my country!

soundtrack

Banjo or naw

All of these tracks were deeply assisted and arranged by the honorable Mr. Dan Greenwood. 

Dan Greenwood: Gut Banjo, Uke, Guitars, Percussion, Fiddle, Mandolin, Jaw Harp, washtub bass, washboards, vocals, and other.

Jeff Burns: Steel String Banjo, percussion, vocals, occasional clarinet, Bass, and mixtography

More from the Lonesome D-String Band:
@lonesomedstringband


Jeff Burns Originals

Solo stuff/ideas workshop

This playlist was created to with the idea of relaxing with friends and drinking coffee on a Sunday morning in mind.
This should help enhance conversations in a group of like minded souls.

Music for Sunday Brunch

A collection of good banjo tunes from around Soundcloud. Mostly in the areas of bluegrass and folk rock with some regional and funky thrown in for good measure.

March 2015: Banjo Time

Classic Banjo

We're over the moon to announce our next headline tour for February 2014  - (DATES BELOW)

TUE 4 FEB - BRIGHTON, THE BLIND TIGER CLUB
WED 5 FEB - OXFORD, THE JERICHO TAVERN
THURS 6 FEB - CARDIFF, CLWB IFOR BACH
FRI 7 FEB - BRISTOL, THEKLA 
SUN 9 FEB - LEEDS, THE BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB
MON 10 FEB - MANCHESTER, THE DEAF INSTITUTE
TUE 11 FEB - BIRMINGHAM, HARE & HOUNDS 
WED 12 FEB - NOTTINGHAM, RESCUE ROOMS 
THURS 13 FEB -LONDON, BUSH HALL

Pett Level

Old Crow Medicine Show - Alabama High-Test

Old Crow Medicine Show - Down Home Girl

Silhouette is a piece for solo guitar composed and performed by Randall Payne.

Silhouette

The Continuing Adventures of Marigold slapper

This is actually the song that made me want to learn clawhammer. I spent 4 weeks trying to figure it out about a year ago and gave up. Then about a month ago I was in Maine for the holiday and it sort of clicked.

Colored Aristocracy (Taj's arrangement in open c)

Battle cry of freedom

I originally cut this song for a Gratuitous Art Film I made with Cat Gilbert.

C is for Crazy: Fun cutting wax

Spring Peppers solo (with noodles)

An Idea In D Contnd

Jeff Burns: Closed Back Banjo
Dan Greenwood: Gut Banjo
Dan Greenwood: Washboard
Dan Greenwood: Guitar

More from the Lonesome D-String Band:
https://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

Spring Peppers (Lonesome D-String band with a side of squirrel.)

Our sound is old. Real old. Recorded on March 20 during a performance at Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas. We billed ourselves as the Lone Star String Band. Police never called.

Got The Jake Leg Too

tune: traditional   lyrics: Hobe Kytr
Hobe Kytr wrote new lyrics for the tune “Cotton Mill Girls” to create this song. We include it here because we love it, and it seemed to be a staple of the repertoire during Timberbound’s public performances.

Kate Sandgren - vocals
Joe Seamons - vocals, banjo
Gavin Duffy - guitar, mandolin, vocals
Jenny Estrin - fiddle
Max Kutzman - bass

Cedar Mill Boys

Wow. Well, Dan out did himself on this one. He handed me 15 tracks of audio, and I happen to be fond of all of them. I felt so embarrassed, I added a cymbal.

Dan Greenwood: Gut Banjo
Dan Greenwood: Fiddle
Dan Greenwood: Several Guitars with and without fuzz
Dan Greenwood: Jaw Harp
Dan Greenwood: Assorted percussion
Dan Greenwood: Am I forgetting something?
Dan Greenwood: I remember, electric Mandolin
Jeff Burns: 5 string open back
Jeff Burns: cymbal
Dan Greenwood again: I also forgot washboard.

For more on Lonesome D String Band: https://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

Woodscrew: Lonesome D String Band with a side of Squirrel

This is a waltz about Nana, a stray cat that primarily lived in the public garden next door to my backyard. She was 12 when I met her, and she had a clipped ear. That meant that NY animal control fixed her, apparently after her fourth litter. You could see her family all over the block. I fed her basically every day for almost two years, but she would also follow me around when I would weed the garden.

She was a stone cold thug. Preemptive no holds barred street fighter. Now after a few months she would let me rub her belly, but if another outdoor cat came near she would call them out and toss the gauntlet. She actually fatally injured the cat that broke her legs.

