Letter writing was the only way young soldiers could reach their loved ones back home throughout the war. At Camp Clark before battle, Major Sullivan Ballou penned a letter to his wife Sarah (née Shumway) at home in Rhode Island:

03 Gotta Get Goin'

The new album from Goodnight, Texas due out on August 5 on Tallest Man Records. 

http://hiwearegoodnighttexashowareyou.com 
https://www.facebook.com/goodnighttexas
http://www.youtube.com/goodnighttexasmusic


Knock 'Em Stiff

Uncle John Farquhar (I Guess I Did Alright)

Ballad Of A Fair Young Lady

Dearest Sarah

Cold Riders

A Bank Robber's Nursery Rhyme

Cabin Fever (Bonus Track Version)

Dig Gravedigger Dig

We cannot forget the Wolfs, Campions, Dyers, Vinocurs, Padians, Knights, nor Lester Wisner, Kelly McFarling, Tim Marcus, & our beloved Boondoggle, all of whom guided us with steady hand/paw. And furthermore, these gentlemen wish to express their humble gratitude to Jeff Yeager for resurrecting the machine that contained these recordings.
credits
released October 2, 2012 

The Authors: 
No. 1, 3, 4, 8, 10 by Avi Vinocur (Seriously Serious Songs (ASCAP)) 
No. 2, 5, 9, 11 by Patrick Dyer Wolf (Porch Couch Songs (ASCAP)) 
No. 6 by Avi Vinocur, Spence Koehler, Shannon Koehler, Aaron Mort 
No. 7 by Avi Vinocur and Patrick Dyer Wolf (Seriously Serious Songs/ Porch Couch Songs (ASCAP)) 

The Performers: 
A. VInocur - Vocal, Mandolin, Guitar, Banjo, Drums 
P. D. Wolf - Vocal, Guitar, Banjo, Drums, Bass 
Jonathan Kirchner - Upright bass 
Andrew Laubacher - Drums, Percussion 

Kelly McFarling - Vocal 
Tim Marcus - Pedal Steel Guitar, Milk 
Max Miller-Loran - Trumpet 
Matthew Lindsay, Brent Stratton, Ryan Cox, Melissa Rakowitz, Alexei Wajchman, Alex Nash, Misha Khalikulov, Max Miller-Loran, J. Kirchner and Micah Dubreuil lent their voices to "The Railroad." 
A. Wajchman and M. Miller-Loran sang and created a general ruckus on "Plan of Attack." 

The Technicians 
Recorded by A. Vinocur in his apartment in San Francisco, CA 
Mixed by Scott McDowell at Hyde St. Studio C in San Francisco, CA 
Mastered by John Cuniberti in Oakland, CA 

The Artists 
Wet plate collodion photographs of Goodnight, Texas by David Bornfriend. 
1860's tintype photographs of unknown people by unknown photographers are from Avi's collection. 
Album art design by Matthew Fleming.

Meet Me By The Smokestack

Submarines

I'm Going To Work On Maggie's Farm Forever

The ghost town of Goodnight, Texas sits halfway between the homes of San Francisco's Avi Vinocur and North Carolina's Patrick Dyer Wolf, whose transcontinental collaboration has taken on the name of its geographic midpoint. After meeting in San Francisco and learning each other's melodies, the pair of songwriters found their stylistic midpoint amidst old wooden instruments and a vision of late nineteenth century blue collar America - a grittier, simpler, more mysterious world full of raw pain and beauty. 

The band's debut LP A Long Life of Living breathes fascination with the fading memory of generations in our country's patchwork of opportunity, immigration, and tragedy, and muses on our own era's place in the story. Vinocur's deep ancestral roots in the Appalachian hills of western Maryland are alive in songs like "Jesse Got Trapped In A Coal Mine," a mandolin-driven elegy for a doomed young fiancé. The song is at once heavy, dusty, and so catchy as to be instantly memorable. Wolf's lyrical wistfulness echoes his recent migrations from Northeast to West to South. He  reflects on the fleetingness and importance of life's minutia in "Car Parts and Linens," staring eternity in the face from a porch rocking chair and drawing on North Carolina's stylistic petri dish on the album's terminal ballad. 

While they are clearly different writers, the Wolf/Vinocur venn diagram is consistently compelling. Together with Bobby Kendall, Alex Nash and sometimes others, Goodnight, Texas has the dynamic range of a ragged orchestra and a story that will stand the test of time.

Dearest Sarah

Goodnight, Texas

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