ADD: Flight 641 - songs by Lawrence Hammond

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,BR Dalton
Date: 15 Jun 23 - 02:59 PM

Note that bluegrass guitar phenom Billy Strings ( recording with his Dad Terry Barber and a cast of bluegrass stars) released LH’s JOHN DEERE TRACTOR ( in the slow Larry Sparks/Judds version rather than Hammond’s uptempo and more ironic version) as a single off the album ME AND DAD in 11/22. Was startled to hear this version while driving yesterday. Imagine LH might be too if the news ever reaches him out in Montana, where he seems to have retreated in silence

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Fretfly
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 07:04 PM

Haven’t posted on this thread for years. Wonderful to see it’s still up and spinning. These days LH’s JOHN DEERE TRACTOR, having gone through iterations from Hammond to bluegrass legend Larry Sparks to the hit version by the Judds who subsequently apparently re-recorded the vocals over the original instrumental track for rerelease on their LOVE CAN BUILD A BRIDGE album, this Lazarus of a song is now all over the place in its latest iteration by bluegrass phenomenon Billy Strings. Strings adheres pretty lovingly to the Sparks version. Not too sure what Hammond is up to these days, but it appears from my internet search that he is still backing up singer Charla Bauman out in wild Montana. Hope the airwaves yield up some reward for this long-under-appreciated songwriter.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 21 - 10:03 PM

Great to find this thread! I have searched for info on Lawrence since I first got internet access in the 90's, with very few hits. This is a treasure trove! I saw him perform several times at Freight and Salvage and bought Coyote's Dream when it came out. I actually bought several copies (4, I think) and gave some away.
It is nice to see that I am not the only one who wished to have a recording of Little Britches. I also love his rendition of John Deere Tractor. Someone above pointed out that the Judd's version is slowed down and that is certainly true. They are great singers, but LH just did it so much better!
In all my searching, the most interesting thing (prior to this thread) I found was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead. Turns out he was a half brother to James Louis Parber of the Whiplash band. The whole story is here: https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Weir-finds-his-birth-father-and-adopts-a-vintage-2778049.php There is also a letter to the editor regarding the Weir article from LH's brother and another from one of James' brothers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Ron D
Date: 17 May 21 - 09:52 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Gert Lettorp
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 03:32 AM

Presumed Lost is collected and produced by Shagrat records (UK)
Very different kind of country music.
Unfortunately Coyote’s Dream seems lost and not available in any format. However I managed to contact LH by email and he was apparently willing to male a transfer from vinyl to cd ! and send it. As it was the costs of intetnational cheque etc (me being in Denmark, Europe, became too heavy. So I continue to enjoy my vinyl.
Great musicisn !!!! Love this thread that I keep on my iphone

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 06:25 PM

I remember Ozark Airlines...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 06:22 PM

'Presumed Lost' by Lawrence Hammond is on YouYube--all 55 minutes of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUUL-9gL24U

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Solid Rosario
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 05:49 PM

As there is very little elsewhere on the web about LH and especially about Secorra Plarres-Montes, I offer as follows: I have previously withheld certain things about Secorra, my oldest childhood friend, because I felt that they were not mine to share. However, nearly all of the people involved have now passed. First, “Lito “ Gutierrez (mention by Ms Bennington above, and by Marte Cosette) was not Secorra’s son by birth. He was her ex-husband’s child by a different relationship. Second , because if something it is NOT my place to reveal, Secorra was unable to have children of her own, a grief that tormented her to the end, as she adored kids. Third, in another piece of the tragic circumstances of her short life, her brother, ( alluded to by Mr Prideaux above) who had been a genius-level mathematics and physics student, got involved with a troubled young lady in the UK who had a child ( Mireille,) whom she was really incapable of mothering because of her (eventually fatal) drug use, so Secorra’s brother was attempting to gain custody at the time of the terrible accident that left him brain-damaged and destroyed his mathematical career. Secorra, with great difficulty, was able to gain custody and adopt Mireille as her own child after S’s own mother ( religiously very rigid) refused to do so., and took her back to Geneva with her. When Mireille was 4 the child contracted brain fever, (meningococcemia?). Secorra rushed her to hospital but the child died in a matter of hours. Secorra never stopped grieving this lost child. The terrible irony of S herself dying of late cardiac complications from viral brain infection is like some awful clamoring jest played by a cruel universe. This site, as a music site, is perhaps an inappropriate place for such obscure biographies, but this remarkable thread seems the only one connecting all of these people, many of whom are now really seeming to fade into darkness.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Shel Stutz
Date: 15 Jun 20 - 08:34 PM

Well, this is something! I was around the Bay Area in the ’70s and caught Lawrence Hammond and the Whiplash Band multiple times at various clubs, always an enjoyable show for me and my then-wife. Then he just vanished from the music scene and I had always wondered what the hell happened. I Moved up to Montana in 2006. About 10 days ago my girl and I went to an outdoor restaurant near Missoula after a round of golf where a local cowgirl Charla Baumann was playing (a couple rock tunes, a lot of classic country). Accompanying her on fender telecaster (some blistering chops there too!) and singing harmony (and occasional lead on a Bill Monroe tune and one Hank Williams) was a skinny gray-haired guy in jeans, western shirt, and boots. The 2 of them were pretty good and their arrangements were quite inventive. As we were leaving I glanced down at the handbill they had by the stage and it said the guy was Lawrence Hammond. I was kind of amazed to see him obviously quite content to be a backing picker. I lingered a bit, in hopes of chatting him up, but they were less than halfway through their 2nd set and we had to move on. Tonight I finally got around to looking him up and came across this thread, which is honestly quite remarkable and provides all kinds of answers from myriad sources. Thanks to everybody who’s posted. I plan on going to see these two play next time they are in Missoula.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 19 - 07:09 PM

