olddude - Blue Mountain

Subject: RE: Blue Mountain sung by Lucy Ann Goldberg
From: Genie
Date: 08 Sep 14 - 03:44 PM

Here's Lucy Ann Goldberg singing this song at the FSGW Getaway 2010, with David Scheim (harp) and Charlie Bean (guitar):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwpe6wFkjBw

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Artful Codger
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 04:17 PM

He'd drown only because someone told him to swim.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: kendall
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 11:24 AM

Spaw is a "Contrary" it means whatever he says he means the opposite.

He's so contrary, if he ever falls into the river a drowns, we will look for his body UPstream.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 06:43 PM

LOL, ok so I record this song and it is a .wav format. To post on the net it has to be an .mp3 ... so I convert and post. In the meantime I am listening to the .wav ..

so I liste on the web, the high notes sound like my unders are too tight or I sat on the porcupine .. LOL so where did that come from .. I know you lose some quality in the conversion but I just laugh ... really the highs are pretty good on the wav ... honest ... LOL ..

OK Spaw, go ahead my friend, I can take it

Dan

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 11:47 AM

I've always felt Mike Seeger does a fine job playing the quills on a few songs.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 11:18 AM

Dan, you think a Penn. accent is a disadvantage? try singing a sticky love sone with a Maine accent.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: gnu
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 09:39 AM

Get out yer quill and have at it!

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 07:19 AM

Gnu, never thought of that ... smile .. I am gonna write a porcupine song !

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: gnu
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 04:55 AM

Dan... sometimes the banter leads to song ideas, lyrics, further discussion... sometimes not.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: open mike
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 12:12 AM

i have heard that song as done by Skip Gorman on A Greener Prairie
and always thought it was by him...thanks for the background info.

Skip and his Waddie Pals do a good job on it, though.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Barry Finn
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 11:37 PM

Your porcupine stuff was just fine but your song was far better
Let it be

Barry

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 10:21 PM

Hey Joe
Art is right, it is an old Chestnut of a song, can you please delete our goofing around stuff, we were just having fun but there is some useful info that folks contributed regarding history of the song and the next folks looking for the same thing maybe don't want to see our silly porcupine stuff

Thanks my friend
Dan

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 09:25 PM

Sorry for the thread creep. The mention of Ben Franklin just got me remembering that old bit of trivia. This good song doesn't deserve to be trivialized. Any clones seeing this, please feel free to delete as necessary.

Art

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 09:03 PM

Thanks Gerry I will give it a try

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 08:15 PM

A fine recording of a fine song. In addition to the recordings mentioned above, I like the one by Finest Kind.

I wonder if you wouldn't be a little more comfortable singing it a semitone or two lower.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 07:41 PM

Or you could just pass it over to the rest of us! except Spaw
he is screwed up enough LOL, ahh fun to pick on ya Spaw

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 07:23 PM

catheterize himself and quills, Ok now I am starting to be afraid ....
very afraid , what are you guys smokin ... Spaw well we know he is an old burnout that can't count his balls twice and get the same number, LOL But Art and Gnu .. the fumes are gettin to ya


LOL

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: gnu
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 07:00 PM

Ah... our porkies are pretty much the same as porkies down Ben's way. Dunno if I would make that public knowledge, based on the avereage length of a quill.

As fer hot water, I assume it was at least 140F for at least three minutes... anyone knows anything about porkies might even boil the quills first.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 06:47 PM

Now I see!! (as the song says.) Hot water, huh?

Art

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 06:08 PM

Dan, do it just the way you did on the recording. You are doing it, buddy. THAT is great.

Bruce

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 06:02 PM

Good heavens, Art! :0)

The things you learn on Mudcat, eh? ;0)

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 05:58 PM

I have never heard that story Art, but to use quills in decorative embroidery one softens them in hot water before reshaping/flattening them.

maeve

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 05:54 PM

an aside note:

I have it in my notes from somewhere that Ben Franklin used porcupine quills -- which are hollow -- to self catheterize himself!

From my own experience, the quills don't/won't bend in places where they would need to bend to achieve the desired results.

