Liner Notes for Rick Lee's new CD, "Look What Thoughts Will Do," SRM CD-111

Rick Lee http://ricklee.org

Look What Thoughts Will Do

Swift River Music SRM CD-111

UPC/barcode 641955011125

1. The Lady and the Gypsy (trad. arr. Rick Lee BMI) 5:14

2. A Drunkard's Lament (trad. arr. Rick Lee BMI) 2:22

3. Look What Thoughts Will Do (Lefty Frizzell, Jim Beck, Dub Dickerson BMI) 2:37

4. Melinda (trad. arr. Rick Lee BMI) 2:15

5. Sweet Love (Kate Wolf BMI) 4:38

6. Friend For Life (Bill Danoff & Bryan Bowers ASCAP) 4:30

7. Children of Darkness (Richard Farina ASCAP) 3:18

8. Weapon of Prayer (Ira Louvin and Charlie Louvin BMI) 3:15

9. Emo5 (Rick Lee BMI) 2:14

10. True Thomas/The Langour of Love (trad. arr. Rick Lee BMI) 4:23

11. Da Trowie Burn (Friedmann Stickle arr. Rick Lee BMI) 3:45

12. The Merry Golden Tree (trad. arr. Rick Lee BMI) 4:30

13. Thanksgiving (Rick Lee BMI) 2:28

14. The Old Fish Song (trad. arr. Rick Lee BMI) 5:41

15. How High Did You Go (Tony Martin & Mark Nesler BMI) 3:58

Total running time: 55:38

Musicians:

Rick Lee, vocals, 5-string banjo, piano, keyboards

Andy May, guitars, mandolin, backing vocals

Hal Rugg, dobro, pedal steel guitar

Dow Tomlin & Todd Cook, bass

John Gardner, drums

Dave Howard, guitar, mandolin, backing vocals

Katie May, backing vocal

Produced by Andy May

Recording, mixing and mastering engineer: Nathan R. Smith,

Mainframe Recording Studio, www.mainframerecordingstudio.com

Notes:

1. The Lady and the Gypsy 05:14, Key of F

Rick, Hal, Andy, Dow, and John

My setting of this very well-known ballad is based on a recording I heard at Jeremy Brecher's home in early 1963. His parents owned a copy of the 78-rpm album Early American Ballads, Collected and Arranged by John Jacob Niles, Mountaineer, Tenor with Dulcimer accomp. It was released in 1938 by RCA as Red Seal M604-1 through M604-8. Niles shows the following credits: "From The Ballad Book, Niles, Niles no. 52; Child #200; 'The Gypsie Laddie' (2016-A), 'THE LADY AND THE GYPSY'."

2. A Drunkard's Lament 2:22, Key of B-flat

Rick

I first heard Andy Leader singing this in 1962. He had learned it from Hedy West who, I believe, had learned it in her family.

3. Look What Thoughts Will Do 2:37, Key of F

Rick, Hal, Andy, Dow, and John

My bandmate, Dave Howard, has provided me with many fine early recordings of country music that I had first heard as a child in Texas. This fine song of Lefty Frizzell's was among the first Lefty recorded at Jim Beck's studio in Dallas. An excellent biography, Lefty Frizzell: The Honky-Tonk Life of Country Music's Greatest Singer by Daniel Cooper (Little, Brown & Co.), tells much of the story of Lefty's life, music, and the contexts in which they developed.

4. Melinda 2:15, Key of D

Rick and Dave

Learned at Denny Clifford's parents' home in 1962 from a recording by Grandpa Jones.

5. Sweet Love 4:38, Key of B-flat

Rick, Hal, Andy, Dow, and John

I learned this from Kate Wolf when I first met her in Hartford, CT at a festival in Elizabeth Park. She had just written it and was working out her arrangement.

6. Friend For Life 4:30, Key of A

Bill Danoff and Bryan Bowers, (c), Watch Your Head Music + Seattle Sounds -- ASCAP

Rick, Hal, Andy, Dow, and John

I learned this fine song from Bryan Bowers a couple of years ago in preparation for a concert we did together in Seattle. It reminds me of the continuing importance of music in my life.

7. Children of Darkness 3:18, Key of E-flat

Richard Farina, (c) Warner Bros, ASCAP

Rick, Todd, and Andy

I saw and heard Richard and Mimi Farina do this scary song in Boston at the Unicorn in the early 1960's. It seems equally appropriate today.

8. The Weapon of Prayer 3:15, Key of F

Rick, Andy (1st guitar, bass), and Dave (2nd guitar, tenor vocal)

Bear Family, a German label which has produced many fine CD reissues, is responsible for Louvin Brothers, Close Harmony 8-CD & 52-page book BCD 15561. My bandmate, Dave, loaned the set to me so I could learn this song I first heard when I was about 10 years old.