Thank you! I discovered by reading above that Lawrence Hammond DID become a doctor...that he is in Hamilton, Montana. He works at Marcus-Daly hospital and he is an internist and has been for 29 years....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 19 - 06:47 PM

Lawrence Hammond taught me guitar lessons in Berkeley...I remember him well... and David Robinson...who I used to wait on at Berkeley Fuller Paints...whatever became of them...I remember I learned a type of finger-picking from Lawrence...he said then he wanted to be a Dr. and David Robinson had a contracting office...Jemison Beshears [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Bennet Stolz
Date: 05 Jan 18 - 10:22 PM

In about 1975 while visiting San Francisco I wandered into a pretty noisy club somewhere down towards the waterfront or lower Market St area near the Bay. Hammond and his band were on stage in what was a fairly raucous set. It seemed to me that they did play some original stuff despite the appreciative but really half-attentive audience. I had played around the bluegrass scene some in New England and New York so I was surprised to see and recognize (the late) John Herald of Greenbriar Boys fame wandering in. I wasn't the only one who noticed though, as Hammond shortly called him up to the stage, and launched into that great Floyd Chance song "Alligator Man," while handing his Martin off to Herald. That was followed as I remember by the Marty Robbins classic "End of a Long Lonely Day,". Herald was in fine voice and seemed astounded that all of the 5 other musicians on stage knew his stuff and carried the songs off without blinking, with Hammond on fiddle and his teenaged steel player and astounding lead guitar picker (Bob Weir's half-brother: I looked him up) taking their soloes. I accosted Herald after he left the stage and asked if that was all planned. He said (somewhat bewildered, I think) " Never saw these guys before in my life" I had been unfamiliar with them as well, but went to check them out on a tip from a friend. When I returned to the Bay Area again in '77, I was able to score the COYOTE's Dream album, which is really a classic of off-center 70's California country, but Lawrence Hammond had dropped out of sight and no one seemed to have any idea of where or why. I've always wondered through the years, and finally went looking online (following clues on his 2nd album liner notes) and ended up here. This is really a pretty remarkable thread. 18 years and counting: I suspect it is as extensive as it is because there is precious little elsewhere on the web and Mudcat just filled the vacuum. I recently chased down a burn of PRESUMED LOST and that has some wonderful playing and more REALLY unusual country songwriting. The stuff in this thread about his deceased fiancee is too heartbreaking. I understand he is (STILL!) practicing medicine. An unusual life, for sure

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Fretfly
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 07:40 PM

I have been listening to/rediscovering some of Hammond's later work with Mad River, in particular on their Paradise Bar and Grill album. The crazy harmonies and chord progressions of some of stuff on Coyote's Dream and Presumed Lost are not that far away from, and were telegraphed in songs like Revolution's in my Pockets and They Brought Sadness, and are especially noticeable in the acoustic rhythm guitar parts there. The great Dave Robinson lead guitar bits just magnified some of the odd harmonies. Those guy's were way ahead of the curve at the time!

It is cool to see this thread grow (over 17 years time at that)!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,BR Dalton
Date: 17 Jan 17 - 04:12 PM

Has this great singer and unusually talented songwriter just retreated into silence? I wonder, is he is not sitting on at least an album worth of new or never-recorded songs? In listening to Empty Rails in Garfield Country and Tumbleweed Plantation, The Legend of the Pale-Eyed Companion recently, I found myself longing to hear that desert-and-range sensibility reflected in new tales. What is he up to? Not a peep out of him since the 2013 Presumed Lost release.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,marie-louise bennon
Date: 23 Nov 16 - 03:45 PM

I have stumbled into this site somewhat by accident and partly because of a casual mention by a friend who knew the California music scene well in the 1970s. But MY link here is to the boy I knew who I am now sure was the son of Secorra Plarres-Montes, "Lito" Gutierrez. Studied art with him in the late '80s. God, he was brilliant, a corrosively poignant draftsman whose stuff was socially very pointed. I don't know if any of his stuff survived his crazy lifestyle and his sad early death. He did show me 1 picture of his mother, whom he mentioned had died when he was 6. In reading through the posts of this thread, I would guess that was taken sometime in the early '70s as her hair appeared more blondish in the photo than the white described at the end of her life. It looked like this was taken on an airfield somewhere and there was the wing of a plane in the background. Out of curiosity, I have chased down recordings of Hammond and am struck by how many unusual subjects his songs were about, the precision of the imagery, and the musicality of the playing. This is a very unusual thread!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,aurelia correiles
Date: 20 May 16 - 04:45 PM