Art

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 04:30 PM

You got the right word about Barry, Dan. His singing IS incredible.

maeve

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: GUEST,guest_olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 02:55 PM

Barry
thank you my friend ... I very much appreciate you time and sharing the information.   I would love to hear you play it for sure. Word I got was you are incredible especially with this song

Thanks again
Dan

Subject: Lyr Add: BLUE MOUNTAIN
From: Barry Finn
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 02:48 PM

This is really nice old dude, an old favorite of mine, haven't done it since Kendall last requested it, a favorite of his too

My favorite recording of this is from Skip Gorman (sorry, I haven't heard Art's or Frank's singing of it) on his "A Greener Prairie. He like you & many others leave out the "Yarn Gallas" verse;

"Yarn Gallus" with GUN & ROPE
"Doc Few-Clothes" without any soap,
In the little green valley have made their sally,
And for "Slick's" there's still some hope.

Here a piece from an old Blue Mountain thread

Always best to do a search & check back, over the past decade many songs have been covered, so keep covering them

Subject: RE: Origins: Blue Mountain
From: Barry Finn - PM
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 01:02 AM

Hi Art
I still have the notes given to me by Faith, it's from the PSG Newsletter on Sept 1970 by the San Francisco Folk Music Club.
It's pretty close to what Frank posted above but Frank has a bit more of it & I seem to have some of what Frank might be missing. If you'd like the rest I'll post it here.

Skip leaves out the "Yarn Gallus" verse, Molly Stouten does lovely harmony with him on the chorus. His words are slightly different from what I have on Fred Keller's notes & slightly different from the above posted too.
Capitalized words are what's different & () means omissions. (within) Below in the notes also means extra from Franks notes or () again means omissions.

Blue Mountain (F.W. Kellar)

I'll post the words as I have them.

1. My home it was in Texas
My past you must not know
For I seek a refuge from the law
Where the sage and the pinion grow.

Chorus:
Blue Mountain, you're azure deep
Blue Mountain, WITH sides are steep
Blue Mountain with () horsehead on your side
You have won my love to keep.

2. FOR the brand L.C. I ride
AND THE sleeper calves ON THE side
I'll own THE "Hip-Side-and-Shoulder"
WHEN I grow older.
"ZAPITARO" don't () tan my hide.

3. I chum with LAD-DIE-GO Gordon
I drink at the Blue Goose Saloon.
I dance AT night with THE Mormon GIRLS
And ride home beneath the moon,

4. I trade at MONSE'S store
With bullet holes in the door,
His calico treasure, my HORSE can measure
When I'm drunk and () feelin' sore.

5. "Yarn Gallus" with GUN & ROPE
"Doc Few-Clothes" without any soap,
In the little green valley have made their sally,
And for "Slick's" there's still some hope.

6. In the summer time () it's fine
IN the WINTER THE WIND doth whine.
BUT say, () dear brother, If you WANT a mother
There's Ev on the old Chuck Line.


Hell, might as well type out the notes as I have them too. A good bit will be the same as Fank's but the little bit that's extra may be meaningful to you, Frank, Kat & a few others.


"Following my discharge from the United States Army in the summer of 1919, I began to search for a county seat where an untried young lawyer might make a living. Frontier life has a glamour and charm
(that I have never been quite able to get out of my system),
so it was quite natural that I chose as the spot for this very serious experiment the little cow-town of Monticello, Utah, more than 100 miles from the nearest rail point.

The Blue Mountain is an isolated range crowing the divide between the Colorado and San Juan Rivers in Utah.(The first white settlers were cowmen and cowboys. Two young English brothers with the surname of Carlyle). The Carlyles were prominent figures among these. They established a ranch on Spring Creek. They branded with three swipes or bars, one on the hip, one on the side, and one on the shoulder. Among the cattlemen . . . of the region, their outfit was referred to as the "Hip, Side, and Shoulder". They had two large competitors, The "LC" outfit and the Pittsburgh Cattle Company () some forty miles north of the Blue Mountain.

