Description
BAYOU SECO offers a BOUQUET for any season. This, their 30th year as a band, is a major milestone. Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie – the core of the band – continue to chase down old treasures on the tune trail, while putting together a few new ones as well. Playing as a duo, or joined by long time band members, this group continues to rock, waltz and chotis into the second decade of 2000. Dedicated tune savers, Ken and Jeanie have long standing friendships with all the musician friends they have learned from over the years. This disc has a wonderful Chilegumbo variety of Southwestern tunes from the Bayous west of the Mississippi, thru Texas, and into the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona.
1 Blues Me Prend/Old Fashioned 2 Step 4:07
2 Escudilla Waltz/Goosen Polka 4:42
3 Midnight On the Water 3:53
4 Mill Pond Slow Drag 3:57
5 La Feria de Las Flores 3:32
6 Texas Trail/ Texas 4:09
7 Calling Me Home/ Glory at the Meetinghouse 5:31
8 Silver Heels 2:57
9 Sonora Church Two Step/Purple Lilies Polka 3:53
10 Gol’ Darned Wheel 2:41
11 Fierro/La Cadena 4:28
12 It’s In There/Hohokum Polka 4:14
13 Out On The Plains/Calliope 4:50
14 La Robe Barrée 2:56
15 Tarahumara Tunes 1:49
16 Round up on the Gila 1:31
All Tunes Traditional except:
1 & 4 © McLerieKeppeler- Buvette Music BMI;
3 © Ron Kavana;
5 © Jesús Chucho Monge;
7 (Calling Me Home) © Alice Gerrard-Agate Hill Publishing BMI Words for Glory – Harmony Sisters;
8 © Don Garvey and Victoria Armstrong;
11 (Fierro) © Ana Egge-Paper Suit Publishing/Shubb MusicBMI.
Some tracks recorded live at the Songtree concert in Goleta, CA in Dec 2010.
This CD honors all those tune gardeners out there who dedicate their lives to reseeding heirloom variety songs and tunes, and planting them in the gardens and hedgerows of our lives.
MUSICIANS
Ken Keppeler – 1 and 3 row diatonic accordeons, Keppeler fiddle, harmonica, fretless
banjo, vocals and Tarahumara Drum
Jeanie McLerie – 5 string Keppeler/White fiddles-(CGDAE,CFCGD), Gibson guitar, vocals
Terry Bluhm – Acoustic bass # 2,4,14
Jefferson Voorhees – Percussion and Frottoir # 4,14
Scott Mathis – Mandolin, or guitarron # 5, 12 harmony vocal #11,
Linda Askew – Guitar or vihuela # 5,12
Tom Lee – Acoustic bass and harmony vocal # 3, Bass on # 9,11
Gilles Apap – viola # 9
Jim Wimmer – Wimmer violin #9
1 Blues Me Prend/Old Fashioned 2 Step – Jeanie’s old standard written for Ken, and Ken’s transfomation of the Maurice Berzas tune. Live at Songtree Concert.
2 Escudilla Waltz/Goosen Polka – Two wonderful tunes from the White Mt. Orchestra, the Maxwell Family, on the NM/ AZ border first recorded on 78 RPM in El Paso, TX for RCA Victor in 1929. The Escudilla (bowl) Peak is just north of Nutriosa near Alpine, Arizona.
3 Midnight On the Water – Ron Kavana’s great song based on Luke Thomasson’s family tune from the early 1900’s in Texas. Jeanie first heard Norma Waterson sing this song, and later we met Ron Kavana on Sherkin Island, and he clued us in on some of the words as he had written them.
4 Mill Pond Slow Drag – Ken came up with this cool rocker over in England next to a Mill Pond at the WOMAD compound.
5 La Feria de Las Flores – A classic from Jesús Chucho Monge. Transplant the flowers into your love’s garden. YES!
6 Texas Trail/ Texas – Art Rosenbaum collected this song in Alabama from Lawrence Eller and we embellished it with two extra verses. Texas is a great tune.
7 Calling Me Home/ Glory at the Meetinghouse – Alice Gerrard wrote this stunner. The tune, Glory, is from Luther Davis – words by the Harmony Sisters.
8 Silver Heels – A true story from 1861 Colorado, written by Victoria Armstrong and Don Garvey. Ana Egge, who wrote ‘Fierro’ has also written a song about Silver Heels, it’s very evocative of the spirit of the situation.
9 Sonora Church/Purple Lilies – Two fabulous Tohono O’Odham tunes we learned from Elliott Johnson. Tom Lee played great bass on these, and Gilles Apap and Jim Wimmer fattened up the fiddle sound to make these tunes totally rock. These were recorded live in Goleta, California at our Songtree Concert in Dec 2010.
10 Gol Darned Wheel – An old cowboy song that originated here in SW New Mexico. It’s about an old penny farthing bicycle, a big and little wheel.
