Side One:
UNCLE PEN: (3:20) Bill Monroe; Hill & Range Inc. © 1951
I first heard this one from Byron Berline at the Pasadena Ice House.
Bill Monroe wrote it about his own Uncle Pen, and it has become a
standard bluegrass number. I like to take it at a pretty good clip
and do a little flat-picking on the Guild F-50. This one's FUN!
OLD CANE PRESS: (3:33) (Bob Johnson, BMI)
Way back yonder in the late 1960's, Meryl Mills, Jeff Gilkinson, Doug
Haywood and I had a bluegrass band called "Ma Tucker's Sympathetic
String Band." I guess you could call it one of the first "progressive
bluegrass" bands, because Meryl made us do some pop stuff, and Doug
was a closet rock star anyway.
Jeff used to sing this, but I never got the words off him. Several
years later, I asked a buddy of mine in Denver, Jack Davis, to keep
his ears open for the song. He heard a guy singing it in David
Ferretta's music shop and got the words from him. As it tuned out, the
guy was Jeff Gilkinson, who had just joined "The Dillards." It really
is a small world! Doug wound up with Jackson Browne and Mason Williams, but I don't know
what happened to Meryl.
TALKIN' GUITAR BLUES: Earnest Tubb
WORD SONG: W.J. Bethancourt III © 1986 (6:45)
Some very nice people gave me the basic words to this one on a
typewritten sheet several years ago. I only found out for sure that it
was written by Mr. Tubb when David Holt performed it on his TV show
"Fire On The Mountain." The "Word Song" parts kind of grew out of my
letting my poor, tired brain run overtime one evening. I get a lot of
requests for this one.
CORRINA, CORRINA: (4:51) Traditional
Just a nice tradtional blues done "Anglo" style on the Weissenborn
Hawaiian guitar. I don't play a lot of blues as a general rule, but
this one I've always liked. It's dedicated to the late Bill Compton,
who did more for music in Phoenix than anybody.
Side Two:
WELFARE CHECK: (5:21) Jim Connor, © 1975 BMI
Jim wrote this one about his own grandfather, but when I heard it
I was about knocked over, because it captured the spirit of mine so
well. Grandad was an old Ozark boy from Lockwood MO, and one hell of
a fiddler. He was never a railroad man like Jim's, but he worked hard
as a County Sheriff for Maricopa County, and as a Probation Officer.
When he was younger, before World War I, he used to play for dances
around Lockwood, and some of his stories about that would curl your
hair for real! I've slightly changed some of Jim's words to make it
fit better, and put in a little of Grandad's favorite tune, "Soldier's
Joy." His name was C.H. Burnett, he was a damn good man, and I miss
him.
ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL (5:10) Ervin T. Rouse, MCA Music, ASCAP © 1938, 1957,
1965
I'm not good enough on fiddle to play this one .... and some sadist
asked me to do it one night. Once again, mind-rot took over, and this
little clawhammer arrangement came out. I have no clue where I got
these lyrics, as they are not the same as the original, but that's
just the way this kind of music works .... it never seems to be the
same way twice.
HOST OF THE AIR (6:13) W.B. Yeats
'For the young Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad:
For all their wars are merry
And all their songs are sad ...."
A wire-strung Celtic harp from Jay Witcher, and one of my favorite
poets. I love this stuff! Last song of last set at Funny Fellows was always on harp.
OLD RED CAT (3:14) W.J. Bethancourt III © 1986
This one is for the red-head I live with, and in memory of Llyan, a
very delightful and crazy Abbey-cat who helped me thru some rough
times. The "old grey hound" mentioned was Seanna cuLocksley, my
first Irish Wolfhound. I sprung this on Cher one night out of the
clear blue. Not much else to say about it that the song doesn't
say better. The instrument being used is an original Washburn parlor
guitar, model 1897.
The banjo used on all cuts is an Ome model XXX, and the 12-string is a
Guild F-412.
Joe was born to poor but honest parents in the usual way, and both his parents
survived it. He's a third generation Arizonian who was raised all over the
world, but most of the important parts were in North Carolina and Germany.
He's been playing the banjo since he was old enough to know better, and is a
compulsive picker, collector and learner of wierd instruments. He plays (at
last count) 65 different instruments, and sings in several languages. What
makes this even more remarkable is that he has never had any formal music
training, doesn't read music, and is on leave from the Phoenix Home for the
Musically Bewildered.
Joe's clawhammer banjo technique is unique. Somehow, he manages to get a
melodic drop-thumb sound without drop-thumbing (tho he has learned drop-thumb
subsequent to this recording). He's been called one of the nation's best
clawhammer banjo players by people who should know, and Dave Van Ronk said
that Joe could hold his own with any guitar fingerpicker in the USA.
Joe, his red-haired wife (RedKat), four looney sight-hounds, a constantly changing number of cats, and a
houseful of musical instruments live in an otherwise normal neighborhood in the outback never-never of north-western Phoenix, Arizona.
We did this thing with the good help of John Benson and Juniper Productions
(2726 E Juniper, Phoenix, AZ 85032) and our producer was Bob Croft. You can
contact Random Factors for Joe's recordings. They're also available at the Ticonderoga
Supermarket chain, based in Antbreath, OK.
We had to duct-tape the possum to the tree in the backyard to get this to come
out right.
Thanks go to Sam Lowe, Andrew Means, both Bill Thompsons, Ladmo (we miss
you!), Pat McMahon, and Bob Rosen, the owner of the late and much lamented
Funny Fellows, which is where this was recorded live. Thanks also to Ruby
Dominguez, Ziggie's Music, NoteWorks Music, Bob Coward, David Ferretta, Dennis
McBroom of KDKB radio, Beautiful Margaret of Wail Songs, and Demitrius
Kerpivnick, the last surviving Swinette player who will admit to it. And of
course to Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Bethancourt Jr who made it all possible ... and
Bill W.