How did I ever miss this site and these entries for so long? I also knew Secorra Plarres-Montes in the 1970s and flew as a nurse with her team in Africa 5 or 6 times, but generally to Liberia and Sierra Leone, never to Uganda or the Sudan. I also helped Secorra find her last position in Paris just before her death, when she had returned to work after her frightening illness. The descriptions above certainly capture her many sides, but what I remember is her steadiness under pressure, (when I knew she was as frightened as the rest of us in some of those disturbing situations we flew into). She also had a funny side and a wicked sense of humor and "black humor," which we all used to cope with grim situations. I understand now that her mother, her brother, and her first husband Manolo, as well as her son (who died of HIV at about 23 years), have all passed, so it is now only the shrinking community of friends and co-workers who remember her short and very graceful life. It is wonderful to find these many posts!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,jburrill
Date: 02 Oct 15 - 05:38 AM

re:
> Someone asked here if he sang any other Carl Oglesby songs besides
> "Cherokee Queen". Although I don't think he recorded any others I
> heard him sing "Le Chinois" on 2 different occasions. This
> mysterious song begins:
>
> Your houseboy's body floating facedown in the river,
> Does anybody dare to speak his name?
>
> I remember this is a dark dark song with a melancholy melody. Does
> anybody know the rest of the words?

I've just launched a new website about Oglesby's songs which includes an introduction to Oglesby and his music and links to all of his songs, as well as my arrangements of seven of them (so far) in PDF and JPG format with lyrics and chords: http://sites.google.com/site/OglesbySongs

Jim Burrill

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,SandraMingo
Date: 06 Dec 13 - 10:33 PM

I saw that show and also bought a copy of "Presumed Lost" which lead me to track down Coyote's Dream in vinyl. I missed a chance to pick up a CD of "CD" on sale at the museum. This is downright adventurous cowboy music. Lawrence Hammond has a kind of ornery wryness in the song lyrics that makes me wanta come back for more. I understand he has a career in medicine, but I am hoping he'll retire back into singing and writing. His guitar playing was special, anything but basic , just like those sorta unusual chord progressions-not the stuff you typical hear in country music, but sounding right nevertheless. Must say, I am surprised more artists haven't covered some of the tunes. Gratifying to see Doc Watson did. He always had a great ear for a good tune and story, Every one of Hammond's songs is a great short !story

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,ravalliranger
Date: 22 Sep 13 - 08:06 PM

I discovered this site after hearing Lawrence Hammond play at the Afternoon of Cowboy Poetry and Song at a benefit for the Ravalli (Montana) County Museum. I was so impressed by the storytelling craft he exhibited in the 3 songs he performed that I accosted him briefly after the gig and bought a copies of both Coyote's Dream and Presumed Lost on the spot. Apparenetly it was the 1st time he had played in public for a number of years. He clearly had some great guitar skills. The songs he played, I notice, are all ones mentioned here: "Nevada McCloud" and "Little Britches" and also the unrecorded "Fiesta San Carlos," this last being one that just flattened the unsuspecting audience (I spotted one old cowboy wiping away a couple of tears at the end. I had never heard of Hammond, and certainly was unaware of his story as revealed by these posts and in the Presumed Lost liner notes. I was pleased to find that his music had jolted other listeners who have posted here. Hope he makes a 3rd CD. I am really enjoying these 2 I have. The Bitterroot Valley is a perfect place for him!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,George-Luc Pridieux
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 05:50 PM

I am a retired pilot and flew many missions into North and East Africa with Secorra Plarres-Montes in the early and mid-1970s. Several of these were in Sierra Leone, 5 or 6 were into Uganda and were evacuation missions (1972 and 73). Two of the last I flew with her and her team were into Northwest Sudan. These were not intended to be for the purpose of evacuation, although as it happened, we did sometimes end up taking out some ill or wounded children. On the last of these in Sudan, we received a message that bandits were closing in on the airstrip where we had been conducting a clinic for the prior 3 days. This was before the days when the present Islamist regime was hiring the Janjaweed militias to do their ethnic-cleansing for them, so these guys were just tribal criminals intent on robbery. We scrambled very fast to get our supplies loaded onto the aircraft and were taxiing out onto the strip when the bandits rode in on their horses. As I recall, a few shots were landing around the airplane and people from the settlement were running alongside the plane hoping to climb on. I was told afterwards that a woman was trying to hand her infant up to the nurses on the plane. Ms Plarres-Montes was holding the ankles of Ms Sophie Rochambault who was leaning out trying to grab the child, and finally succeeded in this. Apparently the mother fell down and was struck by bullets as the plane moved away. Once we in the air, I was told that the child was already dead. This was a very upsetting event for all of us. We did not return to Sudan after this.

I came to know Ms Plarres-Montes pretty well and saw her socially in Geneva and Paris, and visited her in her mother's home in Lorraine once. She had an older brother who had been badly injured in an auto wreck and suffered chronic effects of a brain injury, requiring constant care. Secorra was quite dedicated and a very efficient medical person, so I enjoyed flying with her and her team, which was comprised also of Ms Rochambault and Ms Lucia de Vega, with whom I still rendezvous about every other year. I was also aware of Lawrence Hammond's music. We had a portable tape-player we used to fly with, and listened sometimes to his songs. I located his website (for his music) and was fascinated that he went on to become a physician.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,oklahomie
Date: 29 May 13 - 02:45 AM