11 Fierro/La Cadena – Ana Egge wrote this song about a little town’s struggle near Silver City, and the dance tune, the Chain Waltz, is from Cleofes Ortiz of Bernal, NM. See dance instructions further down on these expanded notes.
12 It’s In There/Hohokum Polka – Two more great O’Odham tunes.
13 Out On the Plains/Calliope – Jack Thorpe was the first person to collect and publish cowboy songs. A cowboy himself, Thorpe started his collecting career while out in a cattle camp in southern NM in 1889. His first book, Songs Of The Cowboys, was published in 1908, in Estancia, NM. Thorpe writes of this song (called ‘A Prairie Song’), “I heard this sung by a cow-girl at Cheyenne Round-up – a Miss Windsor.” Mark Mueller came up with the melody for this. The Schottische is from the Lewis Family down in Crow Flats, NM, the family has been playing in southern Otero Co., NM since the 1880’s in the same old dance style of fiddling. We learned this from Pete Lewis, there is an recording of Pete’s uncles Denman and Dempson playing this on an RCA 78 RPM recorded in 1929 in El Paso, Texas.
14 La Robe Barrée – Learned the from Bois Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot back in 1978 in our Louisiana days. “Put on your striped dress and let’s go dancing!”
15 Tarahumara Tunes – From a field recording made by Will Spires in Basíhuare in the Copper Canyon in 1980. Jeanie played a beautiful Tarahumara fiddle made by Patracinio López.
16 Round Up on the Gila – That’s where we live, in the Gila Mountains. This was originally a much longer poem by Charles Badger Clark. This is a much shortened version from the singing of Lucky Moorhead, who grew up south of here.
Words to Songs
1. Quand le Blues Me Prend ©Jeanie McLerie 1980 Buvette Music
Oh quand le blues me prend, quand le blues me prend
Je peux pleurer, j’peux crier j’peux me souler.
Je peux chanter une triste chanson travailler dans le jardin,
Jouer mon violon pour tout la nuit.
Quand les blues me prend, y’a quelqu’choses que tu peux faire,
Tu peux me serrer bien fort dans tes bras.
Et si tu dit tu m’aimes, c’est quelqu’choses bien mieux,
Et mes blues s’envole comme un oiseau.
Quand les blues vous prend, si les blues vous prend,
Pas de blame, pas desespoir, prends donc courage.
Come les grands vents dans un orage, ça passe avec le temps,
Et le soleil vas briller encore une fois.
Translation
When the blues get me, I can cry, yell, or get drunk, or work in the garden or play my fiddle all night.
When the blues get me, you can hold me tight in your arms and tell me that you love me, and my blues will fly away like a bird.
When and if the blues get you, don’t blame, don’t despair, take courage.
Just like the big winds in the storm, they’ll pass with the time and the Sun will shine again.
3. MIDNIGHT ON THE WATER
Words and melody © RON KAVANA
1 Well I never was one for much fancy dancing
With my two (big) left feet following my wandering eye.
But when I hear that slow air played in 3/4 time,
I could waltz with my darling, until morning bright.
Chorus – Play me a fiddle tune, sing me a song, banish misfortune, our time is not long.
Midnight on the water, so steady and slow, the lark in the morning,
Once more for the road
Midnight on the water, so steady and slow, pour me one last drink,
Set ‘em up Joe.
2 Now I’ve done all my dancing down in those barrooms (Now most of my waltzin’s been
done in barrooms,)
Cause drinking and dancing, they(just) go hand in glove.
And buy a beer for the fiddler, to play all the old songs,
So I can dance closely to the one that I love.
Chorus – Play me a fiddle tune, sing me a song, banish misfortune, our time is not long.
Midnight on the water, so steady and slow, the lark in the morning,
Once more for the road
Midnight on the water, so steady and slow, play me one last tune,
And then I must go.(last two phrases changed by Jeanie McLerie)
4. The Mill Pond Slow Drag
Words and Music © 2011 Kenneth Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie
Let’s look to the future ‘cause we’ve learned from the past,
Get out of the pasture life is coming up fast.
Life is just like dancing better jump it to the beat,
Give your soul some rhythm better get on your feet.
5. LA FERIA DE LAS FLORES
Words and Music © Jesus Chucho Monge
Me gusta cantar al viento porque vuelan mis cantares
Y digo lo que yo siento en toditos los lugares.
Aquí vine porque vine a la feria de las flores
No hay cerro que se me empine ni cuaco que se me “atore”.
En mi caballo retinto he venido de muy lejos
Y traigo pistola al cinto y con ella doy consejos.
Atravesé la montaña “pa” venir a ver las flores
Aquí hay una rosa huraña que es la flor de mis amores.