Many of the cowboys who did the punching for the Blue Mountain outfits (were young men of the adventurous type who) had been in difficulties with the law in Texas and took sanctuary in the remoteness of the Blue Mountain. Some had the ambition to acquire herds of their own. The easy way to get into the cow business was by the process of "sleepering" calves... (a refined type of larceny)

Nicknames were common. Bill Gordon, the round-up foreman of the "Hip Side and Shoulder" outfit was known as "Latigo". Another well-known cowboy was "Yarn Gallus" so called because ()each Christmas his mother back in Missouri sent a present of some knitted galluses. () "Slick", was a cowboy who neither gambled nor drank hard liquor, but saved his money and married a good-looking grass widow that came on to the frontier. She lived with him for just long enough to steal his roll (money) and then left for parts unknown.

The "Little Green Valley" was some 60 miles north of Monticello sloping gently to the banks of the Colorado River. More than one cowboy dreamed of the day he might marry a school teacher & settle down there. (In the early 80's a small colony of Mormons came to Monticello & built a log cabin church. It had rather a crude steeple in which hung an ancient bell. A drunken cowboy considered it a first-class prank to take a shot at the bell as he was leaving town after a good spree.

A member of the Mormon colony () started a general store (which was named for him, Mons's Store. Staple merchandise consisted of calico, gingham, sugar, coffee, Bull Durham, Horse Shoe chewing tobacco, whiskey & other necessities of life.) The front of the store was punctured with many) bullet holes fired from the guns of celebrating cowboys. One day, to be a little more original than the rest, a cowboy rode his horse through the door, took hold of the end of a bolt of calico, dallied it on the horn of his saddle, and rode out on a run.()

Latigo Gordon () liked life on Main Street so he established the Blue Goose Saloon (which ranked in importance with Mons's Store as a rendezvous for the cowboys.)

The conservator of law and order in Monticello (during these boisterous days) was a Mormon shoemaker by the name of Nephi Bailey. He held the high office of Justice of the Peace and tried the cowboys for their offenses as well as making and repairing their boots. The cowboys called him "Zapitaro" which is the Spanish word for shoemaker.

(The cattle of the large cow outfits with headquarters around the Blue Mountains were upon the open range throughout the entire year. In the spring they drifted to the higher elevation, & in fall drifted back again to the shelter & warmth of the canyons that run down to the banks of the Colorado & San Juan Rivers.) During the spring, summer, and fall, the larger cow outfits required a considerable number of cowboys to brand up the calves and gather up beef. In the wintertime, there was very little that could be done for cattle, and all except the top hands were laid off until the spring. Many of them existed through the winter by riding the "Chuck Line". (Riding the Chuck Line) consisted of riding from one ranch to the other with no other object than to obtain sustenance by partaking of the hospitality of the rancher. Among the Mormon settlers was a very talented, charming, and hospitable woman by the name of Evelyn Adams. She and her husband founded a small ranch at Verdure Creek, some six miles south of Monticello. She was known to all the cowboys as "Ev". She fed them when they were hungry, and nursed them when they were ill, and most of them looked upon her as a foster mother. Her cabin was the most popular spot on the "Chuck line". She is the sweetheart or heroine of my song. I think of her very tenderly.

(The mesa of Blue Mountain has an elevation of approximately 7,000 feet & sustains a vegetative cover over huge pinions, junipers, sagebrush & blue stem grasses. The climate of the Blue Mountains country is one of exhilarating freshness in the summer, but in the winter a fierce wind twirls the snow into drifts that do not disappear until late April. Until about the year 1875, the renegade Utes & Piutes were the only human inhabitants of this mesa, the Blue Mountain, & its surrounding canyons. On an otherwise naked slope of the Blue Mountain, spruce trees grow in the outline of a horse's head. This physical feature is very distinct in the winter, & at a distance as great as 30 miles, one sees the head of a blaze-faced horse with an arched neck looking over the mesa. From the earliest times the cowboys have considered the horsehead a scenic wonder.)

Barry

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 02:06 PM

destined to be a classic handed down to generations Spaw, is there a porcupine involved? Inquiring minds want to know

LoL

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 02:03 PM

Ya' know gnu, there are a lot of "fucking" songs, but very few about VD. I'm working on one titled, "I Applauded Your Lovin' But You Gave Me The Clap" but I think I want to make it a Christmas song as well. Word is that Billy Bob Thornton has one coming out so I figure I can sell this one real easy...........


