WILLIAM DEAN WATSON

“A Demon Walks Beside Me”

Words and music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Charles James: upright bass
Scott Metcalfe: piano
Mike Mezzatesta: mandolin
Ben Plotnick: fiddle
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
William Dean Watson: guitar, vocal
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

A demon walks beside me as I wander through this life.
He tempts me with dark places; I go against my will.
I thought I had escaped him when you said you’d be my wife.
But he was always by me; I see his shadow still.

He never let me trust you; he told me I was blind.
I started to believe I had to watch your every move.
I saw so many signs because they’re never hard to find.
The pictures in my head became more real than the truth.

I’m thinking of you leaving, and the jealous things I said;
I drove you from our home because I thought you’d been untrue.
Now you’re locked in some motel room, a fifth of whiskey by your bed.
You’re out there all alone, or all alone with someone new.

I still can see his shadow, no matter what I do.
Don’t listen to my pleading if I tell you that he’s gone;
I’m the one who can’t be trusted, I’m the one who’s been untrue.
A demon walks beside me, so I must face this life alone.

I think of “A Demon Walks Beside Me” as a honky tonk murder ballad in which nobody dies. Violent death, frequently narrated by the killer, is a staple of Anglo-American folk, blues and traditional country, the source musics for honky tonk and bluegrass. In some songs, the crime seems motivated by little more than vicious caprice. Traditional folk songs like “Little Sadie”¹ and “Sam Hall”², and original compositions like Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”³ and Robert Johnson’s “Me And The Devil Blues”⁴, are famous examples. In other murder ballads, the action is driven by morbid jealousy, although the delivery remains nonchalant; folk and bluegrass favourites “Pretty Polly”⁵ and “The Banks Of The Ohio”⁶ stand out, along with “Delia’s Gone”, another Cash classic⁷.

By contrast, the narrator of “A Demon Walks Beside Me” has enough awareness and understanding of his obsessive jealousy to offer some protection to his potential victims, although even then his sexual delusions threaten to break through. The lyric is distinctly masculine, but the sentiment echoes Jenny Lou Carson’s beautiful 1944 ballad “Jealous Heart”, which has been successfully recorded by both women and men⁸. The rhythmic accompaniment of the classic American murder ballads is often eerily nonchalant, an ironic effect I have emulated in “A Demon Walks Beside Me”.

(1) Clarence Ashley’s influential version of Little Sadie, with Doc Watson on guitar, is available on Classic Old-Time Music From Smithsonian Folkways, SFW40093, 2003.
(2) A classic American version of Sam Hall is available on Tex Ritter’s Blood On The Saddle, Capitol Records T1292, 1962.
(3) On At Folsom Prison, Columbia CS 9639, 1968. Words and music: Johnny Cash, BMG Rights Management US LLC.
(4) Vocalion 04108, 1938. Words and music: Robert Johnson, The Bicycle Music Company.
(5) A fierce performance of Pretty Polly by Ralph Stanley is available on Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys: Play Requests, Rebel Records S:P 1514, 1972.
(6) Bill Monroe and Doc Watson provide an exemplary rendition of The Banks of the Ohio, available on Live Recordings 1963-1980: Off The Record Vol.2, Smithsonian Folkways SFW40064, 1993.
(7) American Recordings 7-18091, 1994. Words and music: John R. Cash, BMG Rights Management US LLC. Cash made the murder ballad a signature form; his version of Sam Hall is exemplary; available on American IV: The Man Comes Around, Lost Highway 440 063 336-1, 2002.
(8) Jenny Lou Carson’s version is available on Tumbling With Jenny (The Dave Cash Collection) from Apple Music and Itunes, 2013. Words and music: Jenny Lou Carson, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. Of the many recordings, I will note: Wanda Jackson: on Wanda Jackson Salutes The Country Music Hall Of Fame, Capitol Records ST 2606, 1966; Loretta Lynn: on I Like ’Em Country, Decca Records DL 74744, 1966; Alecia Nugent: on Alecia Nugent, Rounder Records Rounder 116 610 518-2, 2004; Tex Ritter: Capitol Records 15256, 1949 (the song was written for Tex, and this is the first recording); Hank Williams (featuring Tex Ritter): on Classic Country Hits; Your Cheatin’ Heart, Dynamic Entertainment Ltd DYN 3521, 2005; Hank Locklin: on Happy Journey, RCA Victor LPM 2464, 1962; Jerry Lee Lewis: on Country Memories, Mercury 6338 846, 1977.

“Sleep, Baby, Sleep”

Words and Music: John J. Handley / Jimmie Rodgers / William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Kelly Gates: vocal
Charles James: upright bass
Will Meadows: mandolin
Ben Plotnick: fiddle
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
William Dean Watson: guitar, vocal
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and Mastered by: William Dean Watson

Sleep baby sleepy;
Close your bright eyes.
Listen to your mother, dear,
Sing these lullabies.