Viewing the devastation in Moore, OK on a recent mercy run up there with supplies for the Red Cross, was reminded of Hammond's great song Tornado's Comin' Down and was thrilled to find someone had entered the words on this site. Was a long long time ago that was recorded and it had nearly slipped my mind, just as the old vinyl slipped out of print and memory (mine is slipping out of print too!) until recently. This is apparently still available on CD now through Hammond's website which I discovered in searching for the words. With "Galveston Flood" it is one of the better takes on a natural disaster, and made the Takoma label's " Coyote's Dream" such a gem 37 years ago. Was fairly astounded to find the lost followup to it has finally seen the light of day--("Presumed Lost" Shagrat records). Looking forward to chasing it down

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Berk Whitfield
Date: 12 May 13 - 03:29 AM

Have heard rumor Hammond is coming to the UK to play some dates with Mad River's great lead guitarist David Robinson backing. Is there any truth to this one?

"Presumed Lost" now released by Shagrat, although it was recorded (apparently) over 30 years ago, shows what a startling songwriter he was and has some flat out beautiful words, music and performances. Should be a real treat to catch the elusive guy live after so many years, if rumors prove true.

By the way, some great tales and remembrances are posted above. Had no idea what a complex character he turned out to be. His life just seems to run in a million directions. I found a website he has up now, with a fair number of lyric sheets, some great photos, and also some Mad River memorabilia. Worth checking out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Patience Orowiru
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 08:52 PM

I am yet another of the "lost Ugandan children" checking in. My parents, my brother and one sister were murdered by Idi Amin's killers about 2 months before I got out of Uganda. I was 11 years old at th time. My parents were not political, but I understand fell victim to family grudges. During that awful My relatives heard that flights were leaving from the Gulu airfield for the UK, and they took me out there twice. The first time, the soldiers guarding the field would not let us in, but we could see many people sitting by the runway and hangers. The next time we went back we were allowed in, with what little food we had carried. It was 2 days, mostly raining hard, before the plane arrived. I remember that the crowds, almost all women and children, wanted to rush the plane and were beaten back hard by the soldiers. We were almost all women and children, and I must have been one of the oldest of these. The lady pilot and 3 women came out of the plane and were were lined up at a tent and each one inspected by these nurses or doctors. The sickest or the wounded children were treated 1st, and I was healthy so it was quite some time before I came before the women in charge, who was small, and thin with brown skin like mine and light-colored hair. I had had a nap and she looked very tired, but she looked right into my eyes and said in French (which I studied in school) 'You are going to be all right." After so much fear for so long I remember bursting into tears and her putting her arms around me briefly. When we were all finally on the plane after many hours (and what a noisy mad flight that was) I tried to find a place as close to her as I could. My auntie came on the next flight. We went all the way to Monrovia, I think, then Morocco and then to the Midlands of the UK. I saw these 3 women again about 2 weeks later, when they came to where we were housed with more kids from Uganda and elsewhere. Approaching the lady who hugged me in Gulu, I asked (bold child that I had become!) if I could come live with her! She kissed my cheek and said, 'Dear child, right now I live nowhere." I thought this was a very strange answer for a doctor, but I told her I would go live with her there! She smiled and went on her way and I never saw or heard of her again, but I have always wondered who she was. Now I think I know. I found this site, much of which is about music unfamiliar to me, while looking for answers to my past in Uganda. Thank you to whomever keeps it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,ed griffiths
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 12:42 PM

Have been on the official website, to try and purchase/replace a long lost vinyl copy of Coyote's Dream, but every time it gets 'blocked' when i try to select "shipping".
Even the contact page knocks me back!!
Can anyone out there help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,mark.p.
Date: 17 Mar 13 - 09:05 PM

For BR Dalton, many thanks for the tips on guitar chords to the Hammond songs. As for "Love for the Hunter" I THINK it is a love song. I visited the new Lawrence Hammond website, which has a bunch of his song lyrics up on it, and discovered "Coyote's Dream" as a CD can be purchased from there.

I managed to transfer my vinyl copy to CD a couple of years ago. That vinyl LP is still available on EBay, I have noticed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,ozzie knopf
Date: 10 Mar 13 - 10:31 PM

I have had 3 of Hammond's songs in my repertoire since the 70's: "Tornado's Coming Down," "Tumbleweed Plantation" and "Light as a Coyote's Dream." I actually learned Tornado and Empty Rails from his "Coyote's Dream" LP. I used to play "George Gudger's Overall" but forgot the words and lost the lyric sheet that was the sleeve for the vinyl disc (mine is worn and scratchy but still plays--his website indicatea the CD can be purchased from there. I can agree with the chords to "Tornado" that BR Dalton has entered in an earlier post. I had been wondering what became of Lawrence, but sort of quit trying to find out what a few years ago.

I recognized him (grayer hair and a few more wrinkles since I saw him at one of what must have been one of his last live performances in Northhampton, MA in about 1977) about 3 weeks ago in a guitar shop in Missoula. This was because I was struck by the guitar style of someone playing an aisle over. Peered around and there he was. Asked him what he was up to, and was astonished to find he has been an MD the last 29 years, but if had had known about this website I would have been in the know. Since he mentioned a CD of previously-unreleased songs was recently released, I went online to find more. I appreciate all of the info other fans have put about him into Mudcat. I also found an apparently new website about his music which came up when googling him (with an interesting section about the rock group Mad River). Lyrics to some songs are posted there too..

