About this recording

I didn't first hear these folks at a showcase, or a festival, or a coffeehouse. I first heard them in a hotel lobby where they were sharing a tune or two during the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance conference in November, 2009.

How appropriate to have first encountered them in a "front porch" setting. The more I hear their music and the better I get to know them, the more I am convinced that Red Hen Stringband embodies the very essence of the receiving and the passing on of the tradition of hand-made music.

The Hens practice beautifully the almost-lost art of working in a musical group to create an expression of the whole greater than and different from its parts; and they and their audiences have a whole lot of fun while they're doing it.

In this recording we have tried to capture the essential spirit of their performances, but I strongly urge you to find them whenever they perform anywhere within four hours of you. You won't make many more fulfilling and enjoyable journeys in your lifetime.

David, Linda, Allan and Jane: Thank you for bringing yourselves together in so joyful and accomplished a fashion.

– Jack Radcliffe, May 19, 2011

About the music

1. Martin Said to his Man (Traditional)

Martin Said To His Man was first published in 1588 and is one of the oldest traceable songs in the English speaking tradition. The song first appeared, with words and music, in Thomas Ravenscroft's 1609 collection of folk music. The tune appears in William Byrd's Fitzwilliam Virginal Book II, before 1600. The Stationers Register contains a mention of a ballad printed in 1588 with this title, but no copies have survived. We put our Southern Hen spin on this classic drinking song. The line "Clowting St. Peter's Shoone" means "fixing St Peter's shoes."

Allan: lead vocal
Linda: vocal
Jane: fiddle/vocal
Dave: Enoch banjo

2. Off the Griddle (Jane Rothfield)

Jane wrote this tune on the banjo one day in the middle of moving house. It was originally named Off the Grid as a nod to Jane's affection for extemporizing old time tune melodies, but we renamed it in honor of our "hen-ness."

Jane-Fiddle Linda-Guitar Dave-Banjo Allan-Bass

3. Cluck Old Hen (Traditional)

First recorded version was by Fiddlin' Powers and his family in 1925. The earliest printed version remotely related to what we know as Cluck Old Hen in print is found in the book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise and Otherwise compiled by Thomas W. Talley and published in 1922. We combine Ralph Stanley's uniquely phrased version with Allan's driving Celtic rhythm guitar.

Jane: fiddle/lead vocal
Linda: vocals
Allan: guitar/bass/vocal
Dave: banjo/vocal

4. Little Bird (Lisa Mandeville)

Linda learned this song from her friends Lisa and Fran Mandeville when they performed it at the 2009 Gottagetgone Festival in Saratoga Springs NY. She knew it would be a great addition to the Red Hen list of "bird" songs! A wonderful new song that sounds old.

Linda-Lead Vocal/Guitar Jane: vocals
David: vocals/banjo
Allan: bass

5. Down in Mississippi (J.B. Lenoir)

J.B. Lenoir was born on March 5th, 1929 in Monticello, Mississippi and at a young age his dad introduced him to the music of Blind Lemon Jefferson and other blues masters. This autobiographical song paints a chilling and artfully understated picture of the conditions in Jim Crow South. In 1949, he and his family fled to Chicago where he met Big Bill Broonzy and became part of the thriving Northern blues scene. Dave first heard this song sung by Sara Gray. Martin Grosswendt's version of this song on the fretless banjo nudged Dave onto the Old Time music world.

David: vocals/banjo
Linda: vocals
Allan: bass
Jane: fiddle

6. Blue Yodel #3 or Evening Sun Yodel (Jimmie Rodgers)

Jimmie Rodgers was born in Pine Springs, Mississippi in September, 1897. His father was a railroad man and Jimmie began working the rails as a youth. He learned to play from the railroad workers and hobos, and earned the nickname "The Singing Brakeman." He wrote and recorded dozens of classics, including Muleskinner Blues, T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1), and the California Blues (Blue Yodel #4). He succumbed to TB in 1933. This is an old bluesy country song that slips perfectly into the swing of bluegrass.

Dave: lead vocal/Mastertone banjo
Linda: vocal/guitar
Jane: fiddle
Allan: bass

7. Walnut Gap (Owen "Snake" Chapman)

We learned this tune from our friend Jimmy McCown from Hardy Kentucky, who learned it from Snake himself. Jimmy played regularly at Snake's house for the monthly kitchen jams in Chapman's Hollow, Kentucky. Walnut Gap is at the top of Chapman's Hollow where Snake's family settled. Hear Snake himself play this tune on his CD Walnut Gap on Rounder Records.

Jane: fiddle
Dave: banjo
Linda: guitar
Allan: bass

8. Do you love an Apple? (Traditional)

Allan learned it from the singing of Triona Ni Dhomhnaill (of the Bothy Band) and it has always supported Allan's belief that Country music and Celtic traditional songs are intimately connected. The age-old story: She loves her man no matter what!