Sleep baby sleepy,
While angels watch over you.
Listen to your mother, dear,
While she sings to you.

Sleep baby sleepy;
Angels watching you.
Listen to your mother, dear,
While she sings to you.

Sleep baby sleepy;
Close your bright eyes.
Sleep baby sleepy;
Close your bright eyes.
Sleep baby sleepy;
Close your bright eyes….

Jimmie Rodgers, often described as the ‘father of country music,’ recorded the lullaby “Sleep Baby, Sleep”, usually credited as having been written by John J. Handley, on 4th of August, 1927¹. It is one of the very first identifiably country records, combining Rodgers’ signature ‘blue yodeling’ with his clear as crystal singing and direct, dynamic acoustic guitar playing.

At first hearing, yodeling seems out of place in a lullaby, constantly threatening to stir the soothed infant from incipient slumber. However, the lyric invites the little child to listen to the mother’s lullabies, rather than the one being sung; the song offers reassurance that care and comfort will continue when the singer/father is away on the range, the yodels sweetly invoking his forthcoming absence so as to soften the blow².

I have underscored this here by having a female vocal take over the singing while the ‘father’ gently leaves the stage. Rodgers sings the song unaccompanied, free to let the chord structure and melody develop as the fancy takes him. At times, the timing of Rodgers’ chord changes seems entirely random, adding to the charm, authenticity and intimacy of his recording. Rearranging the song with an instrumental and vocal ensemble, I have rationalized the song’s structure, but nodded to Rodgers’ freewheeling approach by adding a fifth bar to every second line. He sings the whole first line of each verse against the major tonic chord (here C major), which emphasizes the songs’ primal simplicity. I play the dominant seventh (here G7) for the second bar, which still sounds traditional and follows the melody a little more closely, helping the song meet its sleep-bringing purpose.

(1)Victor 20864, 1927. Original words and music by John J. Handley, with Jimmie Rodgers developing his own adaptation for the recording.
(2) Another Sleep, Baby, Sleep, recorded by John Churchill, had been released three years earlier. Like Rodgers’, the recording includes yodeling – presumably Rodgers had heard this – but here the lyrics identify the singer as sole comforter; Paramount 12091, 1924.

“You Broke My Heart (Clean In Two)”

Music: William Dean Watson
Frank Evans: banjo
Rob Fenton: dobro, vocal
Charles James: bass
Mike Mezzatesta: mandolin
Ben Plotnik: Fiddle
Darryl Poulsen: Guitar
William Dean Watson: Guitar, Vocal
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

The morning I first saw you was the day that changed my life.
I never knew a simple smile would turn me inside out.
Followed you to Tennessee and won you for my wife.
I thought you would be true but you soon filled my mind with doubt.

And then you left me lost and lonely when you told me we were through.
I’d given you my heart and you broke it clean in two.
One half went away, the other’s stuck in yesterday;
I’ll never love again because I’ll still be loving you.

Stranded here in Knoxville, working shifts to make ends meet.
No-one cares about me; I’m a stranger in this town.
You’ve been living easy, tempting married men to cheat.
I can earn an honest buck, but still I’m sinking down.

You left me lost and lonely when you told me we were through.
I’d given you my heart and you broke it clean in two.
One half went away, the other’s stuck in yesterday;
I’ll never love again because I’ll still be loving you.

You left me lost and lonely when you told me we were through.
I gave my heart to you; you broke it clean in two.
One half went away, the other’s stuck in yesterday;
I’ll never love again because I’ll still be loving you.

Songs of heartbreak and romantic betrayal form an indispensible element of the bluegrass lyrical outlook. In these songs, the dynamism of the music throws the sadness of the lyric into dramatic relief, the effect of what Ned Luberecki, formerly of Chris Jones and the Night Riders, jokingly describes as: “Happy, upbeat music with miserable, depressing lyrics.”¹ These are typically songs with a bitter male narrator: The Stanley Brothers’ Think Of What You’ve Done;² or Doyle Lawson’s Misery River.³ The Carter Family frame the sentiment in the third person in Forsaken Love, 4 while Hazel Dickens provides a female version with You’ll Get No More Of Me.⁵ You Broke My Heart (Clean In Two) is an uptempo bluegrass song with the narrator’s sorrow expressed in a mixture of lurid self-pity and enduring attachment. The upbeat aspect is underscored by another bluegrass staple; the bright two-part harmony (lead and tenor) given perfect articulation in songs like Think Of What You’ve Done. The final recitation of the chorus has a sharp musical break before “you broke it clean in two,” the lighthearted novelty hiccough inserted into the driving bluegrass rhythm establishing another dramatic contrast with the heartfelt anguish of the lyric.