Lawrence said he is living and practicing medicine in Hamilton, MT, within an hour's drive of Missoula, and is starting to perform a bit again. What intrigued me was that he said he is still writing and has accumulated more than a CD worth of unrecorded material. I always thought his imagery and his ear for rural American speech made his songwriting unique among songwriters working the Americana lode. Songs were always just real visual, and the melodies just unusual and adventurous enough to catch your ear, while still keeping a foot in the Cowboy-Country-Bluegrass vein. He still gets together to pick with David Robinson, the amazing lead guitarist from Mad River, and Rick Bockner Mad River rhythm guitarist, who has released several albums is hands-down the finest ragtime guitarist still around. For those who have not heard Bockner it is worth seeking out his gigs and CDs.

I asked about "Tumbleweed Plantation" and another great one of his called "Papa Redwing Blackbird" and found these are on the new CD. Apparently the "Papa Redwing" version is not a studio cut. These 2 alone will be worth the price.

This website is great! Learned a whole lot tonight about other artists I've been wondering about.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,homestretch55
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 12:44 AM

I heard a song called Little Britches on a radio station in theNYC area Ocean City Radio and went looking for the writer. Thanks so much to whoever posted the words here. Am always on the lookout for great cowboy songs, and am so glad fantastic ones are still being written. Am looking into how to get an album copy. I understand there are now 2 albums out there but that one is only available used in vinyl.

I read through this 10 year long thread with great interest. A doctor yet! I hunted up the Judds' "John Deere Tractor" cover and the Larry Sparks version, realized I had heard the former in the past. But the best surprise was finding Doc Watson's version of "George Gudger's Overall" in my own collection. That is the best!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,brdalton
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 09:12 PM

Got a "Presumed Lost" copy from a friend. Some great songs here and LH does some fine singing on this one.. Notice someone has posted Papa Redwing Blackbird with its spectacular harmonies, and Love for the Hunter on YouTube. That song is spooky! What does it mean.?Especially I was just flattened by Hammond's guitar playing on Papa Redwing...and the booklet says it was not even a studio take. Am trying to figure out how he does that. Really enjoyed the guitar on Nevada McCloud too, and the stance and haunted arrangement on West Texas Border Patrol. Album is all and more than promised. Dig this guy out of Montana or wherever he is hiding out now and put in ON STAGE!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,sophie rochambault
Date: 17 Dec 12 - 09:22 PM

A friend has mailed me the new CD "Presumed Lost" from North America. This is a lovely record, very handsome packaging too by Shagrat Records. The singing and musicianship seem top-flight and the songs are just so original. In a way, it is a very fitting tribute to my friend Secorra Plarres-Montes who must have heard some of these songs in their early stages. I was particularly struck by the somber song "Love for the Hunter", with its mysterious lyrics and spooky singing. I had never heard this before.

Well. I recommend this one, everybody!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Soliz Rosario
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 06:19 PM

Is this a music site or is it appropriate to post other information? Looking at the many entries about Lawrence Hammond here I will add some of my own comments. Secorra Plarres-Montes was my oldest childhood friend since we war about 8 years old, I think. I met LH several times when they visited me in Mexico in 1974-5, and then when my husband was posted in Paris in 1976, the year of her death. A friend has just mailed me a copy of the new release of his music (Presumed Lost) from the USA. As I have just listened to this, many memories were stirred up, and I have heard several of the songs on this CD before (live in person). "Texas Border Patrol" and "Papa Redwing Blackbird" stand out. I also know Enrique Paredon, who contributed some of the percussion, and knew Roberto Gallardo, whose flute adds so much to Papa Redwing.

Secorra went through a period of frustration with the collapse of her 1st marriage and threw herself into her relief work in Africa and elsewhere. I would say she seemed somber during this time, quite unlike the lively and funny person I had grown up with. She was visibly angry about what was being done in Africa, especially to her pediatric patients. When she met Lawrence Hammond, she calmed down, rediscovered laughter, and seemed truly content for the 1st time in a very long time. After her recovery from her near-fatal 1974 illness, she stayed with me for a while while she gathered her strength, and mostly from that time I remember how silent she became. She just spent hours listening to music of any kind and sitting in my garden. By the time we were together again in Paris, she was completely a live wire again, and crammed her days with more activities than most of us could manage. At this time she and LH had finally seemed to have a plan for how to be together (geographically I mean). Her sudden death was a shock. It is still a shock 35 years later. I am so glad people whose lives she touched have remember her here. I last saw LH in Boston in 1981, while he was still in medical school. I did have a sense that he was carrying on somehow with what she had started. He must have just finished the last pieces of Presumed Lost about then. How remarkable that Shagrat Records discovered these and released them after so long. There is certainly a piece of her in this music. Now if someone could figure out how to release Coyote's Dream on a CD...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 11:59 PM

Here it is, folks, the long-awaited companion to Coyote's Dream:

http://shagratrecords.com/shagrat_sales_sclawrence01.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Jackalope John
Date: 28 Nov 12 - 05:43 PM

Nigel,

Got my copy today -- thanks. It's all I'd hoped for. The recording quality is great and the packaging and booklet are gorgeous. And of course Hammond's songs and voice and all the top-notch supporting musicians. It's a treat to finally hear the songs that have been discussed here over the years.

