WILLIAM DEAN WATSON

ECHOES FROM THE SOURCE – “Buttermilk Pie”

Words and music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Charles James: upright bass, vocal
Graham Mansfield: mandolin, vocal
Darryl Poulsen: guitar, vocal
Nate Smith: fiddle, vocal
William Dean Watson: guitar, vocal
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

“Buttermilk Pie” attempts to recreate the form and style established in the early solo fiddle instrumental records of Eck Robertson and especially the raucous ensemble playing of Gid Tanner & The Skillet Lickers¹ (Compare their versions of “Turkey In The Straw”, for instance².) Gid Tanner often provided an earthy vocal to the traditional songs he covered; “Buttermilk Pie” is mostly instrumental, only interspersed with cries of “Buttermilk Pie!” after every chorus. Underlining the sense of crafted organicism of these old performances, a half bar quotation from the end of all the previous solos is added to the end of every chorus, so that the chorus form stretches out as the tune progresses.

(1) You can hear an excellent sample of Robertson’s playing on Old-Time Texas Fiddler (Vintage Recordings 1922 – 1929), County Records – 5515, 1998. A similarly excellent sample of Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers can be found on Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers, JSP Records JSP77155, 2012.
(2) See Note 1, and Henry C. Gilliland – A.C. (Eck) Robertson: Turkey In The Straw / Ragtime Annie, Victor 19149, 1923; Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett: You Gotta Quit Kickin’ My Dog Aroun’ / Turkey In The Straw, Columbia – 14084-D, 1926.

ECHOES FROM THE SOURCE – “I’m Still Hoping”

Words and music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Charles James: upright bass
Graham Mansfield: mandolin
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
Nate Smith: fiddle
William Dean Watson: guitar, vocal
John David Williams: Cajun accordion
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

When we were still too young to know the cruel ways of life
We used to walk beside a quiet stream.
I’d hold your hand and tell you that one day you’d be my wife,
But that turned out to be a hollow dream.

When I turned twenty one I asked your father for your hand.
He laughed and said I had the whole thing wrong.
Tom the doctor’s son had bought a bright engagement band;
He had your father’s blessing all along.

You cried that night but in the morn you pledged your heart to Tom;
Your father you would never disobey.
You married Tom that summer, then you left to set up home;
I cursed him as he took you far away.

I’m still hoping, I’m still hoping,
I‘m still hoping that one day you will be free.
He’ll be up and gone, you’ll be all alone,
And then you’ll come back home to marry me.

“I’m Still Hoping” is a straightforward folk country song with uncluttered instrumentation and a simple chronological narrative in which the hopelessness of the singer’s romantic plight is plain to everyone but him. The continuous two part harmony, the absence of a bass line or the adornment of fiddle or mandolin, and the consequent ascendency of the dobro part, all echo secular songs by The Carter Family such as “Amber Tresses”, “The Birds Were Singing Of You”, and especially “Little Darling, Pal Of Mine”¹. The vocal parts two male voices in close folksy harmony – follow The Bailes Brothers’ “My Heart Echoes”². The simple instrumentation is also inspired by Mac Wiseman and Sierra Hull’s lovely rendition of the traditional “You’re A Flower Blooming In The Wildwood”³.

The lyric introduces a number of characters in two brief verses; the narrator’s beloved, her eventual husband and both their fathers. The crowded narrative and terse diction recalls the British folk origins of the earliest American folk country recordings. These early recordings often closed with an abrupt fade which creates the impression of the microphone being rapidly withdrawn from the performance, and thus from the folk scene captured on the disc. I like to call this a ‘Smithsonian Fade’, a bittersweet heightening of the sense of cultural, temporal and technological distance between listener and performer. I have ended “I’m Still Hoping with a Smithsonian Fade”⁴.

