I am in a band that released a CD over a year ago and I have been embarrassingly remiss in announcing that fact here. So I thought some of my C&F peeps might like to know.
We named the CD “Mist Covered Mountains” for this two-fold reason: that is the name of track 7, and we recorded it in mountainous Boone, NC. So there you go.
The CD or individual MP3 tracks can be purchased through CDBaby, Amazon, or ITunes. Or directly by contacting me if you want a signed copy for some reason (when we’re all dead, maybe it’ll be worth eBaying).
10 of the tracks are traditional, tracks 4 and 12 were written by our guitarist, Richard Nardin, who was a professional folk singer for a while in NY in the 70s and 80s before giving in to the lure of computer programming.
And because it’s better than working, I will give you my notes about each track individually, including the instruments I used thereupon. Enjoy.
1. Next Market Day
This song is also known as “A Maid Went To Comber” so I’ve always assumed it was No. Irish. It’s about a maid who is led astray by a young man who buys all the yarn she brought for market so she can dally with him and learn a tune called “The Next Market Day” (make of that what you will…)
I used a Colin Goldie A whistle on this track.
2. Rose and the Lindsey
This song is based on Childe Ballad 20: “The Cruel Mother”. It has been featured several times on Back Porch Music, a show on our local NPR station, WUNC.
I accompany the fiddle on the instrumental break, playing “Star of Munster” on a composite Burke D whistle.
3. North Amerikay
This song is sung Sean-nós by our fiddler, Jeff Cates. An Irish lady sails to Canada to find her love who moved there previously. Surprisingly, there’s a happy ending.
4. Cocked Hat
This is an original song by our guitarist Richard Nardin. He based it on a Thomas Hardy short story, “The Three Strangers”. It’s about an escaped prisoner meant for hanging the next morning who takes shelter during a storm in a shepherd’s house. The shepherd then also lets in the executioner, on his way to perform said hanging, who doesn’t realize his quarry is sitting right in front of him.
We break halfway through for Richard to catch his breath while we toot out the polka “Maggie in the Woods”, I on my Burke D again.
5. Braes of Balquhidder
A Scottish love song which some think is the father of “Wild Mountain Thyme”. I think we learned this from The Tannahil Weavers. The village name “Balquhidder” is counterintuitively pronounced like “bell weather”.
I used the Goldie A on this.
6. Star of the County Down
You know it, you love it. We mix in “King of the Fairies” as the mood takes us.
I use a Copeland Low D which I bought from board member greenspiderweb just before we recorded.
7. Mist Covered Mountains
This is the only track on which I sing. So, you know, skip it. Just kidding, I like how it came out, especially the harmonies provided by my cohorts on the choruses (chori?). We do the verses in English and the chorus in Gaelic. It is sung from the point of view of a Scottish sailor returning home after a long voyage, and presumably looking forward to the mist on the mountains in his Highland home.
The intro, outro, and break are O’Carolan’s Welcome which I play on a Burke Aluminum C.
8. Shinin’ Clear
A song about moonshining based the poem “A Mile An’ a Bittock” by Robert Louis Stevenson.
I used my Burke composite D again on this.
9. Wise Maid/Templehouse/Cregg’s Pipes
The only tune set we managed to get recorded on our tight schedule: some reels.
Burke composite D again. By this point it was getting quite tired and needed to rest.
10. Haul Away Joe
A sea chanty accompanied only by bodhran and handclaps (which are harder to record than I realized).
11. Brennan on the Moor
The story of a highwayman in the style of the Clancy Brothers. We follow it with “Over the Moor to Maggie” (wink), with a bevy of multitracked instrumentation including Richard’s son Gabe Nardin on Bouzouki.
I play my trusty Burke composite D yet again.
12. Piper’s Refrain
The other original song on this CD by Richard Nardin. This song has been covered many times over the years. It is the story about the death of Scottish nobleman Duncan Campbell. Campbell gets stuck between hospitality and familial loyalty and consequently his cousin’s ghost warns him that he will die in Ticonderoga (a place he’s never heard of). Later, while fighting in the French and Indian war near Lake Champlain in upstate NY, he finds himself at Fort Ticonderoga, recognizes the name, and knows he’s about to die.
I was extremely happy with how the whistling came out on this track. I usually play my Sindt high D for this song, but after recording that I decided to see what the Copeland Low D would sound like. During playback with the high D recording, I hit on a nice harmony and we kept both tracks. Now there’s a real “soaring over the highlands” feel to it, IMHO.
