Cover art of Fiddle Tunes and Ballads by Alex Caton on fiddle and banjo and Pat Egan on guitar.
Shawn Brenneman has organized another house concert at Mark's (up the spiral staircase at 314 Clay Street SW, Blacksburg VA) Doors open at 7pm and the music starts at 7:30pm. The $10 suggested donation goes entirely to Caton and Egan. Folks often bring drinks and/or snacks to share. You can park in the lot for the Blacksburg Library.
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There are three cuts off of the 2011 album at Caton's website and they are gorgeous!
Fisherman's Island is a reel I first heard played by Wild Asparagus. It's on album "Call of the Wild."
Pretty Green Island is a ballad I first heard sung by George Tucker on the Rounder record George Tucker, Kentucky Coal Miner (#0064, 1975) collected and recorded by Guy Carawan in Beaver, KY. Tucker is probably better known for Come All You Coal Miners, recorded on the same label with Sarah Gunning, Hazel Dickens and Nimrod Workman. Here's his version.
Night Flyer by the late Johnny Mullins (see also here) is a song I first heard on the 2004 remaster of Emmy Lou Harris Luxury Liner. (I like Caton's version better. BTW, here's Mullins singing one of his own songs. Listening to him, I think Caton's performance may be closer to how he conceived it. Sort of like the difference between Whitney Houston and Dolly Parton singing Parton's "I Will Always Love You." or between Roberta Flack and Peggy Seeger singing Ewan MacColl's "The First Time." )
The window is open - so why don't you fly?
Could it be you have lost all the yearning to try?
Your cage is a prison - they've kept you so long
But wings are for flying - the throat's for a song
So fly like an eagle and land like a dove
Go find all the places you must have dreamed of
Fly away with your troubles and drop them somewhere
And if you're only dreaming I don't really care.
They won't even miss you - or ask where you've been
They'll feed you and listen for a song now and then
Fly over the mountain and come back to me
And tell in your song what it's like to be free
So fly like an eagle and land like a dove
Go find all the places you must have dreamed of
Fly away with your troubles and drop them somewhere
And if you're only dreaming I don't really care
God gave us the places to labor and strive
But if living ain't nothing but staying alive
Then give me the dying if that's what you found
Don't sing on my grave or drop flowers on the ground
So fly like and eagle and land like a dove
I'll find all the places that I have dreamed of
Fly away with my troubles and drop them somewhere
And if I'm only dreaming I don't really care.
But you be the judge. Here's Emmylou...
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Other on the album tracks include:
Pink (mp3 from Reverbnation--this is a longer version with more verses of what John McCutcheon
calls "Little Pink" on Barefoot Boy with Boots On)
Peeler Roland's/ John Doherty's / Man of the House (video)
Farewell to Milltown Malbay / Bunch of Keys
The Eagle's Whistle / Crackling Radio
Scully Casey's / The Tidy Woman
Miner's Song (This may be what she performs it in this video with other musicians as "Coal
Mining Song.")
Mulingar Races/ Jenny's Welcome to Charlie / The Steeplechase (the latter, a west Clare reel, is in this video of Egan playing with Chulrua in 2008)
Wayside Tavern
Nancy Rowland's (video)
The CD was recorded in Caton's home studio in Gordonsville, Virginia and mixed and mastered by the NRV's Joe Bass (Joseph Dejarnette) at his studio 808a in Floyd.
UPDATE 11/24: At the House Concert, Caton and Egan played selections from their new collaboration with old time guitarist and singer Dick Harrington, also recorded in Caton's home studio in mixed and mastered by Joe Bass at 808a in Floyd.
Swimmng to Lindsey (featuring Patrick Egan)
Who Will Sing for Me (f. Dick Harrington)--see below
Ora Lee (f. Patrick Egan) (video of Caton playing solo for the 2011 WTJU fundraiser)
Preparing for Him (f. Dick Harrington)
Valley (f. Dick Harrington)
Yew Piney Mountain
Beauty Abounds (f. Dick Harrington)
Morning Glory (f. Dick Harrington)
I'm Thinking, Ever Thinking (f. Patrick Egan)
Polka Johnny / Polka Neilli / Possum Up A'simmon Tree (f. Patrick Egan)
Here's a video of "Who Will Sing for Me" that Caton performed with Dick Harrington in the same "scratchy low tuning" for the fiddle we got to hear Friday night from an October house concert at Charlottesville Friends of Old Time Music (C-FOOT).
