Name: The Cuckoo Bird by Wading Deep
Duration: 4 min 4 s
Description: Old-time traditional song we know and love!

Old Boots

This Land is Your Land

July 2014. This was the first of the traditionals we tried to rock out; Jeff was gaining a lot of confidence in his insanely layered mixes, and we just kept adding stuff. The song is of course another modal old-timey standard done a million times and a million ways. A decade or more ago I played my tub with an old-time band and two members used to joke about what a great sludgey hard-rock song this could make. I didn't disagree. This isn't quite that but it IS hopefully a different sort of arrangement than can be heard elsewhere, true to the song's old-timey essence but also bringing a swampy, country-funk feel to it.

The melody we use is the most standard one. Lyrics were adapted to construct a bit of a narrative... it made sense to me to figure out why such a good old hen was cackling on the table by the end of the song. 

Process was a little different on this one; I started out with a drum loop and built on that, first the acoustic core, then the first round of hand percussion, and then the electrics. Jeff then did his first mixes, added bass and more percussion, and we finished it out with the slide guitar, jaw harps. Jeff of course did a bangup job mixing the whole thing together and tightening up the buildup & arrangement.

Dan: vocals, banjos, guitars, mandolin, jaw harps, pizzicato fiddle, percussion
Jeff: vocals, electric bass, banjo, percussion, production & mixing

Cluck Old Hen

This track is a classic which Leadbelly recorded a few different times, but on the defining version he was joined by the wonderful Golden Gate Quartet, if memory serves. It's strange to think of a gospel quartet singing a profane (for the the time) work song, but in later versions (for more polite company, supposedly) Huddie replaced 'whoah god damn' with 'Cunningham.' I haven't heard any of those, though. Whoah, god damn!

I cherrypicked and adjusted slightly my favorite verses from Leadbelly's in order to focus the narrative on the singer's relationship with his gal. I see him taking out his frustration on the stuck ruminant and cursing the maker of the faulty back band that allowed him to get stuck. Or something like that. I've never refused to let my gal dance at a party. Or driven a draft animal. . But Leadbelly sure sounds like he has, so we had to leave him in a bit.

ldsb: guitars, mandolin, vocals, washboards
@jeff-burns-4: electric bass, banjo, shovel, a whole bunch of percussion, sampling, mixing & editing

One of the things I've enjoyed about some of these big mixes with Jeff is that we so often have the same ideas as a track progresses; I emailed him with a bunch of thoughts on the rhythm's development throughout the piece (you'll note that it shifts fairly constantly, while never straying too far from the basic boom-clank) only to find he was already taking it in that exact direction. Plus, that clank? It's a shovel handle that he was beating with a trowel or something. My kind of makeshift instrumentation.

Whoa Back Buck

Some of Sugar Hill's best and newest artists.

Guy Clark - Sis Draper

Old-time traditional song we know and love!

The Cuckoo Bird

Here's one of my older originals!  Happy to have my friend Drew pick this one out with me, I haven't played with a guitar picker this good in a minute!

Rollin' Downtown

Written between 2013/14, this is a practice EP, playing with home recording and mixing.  All instruments and vocals by David Ernsberger.

Chocolay River

Live from Café La Palma in Madrid on September 30.  

Thank you to Yass for the photography!  https://www.facebook.com/Yasminagraphy

Nothing Back (feat. Abigail Kelsey)

Original tune performed live at the Living Room Concert series in Madrid, on 12 December 2015.  Featuring Michael Sikorski on fiddle and Julianne Van Athon/Antony Rotunno on incidental harmonies.

Minnesota Moon

Two singer-songwriters sharing a love of music, tradition, and all things old time together to bring more words and music to the world. We took an idea that came about one evening in conversation, built a soundproof booth with some sweat, staples, 2 X 4's, insulation and carpet, and started painting on the canvas. David hails from Northern Michigan, and Ryan grew up south of Tucson, Arizona.

The Cuckoo Bird

Wading Deep

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