(1) After Then I Close My Eyes, on Chris Jones & The Night Drivers: Live At The Old Feedstore, GSM Records GSM-103, 2014.
(2) On Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys: Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys, King Records 615, 1959. Words and music: Carter Stanley, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.
(3) On Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver: Quicksilver Rides Again, Sugar Hill Records SH- 3727, 1982. Words and music: Glenn Worf, Chiplin Music Company.
(4) Victor V-40000-B, 1929. Words and music: A.P. Carter, APRS/BMI.
(5) On It’s Hard To Tell The Singer From The Song, Rounder Records 0226, 1987. Words and music: Hazel Dickens, The Bicycle Music Company.

“El Gaucho Triste (The Sad Cowboy)“

Music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: Dobro
Charles James: Bass
Graham Mansfield: Mandolin
Darryl Poulsen: Guitar
Nate Smith: Fiddle
William Dean Watson: Guitar
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

Argentina and Uruguay have given us a cowboy music tradition distinct from its North American counterpart. Tango dance music – tangos and tango valses – emerged from the rugged 19th century gaucho culture to become a worldwide phenomenon. Two pieces in particular – La Cumparsita (‘The Little Parade’)¹ and El Choclo (‘The Corn Cob’)² – are so familiar they instantly evoke the image of a handsome couple dancing a passionate tango. Like American country music, tango integrates European and African influences, and like the folk dance inspired music of canonical European composers Franz Liszt³ and Béla Bartók,⁴ tango has been taken up by ‘serious’ composers, especially Astor Piazolla⁵ and Isaac Albéniz⁶ (I have the impression that Piazzolla’s Libertango is the tango composition most frequently performed by classical musicians⁷ ). True to its classical influences, tango music is characterized by shifts between major and minor keys and variations of tempo. These include accelerandos and ritardandos, as well as the unique ‘arrastres’ where slow slides on the stringed instruments match drag steps performed by the dancers, and startling moments when the whole band stops playing briefly before taking up the beat once more. All these tempo shifts must be accomplished with sufficient rhythmic sensitivity for the dancers improvising their elaborate steps to keep the time.

The standard instrumentation for tango is two fiddles, piano, Spanish guitar, bowed upright bass and, key to the tango sound, one or two bandoneons, a large chromatic button accordion played seated with the instrument resting on the knees. Tango is an especially virtuosic music, the improvisational skills of the best tangueros matching those of the dancers they inspire. I have been especially drawn to bandoneon player and band leader Anibal Troilo and guitarist Roberto Grela, who recorded beautiful ensemble pieces together.⁸

El Gaucho Triste (The Sad Cowboy) is a tango-like piece written for American string band: two fiddles, steel string acoustic guitars, plucked upright bass, mandolin and dobro. The fiddle melody and counterpoint patterning used throughout the ‘folk dance fiddle tunes’ in this collection is close to the way the two fiddles function in traditional tango ensembles, so that is a natural fit, although the melodic aspect is often dominated by the bandoneon in tango music. Here, the music keeps to strict time throughout at a tempo somewhere between La Cumparsita and El Choclo.

(1) Music by Gerardo Matos Rodriguez, 1913, public domain. Anibal Troilo’s iconic 1943 version, as Anibal Troilo (Pichuco) Y Su Orquesta Típica, was released by RCA Victor 60-0271 c1947.
(2) Music by Ángel Villoldo, 1907, public domain. Violinist and band leader Juan D’Arienzo’s version, as Juan D’Arienzo Y Su Orquesta Típica, was released by RCA Victor 1A-0272, n.d.
(3) Especially the Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano; S/G 244.
(4) Especially the Romanian Folk Dances for piano; Sz 56.
(5) Piazzolla composed many tangos and recorded numerous tango-based albums, beginning his career in 1936 and writing, recording and touring until the 1980s.
(6) Albéniz’s famous Tango in D, Opus 165 No.2, for piano has become a performance staple; see, for instance, Daniel Barenboim’s version on Encores, Deutsche Grammophon 486 1936, 2022. Union Musical Ediciones SL / Music Sales America.
(7) For instance on Yo-Yo Ma: Classic Yo-Yo, with Hector Console, Leonardo Marconi & Nestor Marcon, Sony Classical SK 89667, 2001; Alison Balsom: Caprice, EMI Classics 3 53255 2, 2006. S D R M, Curci Edizioni S R L c/o Downtown Dlj Songs LLC, and A. Pagani Edizioni Musicali c/o Downtown Dlj Songs LLC.
(8) Aníbal Troilo Y Su Orquesta Típica: Troilo-Grela: Pa’Que Bailen Los Muchachos, BMG 82876622132, 2004.

“Sleep, Baby, Sleep”

Words and music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Charles James: upright bass
Will Meadows: mandolin
Scott Metcalfe: piano
Ben Plotnick: fiddle
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
William Dean Watson: guitar, vocal
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

I saw you for the first time when the band played Saguenay.
Our song was on the radio, and we were on our way.
You watched me singing softly as we brought the music down.
You caught my eye, I caught my breath, we lit out from that town.

