guitare en rondeau

© 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

 هذه الأغان متوفرة مجاناً حصرياً في العالم على معازف. يمكن شراؤها من آي تيونز.

Available exclusively on Ma3azef and iTunes Store. 

Just a Little While to Stay Here

Sample the selections from our upcoming EP, 4 Banjo Songs: 1891-1897. The selections in this medley are 1. Haul the Woodpile Down (ca. 1893–94), 2. Never Done Anything Since (ca. 1892–93),3. A New Coon in Town (1897), and 4. Keep in de Middle ob de Road (ca. 1891). Asbury was an African American banjo player, and these may be the earliest examples of minstrel-style banjo playing on record. The 7-inch 45-rpm EP is packaged in a gatefold jacket and includes a 16-page booklet with musical and biographical notes by Grammy-nominated authors Richard Martin and Ted Olson. 4 Banjo Songs will be released May 4.

4 Banjo Songs, 1891-1897

Charles A. Asbury: 4 Banjo Songs, 1891-1897

Coco Blues with vocal. Played and sung by Rev. Gary Davis. private home recording c. 1958. 

Coco Blues with vocal

We learned this from a recording of the Badgett Sisters, from North Carolina.

I Know I've Been Changed

The first episode highlights Vivian Williams, fiddler and co-founder of Northwest Folklife. Vivian is recognized as a master of Celtic, old-time, and bluegrass-style fiddling. She is also one of the very first folklorists of regional music through her recording company, Voyager Records. Alongside her late husband, Phil Williams, Vivian co-founded the Northwest Folklife Festival in 1971. Throughout the episode, audiences can hear recordings of Vivian playing from the newly digitized reel-to-reel recordings from the late 1970s and 1980s.

Living Legacies Podcast

Episode 1: Vivian Williams

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/

Same Old Wind

Timberbound

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Diane Hurst

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