READIN

🦋 Music in the fiddle

A mix with some of my favorite fiddle music, and a couple of my own performances... link and notes below the fold.

Jeremy's Fiddle Mix (click "Download folder" to download the whole mix)

• "Dancing Barefoot/Drowsy Maggie" is me and John (Mountain Station) playing a medley of an oldish fiddle tune and the Patti Smith song.
• "The Arms of Love" is one of my very favorite Robyn Hitchcock songs. (Redundant? Perhaps.) -- this is a Maxwell's performance from 2004, and features Deni Bonet, who is not on the studio take. (Deni is well-represented among the performers of my fave fiddle tunes.) Another song is her "(I Can't Get Anything Done Because I'm Having) Too Much Fun," catchy and fun. And with Robyn Hitchcock again, "Let's Go Thundering" (from Storefront Hitchcock) and "Sinister but She Was Happy" from a '97 show at the Knitting Factory. Duets with Deni (That is the title sequence, there are lots of great songs in the column to the right) is a great place to hear some more of her collaborations; The Living Room in Manhattan is a good place to hear some more of the stuff she is doing on her own.
• Also appearing a couple of times, Vassar Clements plays a pretty mind-boggling version/performance of "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" (from his record Livin' With the Blues) and rollicking breakdown in "Jerry's Breakdown" (from Old & In The Way's November '73 concert at Sonoma State).
• "Älgen PÃ¥ Taket" is a Swedish folk tune -- it is Barbara Lamb and her father David both fiddling. Haunting, worshipful music. (For the moose lovers in the audience, "Älgen PÃ¥ Taket" means "Moose on the Roof".) From their record Swedish Design.
• Stuff Smith is my favorite band leader I think, right up there with Fletcher Henderson. He has "You'se a Viper" with an amazing solo (and an amazing horn solo as well) in the middle of the song and an enchanting version of "St James Infirmary." If you'd like any more of his songs, drop me a line -- I have a couple of CD's worth on my computer.
• Jason Carter is fiddler on "Graveyard Shift" with the Del MacCoury band and Steve Earle. This is one of the funnest songs on The Mountain; if you enjoy it I definitely recommend the record.
• "The Fiddling Ladies" is Natalie MacMaster playing fiddle with The Chieftains (I'm not sure, there are at least two people playing fiddle in all, maybe 3, along with assorted other instruments...) -- I love this song, actually included a segment cut from it on my previous mix too. But I think the whole 10 minutes is highly worth listening to both just for the pleasure of it and for the interesting ideas about fiddle. This is what I'm aiming to have at the conceptual heart of the compilation -- to that end MacMaster also closes the track list with "Farewell to Peter" (from Yours Truly).
• "When You Awake" is one of the band songs I'm less acquainted with; I was listening to this performance of it, on Before the Flood and found myself gravitating toward Danko's fiddle part -- I had not even known he played fiddle.
• "Dancing Barefoot/Drowsy Maggie" and "Walk Right In" are certainly the two recordings of Mountain Station's that I'm the most tentatively happy with. We ought to do some more recording, I can hear it getting better... Prematurely thought of an album title this afternoon, Ephemeral Content, now we just need a band name...

The track listing:

1. "Dancing Barefoot", by John and me.
2. "Killin' Blues", by Moore, Byrd, and Johnson.
3. "The Arms of Love", Robyn Hitchcock.
4. "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning", Vassar Clements.
5. "Too Much Fun", Deni Bonet.
6. "You'se a Viper", Stuff Smith's orchestra.
7. "Älgen På Taket", Barbara Lamb and David Lamb.
8. "Graveyard Shift", Steve Earle and the Del MacCoury band.
9. "The Fiddling Ladies", Natalie MacMaster with the Chieftains.
10. "Let's Go Thundering", Robyn Hitchcock.
11. "Poca River Blues", Dick Justice and Reese Jarvis.
12. "When You Awake", Bob Dylan and The Band.
13. "Sinister but She Was Happy", Robyn Hitchcock.
14. "Saint James Infirmary", Stuff Smith orchestra.
15. "Walk Right In", Mountain Station.
16. "Vine Street Drag", the Tennessee Chocolate Drops.
17. "Jerry's Breakdown", Old and In The Way.
18. "Farewell to Peter", Natalie MacMaster.

posted evening of Saturday, June 5th, 2010
➳ More posts about Fiddling
➳ More posts about Music
➳ More posts about Mix tapes
➳ More posts about Drowsy Maggie
➳ More posts about Walk Right In
➳ More posts about Storefront Hitchcock
➳ More posts about Robyn Hitchcock

my iPod says "thanks for the new food!"

posted afternoon of June 6th, 2010 by cleek

Woo-hoo! We're on cleek's iPod™ -- the worldwide takeover continues apace...

posted evening of June 6th, 2010 by Jeremy

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