Dirt Road Instrumentals
Price $7.00
Out Takes: 1989-1999
What is an Out Take?
It’s a song that never made it to a CD album even though it was given every possible consideration when it was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered. Why did they not make it? Some were worked on with no clear project in mind – like Stonebuilders – an orphan song that now has found a home. I think at the time that I just didn’t know what to make of it. Marching to Gettysburg might’ve been the first piece to a Civil War album that never got produced and my first violin/ fiddle-only song that ultimately inspired Lighter Than Fancy but didn’t fit into the sugaring themes that embodies Lighter. These two songs also mark a decidedly different approach to the sometimes ‘throw it all to the wind’ method of recording my layered violins; Stonebuilders was built line by line, harmony upon harmony, fixed and precise – as was Gettysburg. Wild Mountain Thyme was recorded for a Cable network TV nature film and then simply forgotten – I always loved the second verse with its defining counterpoint second violin part.
- Wild Mountain Thyme - 2:29
- December 26th - 4:32
- Trust (coda) - 3:04
- Buffalo - 6:10
- Marching to Gettysburg - 4:28
- Good Friend Gone - 3:56
- Stones of Gilead - 4:04
- Stone Builders - 3:13
- Giving and Receiving - 3:53
- Silver Birch (with Violins) - 4:17
- Coit's Gore Revisited - 3:50
CD Tracks
December 26th is a true out take from Close To Home, mixed 30 times or more with its (for my music) complex parts – somehow the drums didn’t fit into the focused reverence of those themes. Silver Birch originated with these gorgeous two part violins before I transferred the ideas to two flutes in tight harmony. I felt it offered a change to my violin/guitar sound and was eager to incorporate these new ideas into Close To Home – which also features the symphonic piano piece Warmth.
Trust was recorded during the In the Light of Autumn sessions and features the exquisite playing of Charles Eller; this is actually the tail section of a nine minute vocal song that appeared on the limited release Dirt Road Ballads.
The title track for the CD Calling in the Winter originated in the form of Buffalo which embodied the stately melody but seemed too plaintive to me at the time. It eventually turned majestic on the Winter CD.
Good Friend Gone was an instrumental song that first appeared on The New Generation of Old Vermonters, an out of print singer-songwriter CD from ’91. Guest keyboardist Eugene Uman, founder of the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, offers his soulful accompaniment with us both playing ‘live’ in the studio.
Stones of Gilead is the instrumental version of the ballad that appears on Open Road and also the previously mentioned Dirt Road Ballads. Because the vocal version always was the focus of the song – these unmistakable melancholy violin parts were irresistible to me the time and I’m glad I spent the time on it.
Also released on New Generation, Coit’s Gore Farewell continues to deliver it’s passionate resignation these many years later and features the rich sounds of the great ground-breaking synthesizer of the 80’s – the Roland D-50. The last lost treasure Giving and Receiving was found only recently on an old DAT tape used for cassette production. It’s edited down from the 20 minute version found on my third official release – the cassette-only Hands of Love. With its deep and dancing violins and mixed at the famous White Crow studio in Burlington, it was the sonic precursor to Gardener’s Rain which was also mixed there the following year. It was later redone as a guitar piece on Winter and the title track from the Hands of Love cassette was reinvented in two parts on Close To Home.
