Wonderfully beautiful, suttle, joyful, sad.  Amazing song and delivery.  Love it.

Great tune and wonderful msg!! needed that!!! :))))

Simply (and that's the hardest bit) beautiful !!..

I love this song so much. I find it to be sweetly sad. It makes me feel like you're singing wise advice directly to me. Great harmonies too.

A demo of a song that we're gonna record for our next album! Hope you dig it :)

Oh My Darling (Demo)

Hank Tilbury: ukulele; Martin Kirwan: guitars, bass

It was sometime late last year I started listening to a guitarist from Wicklow, Ireland, whose lyrical touch with traditional Irish melodies hooked me instantly.  Before long, he began posting some of his own improvisations.  These pieces had a much different feel--they were more about texture and instrumental interplay and subtle shifts of mood.  Since then, I've looked forward to every bit of music posted by Martin Kirwan, a.k.a.https://soundcloud.com/martin-k-g.   A lot of you know his work already, but if you don't, get on over there and feast your ears.

It's a real honor to me that Martin took an interest in one of my tunes and filled it out with an arrangement that turns a little ukulele sketch into a solid piece of music.  His guitars and bass take it beyond anything I'd imagined while preserving the excitement I felt when I was playing with the idea.  And he's a real gentleman, too--it's been a pleasure writing back and forth.

I've been fortunate to meet some great musicians out here in cyberspace, and one of the biggest thrills I've had is when one of them does something great with a tune of mine.  You can hear more collabs here: http://soundcloud.com/hanklebury/sets/collabifications/

The Quiet Stomp (featuring Martin Kirwan)

Tennessee

You've probably heard this on Jeff's page by now, but I'm uploading it just in case you missed it in the (US) holiday weekend crush. Jeff wrote this for Nana, a feral cat that found her way into his garden and his heart; she was already old when they got together, and after one catfight too many she passed away. The song tells the story.

Jeff posted the instrumental a while back, and under some pressure from Sarah and myself agreed to sing the lyrics he'd written for Nana. I think he did a wonderful job on it and look forward to hearing him on some more of his own material.

Since I was recording with a Squirrel and a Mouse, I needed a Rodent name as well, but the true rodent that starts with D appears to be the lowly Dormouse. 

Jeff Burns: Lead Vocals, banjo, words & music
Sarah Moskowitz: Ukulele
Lonesome Dormouse String Band: backing vocals, slide 4-string guitar, guitar, washboard

Squirrel: https://soundcloud.com/jeff-burns-4
Mouse: https://soundcloud.com/sarahmouse and https://soundcloud.com/samisarah

Picture: I will confess I'm not a pets guy, even though we've currently got cats, fish, hamsters and chickens. I like to play with them well enough, but feeding them and cleaning up after them and giving them insulin shots are things I can do without, But this guy in the picture? Eric the Cat. I married into his family, and he was my buddy, the greatest cat I've ever known. And yes, I buried him in the yard; he's under the tulips I used as the pic recently for Young Collins/Forked Deer. RIP Eric, gone these ten years.


Buried The Cat (Greenwood & Burns, with sarah mouse)

Jeff Says:
This was one of the most fun pieces to make on the whole album. Dan cooked up that intro, with the gut string banjo taking the lead and it sounded raw and nomadic. Even the dulcimer was adding to this effect for me. So, I tried to give it a few small tonal tweeks to emphasize the blurry lines between styles with the steel drums and and a modified lowered midi sitar. Next up Martin Kiran came in with a real sitar, his excellent ebow slide for that nice bowed saw sound, and an assortment of instruments I'd rather make Dan talk about because I will definitely mix something up. 

Once we had the intro worked out, we had our elves bring the material to Tim Olisker's work shop, where he takes this whole song into a much bigger world.
More wonderful work from Tim (Pianissimo):
https://soundcloud.com/pianissimo

Dan sez: This is one of my favorite carols, thanks to the same Mme Pennypacker referenced in my notes on Entre Le Boeuf. It has a similar ancient quasi-modal setting which simultaneously implies a sense of mystery and dignity,  and also opens it up to all kinds of musical cross-pollination. This has made it popular with holiday performances from all kinds of choirs but also with global fusion artists (see Loreena Mckennit's version), again, non of which we knew when we embarked on this version.

We'd also been hoping to do something with Tim, aka https://soundcloud.com/pianissimo, for some time. He mines similar sonic territory to KG&B, using an enormous library of digital sounds  to create vast, sweeping epic soundtracks, even if the movies haven't been made yet. The end result is a global fusion mixing Eastern and Western sound and traditions elegantly and beautifully. He was a natural pick for Noel Nouvelet, and we asked him to make his own arrangement to tie in with ours.

Pianissimo: everything after 2:27 
KG&B: Banjos, guitars, didgeridoo, jaw harps, percussion, bass, dulcimer, whistles, mandolin, vocals

Noel Nouvelet(Pianissimo with Martin Kirwan and G&B)

Dan sez: An augmentation of a solo take I did on this a few years back. The song is a great one,  part of the gospel and country-gospel holiday traditions, which came to me from Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. There are a gazillion other versions out there too from the Folk Revival and everything after; it seems to be a favorite deep cut on Christmas albums from old rockers. Really. REO Speedwagon has a version. It's not all that bad, either. Nick Lowe's is really good. Hall & Oates did it justice too.

Starting from my tinny four-string guitar and vocal, Martin added his new rock solid thumb to it on guitar to give it a rolling bass line. Then came Jeff's bass, some G&B percussion, backing vocals, a little electric cigar box slide and some electric banjo to finish it off. The idea was to keep the sparse vibe even as the sound and scope expanded a bit, and we hope we succeeded.

Kirwan, Greenwood & Burns: 3 string cigar box guitar, 4 string guitar, 5 string banjo, 6 string guitar, electric bass, percussion

The Brownie & Sonny version that inspired this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPByB8_yw0c

Children Go Where I Send Thee (Martin Kirwan with G&B)

Cadence's handy work. Won't Tell in all it's mastered glory. We hope you enjoy it as much as you did four months ago when we first posted it!

Won't Tell- Mastered

CNET TOTM April 2013 - a rough first take before listening to others'

Tennessee

Sami & Sarah

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