Allan: Lead vocals/guitar
Linda: vocals
David: vocals, dobjo

9. Jute Mill Song (Traditional, Mary Brooksbank)

Mary Brooksbank (1897-1978) was born in Allan's hometown of Aberdeen Scotland in 1897 and at the age of 14 her mother put her to work as a shifter of bobbins in the Baltic Jute Mill in Dundee. She worked 12-hour shifts and witnessed the plight of the Dundee jute workers first hand. Even at an early age Mary made up "wee rhymes," as she called them, and secured a reputation for creating songs and poetry about the plight of her class and her city. The Jute Mill Song describes the harsh experience in the mills, of the "poor wee shifters" – children who were small and agile enough to run in and out of the mill changing bobbins while the machines were running – and of the women who worked there to support their families on "ten and nine (10 shillings and 9 pence)." In an interview with Hamish Henderson (School of Scottish Studies) Mary recalled hearing the Dundee mill lassies saying the line "oh dear me, the mill's gaen fest, the puir wee shifters" and that she wrote the song around that line.

Allan: lead vocal
Jane: vocal/fiddle
Dave: Fielding banjo
Linda: vocal

10. Free Little Bird (Traditional)

This version is modeled on the 1927 source recording by Dykes Magic City Trio, with a simple guitar/banjo accompaniment showcasing Jane and Linda's duet vocals and the songs metaphorical allusions about freedom.

Jane: harmony vocal
Linda: lead vocal
Allan: guitar
Dave: banjo

11. Farewell Trion Traditional/Joe Blaylock/James Bryan

The primary source for the tune is fiddler Mack Blaylock (1914-1987), of Mentone, Alabama, who had it "from his great uncle Joe Blaylock (b. 1854)," who composed it upon returning to Alabama after getting laid off from a mill in Trion, Georgia. Fiddler James Bryan added a third part to the tune. This is one of those dreamy tunes that help us achieve what we call "lift-off" when we play it for a long time!

Jane: fiddle
Allan: bass
Linda: guitar
Dave: banjo

12. Ishikawa (Cathy Fink)

Cathy wrote this blazing tune while touring Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan and staying with friends, Hisato & Naomi Ishikawa. Hisato is a Buddhist priest who loves music. Jane learned this tune from Cathy during a marathon session at Clifftop (2005) festival and it has been in our repertoire ever since.

Jane: fiddle
Dave: Fielding banjo
Allan: bass
Linda: guitar

13. Colours (Donovan Leitch)

Many people think this is an old folk song, as Donovan (a Scot) may have drawn inspiration from the Scottish traditional song Black is the Color. Linda and Allan both sang this song as teenagers and Linda brought it to the band after remembering a drive past Donovan's house while vising friend Sara Grey on the isle of Skye, Scotland. We love when the audience sings along with this ageless song.

Linda: lead vocals/guitar
Dave: vocals/Mastertone banjo
Jane: vocals/banjo
Allan: vocals/guitar/bass

14. Smithland Farm (Dan Rublee Rubetunes)

Dan is a great banjo player and prolific tune writer from Harrisonburg, Virginia. We love this tune so much we had to sing the title as a chorus. Thanks Dan!

Jane: fiddle/vocals
Dave: banjo/vocals
Linda: guitar/vocals
Allan: bass/vocals

– Red Hen Stringband, June, 2011

Instruments and acknowledgements

David plays a 12-inch Will Fielding custom Whyte Lydie "Electric" banjo, an 11" Brooks Masten custom slot-head fretless Spartan with a Bacon-style tone ring, a flathead-converted 1925 ball bearing Gibson Mastertone and a 1982 Dobro "Dobjo" resonator banjo.
Linda plays a 1986 LO-3 Larrivee, and a 1954 Gibson J-45.
Jane plays a Vega Senator banjo and a French violin Silvestre et Maucotel, Paris 1906.
Allan plays a cheap Chinese bass and Linda's guitars.

Red Hen would like to thank our families; Jack Radcliffe and Jim Bennett of Wepecket Island Records for their encouragement and support; Sue Muldoon for her great eye and friendship; and all our great friends who have contributed, either by writing a song or inspiring us.

Tracks & Times

1. Martin Said To His Man: 3:14
2. Off The Griddle: 2:24
3. Cluck Old Hen: 3:48
4. Little Bird: 4:13
5. Down In MIssissippi: 4:49
6. Blue Yodel #3: 2:47
7. Walnut Gap: 2:34
8. Do You Love An Apple?: 4:17
9. Jute Mill Song: 2:43
10. Free Little Bird: 2:37
11. Farewell Trion: 2:34
12. Ishikawa: 2:11
13. Colours: 4:05
14. Smithland Farm: 2:39

Total playing time: 45:21

Credits

Recorded at Cotton Hill Studios, Albany, NY
Recording Engineer: Ace Parkhurst
Mastering: SoundMirror, Inc., Arlington, MA
Graphics design and cover illustration: Paula Frederick, Pawluh Designs
Cover art: Sue Muldoon
Associate producer: Jim Bennett
Executive Producer: Jack Radcliffe

Copyright 2011, Wepecket Island Records, Inc. All rights reserved. Duplication of this CD or any part thereof without prior written approval is illegal – and takes money out of the pockets of the musicians who made it.