As far as I can tell, this raggy blues ditty is about abject poverty and hunger. It’s transcribed in my wildly unpopular book (albeit the more spare Luke Jordan version). Interestingly, the good folks at Mel Bay decided that portions of the song were too filthy to print, and expurgated them without telling me. You can’t say anything any more without people taking it dirty…

That said, I did a little cleanup of my own. I removed the ‘N’ word reference, replaced it with ’rounder’, and rhymed it with ‘flounder’. Amazingly, I am still yet to win a MacArthur Foundation Genius award for my work.

Recorded for the Paramount label in Grafton, Wisconsin, probably in March 1931. Tangleweed has recorded this song for possible inclusion on our as-yet-untitled third CD.

Pick Poor Robin Clean (MP3)
Courtesy of archive.org

More from Geeshie Wiley:
Geeshie Wiley playing Last Kind Words

This is a work of almost indescribable beauty, a vocal performance with a striking depth of feeling and guitar accompaniment that is equally remarkable. As far as I know, her entire recorded output consists of six sides for the Paramount label, and, while each is to be treasured, her Last Kind Words is the most transcendent. It is one of the finest records you will ever have the privilege to hear.

Recorded in Grafton, Wisconsin, for the Paramount label, probably in March, 1930.

Last Kind Words (MP3)
Courtesy of the archive.org

True to form, Homer and Jethro take a simple comic song and turn it into an impressive instrumental showpiece. It really starts to swing about the 1:15 mark. From the Jimmy Dean show.

This just popped up on YouTube yesterday–a video of an anonymous drummer playing along to our first CD while driving the streets of Chicago. If the author would like to play some steering wheel with us sometime, he should drop us a line.

The tune is ‘Cindy’, from our Just a Spoonful CD. For what it’s worth, it’s the only Frankentake on the first CD (at least that I can remember). For the uninitiated, a Frankentake is a composite of multiple performances, edited together. They can be minor edits (like this one), or major surgery (like Lars Ulrich’s drum tracks, which may come from literally dozens of different takes).

Cindy is a good, old-fashioned Frankentake. Bob Weston pulled out the razor blade, cut the tape, and spliced in a chunk from another, more in-tune performance. The drop out part (‘peaches in the summertime…’) comes from an alternate take.

Here’s a fun little artifact from the Where You Been So Long sessions: a version of the Leaving of Liverpool (MP3) without vocals.

When we record our tunes, we usually do the instrumental tracks as a group, and then overdub vocals. We had done this song a few times at Irish gigs and in our usual loud bar environments, and I had gotten in the habit of belting out the lead vocal Clancy Brothers style. It worked fine then, but when it came time to record the vocal in the studio, though, I became acutely aware of just how horrible I sounded.

We did it in ‘A’ because that’s the key it was in on the Dubliners record I learned it from¹. But it’s below my range. And there were other problems beyond that. The big ‘F’ sound on the first word of the song (‘Farewell’) was causing me to lose all my breath pressure. By the time I got to the second big ‘F’ (on ‘far away’), I was sounding like a bagpipe that had been run over by a semi truck.

I did about a dozen takes that day, each significantly worse than the one before, and then gave up. We contemplated redoing it in a different key, or having someone else do the lead. In the end, though, we had Mike do this Karaoke mix of the tune for me to practice to. You can still hear a faint remnant of my original guide vocal, but, otherwise, it’s just the instrumental backing tracks and some of the solos.

In our next session, I tried a completely different approach, doing the verses as quietly as I could muster. We did the choruses en masse, with Ryan, Billy, and me around a single mic, and then double-tracked it. The two tracks were panned hard to either side, giving a pleasant big vocal sound. We also lopped out part of the first solo section, as the song had gotten too long.

The result seems to have been acceptable. I will always be immensely proud of the fact that it was played on RTE. Anyway, grab a bottle of Jameson’s and sing along.

The Leaving of Liverpool (Karaoke mix) MP3

¹ Egads, that’s a lot of prepositions in one sentence… four counting the one that ends it. I am appalled.

Give your podcasts the air of legitimacy with these old National Association of Broadcasters bumpers, ripped from a scratch-tastic clear blue LP buried in the darkest depths of my record collection. Side one is the bumper with a voice over, side two is the instrumental backing track, allowing you to create an authoritative-sounding bumper all your own. Enjoy.

NAB

This station is a subscriber to the Radio Code of Good Practices of the National Association of Broadcasters.

NAB

NAB Bumper (w/ voiceover) MP3
NAB Bumper (instrumental) MP3

Work on our third CD is progressing nicely. Here are a few shots from our session last Sunday, by the author of this post, with a non-cameraphone camera. We tracked six songs, so we have basic tracks for 15 songs. Work on overdubs will begin next week.

Click on an image to see a higher-resolution version.

The band at work

The author of this post, with Scott Judd, in the control room

Mics in the live room

Last Friday Ryan and I attended the Friday Night Jam on the South Side. This is a weekly gathering of musicians and friends that has been going on since 1973 to play original and traditional acoustic music in an informal setting. It was hosted by Vik and Suzie who invited us into their home for some good music, company, and refreshments. Vik has modernized the jam by setting up microphones around his living room, recording the entire session, and then making a few of the songs available on the web. You can check them out here. Many thanks for their hospitality, and we hope to be jamming again soon!