Spaw

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: gnu
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 01:54 PM

Spaw... Someday I am gonna submit my tune "Chanson d'Amour des Porcupiques". But, as most readers well know, it's difficult to get a recording of porkies. I haven't been up in the woods for about 4 years and in the 25 years that I did spend a fair bit of time in the woods at night in the fall, researching the feeding habits of Virginia Whitetailed Deer, I only ever heard porkies porking once.

And, it's a "gotta have". Ya know how The Clancys did Johnny McEldoo (The Spree). Well, that's the way porkies pork, with a "hee" sound. The tune is written in that fashion. Without an actually recording, the tune would just be one more fucking song.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 01:25 PM

Can't slow it up Captain, I tried and with my pickin style I loose a lot of the guitar's voice. I have been messing around lately trying to get the guitar to sing along with me on songs via finger picking of flat picking since there is only 1 of me and no other musicians to fill in the tops or bottoms. I think I will keep the tempo but absolutely have to fix the lyrics and a little phrasing problem I have with all of my songs including my original songs. I tend to hold on certain phrases and drop certain phrases. I am too anal on music. I look at it the same way as Math, the way my fuzzy brain works I guess.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 01:05 PM

Sorry Guest was me, lost my cookies

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 01:04 PM

Thanks Kat,
Frank has an amazing version of this song also ... my gosh what a talent. A music hero of mine.   Doesn't surprise me that he researched it so well

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 12:36 PM

Frank Hamilton aka Stringsinger also posted Origin info on this, a little bit more than the above, if I remember rightly: Click Here.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 12:12 PM

Spaw and Art
where do I get a porcupine around here, I have to settle for the cat hair ball. LOL

One of these days Spaw I am coming down there with a recorder and make you sing some of this stuff , with my cat ! HA

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 12:06 PM

Before I nuke it if anyone wants it - you and download free off soundclick or just PM me your email and I will mail it to ya

gotta fix the lyrics but I won't redo the recording cause I just wanted to play it at the concert thingy. Also wanted to get it right. This summer the HS music teacher asks if I could show some of the kids how to pick folk music in their summer music workshop. I am flat picking this one (something I don't do much of so it was good practice) It would be great if some of the young ones want to pick up the song for themselves. Important song I think so getting it right is really important to me.
Thanks again . I am just a dad that played music for his kids   The playing in public again is pretty new to me since I hadn't been serious about outside performance since 1979

Dan

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 11:30 AM

WOW, Thank you so much for the info ... wow
that is great research for me

Thank you thank you

Dan

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: GUEST,Adam Miller
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 10:41 AM

ORIGINS OF BLUE MOUNTAIN

On a cool summer evening in the year 1929, most of the people of Monticello were attending the annual Old Folks Party at the old red schoolhouse. Just before 10 o'clock, the sound of several loud gunshots was heard. Two tall cowboys in Stetson hats, boots, spurs, chaps, and gun belts swaggered through the doors and forced their way through the crowd. Everyone was relieved when they recognized two local men, Fred Keller and Roland Adams. They sang to the residents of Monticello a song Judge Keller had written to the tune of "Bound Down in the Walls of Prison." The song told the story of cowboys that plagued the Monticello pioneers when the town was new. The song eventually found its way into a publication of ballads of the West. The boys of World War II were honored before they departed and they requested that it be sung.

"Blue Mountain" has come to be known as Monticello's anthem. To this day, when people outgrow our little community and go away to different parts of the world, they take with them the words and music of a song that can always take them home.

Judge Fred Keller tells the story of his song.

"Following my discharge from the United States Army in the summer of 1919, I began to search for a county seat where an untried young lawyer might make a living. Frontier life has a glamour and charm. . so it was quite natural that I chose as the spot for this very serious experiment the little cow-town of Monticello, Utah, more than 100 miles from the nearest rail point. It is a custom in Monticello to give an annual party to all the inhabitants over sixty years of age. As a feature of one of the entertainments, I composed from the local cowboy lore a ballad which I call "Blue Mountain." I have had some satisfaction from the fact that it became one of the songs that was sung at the farewell parties held in Monticello for the boys summoned to the armed forces in World War II. The following is a brief statement concerning the life of the characters that inspired the song.