I'll be featuring this album on my next Swing Boogie shift on KKUP, Cupertino. Thanks again.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,nigel cross
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 08:08 AM

Dear all,

as promised here is a link to the site selling lawrence's 'presumed lost' cd -

http://www.shagratrecords.com/shagrat_sales_sclawrence01.html


'le chinois' is on carl oglesby's vanguard album.

i heard carl passed on this year.

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,seth in Olympia
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 06:13 PM

Yeah I never give up, just keeping showing up like a bad penny as my railroading granpa used to say. I was with my friends singing the other night, and somebody busted out with the old Freddy Fender tune : Before the Next Teardrop Falls"   
Heard LH just throw that out there i nthat noisy, clutterd club space that was the Freight, and I gotta say some people were cappin' on LH for his falsetto, but friends he was made, made to sing that song.
If Freddy Fender has been there I think he would have put his guitar back into the case and just headed for the bar around the corner....
love this thread
makes me happy
Passing this on to the the younger ones as well as I can/leaving for the wilds of Panama/no more Oly winters for me
my best to all
seth from Olympia

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,luke toms
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 01:12 AM

Sorry. hit the wrong key and just posted an empty note.
I heard Hammond play many times in California, but never heard him sing "Freightyard Thunder," so that is intriguing.

Someone asked here if he sang any other Carl Oglesby songs besides "Cherokee Queen". Although I don't think he recorded any others I heard him sing "Le Chinois" on 2 different occasions. This mysterious song begins:

Your houseboy's body floating facedown in the river,
Does anybody dare to speak his name?

I remember this is a dark dark song with a melancholy melody. Does anybody know the rest of the words?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,luke toms
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 01:06 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,zingopossum
Date: 13 Oct 12 - 01:16 AM

I used to free lance photos of musicians and actors in the Bay Area and NYC music/theatre scenes in the 60's and 70's. Although I never had a whole lotta success at the time, some of the shots I took might have been worth something by now. Unfortunately, I lost over half of my negatives and prints in 1990 in an auto theft. I used to have 3 shots with Lawrence Hammond in them. One was a shot of LH talking side-stage with Mary Travers of PPM and Tim Buckley at a benefit of some kind at the Mt Tam amphitheatre in about 1968. In the background it looks like the Airplane is one the stage. There was one from NYC of Hammond and Tim Hardin which I took backstage at Town Hall in 1970 or 71. A third one was Hammond with Mimi Farina at a Bread and Roses benefit in about 1975 (?). Also in this was a tall dark-haired guy with a beard, not sure who, and Hammond with his arm around a dark-skinned lady with white hair. I think the tall guy was someone LH played with, not sure where or how, and I had the impression the woman was someone he was romantically attached to, perhaps the person who figures in various entries above. I know I no long have prints of any of these and am going to search to see if negatives exist of the latter. In the Mary Travers shot Hammond would still have been playing with Mad River I think.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Shebe N'Touru
Date: 06 Oct 12 - 12:42 AM

At the age of 7 in 1973 my mother and I left Gulu in Uganda on an airplane bound for Morocco and then the U.K. My father had been taken away by Idi Amin's soldiers several nights before and we never heard any news of him again, ever. He was not political at all, but, says my mother, personal grudges were settled in those days by accusing people of supporting Obote and his party. My memories of the trip are not clear. I do remember that only about what seemed like 5 or 6 people, mostly women, which I was told included the pilot, were involved in getting us out, and that the airplane and the airfield. We had been at the airfield for 1 or 2 nights and had had no food, and not much water. It seemed strange even to a mild child's eyes that the only men among us trying to leave Uganda, or being forced to, were foreigners or non-Ugandans. It is true, they had all been murdered, and many of us were already orphaned or had lost fathers, but did not know it yet. I myself do not remember specific things about the flight or medical crews other than that they had their hands full with other children and women who were wounded and a whole planeload full of sickness. I do remember everyone was terrified of flying in an airplane, and of the frequent gunshots around the airfield, and that everyone was vomiting and airsick for what seemed like an endless trip. I better remember arriving in the UK. It seemed the young women in the medical team stayed with us for several days. I think that if I had been less terrified at the time, I might have remembered these women better, but it seems likely that Buck Freundlich, who has posted above, and I might have shared that same flight, maybe even with Ms Plarres-Montes whom so many above have remembered. I have always been hungry to piece this story together, and I have found fragments in the strangest places. Thank you to all who have told their stories here. I have read the posts about the woman mentioned here to my mother. She is elderly now but still has a fine memory, and nodded at the descriptions of this young women, agreeing that she was there on that flight.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,brdalton
Date: 02 Oct 12 - 08:52 PM

Came across this notice on web "Coming soon fall 2012. Lost Lawrence Hammond recoirdings "Presumed Lost" Shagratrecords.com/shagrat_lh.html.

Don't know what or who shagrat records is, but it looks like their catalogue includes a number of lost 60s and 70s recordings, archives.

