lyrics: John Cunnick, melody: traditional (adapted from "Pick a Bale o' Cotton")

This is the only song that John Cunnick ever recorded on harmonica, which was the first instrument he ever played. His notes about this tune printed in the Songbook are, like many of his prose pieces, both hilarious and informative. A pertinent sample: “Nemesis is what’ll get you in the end: a last straw, fast freight, fast draw or inside straight. The swede is a pair of rollers that pull boards off the greenchain. The chipper is the goddamndest compost shredder you ever heard and I have stories about that mother…”

Click the following link to see Fantastic footage of Leadbelly playing an earlier version of this melody, it's likely that Cunnick knew this song due to the work and music of Leadbelly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T314R0_5pb0

Harmonica, Vocal: Joe Seamons  Dobro: Gavin Duffy  Handclaps: Kate Sandgren, Jenny Estrin, Max Kutzman   Background vocals: All

Photo of John Cunnick by David Lamb. Reproduced from the Timberbound Songbook, which was published and copyrighted by Kim Cunnick in 1977.

Another Good Maul

Here's a preview of the first track off of our new album! 

 lyrics & melody by John Cunnick
John’s note introducing this tune in the Timberbound Songbook describes this as “already a local classic of sorts”, and it has remained such ever since. In contemplating this song, I often think of Hobe Kytr’s observation that the best and most interesting way to write a good song is to describe the specific tools and terms of the kind of work you do. Definitions of “skidder,” “yarder,” and “greenchain” are given in the Songbook, and one can discover a lot of great information about the region and its logging culture at the address below, where they mention the following:

“Vernonia was [starting in the 1920s] the site of the world class Oregon-American sawmill and logging railroads fanned out in all directions to haul logs to this mill. The last and best remembered line went to Keasey and beyond, reaching to Camp Olson near what is now the rest area on the Sunset highway. This was the last logging railroad in Columbia County to be retired.”  - www.vanattabros.com

Boys Of Columbia County

lyrics - John Cunnick  melody - Kim Cunnick   First published in the Timberbound Songbook in 1977.

Anyone who has struggled mightily to love and understand someone that they care for can certainly relate to this powerful song. For our recording, we sought to create an atmosphere similar to that of the living rooms where we usually sing these songs. We brought in many musician and non-musician friends. Among the musicians were Maybelle Thompson and Dana MacAlister Berge, who have been singing folk songs and playing autoharp with us at parties for many years.

In many ways, this is a companion song to “Old Hollow School”, another Timberbound song that you can hear on Hobe Kytr and Dave Berge’s album, Dog Salmon & Rutabagas.  

Kate Sandgren - vocals | Gavin Duffy - guitar | Dave Berge - autoharp |  Austin Moore - mandolin | Jenny Estrin - fiddle | Joe Seamons - banjo | Maybelle Thompson - autoharp | Max Kutzman - bass |

Chorus sung by the musicians above, as well as Dee Vadnais, Paul Seamons, Erik Sandgren, Kathryn Cotnoir, and Marty Beaudet.

Recorded & mixed by Scott Bergstrom at Dead Aunt Thelma's Studio in SE Portland, Oregon.

Father's Song

lyrics: John Cunnick, melody: Kim Cunnick
It is worth reproducing in full the defintion of this word as printed in the Timberbound Songbook: “A timberbound tree is a curved one. They look reconciled to the shape they’re in, but cut into one and you’ll find they are under a great deal of stress half a century after they were first warped.” The song alludes to the early experiences that made John who he was. I never knew the man, but I feel certain that he was like many musicians I know who remain under a great deal of stress long after they are first warped by sorrow. Music serves as a healthy tool to open the release valve for that stress--often it’s the only tool worth using.

Gavin Duffy - guitar, harmony vocals
Joe Seamons - banjo, lead vocal
Kate Sandgren - vocals
Jenny Estrin - fiddle
Max Kutzman - bass

Mixed and mastered by Scott Bergstrom at 25th Street Recording in Oakland, CA - http://25thstreetrecording.com/

Recorded by Scott Bergstrom in SE Portland at Dead Aunt Thelma's Recording Studio.

Timberbound

lyrics & melody by Dave Berge. Photo by Jenelle Wiggins
This song describes Dave Berge's his experience coming to Oregon and working in the woods. Like John, Dave had a knack for turning his work in the woods into memorable, original songs. We were honored and overjoyed to have Dave join us as we recorded this tune. While in the studio with him, he informed us that John and Kim played everything in the key of C major, and so he wrote this song to impress Kim and to have a song of his own he could play with them. You can hear more of Dave’s indelible autoharp playing on the album he and Hobe made together in 1986, Dog Salmon & Rutabagas.

Dave Berge - Autoharp, harmony vocals
Joe Seamons - banjo, lead vocals
Kate Sandgren - harmony vocals
Gavin Duffy - guitar, harmony vocals

The Timber Faller

traditional
This is another one of the fiddle tunes that John recorded on mandolin. We knew the tune as “Red Haired Boy” before encountering the Cunnick version, and we have taken the liberty of blending his version of the melody with our own. Many of his instrumental mandolin recordings contain a very sprightly, rather Irish feel that we sought to reflect in our exploration of this glorious melody.

Jenny Estrin - fiddle
Kina Lynn Muir - cello
Gavin Duffy - mandolin
Joe Seamons - banjo
Max Kutzman - bass fist

Recorded by Scott Bergstrom at Dead Aunt Thelma's in SE Portland, Oregon.

Mixed and Mastered by Scott Bergstrom at 21st St Recording in Oakland, CA.