The Blue Mountain is an isolated range crowing the divide between the Colorado and San Juan Rivers in Utah. Until about the year 1875, the renegade Utes and Piutes were the only human inhabitants of this mesa, the Blue Mountain.

The first white settlers were cowmen and cowboys. The Carlyles were prominent figures among these. They established a ranch on Spring Creek. They branded with three swipes or bars, one on the hip, one on the side, and one on the shoulder. Among the cattlemen . . . of the region, their outfit was referred to as the "Hip, Side, and Shoulder". They had two large competitors, The "LC" outfit and the Pittsburgh Cattle Company on the LaSal Mountains some forty miles north of the Blue Mountain.

On an otherwise naked slope of the Blue Mountain, spruce trees grow in the outline of a horse's head. This feature is very distinct in the winter, one sees the head of a blazed-faced horse . . looking over the mesa. From earliest times the cowboys have considered the "Horsehead" a scenic wonder.

Many of the cowboys who did the punching for the Blue Mountain cow outfits. . had been in difficulties with the law in Texas and took sanctuary in the remoteness of the Blue Mountain. Some had the ambition to acquire herds of their own. The easy way to get into the cow business was by the process of "sleepering" calves. A cowboy would find a young calf with its mother in a secluded canyon that isn't ridden very often. He catches the calf and burns a line that may become a part of the finished brand which the mother of the calf carries, or it may be used as part of the brand that the cowboy making it claims. The calf is then released. The cowboy returns at the time the calf has grown to a weaner and if the owner of the cow has not completed the branding of the calf, the cowboy completes what he began on his own brand and then the calf belongs to him. The calf is referred to as a "sleeper" during the time it is first caught and the completion of the brand. If a cowboy was careless and other cowboys with whom he worked got in on the secret, he was referred to as "a hand with a long rope." A cowboy with a "long rope", if in the employ of the "LC" outfit, got along better with his foreman if most of his "sleepers" were from the "Hip, Side and Shoulder."

Nicknames were common among early cowboys. Bill Gordon, the round-up foreman of the "Hip Side and Shoulder" outfit was known as "Latigo". Another well-known cowboy was "Yarn Gallus" so called because of the fact that each Christmas his mother back in Missouri sent a present of some knitted galluses. Another bore the title of "Doc Few Clothes." There are conflicting versions about how he acquired his name. Some say it was on account that he had a very scanty wardrobe and was not over-scrupulous in the matter of sanitation. "Slick", is a cowboy who neither gambled nor drank hard liquor, but saved his money and married a good-looking grass widow who came on to the frontier. She lived with him for just long enough to steal his roll (money) and then left for parts unknown. The efforts of "Slick" to catch her was a matter of jest around the Blue Goose Saloon and Mons's Store. "Slick" lived on and on through the years with the hope that she would someday return.

To the north of Monticello, some sixty miles is a beautiful little valley. In it sits the charming little town known as Moab. The early cowboys of the Blue Mountain referred to it as the "Little Green Valley". More than one of the cowboys dreamed of the day when he could marry a good-looking school teacher and settle down in the "Little Green Valley."

Mon's Peterson, a member of the Mormon colony that settled Monticello, started a general store. The front door of "Mons's Store" was full of bullet holes fired from the guns of celebrating cowboys. One day, to be a little more original than the rest, a cowboy rode his horse through the door, took hold of the end of a bolt of calico, dallied it on the horn of his saddle, and rode out on a run. Some Ute squaws were in town that day and I have it on good authority that they ran the cowboy' horse down and each cut off a dress pattern.

"Latigo" the foreman of the "Hip Side and Shoulder" outfit liked life on Main Street so he established the "Blue Goose Saloon." The conservator of law and order in Monticello was a Mormon shoemaker by the name of Nephi Bailey. He held the high office of Justice of the Peace and tried the cowboys for their offenses as well as making and repairing their boots. The cowboys called him "Zapitaro" which is the Spanish word for shoemaker.

The occasional dances given in the old log church were popular. To date, a good-looking Mormon girl for one of these events was a stellar event in the life of one of the cowboys. They found no hardship whatever in riding horseback fifteen or twenty miles into Monticello and back to his camp in the early morning hours after the dance was over.