Last summer she became gravely wounded from a dangerous scrap with another feral cat, and she was forced to set camp beside an old trash can surrounded by rusty barb wire in my back yard. At least one of her back legs was broken, and she hadn't eaten in a while. I fed her by hand for about a week. She got better, then worse, then not so worse, then she died. I was at work when she poassed and it was so hot out by the time I got home from work to find her, the smell, the whole thing, was awful.

 Frankie and I wanted to bring her to the public garden next door to bury her. That's where she lived for a decade, but she was too far decomposed, it was over 95 degrees out, so she would have to stay in my backyard.

We all loved that cat, she loved us, she loved the neighborhood, and by god she was the wrong chick to mess with.

About this track, Dan did a lot of the arrangement. The slide added so much, and he sort of built the rhythm of the band, which Sarah filled out. The Uke fills that hi middle n a good swinging way.

Performers:
Dan Greenwood: Slide Tenor
Dan Greenwood: Guitar
Dan Greenwood: Washboard
Sarah Moskowitz: Uke
Jeff Burns: Steel String Banjo
Black Wood Pecker: supporting vocals

For more on Lonesome D String Band: @lonesomedstringband
For more on Sarah check out: https://soundcloud.com/sarahmouse  
and also https://soundcloud.com/samisarah

Soon there should be a version with singing sung!

Buried The Cat: Lonesome D-String Band with Moskowitz & Squirrel

Let Me Take You There

"Remedy" out now:
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/OCMSRemedyiTunes
Official Store: http://smarturl.it/OCMSatostore
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/OCMSRemedyAmazon

Old Crow Medicine Show - "Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer"

This is perhaps the first song I ever wrote on banjo with lyrics. It was pretty simple as a solo instrument piece, but when Dan started fleshing it out I think it became a lot catchier. The background vocals, and especially having two different washboards gave it some serious drive. 

I might put another version of this back up when Sami and Sarah turn in a few tracks, so check back and I will post that as well.

INSTRUMENTATION:

Dan Greenwood: Glass Washboard, Metal Washboard, Guitar, Washtub Bass, a drum, Mandolin, Background vocals, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

More from the Lonesome D-String Band:
@lonesomedstringband

Jeff Burns: Lead vocals, Steel string Banjo, Kick drum, the claps.


Lyrics:

There you go
There you go again
You shouldn’t have stolen that plane
From those angry Mexicans

There you go
There you go again
You called yourself a pilot
But you never learned to land

	There you go
	Your’a crazy crook
	Flying high
	For a second look

	There you go
	With me in toe
	Here we go
----------------------------------
There you go
Throwin’ bottles at friends
You even threw the game
For a stack of ben franklins

There you go
Stealing tips from the bar
The only keys you have
Are for scraping paint off cars

	There you go
	Youra crazy crook
	We’re out of fuel
	And pretty god forsook

There you go
With me in tow,
Aw hell, here I go

There I go 
There I go again
Woke up in a stolen car
Sitting next to a dead man

So I drove
Drove to Michigan
Pushed that crate in the lake
Never spoke of it again

	There I go
	I’m a crazy crook
	Flying lies
	And pretty god forsook

	Now how’d I get
	To be this way?
	My mind is clay
 

	There I go
	There I go again
	Shouldn’t have hung out
	With the wrong kind of friends




THERE YOU GO AGAIN (Lonesome D String Band with a Side of Squirrel)

This was a pile of lyrics I had scrawled out for something I'd play when I first started on the banjo. When I went back to the words, I decided to try it with a different Banjo tuning (open C) and that jump started some other ideas. While I was briefly waiting for Dan to do his magic, I tried recording my closed back directly through the pickup with 3 neckties tied around the strings near the bridge. That made some fun telecaster like sounds. From there Dan chimed in with Guitars, Washtub, Washboard, Mandolin, Harps, all sorts of fun. 

The basic idea of the song is a track of optimism, through tough financial times, that distorts as the song goes on. When you are working and broke, it can be easy to find yourself hiding out like a criminal to save money. That just furthers the process of walling yourself off from opportunities. 

Anyhow, I'll post the lyrics below and you can judge yourself. 
Do NOT FORGET to check out Sir Dan Greenwood's Soundcloud page:
https://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

Dan: Guitars, Harps, Slide Guitar, Washboards, Uke, Harmonium
Jeff: Steel String Banjo, Vocals, Bass, Muted by neck-tie electric Banjo

TRYING TIMES

Trying times,
When you walk to work with the holes in your shoes.
There's no breadlines,
But you can't afford to drink away the blues,

That is, unless you choose.

