, BMI, 23 Valentine Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Rick Lee, vocal and keyboards; Andy May, guitar; Jim Heffernan 615mus@msn.com, pedal steel guitar; recorded by Tabby Crabb at Flatwood
"A beautiful autumn day in my garden reflecting on the loss of my father and the impending death of my lifelong friend in the understanding of the grace of life." -- JLW
13. "The Best We Can Do," 2:16, ©1984, Rick Lee, Snowy Egret Music, BMI
Rick Lee, vocal and keyboards; Andy May backing vocal, guitar and mandolin; Heidi Basgall, backing vocal; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring and Nathan Smith at Mainframe
A song of mine from 15 years ago. Andy likes it and he and Heidi have brought it new life here.
14. "Don't Pet the Dog," 1:58, © John Robert Hadley, Sony/ATV Songs LLC (Tree), BMI
I first heard Pinkard and Bowden do this about 15 years ago. Still one of my favorite silly songs.
Rick Lee, vocal and keyboards; Andy May, guitar; Jim Heffernan, dobro; recorded by Huck Bennert at Wellspring, and Nathan Smith at Mainframe