During the spring, summer, and fall, the larger cow outfits required a considerable number of cowboys to brand up the calves and gather up beef. In the wintertime, there was very little that could be done for cattle, and all except the top hands were laid off until the spring. Many of them existed through the winter by riding the "Chuck Line". The consisted of riding from one ranch to the other with no other object than to obtain sustenance by partaking of the hospitality of the rancher.

Among the Mormon settlers was a very talented, charming, and hospitable woman by the name of Evelyn Adams. She and her husband founded a small ranch at Verdure Creek, some six miles south of Monticello. She was known to all the cowboys as "Ev". She fed them when they were hungry, and nursed them when they were ill, and most of them looked upon her as a foster mother. Her cabin was the most popular spot on the "Chuck line". She is the sweetheart or heroine of my song. I think of her very tenderly.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 10:30 AM

Yeah.......plus, the cost of aardvark rental is cost prohibitive. But if its something you're really committed to doing, you can probably get a porcupine pretty cheap.

Spaw

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 10:24 AM

Spaw's right. Anal retentive of an aardvark is not the way to go. Blow it out like our cat might do a hairball! Think of it like One man's aardvark is another gal's hairball.

Yin and yang---Every coin has two sides.--Paradox happens. Sing it out. You'll be a better man for the divesting and/or dis-engorging yourself of it.

Love,

Art

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 08:50 AM

*blush*

maeve

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 12:46 AM

Beer
for me it is never trying to imitate another musician. I have my own way that I play. What I mean is, if I sing Lightfoot, for those who would expect it to be the quality of lightfoot it never be cause I am not lightfoot. Likewise what I was saying is for 50 years people heard great masters doing this song. I am not a master nor sound like any. The style is different in playing and singing. If someone expected it to be like what they heard for 50 years I don't have that quality .. If I did I would not be a computer geek thats all I meant.
Nice thing about playing and writing my own songs is no one would have to say , that ain't how lightfoot does it ..

see what I ment
and you advice is well take ... I am just for now on going to sing the damn song whatever it is and stop worrying

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Beer
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 12:20 AM

There was a point made by Kendall that you should listen to. "you get to do it your way and don't worry about how someone else did it".
Kendall in my opinion hit the nail on the head.
Here is a mistake that is done by many musicians. They try to sound (in some cases look like.)like the original singer. Until you can get that idea out of your head you will always be questioning if it sounds good or not. Just be yourself and sing the damn thing. Some songs are sung better than the originator in many cases.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 11:21 PM

OH my god can't stop laughing ... Thanks Spaw !!
that was the best yet, rivals even the PMs you sent me ... gonna fall over LOL

frogprince, thank you .. I haven't played out in so many years that this last year has been kinda wierd for me. Still have to get past the confidence thing ... working on that too hence I post on the net

thanks my friends

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 11:20 PM

Oh, how could I follow that wise advice?**bg**

This was a tall order, Dan, because I learned this song from Art's recoding which he so generously shared and it has been one of my favs. ever since. In fact, as my Rog and drove past the actual Blue Mountain in Utah, to go see my dad, we were listening to Art on the tape player and I sang along.

Having said that, we each make a song our own and in our turn someone will learn it from us and do it our way somewhere down the road. You have staked your claim and brought your own unique voice/pickin' to this song and it is good. The only thing I'd say is, like Kendall, I think you oughta slow it down a bit and maybe not have the guitar be quite so prominent. Thanks for sharing!

kat

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 11:12 PM

Worst shit I ever heard. Quit singing and give your guitar to someone who wants to learn how. You suck. I once heard the moaning of an elephant that had fallen backwards and now had a medium sized aardvark stuck in its ass that sounded far better than you. Matter of fact, I suggest you go to the local zoo and see about renting an aardvark before attempting this tune again..........


Spaw

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: frogprince
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 10:55 PM

Dan, Don't you dare to try to sing in public again until you get some proper operatic training!!

For crying out loud, you keep under rating yourself. Your rendition of the song is throughly enjoyable.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 09:43 PM

thank you

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 09:38 PM

a correction:

On my record of the song, I sang, "I'll own his back side and shoulder before I get older"

I did that because I remembered the words Frank Hamilton had sung incorrectly. When my LP came out, I heard VERY QUICKLY from my friend, Faith Petric, in San Francisco telling me in no uncertain terms that I had got it very wrong!

