COVER NOTES Tiny organisms, the Bengal Tiger, the Human race. All are endangered. So are artists who fight control and self-censorship. Life has never been easy for anyone who performs folk songs, least of all those who breach the bounds of nostalgia and easy listening with songs of conflict, hope, struggle and injustice. Fed up of sexed-up folk-pop? Hungry for truth? This album is for you. Thanks to all who helped make this music. Ben Paley, whose mastery of American folk and more runs in his veins. His dad Tom Paley, a living legend of unique style and character who taught me and many more. Neil Warren, wizard of the mouth harp from deepest Oxford. Dave Botting, musician, singer and consummate songwriter. Children, Zoe and Bart, cello, vocals and bass. Simon “Woody” Wood, whose skill and judgement brings out the best in these songs. Jane, who knows me by now, without whom I could not keep on keeping on. And all the song carriers, musicians and authors I have ever met who touched my head, hand and heart. SONG NOTES Danville Girl Hobos, trains, gambling and wild women, timeless elements of many a great folksong brought together here. I’ve heard many perform it including Dock Boggs, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Barbara Dane, Spider John Koerner and a favorite, Hedy West. I put together this one from several versions to make a good story in the old time syle. Don’t You Know Me? The answer to a question about our future children’s upbringing during courtship became a phrase which stuck and gave a title to this love song written 37 years later. The McCoy Hotel I wrote this in 1966 after it was revealed that the Chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority, one of that city’s biggest slumlords, owned the Skid Row flophouse where Death stalked the weakest each night. Every word is true. The Battleship of Maine In 1898 the US Battleship Maine blew up at Havana, Cuba. The US blamed Spain, invaded Cuba and took over Spanish possessions, beginning the American overseas empire. This dog soldier’s view of the conflict is from a 1927 recording by Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, famously interpreted by the New Lost City Ramblers in 1958. Tom Paley, one of the original Ramblers takes up his guitar again for this one. The Rough Riders were the elite cavalry unit in which Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, served. He became the 26th US President after McKinley’s assassination in 1901. Snoopers Orwell’s 1984 was child’s play compared to revelations by Edward Snowdon and others of how the NSA in the US and GCHQ in the UK have been collecting everything we do and say through electronic media for years. The lyrics are fitted back-to front to Uncle Dave Macon’s “The Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train.” The Killing of Michael Brown A tale of injustice representing a moment in time and many such moments which continue to eat at the myth of the American Dream, turned to dust at the hands of corrupt, power crazed authority. Will people remember Michael Brown and Ferguson Missouri? Will retelling the story help to stop the killings? Sail Away Ladies could have originated as an Irish set dance tune. Uncle Dave Macon’s foot stomping 1927 recording was the model for the New Lost City Ramblers 1963 version. Tom Paley sings and plays banjo once again. Mr Bojangles was written in 1968 after a chance jail cell meeting between a man masquerading as the old dancer of the title and musician Jerry Jeff Walker. It has been popular ever since, recorded by a great many artists, no doubt for its story line and originality. Nina Simone’s did it for me. I try to reflect on the author’s experience and Nina’s ability to transport me to that far off time and place. Troubadour was written for Pete Seeger’s 94th birthday, May 3 2013. Each stanza is a chapter in his life, from his rambles with Woody Guthrie across the USA to teaching “This Land is Your Land” to millions at the Presidential Inauguration of 2008 and more. Going ‘Cross the Mountain The title phrase describes a Southern man who went to fight on the Union (boys in blue) side in the Civil War. It comes to us from Frank Proffit, old time North Carolina singer and fretless banjo player, whose grandfather was said to have gone “cross the mountain” and may have composed the song. Frank Warner who met him in 1937 helped his songs reach a wider audience. I heard Proffit perform at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, two years before he died. 700 Miles In the 1960s the distance from Oxford, Ohio to New York City before the Interstate network was built took at least 14 hours. We shared driving, started liaisons, fed at truck stops and nursed that 1949 Oldsmobile to and fro on those long vacations. Dink’s Song Collected by John Lomax on the Texas Brazos in 1904. Dink’s man worked on the levee while she washed his overalls and kept his ten “right nice” The lost original recording has been re-interpreted many times, most powerfully and beautifully by Barbara Dane in the 1950s. Tornado Alley Among the rescue team in the aftermath of the twister that flattened Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, 2013 was Betsy Randolph of the State Highway Patrol. I copied down Betsy’s radio commentary after a long night of heart breaking labor and the song wrote itself with very little shaping by me. The people of Moore have come to accept rebuilding their town again and again. Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender This version of the Scottish ballad Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, Child No 73, widespread in America from colonial times. Pressure to marry for wealth versus true love for a poor girl opens a tragedy of Greek proportions, which unfolds beautifully and sparingly. I first heard this version around 1960, probably from the Mike and Peggy Seeger, sang it often with soul mate Kathy Davis through our college days. The harmonies and instrumentation, developing and amplify the story’s emotion, as they should. Tom Cat Blues Direct sexual content, far too risky almost a hundred years ago was frequently “coded” in songs, jokes and stories. Recorded by Cliff Carlisle in 1932, the Ramblers stayed faithful to the slide guitar arrangement which made this song stand out. I have loved it ever since I heard it in the early 60’s. Charlie Hebdo Would-be oppressors always strike at the art, music, culture, language and expression of their victims. The murder of cartoon artists at the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo was intended to breed fear and self-censorship in free people everywhere. But the outpouring of emotion amongst the millions who marched in Paris and around the world put free expression at the heart of what makes us human. Long may we poke fun at all fakes and fools.