Beggarman

Today I discovered this little recollection I typed up after attending the 2012 reunion of the original Timberbound band:
Just before recording this song with Timberbound out at one of the cabins at Keasey, Hobe stomped his foot, threw up one finger into the air, and proclaimed: "Let it be noted for the record that 'Vine Maple Valley Waltz' is the first song in that book for a reason. It is the heart of the Timberbound Songbook." Everyone  got quiet and Kim said, "That song is very much about this place," referring to Keasey.  They didn't say another word, just started in on this song, the Vine Maple Valley Waltz.

Photo by Jenelle Wiggins

Kate Sandgren - lead vocal
Joe Seamons - banjo, harmony vocal
Gavin Duffy - guitar, tenor guitar, harmony vocal
Jenny Estrin - fiddle
Max Kutzman - bass

Vine Maple Valley Waltz

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

© 1985, Hobe Kytr. Photo by Jenelle Wiggins.
This is one of Hobe Kytr's masterpieces. Below is the version of the lyrics that he sent me to correct my transcription of the song. Here is the note he included at the bottom of his lyrics:

"Written for the late John Cunnick at the time of his accidental death in 1976. John was a poet, songwriter and millworker who lived at the site of old Camp Keasey in the Oregon Coast Range west the logging town of Vernonia. He is the poet under the apple in the meadow mentioned in the next to last verse. John had but two pair of shoes when I knew him — his high top rubber boots and the wingtips he had on when we buried him.

Lyrics:

It’s them old rubber boots, boys, for the mud and the rain. 
You can take your city slickers and go down in the drain. 
I swear this country living’s goin’ to get the best of me, 
And if my roots grow long enough, just might turn into a tree. 

Oh, the alder, she is pretty, boys, but she grows so old so fast. 
And so like men of little years, she does not come to last; 
And yet she is the mother of the forest that she made, 
When by firs she is outdistanced, that grew up in her shade. 

Oh, they cut down all the old growth, boys, that there was to be got. 
And some it was for profit, but some it was for naught. 
And we who did not see it know it only by its wood — 
And so who saw what did not see, in the sawing say it’s good. 

Pseudotsuga Taxifolia, oh, I love you very well. 
And Thuja Placata! No human tongue can tell. 
And we who love the lumber must better love the tree 
That lives and grows into the sky towards eternity. 

There’s an apple in the meadow, where the lupine it does grow. 
And down there lies a poet buried six feet below. 
And if you should eat and apple, which that Gravenstein supply, 
Won’t you stop and take a rest, boys, and think on one who died. 

My name is nothing extra, so that I will not tell. 
And here’s to all you loggers, oh, I’m sure I wish you well. 
But when you’re in the woods, boys, won’t you stop and look around, 
And thank that tree for its life before you lay it on the ground. 

(Repeat first verse at end.)

Hobe adapted the melody for "Trees" from Ramblin' Jack Elliot's version of "Diamond Joe", which you can hear here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL-1_LHZxOc

Trees

John and Kim’s recording of this wonderful song contains a bounciness and a bluesiness that surprised and delighted me the first time I heard it. The song’s opening line is as fine an evocation of Northwest weather as one will ever hear. Hobe informed me that John (who was largely self-educated) read 19th-century men of letters extensively. There are many finely turned phrases in this song that reflect the elegance and clarity of that tradition.

Recorded by Scott Bergstrom at Dead Aunt Thelma's recording studio in Portland, Oregon. 
Mixed and mastered by Bergstrom at 25th Street Recording in Oakland, CA.

Same Old Wind

lyrics & melody by Dave Berge
It has been fascinating to perform this excellent song all over the Northwest, where commercial fishermen abound. Nearly every time we play this Dave Berge composition I end up getting to meet at least one fisherman or his wife and hear their stories after the performance. The same goes for many of the logging songs included here. People are continuously delighted to find a song about the work they do, reflected wittily by someone who knows the work firsthand. They often thank me for choosing to play this music, and I thank the songs for introducing me to so many new and wonderful people. In 2011, I had the honor of performing this song with Hobe Kytr at the Fisher Poet’s Gathering in Astoria, Oregon. Anyone who’s interested in the world of poetry or that of commercial fishing should make it a point to experience Fisher Poet’s. Please see
www.fisherpoets.org

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Scott Bergstrom

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

Fisherman's Life

lyrics & melody by Dave Berge

Berge wrote this song at the end of the 1970s, but never recorded it. When I first heard Dave sing the line, “The pressure’s too great,” it put my mind on Timberbound. It is another expression of those deep, mysterious forces that compel us to make art. Once Dave told me this song was about Hobe Kytr, and then his wife Dana told me she thought it was about a marriage that was falling apart at that point in his life. I happen to believe that it started out about the latter, but when Dave sings it now he thinks about the former.

Photo by Jenelle Wiggins

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

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Scott Bergstrom

Sometimes I Roam

lyrics: John Cunnick, melody: traditional

Like “Pretty Polly”, this is an ancient melody printed in the Timberbound Songbook with new lyrics written by John. The first verse, which we repeat at the end to follow the verses as printed in the Songbook, is traditional. 

www.facebook.com/Timberbound

Recorded by Scott Bergstrom at Dead Aunt Thelma’s.
All tracks mixed and mastered by Scott Bergstrom at 21st St Recording in Oakland, CA.
www.25thstreetrecording.com


Little Birdie

This is a live recording of John & Kim Cunnick's original song, "Same Old Wind" performed live at the Woodcrafter's Theater in 1977. 

We are folk musicians based in Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to interpret, preserve, and disseminate folk music created in and about the Pacific Northwest. If you know of any songs or musicians who create non-commercial music that depicts the lives and work of fisherman, loggers, longshoremen, or other working folk of our region, then please get in touch with us and let us know all about it!
Profile image by Erik Sandgren: https://www.eriksandgren.com/

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