Y aunque otro “quera” cortarla yo la devisé primero
Y juro que he de robarla aunque tenga jardinero.
Yo la he de ver trasplantada en el huerto de mi casa
Y si viene el jardinero pues a ver, a ver que pasa.
7. Calling Me Home
Words and Music by Alice Gerrard
© May 21,2000
1. An old friend lay on his dyin’ bed
Held my hand to his bony breast
And he whispered low as I bent my head
Oh, they’re calling me home, they’re callin’ me home.
2. My time has come to sail away
I know you’d love for me to stay
But I miss my friends of yesterday
Oh, they’re calling me home, they’re callin’ me home.
3. I know you’ll remember me when I’m gone
Remember my stories, remember my songs
I’ll leave them on earth, sweet traces of gold
Oh, they’re calling me home, they’re callin’ me home.
4. So friends gather round and bid me goodbye
My body’s bound but my soul shall fly
My little light shinin’ from the sky
Oh, they’re calling me home, they’re callin’ me home.
5. My time has come to sail away
I know you’d love for me to stay
But I miss my friends of yesterday
Oh, they’re calling me home, they’re callin’ me home.
7. GLORY AT THE MEETINGHOUSE
Words © Harmony Sisters (McLerie/Gerrard/Herrmann)1980
Glory at the Meetinghouse, Glory in the fields
Glory to the birds, the little fishes, and the eels.
Glory to the Sunshine, Glory to the rain
Glory to the fiddler when he plays the tune again.
Glory to the old folks, Glory to the young
Glory to the sinners who are having all the fun.
Glory to the Sunshine, Glory to the rain
Glory to the fiddler when she plays the tune again.
Glory to the flowers, Glory to the seeds,
Glory to the mountains and the rivers and the trees.
Glory to the Sunshine, Glory to the rain
Glory to the fiddler when she plays the tune again.
Glory at the Meetinghouse, Glory in the fields
Glory to the birds, the little fishes, and the eels.
Glory to the Sunshine, Glory to the rain
Glory to the fiddlers when they play the tune again.
11 FIERRO
Words and Music © Ana Egge
There ain’t much left of this little town
But the old church they want to tear down
Grandma won’t have it, she’ll lay herself down
In the path of that DEMON machine.
CHORUS: Fierro, New Mexico, home to many a miners soul.(2x)
Down the road and across the tracks
The old cemetery by the new smoke stacks
Rumors fly & I believe they’re true
The mine will steal it all (take what it can) from you.
Families buried beneath the mesquite
The mine wants the land where the dead men(ones) sleep
Ah, but they can’t have our resting place
Pray to Santa Rita for saving grace.
11. Valse Cadena (Chain Waltz)
Traditional first dance of the night, and a way of greeting everyone. This usually starts out the first and last time through in a large circle which includes everyone, in between, people dance in smaller circles.
(A) Two to four couples join hands and circle to the left in a swivelling waltz-step (right foot first on the one beat, then the left) until the last four beats of this part, whereupon they all go into the center with a “1,2,3,4”; stomping the floor loudly and raising their hands and greeting each other in the middle.
(B) Couples break off and waltz around the room until the end of this part, whereupon they circle up with different couples.
13. Out On The Plains
From: ‘Songs Of The Cowboys’ by Jack Thorpe
words by Miss Windsor, Cheyenne, WY
1. Oh music springs under the galloping hooves,
Out on the plains,
Where mile after mile drops behind with a smile,
And tomorrow seems always to tempt and beguile,
Out on the plains.
2. Oh where are the traces of yesterday’s ride,
There to the North,
Where alfalfa and sage sigh themselves into sleep,
And the butts loom up suddenly, startling and steep,
There to the North.
3. Oh rest not my pony, there’s youth in my heart,
Out on the plains,
And the wind sings a wild song to rob me of care,
And there’s room here to live and to love and to dare,
Out on the plains.
All Rights Reserved © BAYOU SECO 2011- PO Box 1393, Silver City, NM 88062, USA
575-534-0298 bayouseco@aol.com – www.bayouseco.com
Produced by Bayou Seco for Zerxrecords ZERX 080 zerxpress@aol.com
Recorded by David West at his Studio in Santa Barbara, Ca. Dec 12, 2010 david@davidwest.com
by Manny Rettinger at UBIK Sound Jan 7- 8 2011 manrett@unm.edu
and Ken Keppeler at Fiddle Hill Studio, Silver City, NM Jan – Mar 2011 bayouseco@aol.com
Live cuts from Songtree Concert in Goleta Ca. Dec 11, 2010 songtree@cox.net
Mixed and mastered by Joe Doyle in Silver City, NM. joebarefoot1@yahoo.com
Graphics by Laura Howell, Silver City, NM laura@howellgraphics.com
Cover Art by Ken Keppeler, Photos by Jeanie McLerie