Our love was never gentle; we had no time to waste.
Heaven tasted, bridges burned, hard words said in haste.
I was always on the road; soon you’d had enough.
We went our separate ways when the going got too tough.

How did we stay friends, darling, when we fell apart?
You could have turned our love to hate because I broke your heart.
You always were my only love; still I let you go.
You saved me when you said you’d be my friend and not my foe.

We stayed in touch through all the years and never ceased to care.
We’d meet when I was back in town. The spark was always there.
Sometimes we’d let it burn, and break each others’ hearts again.
I know why we stayed lovers, but how did we stay friends?

How did we stay friends, darling, when we fell apart?
You could have turned our love to hate each time I broke your heart.
You always were my only love; still I let you go.
You saved me when you said you’d be my friend and not my foe.

The time has come when we should end this crazy, lazy game.
You’ll never find another love while I’m still in the frame.
And I can’t live without you; you are my one true friend.
So let me be your only love; let me try again.

Combining the rock-solid, four-beat stride of Hank Williams’ greatest hurtin’ songs with the lilting guitar lines of Ernest Tubb ballads like “I’ll Step Aside”¹ and “I Love You Because,”² “How Did We Stay Friends?” echoes the most iconic honky tonk rhythms. The lyric, delivered through a simple melody unadorned with vocal support, has none of the heart-broken spite of Tubb’s “Walking The Floor Over You”³ or Williams songs like “Cold, Cold Heart”⁴ and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”⁵ In a confession of confusion and regret, the narrator acknowledges his callous neglect of an old flame, expresses his gratitude for her enduring friendship, and declares a perhaps unrealistic hope for more. With his muted enthusiasm soothing mature acceptance, the narrator has a kind of self- awareness more reminiscent of Tubb’s “Half A Mind”⁶ or “Slipping Around.”⁷

It was not unusual for Honky Tonk lyrics to refer to honky tonks and honky tonk music, with this often framing a more basic, emotional narrative. While Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonkin’” ⁸ is little more than an invitation to a good time, Tubb’s “I’m Looking High And Low For My Baby”⁹ and” Mr. Jukebox”¹⁰ are touching invocations of lost love and loneliness. Joe and Rose Lee Maphis were the king and queen of honky tonk infidelity, their “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke,”¹¹ “Honky Tonk Cowboy,”¹² “Honky Tonk Downtown”,¹³ and “Where Honky Tonk Angels Spread Their Wings”¹⁴ all identifying a honky tonk as the scene of the crime. The narrator of “How Did We Stay Friends?” is a singer who meets the love of his life when his band plays a club, and then sacrifices their relationship to the feckless sirens of the road. I located the fictional honky tonk in Saguenay, Quebec, echoing the geographic dislocations of West From North.

(1) Decca 46041A, 1947. Words and music: Johnny Bond, BMI Music / Red River Songs Inc.
(2) Decca 9-46213, 1950. Words and music: Leon Payne, Sony/ATV Acuff Rose Music, Bourne Music Ltd.
(3) Decca 5958, 1941. Words and music: Ernest Tubb, Warner/Chappell Music Inc.
(4) With His Drifting Cowboys: MGM-10904 B, 1951. Words and music: Hank Williams Sr., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.
(5) With His Drifting Cowboys: MGM Records K 13305, 1965. C/w Dear John. Words and music: Hank Williams Sr., Sony/ATV Acuff Rose Music.
(6) Available on Ernest Tubb’s Greatest Hits, Decca DL-75006, 1968. Words and music: Roger Miller, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.
(7) Decca 46173, 1949. Words and music: Floyd Tillman, APRS.
(8) Available on Hank Williams & His Drifting Cowboys: Honky Tonkin’, MGM E242, 1954. Words and music: Hank Williams Sr., Warner/Chappell Music Inc., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.
(9) Decca 31399. Words and music: Art Gibson, Cherio Music Publishing.
(10) Available on Ernest Tubb’s Greatest Hits, Decca DL-75006, 1968. Words and music: Ralph and Eddie Davis, Universal Music Publishing Group.
(11) Available on Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Good Old Country Music), CMH Records CMH 6224, 1979. Words and music: Rose Lee Maphis, Joe Maphis & Max Fidler, Comet Music Corp.
(12) Available on Honky Tonk Cowboy, CMH Records CMH-6251, 1980. Words and music: Joe Maphis, Silverhill Music.
(13) Columbia 21389, 1955. Words and music: Joe Maphis and Johnny Bond, Red River Songs Inc.
(14)Available on Honky Tonk Cowboy, CMH Records CMH-6251, 1980. Words and music: Joe Maphis, Silverhill Music.