The correct words are, I think:

I'll own the hip side and shoulder before I get older,
Zapaterro, don't you tan my hide.

As I recall, "The hip side and shoulder" was either a different ranch's name, or the cowboy had killed one of the "sleeper calves" (strays) and was intent on taking "the hip side and shoulder" for himself.

Art

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 08:44 PM

Thanks folks, I was just reviewing it on the head phones and i thought I rushed a bit also, my phrasing also maybe a little work. I have this central Pennsylvania accent that creeps into everything I sing LOL ... true .. I want to try and get it the best that I can. I have a concert with a bunch of talented folks performing a lot of old songs. It is a fund raiser for sick kids. They asked me to do some songs I wrote and whatever else I wanted ... I like this one if I tighten it down just a bit. I really wanted to run it by you folks first to see if it will work. I appreciate everyones time for sure.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: kendall
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 08:29 PM

My only suggestion would be to slow it down just a bit.
Also, remember, this is not precise music; you get to do it your way and dont worry about how someone else did it.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: topical tom
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 08:20 PM

A very pretty song done in a fine style. I see little room for improvement, Dan. Go for it! I'm sure it will be much appreciated.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:54 PM

What Hardi said...Quit rehersing it right now... Don't play it again until you perform it... The recorded version is just fine amnd you'll be just fine...

Plus, it's hard for me to give advice to traditional folk singers because I play such a different style of music and the things I do absolutely don't transfer over...

Have fun...

Bobert

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:43 PM

Dan, it is Hardi, not Wysiwyg, Just wanted you to know that I truly enjoyed your rendition of this song--I think folk will appreciate it when you perform it next week.

Advice? Just don't over rehearse it to the point that you get bored with it. It is fine the way it is.

Hardi

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:42 PM

I think it's very good, Dan. I've been trying to work this song up for a long time. I sing a cappella, and I can't quite get it to work for me.
But you done good.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:38 PM

It's great! Just relax and play with it.

~S~

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:36 PM

Hey thanks folks always appreciate your kindness my friends.

Maeve, please send me your address again via PM. I have it in my book which I lost somewhere in the stack at my office. I will send you this and several originals I am working on so we can work on one of the songs. From what I heard tell, Maeve can sing and she can write folks so we need to get her out of hiding

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: gnu
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:23 PM

No dream.... it's definitely "ok" Dan.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:18 PM

Frank Hamilton recorded it some 50 years ago, Art Thieme recorded it some 40 years ago, both versions are so good and the bar set so high that I could only dream of hitting within an ok with my version.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 07:13 PM

First heard this from the long deleted LP "Rasa" by Jody Stecher and Krishna Batt in the late 70's. (A sort of country and eastern concept!)
Jody revisited it with his partner Kate Brislin a few years ago. One of the great songs IMHO.

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 05:55 PM

Does it need guidance, Dan?   It sounds pretty darn good just as it is to me.

'The Blue Goose Saloon' sounds kinda fun, I have this vision of gals in big petticoats with even bigger smiles, turning to welcome all the men that walk through the doors, tired after a hard day up on the Blue Mountain...And those Mormon Gals, with the Cowboy riding home under that moon...

I have a whole Cowboy film going through my head now...   :0)

"Blue Mountain, you won my heart to keep..."

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: maeve
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 04:45 PM

Hi, Dan. The little bit I could play sounded very good. I've liked that one for years.

maeve

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 04:02 PM

also put it on youtube

Subject: RE: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 03:21 PM

and I could not hope to do this one as good as any of the masters
but I do like it and think maybe I will sing it for the younger crowd

Subject: olddude - Blue Mountain
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 01:18 PM

I really want to do this song at a concert next weekend, If anyone has any suggestions to make it stronger please do advise. Many Thanks to Frank Hamilton and Art Thieme for all their advice and guidance. I am still working on it so please do give any suggestions I take no offense .

Great old tune, now I pass it on to another generation of kids at a charity concert next week.

Dan - Blue Mountain



Thank you

Dan