(1) Amber Tresses, The Birds Were Singing of You; Little Darling, Pal Of Mine, originally Victor 21638, 1928: all on The Carter Family 1927 – 1934, JSP Records JSP770, 2002 (words and music A.P. Carter, Peermusic Publishing).
(2) Columbia 20457, 1948 (words and music Frankie Bailes; Walter Bailes; Homer Bailes, Sony/ATV Acuff-Rose Music).
(3) On Songs From My Mother’s Hand, Wrinkled Records WR-8336, 2014.
(4) I discuss this effect as part of a broader musicological meditation in Travelling Through Time,
on this site.

ECHOES FROM THE SOURCE – “When The Songbirds Awaken”

Words and music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Adrian Gross: mandolin
Charles James: bass
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
Nate Smith: fiddle
William Dean Watson: dulcimer, guitar, vocal
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

When the songbirds awaken to welcome the day.
And the warm sun rises once more,
I’ll be gone to my father’s, and there I will stay,
To be by his side, like before.
And I wish you had known I was going away,
But I selfishly stole out the door.

When the songbirds awaken and fly from the tree;
Then the first light will show you I’m gone.
Now I’m no longer with you we both can be free;
At last, you will be moving on.
I pray that you smile when you’re thinking of me,
And remember the love that once shone.

Doc and Rosa Lee Watson’s beautiful “Your Long Journey” offers a passionate farewell to a lifelong soulmate, lover and life partner, now approaching death¹. The lyric is an elemental expression of the devotion that has stood the tests of time and will endure the transition. When “The Songbirds Awaken” shares these sentiments, but expressed by the recently deceased narrator to his love. The song begins with two slow verses in which the narrator’s words are supported by free form baritone guitar, with spare fiddle accompaniment. It closes with an unaccompanied uptempo string band chorus, insisting the sadness be replaced by joyous memory and permanent connection. The shift in instrumentation and tempo also echoes America’s musical relationship to the Old World.

(1) On The Watson Family: The Watson Family, Folkways Records FA2366, 1963. As Your Lone Journey on Doc Watson: My Dear Old Southern Home, Sugar Hill Records SH-CD 1795, Words and music: Doc Watson and Rosa Lee Watson, BMI Music / Hillgreen Music.

ECHOES FROM THE SOURCE – “Just The Moon And The Stars”

Words and music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Charles James: upright bass
Graham Mansfield: mandolin
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
Nate Smith: fiddle
William Dean Watson: guitar, vocal
John David Williams: Cajun accordion
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

The title of this brief guitar solo – “Just The Moon And The Stars” – engages two registers: the open night sky of the archetypal American frontier encampment under which pioneers, drovers, ramblers and runaways must sleep, and the astronomical space, the cosmic reality, itself, of which the earth and all its inhabitants are merely a part. The immediate musical inspiration comes from the beautiful guitar solos of Kenny Smith, whose lovely tone and creative use of ringing open strings form a distinctive and instantly recognizable style¹. At one remove is the remarkable guitar work of eclectic jazzer Bill Frisell who, like Smith, has developed a trademark American style emphasizing sustained, ringing strings and delicate musicality. While his signature sound employs the incisive simplicity of a Telecaster, he delivers acoustic solos of equal beauty². In the aural background, inescapable, lie the slowly evolving, quasi-melodic arpeggiated triplets of perhaps the most iconic composition in the Western classical music canon; the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. I especially love the elemental performance by Wilhelm Kempff³.

(1) A wonderful example is the children’s gospel favourite Jesus Loves Me on his album Return, Gat3 Records G3R-11-1206, 2011. Words: Anna B. Warner (Smith’s version has no singing); music: William Batchelder Bradbury.
(2) Frisell provided an extraordinary soundtrack for the indie film All Hat (New Real Films, 2007; director Leonard Farlinger). Theme 5 / Waltz showcases his acoustic virtuosity, on All Hat (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), EmArcy – B0012914-02, 2008.
(3) Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor; Opus 27 No. 2 “Moonlight”: 1. Adagio sostenuto, on Beethoven: The 32 Piano Sonatas, Deutsche Grammaphon, 2016.