@PAPASTEN - The playlist:
1.Buddy Bolden Blues - Buddy Bolden was a trumpet jazz musician, this is his most famous song, originally titled “Funky Butt”, and recorded by Jelly Roll Morton around 1937, but I learned it from Eric von Schmidt’s recording
2.Cold trail blues by Chris Smither
3.Hold on, by Chris Smither
4.If not now by Carrie Newcomer
5.Jesus met the woman at the well by the Rev Gary Davis, arranged by PP&M
6.Just a little while to stay by EM Bartlett, sung by Geoff Muldaur
7.Killing the Blues, by Alsion KLraus and Robert Plante, sung by Chris Smither
8.Leave the Light on, by Chris Smither
9.Sanctuary by Carrie Newcomer
10.Stick to rum by Eric von Schmidt
11.Throwing rocks at the moon by Carrie Newcomer – I can imagine us walking on Wells Beach, Maine, at night, throwing rocks at the moon ourselves
12.Writing you a letter by Carrie Newcomer
13.You can do this hard thing by Carrie Newcomer
14.Joshua gone Barbados by Eric von Schmidt
15.Lazybones by Hoagy Carmichael, played by Geoff Muldaur
16.This world is not my home by Alfred Bromley, sung by Geoff Muldaur
17.All by myself by Geoff Muldaur
18.Fishing Blues by Geoff Muldaur - I love the line about, I bet your wife can catch more fish than you, because that is true! Jane was out with her Dad on a lake in Northern Ontario and they ran into a feeding frenzy – every time they would cast out a fish would bite.
19.Wasn’t that a mighty storm recorded by Rev. Sin-Killer Griffin in 1934
One evening I was checking to see if Tom Rush was playing anywhere near us in Western Mass and I discovered that he was playing at a benefit for the University of Massachusetts Libraries’ Annual Fall Reception as they are the curators of Eric von Schmidt’s music. They arranged for musicians who knew and had played with Eric, which is why Tom Rush was there, along with Geoff Muldaur and Chris Smithers, and Eric von Schmidt’s daughter Caitlan was going to talk about her Dad. So I convinced Jane to accompany me as this event happened to fall on my birthday too! I confess that I lived a sheltered life as a teen and there was no internet, so searching was through word of mouth or on an AM radio station, or listening to an LP in a record store, and the only one of these artists I had heard or seen was Tom Rush. It was a terrific evening of music and Caitlan had brought her Dad’s art work which is wonderful and was influenced by and pictured the folk scene in the early 1960’s at Club 47, later called the Club Passim in Cambridge, Mass. He won a Grammy for a compilation album in 1997 entitled the Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol.1-3. Eric also wrote a book with Jim Rooney called “ Baby let me follow you down”, the “Illustrated story of the Cambridge folk years”, filled with great photos and stories. When I got home I searched and found music by all the artists. Eric’s music especially tends to be Blues – “Wasn’t that a mighty storm” is a song Eric found in the Library of Congress, attributed to the Reverend Sin Killer Griffin but the melody is an old traditional African-American melody; that song is also played by Tom Rush with a slide guitar , and Eric wrote a song I often sing called Joshua gone Barbados. Geoff Muldaur has an extensive and varied repertoire, establishing himself with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and Paul Butterfield’s Better Days Band, and recorded with many artists. His recordings are fun to listen to, including some Southern gospel music. Chris Smithers is a wonderful guitarist and composer who grew up in New Orleans but found Eric von Schmidt in Floritda and also in Cambridge, MA. He established a presence playing with Bonnie Raitt and she covers his songs “Love me like a man” and “I feel the same”. He has recorded 19 albums. Needless to say, I enjoyed and had to learn some of their music and figure out if I could do it justice.
YouTube is very helpful in showing videos of these artists. I created some playlists of their music and I decided to check a playlist I had titled “To play later” and I found a wonderful song by Carrie Newcomer called “If not now”. Carrie became a Quaker and is active in a community in Indiana which has inspired many of her songs. She has written books of poetry and has 19 albums. So, I downloaded some of her music and decided to learn some of her songs as well.
Perhaps inspired by Carrie’s music as well as some of Geoff Muldaur’s gospel tunes, I remembered a song from Peter, Paul, and Mary from their LIVE album , It can be seen and heard on YouTube, called “Jesus met the woman at the well”, based on the gospel of John 4, verses 4-26. It’s a song that you listen to and say to yourself,” I know this story, I’ve heard it so many times in church”. I decided to learn it and play it on this playlist as well.
I started tuning my Ovation guitar in Open D tuning and when I played a second track I would complement it with standard tuning on one of my Nylon stringed acoustic guitars.
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