Greetings:

If all goes according to plan, my first full CD, Now the Wheel Has Turned, will be released on Saturday, December 10, 2005, at the Peoples' Voice Cafe in New York City. Here are the song notes:

1. Now the Wheel Has Turned (by Steve Suffet © 2005): Just another Gospel song. Or is it? History teaches us that the wheel is always turning.

2. Okie Moon (by Steve Suffet © 2005): Some people hear this song and presume Woody Guthrie wrote it. He didn't. I did!

3. The Turning of the Year (by Steve Suffet © 2005): This song was a present to a dear friend who suffered two great tragedies within ten months' time. The words proved prophetic; she did find time again for both loving and music.

4. Marlyn Garcia (by Steve Suffet © 2005): I knew Marlyn (pronounced Marlene) when she was a high school student at El Puente Academy in Brooklyn, NY, 1994-1998. She died in the 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

5. Emily (by Steve Suffet © 2005): Emily lived in the Hudson Valley in the early 19th century. I built the song around a question she wrote in her diary: "Why was I born with such passion?" As the song says, it's not about right and wrong.

6. He's Alive! (by Steve Suffet © 2004): Inspired by a piece of neo-Nazi graffiti, "Hitler lives!" There are just too many incidents like the ones in the song.

7. Down the Gowanus (by Steve Suffet © 2005): The Gowanus Canal runs about two miles through Brooklyn. Its "good ships" are barges and tugs.

8. Dead and Gone (by Steve Suffet © 2005): Inspired by the classic hobo song, Jay Gould's Daughter. The two drinks are from the original.

9. The Dixieland Express (by Steve Suffet © 2005): My very own entry into the Great American Train Song Derby. The Wabash Cannonball is still in the lead!

10. Let's Organize! (by Steve Suffet © 2005): Written for a Sis Cunningham memorial concert. Warning! Song contains a four letter word for excrement. Sis would have been proud of my language, and also of my quoting Marx and Engels.

11. Shady Grove (traditional, adapted and arranged by Steve Suffet © 2005). The quintessential Appalachian folk song and my favorite mountain dulcimer tune.

12. A Shantyman's Life (traditional, adapted and arranged by Steve Suffet © 2005): This lumberman's song has been found from Wisconsin to New York State. I boiled it down to these verses, just like making maple syrup.

13. Sally Ann (traditional, adapted and arranged by Steve Suffet © 2005): Some folks in the Blue Ridge Mountains believe Sally Ann is the national anthem. I always thought it was too short, so I added the verse about raising ten children.

14. It Ain't No Lie (traditional, adapted and arranged by Steve Suffet © 2005): This folk song from North Carolina was made popular by Elizabeth Cotten who learned it as a child. The verse about going back to Baltimore is my own creation.

15. Mole in the Ground (traditional, adapted and arranged by Steve Suffet © 2005): Cobbled together from many sources. Alberta is known by various aliases, ranging from Roberta to Kempie, but she always wants a ten dollar shawl.

16. San Francisco Bay Blues (by Jesse Fuller © Hollis Music Inc., BMI): This bouncy rag was a staple of the 1960s urban folk boom. Then for some reason it disappeared. I'm happy to say it's back.

17. Sixty-Six Highway Blues (by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger © Woody Guthrie Publications Inc. & Stormking Music Inc., BMI): Woody and Pete wrote this song on the same cross country trip in 1940 that gave birth to Woody's Union Maid. For some unknown reason it remained obscure until fairly recently.

18. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (by Blind Lemon Jefferson © Universal Music Corp., ASCAP): Based on an 1876 song by Gus Williams, See That My Grave Is Kept Green, this blues was first recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927. I tinker very slightly with Blind Lemon's lyrics. Blame it on the folk process!

Back-up musicians include Eric Levine, Gina Tlamsa, Joel Landy, Heather Lev, Jessica Feinbloom, Ray Korona, and Anne Price, all really accomplished in their own right.

Now the Wheel Has Turned will be available from CDBaby. You will also be able to buy it from me directly for $15. Members of Peoples' Music Network or American Federation of Musicians Local 1000 are welcome to take a $2 discount. Only one discount per CD, please!

I am not taking orders yet, but I will hold a CD aside for you if you ask me by e-mail: suffet@att.net

When the time comes, I will post further details on my website: http://suffet.home.att.net/

--- Steve