Stop and Listen: Live at the Freight

1. Drunken Man’s Dream (instrumental) (3:14)
2. The Sign of Memphis Minnie (spoken) (0:17)
3. Black Rat Swing (3:34)
4. Easy Come, Easy Go Blues (3:14)
5. Kennedy Rag (instrumental) (2:39)
6. In the Pines (4:15)
7. Mike In the Wilderness (instrumental) (1:58)
8. Stop & Listen (3:02)
9. Everybody Twostep (recitation) (0:38)
10. Everybody Twostep (instrumental) (1:41)
11. North Memphis Café (3:56)
12. Love Nuggets & Gravy (M. Muldaur, Sleepy Camel Music ASCAP) (instrumental) (2:48)
13. No Mockingbird (spoken intro) (1:04)
14. No Mockingbird (S. Thompson, Cleoma Music ASCAP) (3:11)
15. Duck Shoes (instrumental) (3:51)
16. Sweet Loving Old Soul (3:30)
17. Encore: How Can You Have the Blues? (3:59)

Suzy Thompson, vocals and fiddle; guitar on #3, 4, 6, and 14

Thompson String Ticklers:
Eric Thompson, guitar on #1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 15; tenor banjo on #16; cuatro on #14
Ben Sigelman, cello on everything except #7, 14
Dave Murray, mandolin on #1, 5, 10, 15, 16
Dan Kluger, banjo-uke on #1, 5, 10, 15, 16
Dan Warrick, guitar on #1, 5, 10, 15, 16; vocal on #16

Del Rey, resonator guitar on #3, 4, 11, 17; resonator ukulele on #12, 17; vocal on #3 and 17
Larry Hanks, jew's harp on #7, 10; bass vocal on #16
Kate Brislin, vocal on #16

Del Rey appears courtesy of Hobemian Records.

Here are some tunes and songs most of which hearken back to my favorite musical era, the 1920s and 30s, which some folks call the Golden Era of Recording. This was the little blip of time where phonograph records were pretty easily available, so musicians everywhere were absorbing all kinds of new sounds and incorporating them into their own music. During this period, recording companies issued lots of idiosyncratic regional music, hoping to cash in on various niche markets, before they figured out it was much more cost-effective to mass-market the same unoffensive pap to everyone.

Golden Era hillbillies evolved their own brand of funky ragtime, very different from the classical compositions of Scott Joplin. Doc Roberts, whose records influenced many an early bluegrass fiddler, was mentored in his teens by a black fiddler, Owen Walker. Later on, he made up The Drunken Man’s Dream which he recorded in 1930. Another great eastern Kentucky fiddler, John Morgan Salyer, didn’t make any commercial records but his kids showed great foresight in making home recordings during the early 1940s. Mike In the Wilderness is one of his tunes. I always picture a lone microphone stand in the middle of a bleak unpeopled landscape (maybe this is what could be used to record that tree falling in the forest when there is nobody there to hear it?) Jody Stecher suggests that title may refer to the Confederate Brigadier-General Micah Jenkins who died in Virginia in the Battle Of The Wilderness. Charlie Stripling named Kennedy Rag after his hometown in Alabama, population 277 at that time (1929). Duck Shoes came from the Grinnell Giggers, pronounced GRIN-nell JIGG-ahs, and gigging is a type of fishing technique in case you were wondering. Maria Muldaur captured the East Texas Serenaders spirit when she made up Love Nuggets and Gravy, a menu item that might have been served at the North Memphis Cafe. Maria learned to play the fiddle while hanging out with Doc Watson and Gaither Carleton in the 1960s. Lately we’ve been playing fiddles together and it is a thrill to get to make music with one of my longtime musical heroes! Billy Murray’s big 1912 hit, Everybody Twostep, was covered by military bands, vocal groups, and even a Mexican fiddler, eventually finding its way to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where Jimmy McCarroll and the Roane County Ramblers transformed it into a wild and crazy hillbilly breakdown. Billy Murray (1877-1954) had a prolific recording career that lasted forty years. “See You in C-U-B-A” (a signature song for the Any Old Time String Band) was another of his hits, and he popularized “K-K-K-Katy”, “Meet Me in St. Louis”, “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “Harrigan”, etc. These are all songs that I learned from my parents, who probably learned them from THEIR parents, who may have even heard Billy Murray in person. Even with all this, have you ever heard of Billy Murray (before now)? How ephemeral is fame!

