The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #147084 Message #3561483
Posted By: GUEST,Ken Brock
26-Sep-13 - 11:16 AM
Thread Name: Homesteaders folk quartet
Subject: RE: Homesteaders folk quartet
I may or may not have sent this info before. I found it 10 years ago at www.edmicheljazzproducer.com specifically http://www.edmicheljazzproducer.com/homesteaders.htm and printed the page (09-29-2003) from which I am transcribing below. I currently cannot locate the Ed Michel site on the internet.
THE HOMESTEADERS - DISCOGRAPHY of recordings produced by Ed Michel
RAILROAD BILL (with Judy Collins) - Riverside RM-3437 (LP)
. RAILROAD BILL
. CAPE COD GIRLS
. ABILENE
. TITANIC
. THE SILKIE
. WHOA, BUCK
. ROLL ON, COLUMBIA
. LAST MONDAY MORNING
. MARY ANN
. NINE POUND HAMMER
. STRANGER HERE
. SHE'S LIKE THE SWALLOW
The folk boom was happening, and Riverside, which is to say Bill Grauer, wanted lots of product.
THE HOMESTEADERS were a made-to-order group, designed to work in the studio. It was put together by arranger-guitarist WALTER RAIM. I don't remember everything, except that the singers were JUDY COLLINS (who was already starting her career, but hadn't reached star status yet), RONNIE GILBERT (from the Weavers), BOB HARTER (a phenomenal bass, who made his living in the jingle business -- he was the guy who said the low "That's right!" when somebody else said, "Winston's got the taste that's right", and a male tenor who I remember only as BILL. Walter wrote all the arrangements and played guitar (and probably some banjo, but I'm not sure). I used to have bad information here, as my memory was obviously awry, but Frank Hamilton and music writer (sic) called my attention to some obvious errors, and Stuart Kremsky of Fantasy was kind enough to go digging through the old recording contracts to provide accurate data. In addition to Walter, FRANK HAMILTON (then in the "Pete Seeger chair" with the Weavers) played guitar and banjo, and CHUCK ISRAELS (then with the Bill Evans Trio) played bass. TITANIC, ABILENE, ROLL ON BUDDY, and SILKIE were recorded on September 18, 1962. On October 15, MARY ANN, RAILROAD BILL, and SHE'S LIKE THE SWALLOW were recorded, with MARSHALL BRICKMAN (Before he was Woody Allen's writing partner, when he was "the fastest mandolin strangler in New York City added. And WHOA BACK BUCK, STRANGER HERE, ROLL ON COLUMBIA, CAPE COD GIRLS and GREY GOOSE were recorded October 16, with FRED HELLERMAN (who'd been guitarist-singer with The Weavers since the beginning) in place of Brickman.
Everything was recorded at Plaza Studios, NYC, which was where all Riverside New York dates got done, and Ray Fowler, who was the Riverside engineer, did the engineering.