And your mind,
Is crushed beneath a months rent or two.
It’s almost a crime,
That there’s no rug to slip from under you.

Sometimes, it feels like a zoo

But you have to try,
And you'll get by.
Count enough nickles, you got a subway ride.

Walkin' the line,
Because another ticket would be the death of you.
Waitin for that sign,
Tired of redefining soon.

Time will make circles around you

You stay inside,
Cuz saving money is a popular thing to do.
Surfing through websites,
Lookin for hyperbole in the news

There must be something else to do.

Well Don't be shy,
Put on a crazy tie,
Every night is a chance to make shit up on the fly

Well don't be shy,
Put on a crazy tie,
You gotta try some new things during these trying times





TRYING TIMES: SJZB w/ Lonesome D STRING BAND

So sometime in early August I went to Maine with Laura to visit both our families. We were up in Fort Kent during the international celebration of the Acadian peoples. On top of the lobster rolls, and piles of ploeys, we visited a small fort called the block house. Inside was a set of lyrics for the Aroostook War Fighting song, originally set to the them of Auld Lang Syne. 

This bloodless war might seem pretty unfamiliar. Maine became a state in 1820. During the following years, it's boundary to the North was in heavy dispute with England. The British were sending teams in to cut down trees and that did not please our Governor Kent. In 1837 a propaganda effort was started along side an intelligence gathering operation, and the end result was a victorious bloodless war. 

I took some liberties and modified a verse into a chorus based upon the idea that the song would have been used as a call to arms, with shout outs to specific towns.

The only other historical inaccuracies I know of are the reference to Van Buren and Fort Kent as towns. Fort Kent was named after Gov. Kent because of this event, and Van Buren was named after the acting president also because of this.

Dan produced a lot of tracks on this one. Slide guitar, gut banjo, percussion, uke, dulcimer, mandolin, vocals, jaw harps, and electric strings.

I threw down some weird percussion, lead vocals,  steel string banjo, electric banjo, and string bass.

Lyrics:
   The Aroostook War Fighting Song

Bangor Feb 21, 1839

We are marching on to Madawask,
To fight the trespassers;
We’ll teach the British how to walk
And come off conquerors.

We’ll have our land, right good and clear,
For all the English say;
They shall not cut another log,
Nor stay another day.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Fort Kent needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

They need not think to have our land,
We Yankees can fight well
We’ve whipped them twice most manfully,
As every child a’can tell.

And if the tyrants say one word,
A third time we will show
How high the Yankee spirit runs,
And what our guns can do.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Presque Aisle needs you to pick up  your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

They better much all stay at home,
And mind their business there;
The way we treated them before,
Made all the nations stare.

Come on! Brace fellows one and all
The red coats ne’er shall say,
We Yankees, feared to meet them armed,
So gave our land away.


Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Frenchville needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.



We’ll feed them well with ball and shot,
We’ll cut those red coats down,
Before we yield to them a single inch
Or the titles to our ground.

Onward! My lads so brave and true
With o  ur country’s right demands
With justice and with glory fight
For these Aroostook lands!
 

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Caribou needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Easton needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Alagash needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Van Buren needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North and we’ll win this fight


Aroostook War Fighting Song

Me Oh My

From the movie The History of Future Folk

Written and performed by Nils d'Aulaire

Over The Moon Reprise (instrumental)

Work in Progress.

Written, performed, and recorded by James Montague 
w/Jake Sholly on Trumpet



Hills.

Something I have been working out for a G&B mix. There's some things I forgot to touch on this, but I was trying to break off arrangement to get deeper into playing the song.  It's pretty rough, but I think it will turn out alright, as most things do in life. Sally forth folks.
Jeff
PS: Here is the G&B version! https://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns/was-a-place-i-know

Oldtimethinking

So this is a piece with some strange beginnings. I had been editing a film about a music shop in Manhattan called Downtown Music Gallery. Those folks have performances once a week, usually Sundays, and the music you will here there often defies classification. Hearing all this great music by folks like Fred Frith really got some wheels turning in the old noggin.

This song started out as a sort of prog-rock banjo piece. I started the track with two electrified banjos and played a bunch of junk for percussion. It's form gets free, but the beat still exists during the ethereal parts. With all the wackiness I depended on Dan for some acoustics to ground the piece.  Dan came in with the gut banjo, slides, mandolin etc. There is no electric guitar in this song at all. Just two acoustics. I think the two washboards really help elevate the drum kit as well.

