Hitchhiking on the Wrong Side of the Road

A country blues song about the yearning for a comfortable bed.

Limpalong

Louise

Together's Where We'll Never Be

Thank My Lucky Stars

Sweet Little Thing

Paradise Lost

Vocals:
Joseph "Chinaman" Johnson and Group -  Falling Down
Maestross - Acapella

Hal Mayforth - guitars, bass and drum programming
Voices of Ghosts is a bridge between the past and the present.  I have found old vocals from the first half of the 20th century (found from various sources and with painstaking pleasure) and built instrumentation around them.  In most cases, the collaboration developed organically, and I have tried to respect the originals by not burdening them with excessive contributions.  The result, I think, is an interesting hybrid, well worth the listening.  (All selections are public domain, to the best of my knowledge.)   If I have taken any liberties here, I hope the ghosts will forgive me.

Falling Down

Voices of Ghosts is a bridge between the past and the present.  I have found old vocals from the first half of the 20th century (found from various sources and with painstaking pleasure) and built instrumentation around them.  In most cases, the collaboration developed organically, and I have tried to respect the originals by not burdening them with excessive contributions.  The result, I think, is an interesting hybrid, well worth the listening.  (All selections are public domain, to the best of my knowledge.)   If I have taken any liberties here, I hope the ghosts will forgive me.

I Be So Glad When the Sun Goes Down

I Am The Way (Mtuba)

Prettiest Train

Pissing in the Wind

Hithhiking on the Wrong Side of the Road

Ghost Story

It All Comes Back on You

Take a Chance on Me

A version of the old Blind Willie Johnson song

Solo

Nobody's Fault But Mine - Blind Willie Johnson

My version of the Mississippi Fred McDowell song played on my 1938 National Duolian.

Gravel Road Blues - Mississippi Fred McDowell

I had the pleasure of playing with Michael for eight years in the Central Vermont band, The Heckhounds. He was a terrific songwriter. Michael sadly left us in 2014 and since then I have been learning his songs in an effort to keep his music alive. Boston Blues was in The Heckhounds' repertoire for many years. In this version I have changed the original tempo.

Boston Blues - Michael Murdock

Don't Come Running to Me

The Road Taken

I had every intention to make a song out of this, but lyrics were elusive, so I decided to make it into a Booker T. and the MGs kind of thing. I am not a keyboard player, but recently purchased a Yamaha Reface YC, which does a pretty good Hammond B-3 imitation.

Pongo

This song was written after a trip to Florida with my my wife, just prior to COVID lockdown. The chorus of this song is taken verbatim from a plaque on the back of a bench at the Honeymoon Island nature reserve.

Dorothy Lepke Smiles

Blues is the foundation of the house.  That's the bedrock.  But there are many rooms in the house: Memphis soul, reggae, rock and roll.  Those closest to my heart and soul (Wilson Pickett, Albert King, Son House, Lowell George, Hendrix) have all been influential and  impeccable guides along my musical path.  When all is said and done, though, it's just me: a composite of my loves and influences.  I hope you enjoy the music.  

When my Montpelier, VT band, The Heckhounds, dissolved in 2015 and I moved to Massachusetts, I was band-less and left to my own devices for the time being.  I came across old recordings, online and elsewhere, of chain gangs singing, field hollers, preachers preaching and congregations moaning and wailing.  They fascinated me.  I began to layer instrumental tracks around these "found vocals" and created a set of hybrid songs, mixing old and new.  Except for some loops, I played all the instruments.  Eventually, I recorded three albums in what I refer to as my "Ghost" series: Voices of Ghosts (2014), Ghost Dance (2016), and Ghost Notes (2017).

After a few years of playing around others' voices, I wanted to get back to my own voice and songs, and I began working on the songs that would eventually become Trouble in Tubertown (2018).  I followed that, a year later, with  Hitchhiking on the Wrong Side of the Road (2019).  On both albums, I use drum loops but play all other instruments, even learning harmonica for the last album.  And while these albums differ from each other, both return me to my love of songwriting and of crafting and arranging my own songs.

may4th

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