There's not much noted about "The Weapon of Prayer" except that it was written at the end of World War Two and recorded 2/20/51 in the middle of the Korean War. It was Ira and Charlie Louvin's first hit and was recorded with Chet Atkins on lead and Tommy Jackson on fiddle.

9. Emo5 2:14, Key of A

Rick, Andy, and Todd

This banjo tune emerged from playing around with a variant of a tuning used by Dock Boggs. I tune the banjo in E-modal and capo on the 5th fret, putting the instrument in the key of A/Am (aADEA). The ambiguous A/Am is achieved by fretting the third string (D) at the second fret leaving an open fifth (aAEEA). The first part of the tune is played by hammering on and pulling off at the fourth fret. The second (minor) part changes the mood to an exotic dance.

10. True Thomas / The Languor of Love 4:23, Key of G

Rick

The text is edited from "True Thomas; or, Thomas the Rhymer", Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833. This is shown in Bertand Bronson's The Traditional Tunes of The Child Ballads as sung to The Ancient Tune. I've never liked the traditional tunes used with this story.

In 1985 I laid hands on a copy of The Simon Fraser Collection: The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles from 1715 to 1745. Many of the over 240 Airs in this book are Captain Fraser's instrumental settings of Gaelic songs derived from the singing of his father, grandfather and their acquaintances. I found a particularly enchanting tune "Tha mi tinn leis a'Ghaol", or "The Languor of Love", and learned it to play with Solomon's Seal, my band in those years. In 2003, I awoke one morning with 'The Languor of Love" in my head for the first time in years, and within a short time I was editing the lyrics to "True Thomas" and the tune to fit each other.

This is the first of three songs in Francis J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads which tell a story of the capture of a mortal by the queen of the faeries ("True Thomas", Child 37), his occasional sightings during his period of captivity in the underworld ("The Wee Wee Man", Child 38), and his rescue by a king's daughter ("Tam Lin", Child 39). I recorded "Tam Lin" on my Natick CD. Here's the beginning of the story.

11. Da Trowie Burn 3:45, Key of E-flat/C minor

Rick

I learned this tune from Sarah Bauhan, my bandmate in Solomon's Seal, in the 1980's. She subsequently recorded it on her CD, Chasing The New Moon. Sarah learned it from Aly Bain. It was written by a German immigrant to the Shetland Islands in the far North of Scotland more than 100 years ago and collected from the composer's grandson, John Stickle, in 1947 by Patrick Shuldham Shaw.

Friedmann Stickle was German and a merchant seaman who was shipwrecked on Shetland and stayed. The family story was that he was thrown overboard with his fiddle by the rest of the crew who were fed up with his constant playing or who, possibly, just didn't like him.

I have arranged the tune for solo piano hoping to capture the beauty and the threat of a stream where the trolls live.

12. The Merry Golden Tree 4:30, Key of F

Rick, Todd, Andy, and Dave

A composite learned from a live performance by Winnie Winston, in 1962, and a recording in the Library of Congress by Justus Begley, played in a tuning neither used for it (E-modal capoed at second fret. See "Emo5", above). Begley's recording is available on Kentucky Mountain Music, from Yazoo Records.

A broadside of 1682-85, in which Sir Walter Raleigh plays the ungrateful captain, seems to have been the ultimate ancestor of the abundant traditional copies of this ballad (Child #286) found in the British Isles and America. Sir Walter has dropped out entirely; the English ship's name appears variously as Merry Golden Tree, Golden China Tree, Golden Willow Tree, Golden Merrilee.

13. Thanksgiving 2:28, Key of G

Rick and Dave

An early song of mine, retired from repertoire for many years. When I heard Nic Jones' cover of it, he inspired me to reinstate it in performance.

14. The Old Fish Song 5:41, Key of D

Rick, Katie, Andy, and Dave

I first heard Mike Seeger sing this in the early 1960's when he played with The New Lost City Ramblers. He did all 18 verses learned from a recording by Blind James Howard with fiddle, Harlan, KY, 1933 (Library of Congress 74 A), available on Kentucky Mountain Music. Mike's version is available on Smithsonian Folkways SF 40036 The New Lost City Ramblers: The Early Years, 1958-1962.

I have changed the song in several ways, playing it on banjo rather than fiddle, singing only 13 of the original 18 verses, and adding a repeated fourth line in each verse for the listener to sing back as a response.

15. How High Did You Go? 3:58, Key of C

Tony Martin and Mark Nesler, (c) Buna Boy Music, Glitterifsh Music, Mosaic Music, BMI; Sony/ATV, ASCAP

Rick, Hal, Andy, Dow, and John

I learned this song from a recording by John Conlee. It has recently become my song most requested by children and young adults.

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