This looks promising!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,cinderman
Date: 21 Sep 12 - 11:50 PM

Heard Lawrence Hammond sing "West Texas Border Patrol" in Boston in what was probably early 1977. I remember at the time thinking that it was not just a song about the illegal immigration mess, but a story that looks at the whole thing from more than one angle and makes no judgements. I mean it was not preachy. I also got the words from him after the coffee-house gig. I am pretty sure he sang "and that black bird wheels around in the sky" although the words on the lyric printout he gave said "big bird." It is very interesting to read about this song and Hammond's life during this time. I can believe he WAS reluctant to perform this, in light of all the stuff revealed above. It's challenging stuff and not strictly speaking entertaining. I found this thread while looking to see if this (or anything else) was ever recorded, and the hints that another "missing" album might exist and actually be released, and that the song actually WAS (according to Enrique Paredon above) recorded. Although I was aware a the 60s psychedelic group Mad River, I had never actually heard that until recently (there are some tracks on U-tube, and had no idea Hammond was a member. What he did after seems very different. What does stand out in the MR stuff is the musical adventurousness, and that on the "Coyote's Dream" record was way ahead of its time for country music.. Why has no one re-released that album? He was an impressive performer and had some pretty funny stories to tell between songs. Had an upright bass player and another guy who doubled on mandolin and guitar, and I think both had latino names. Who
were those guys?

Subject: Lyr Add: FREIGHT YARD THUNDER (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,mark p. former guitar student
Date: 15 Aug 12 - 01:49 AM

in 1973 and 1974, when Hammond was in town, I would drop by for a guitar lesson at his Oakland house. I learned a lot of stuff and technique from him, but also a lot about how songs and chords are put together, stuff I still use every day. I kept in touch with him intermittently up to about 1982 and even looked him up once in Boston during a visit (he was in med school at the time). After that, I lost touch and really have wondered for years what became of him. One day while I was waiting for him to finish up some stuff before a lesson I leafed through a pile of his song lyrics. Most of these were familiar to me from his shows, but there was one called "Freight Yard Thunder" that I had never heard, so I asked him to play it for me. I can't completely remember the tune to it now, but it was in a minor key and had a driving rhythm with a lot of percussive stuff from the right hand. I never heard him do it with his band, but he DID play it one night after he had dissolved the Whiplash Band, and was playing in Santa Barbara with a string bass player and a mandolin player. I asked him at that lesson if I could copy down the words, and believe it or not I still have them, so here is this rare and unknown song:

FREIGHT YARD THUNDER

There's thunder tonight in the freight yard.
I hear them shuffling' em 'round
All night it drums in my restless sleep,
makes me groan and toss around.
Must be a hundred men like me lyin' sleepless
in the seedy part of Abilene,
listening to the freight yard thunder rollin'
out on the moonlit plains,

Hot cinder smell down the window well
on a sweat-stained bunk in the Railroad Hotel.
In a room I've been sharin' with a closed-mouth gent
who stares all night at the ceiling vent.
Maybe he's runnin' from the laws he broke,
like I'm running' from the words she spoke
that keep on repeating like an evil joke
through the freight yard thunder and the diesel smoke

CHORUS:
Freight yard thunder...
they're makin' up my train.
And I just wonder,
will I ever ride away all my pain?
I keep thinking' there's more to life,
keep finding' there's a whole lot less.
But there's got to be more than this freight yard thunder
that's all that I got left.

Mama died when she born'd me in a roundhouse up north.
When the 2 AM rolled by my crib would skate across the floor.
Left home when I was 14 with the north wind at my back,
the same year that my Pa was killed lyin' drunk across the track.
The rest is nothin' else, just a rumble and a whistle,
one more town on down the line.
In my dreams, I'm always caught there half-way cross the trestle
with a fast freight screaming' up behind

(repeat chorus)

Gus McDill he's the meanest bull who walks the yard.
His horns are cruel and his hooves are hard.
He broke my hands 10 years ago when he caught me on a train.
I used to pick the Wildwood Flower but I'll never play again
That guitar was the only thing I loved like some old friend.
Now the petals of the Wildwood Flower are scattered in the wind.
And when I heard those words you spoke something broke again.
It doesn't even matter now just how the story ends.

Freight yard thunder
They're makin' up my train.
And I just wonder
will I ever ride away all my pain?
I keep thinkin' there's more to life,
keep finding' there's a whole lot less.
There's just got to be more than this freight yard thunder
that's all that I got left.


I always thought this song sounded more like something Mad River would have done later in their brief career. It has a sort of stormy brooding tone that would have suited them well. Anyway, it was a real find to happen on this Mudcat site after so long with no info. Glad I could add to the mix!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,old Freight fan Fred
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 01:17 AM

Interesting thread here.
I remember seeing Hammond, David Garthwaite for Joy of Cooking and Annie Johnson do a terrific impromptu version of the old Fiesta hit "So Fine" in 3 part harmony. What a lively and great coffeehouse that was at the very beginning of the 70's...the guy went on to write some creative stuff, gathered some good musicians around him, put out an interesting album on a shoestring (in all probability), played a bunch of gigs around California with that bunch. Then I saw him do a solo night at the Freight with a bunch of new material. Then he just vanished. I always thought something dire had befallen him. If he has more recorded material out there, I'd like to hear it

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Buck Freundlich
Date: 11 Jul 12 - 01:06 AM