The end result is different from our usual sounds, but it does remind me of Woodscrew a bit. Hope you have fun digging along.  Any thoughts you want to add Dan?

-Jeff

Never Shave

This is a cover of Firkin's My Love John.
For more info about the band, please check:
http://www.firkinband.com/

 Lyrics: 

As I walked out in the bright morning to take a pleasant walk
I sat down beside an old wall just to hear two lovers talk
Just to hear two lovers talk my love
To hear what they might say
So I might learn a little more love before I go away

"P" stands for Paddy I suppose
"J" for my love John
"W" stands for false Willy-o
But Johnny is the fairest man

Johnny is the fairest man she said	
Johnny is the fairest man
I don't care what anybody says for Johnny is the fairest man

Come and sit beside me my love
Nah, I don't have the time
For you love another little lad
And your hearts no longer mine
And your hearts no longer mine he said
Hearts no longer mine
I don't care what anybody says for your hearts no longer mine

"P" stands for Paddy I suppose
"J" for my love John
"W" stands for false Willy-o
But Johnny is the fairest man

Johnny is the fairest man she said
Johnny is the fairest man
I don't care what anybody says for Johnny is the fairest man


My Love John (Feat. Cagil) (Firkin Cover)

FREE DOWNLOAD AT http://official.fm/tracks/300709

Thirteen Thirtyfive. Taken from Dillon's upcoming debut album out on Bpitch Control on the week of 11th of November. 

Thirteen Thirtyfive

Bluegrass Banjo

I Think I Heard a Sound

Wagon Wheel- Old Crow Medicine Show

This is an arrangement of the famous La Paloma (The Dove) by Sebastián Iradier (or Yradier), as arranged by the big man himself -- Alfred A. Farland. This habanera has reached a quasi-folk song status in a very large amount of countries in the world, which is even more surprising when one considers that the author died in obscurity shortly after returning from Cuba and never witnessed the fame his works would achieve.

Of course, one can only assume that the Scientific Banjoist of Pittsburgh would have executed it infintiely better than I have, but it's a very nice and effective arrangement which should be within the reach of most banjoists; the only difficulties are the tremolo passages (which can be omitted without any great loss) and some long stretches. The way he achieves dispersed harmonies and integrates parts of the bass line into the banjo's limited range is very clever.

La Paloma - Yradier

I'd love advice on this- do you guys think it's too long and monotonous? Let me know :) 

Thanks!

Lyrics to Hold Water:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it. 
The person we pay closest attention to is ourselves. 
It seems easy to fix when it’s someone else out there,
But my advice won’t hold water until you can hold yourself. 

It starts as one thing, but then it grows. 
First I want to pay some bills and then I want a castle with orange groves. 
Rationalization grows in me like a virus,
Incubating and warm, while I feel so cold. 

My intentions are good but they get out of control. 
I want to help and heal and I don’t want to grow old. 
I wouldn’t accept it at all, truth be told, 
But the clock is holding the whip and he ain’t letting go. 

I can’t tell you…(chorus)

The road will take you if the time is right
Doesn’t even matter if you want to try and put up a fight.
It’ll send a vagabond to help you on your way,
And your friends will miss you but they’ll see you again someday. 

I can’t tell you…(chorus)

I’ve always been a sucker for a voice, it’s always been true.
But now I know right where I am and exactly where I want to go. 
Being sure is something I’ve never found
Except for now. 

But I could give it up just as easily,
Throw it all away in the name of being free. 
I could jump in a car, drive so far. 
But you know I’ve done it before and I’d rather be right where you are. 


Hold Water - by Jennifer Stuart

We Banjo 3 live ar ORF RadioKulturhaus in Vienna 13th February 2013

Tripping Up The Stairs/The Fox/The Clumsy Lover - Live in Vienna

Old Crow Medicine Show - Ain't it Enough

My name is Jeff Burns, I live in Brooklyn, originally from Buxton, Maine, and I started playing 5 string banjo in early 2011. 

Lately I have done a lot of colaborations with Dan Greenwood AKA Lonesome D String Band.
We set up a new page so please check it out.
https://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

I also wrote a novella about lighting as my Mother has danced with such on more than one occasion.
http://www.amazon.com/Rain-Too-Heavy-For-Kites/dp/1477509283
That's a shameless plug, and I hope to offer some good shameless music, as music should have no shame (except when it's used as enhanced interrogation.)

Thanks for the listen folks,
Jeff Burns

Oldtimethinking

squirrel jam zombie banjo