Bessie Smith is today one of the Golden Era’s most revered recording artists, although she wasn’t the most popular at the time. I rewrote some of the lyrics to her Easy Come Easy Go Blues, cause I couldn’t understand what she was singing, and ended up with a song that I dedicate to all the people in the audience who are NOT on Weight Watchers! The Mississippi Sheiks inspired my rendition of Stop & Listen although what I play on the fiddle is largely adapted from Bo Carter and Walter Vincson’s guitar licks and not so much from Lonnie Chatmon’s fiddling. Howlin’ Wolf remade this into his famous song “Smokestack Lightning” in which the yodels morphed into howls. Sweet Lovin’ Old Soul contains another example of blues yodeling from Sara Martin, who made the first jug band records in 1923 with a bunch of Louisville musicians, led by fiddler Clifford Hayes. In the Pines is my own mélange of Peg Leg Howell, Bill Monroe, and Leadbelly. Thanks to John Miller for showing me the cool guitar part in open G tuning! Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe are the source for North Memphis Café and Black Rat Swing. To learn both ways to make the Sign of Memphis Minnie, consult the photos elsewhere in this booklet. My song No Mockingbird has been described as “Memphis Minnie on acid.” You be the judge. How Can You Have the Blues was originally recorded by Georgia Tom and Kansas City Kitty in 1930. Georgia Tom was Thomas A. Dorsey, best known as the composer of “My Precious Lord” and “Peace in the Valley”. The identity of Kansas City Kitty is a bit mysterious since that pseudonym was used for several singers including Jane Lucas, Mozelle Anderson and Victoria Spivey.

This recording was made at a concert at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on a cloudy April night. The musicians included the Thompson String Ticklers, a band which emerged from a jam session on a warm summer evening out in the woods at Sweets Mill. Dave Murray is our muse and keeps us constantly supplied with weird Golden Era tunes to listen to and learn. He plays mandolin with us and fiddles with the Squirrelly Stringband. I’ve admired Dan Warrick’s backup guitar work for decades and it is a pleasure to finally get to make music with him on a regular basis. Dan Kluger lives in our neighborhood and bicycles over with his banjo-uke; he is equally expert with the five string banjo! Ben Sigelman came out of Brown University with a degree in math and computer science plus a great grounding in oldtime music thanks to Jeff Titon. He is an excellent oldtime banjo player and sounding pretty good on the fiddle too. He is the groovingest cello player I have ever heard. Resonator guitar goddess Del Rey came all the way from Seattle to help me evoke the spirit of Memphis Minnie, our neighbor Larry Hanks, world-famous jews-harper and bass vocalist extraordinaire, came from across town, and one of my all-time favorite singers, Kate Brislin, came over the Bay Bridge to sing with us. Last but most definitely not least, my music and life partner Eric Thompson contributed stellar picking on the guitar, tenor banjo and blues cuatro.

Thanks to Alan Senauke, Bill Evans, Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum, Sue Draheim, Allegra Yellin, Maxine Gerber, Steve Baker, Suzanne Fox and all the folks at the Freight, Lindsay Jones, Chris Strachwitz, and all the musicians who appear on this CD. Recorded live at the Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, CA on April 10, 2004 by Dave Wellhausen with assistance from Tesser Call and Brendan Doyle. Spoken intro editing by David Gans. Mixed by Suzy Thompson and Dave Wellhausen. #15 mixed by Bob Shumaker. Mastered by Mike Cogan. Produced by Suzy Thompson. Cover painting: Allegra Thompson. Photo of cover painting: Gail Wilson-Smith. Photo of Suzy: Irene Young