This isn't a post about music, I guess. In 1973 I was in Uganda (well, in and out of it) assisting with the evacuation of Asians and Europeans. We had clearance for a flight out of Gulu, I think it was, and I was doing ground prep. We had a crappy airfield jammed with terrified women and children (I still shudder to think of what happened to the men), mostly Asian, several Europeans desperate to get out, a few black people considered to be likely supporters of Obote, and all penned in by a bunch of stupid illiterate thugs in army uniforms. Just getting the OK to refuel the incoming plane out the local captain was only possible because Amin wanted all those people out of the country and fast. Got into a shoving match with one of the thugs (which you really didn't want to have happen). Everyone was bloody hungry, some of the kids starving practically, some had been shot and the wounds were clearly getting infected. Many could not even walk and were being thrown out of the only home they ever knew. After a while, an old plane lumbered in...I think that was an old Martin 404, with more dents than a tin can on a fencepost in Tombstone. The door opened and 3 young women stepped out, just 3 not counting the pilot, to shepherd this whole mess. One young lady took charge and began to immediately triage all 90-some kids, quietly giving orders in French and English (of a sort), moving down the rows, whipping in IVs, separating the worst. She had chocolatey skin, sort of blondish hair, and these unusual light grey eyes. I had a lot to do, but could not take my eyes off her. The army captain confronted her while she was cleaning out a kid's wounds, demanding her papers. Without taking her eyes off what she was doing, she quietly said she would bring her IDs to his office when the last kid was stabilized. He became foolishly polite. There was this one kid with a bullet in his thigh, who had lost blood and was running a fever. I held him down while she pumped in some morphine and begun to dig around with a scalpel and forceps until she had it. She picked him up and carried him onto the plane with both of the meager 2 antibiotics we had running in. 7 and a half hours later in the middle of the night, with a plane stinking of wounds and vomit, and a din of screaming kids we took off. She never stopped for anything but water all the way over to Monrovia, then up to Morocco, but as we landed there I went to wake her where she was drowsing with the bullet kid in her arms. He did not look so good, and she shook her head. I last saw her heading toward the ambulance at Rabat carrying him, with about 4 other kids limping behind her like a mother duck. Caught up to her and leaned in the ambulance to say bye and thanks. "I am Cory," she said in French. "I'll see you maybe on the next flight." But I never did. Had to be the same lass. Aways wondered about her in following years, worked in some of the same lousy spots, but our paths did not cross again. This has to be the woman mentioned several times above. Don't know much about music, but love it all. I never heard of Lawrence Hammond, but am aware of Mad River--demented, crazy stuff. She was a quality human being, too sad she died young, but if she loved Hammond, he must have been quality too and I will sure give his music a listen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Tom Ordon
Date: 03 Jul 12 - 10:44 AM

There is a new magazine from the UK called FLASHBACK with a big cover story on Mad River. Great stuff. Lots of info I never knew.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Jan, from Holland
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 09:54 AM

This morning, looking for info this morning, looking for any info once again about the life and contemporary whereabouts of Lawrence Hammond, and really not expecting to find any, I finally managed to stumble across this thread, and I tell you all: I am totally flabbergasted, deeply impressed and overwhelmed by this incredible phenomenon:

This evergrowing story, which I have read top-down, skipping nothing, has lived for almost TWELVE years now ... and seems to in time have brought together a complete community of concerned and quality-loving folks, including not only the daughter, a musician herself, but music lovers bringing on lyrics for songs that sometimes were never even released, fugitives from Africa's '70's that reacted to Lawrence Hammond's muse miss Secorra Plarres-Montes, guitar players that share chord progressions, and so forth: I say: Forget the 'social media' blabla about FaceBook and all that: THIS here is a social medium!

As a guitarist, fingerpicking my way through 'Harfy Magnum' in the early '70's, the incredible voice of Lawrence Hammond for me has risen slowly: I could never forget his singing, I have been playing the records until they were grey and almost transparent, and finally digitized them myself, straight from the record player, all the time getting more intrigued, and wanting to know: "Where has he gone after 1976?".

I am so glad to have found all this information, I really wish to greet you all from Holland!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,lucia de vega
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 10:22 PM

It is said that those lost recordings of Lawrence Hammond's songs, which include "Papa Redwing Blackbird" will never be released, but I have heard that they are to come out on some tiny label in the U.K. if at all. Let us hope they do not languish in the void. Also, thank you to the friends of Secorra Plarres-Montes who have posted their memories above. The entries from Dev and Tasmin were very moving.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,blueRRtrain
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 07:55 PM

These hills ain't got no conscience
This valley ain't got no shame..
to watch a good man cry in'
and never know his name.

(last verse to "Light as a Coyote's Dream" (not included on the album cut for some reason.

Hopefully more people will come to know the name of this too-long-unheralded songwriter. We need another album! Hello????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Sal Morzitzky
Date: 18 Jun 12 - 02:39 AM

"Light as a Coyotes Dream" must be one of the most beautiful and sweet cowboy love songs ever written.

This is a terrific and informative thread about a singer whose very brief musical career produced some real gems in terms of imagery, laughs and melody.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Dev Manoranjan
Date: 06 Mar 12 - 11:46 PM

My family, which had been in Uganda for several generations, also lost everything and, almost, every person to Idi Amin's rampage. Though I was not orphaned like Tasmin was, I was separated from my parents by government thugs. My parents and my sister found their way out of Uganda. Like Tasmin, I was flown out with, mostly, other children. Before I could be united with my parents and my sister, my mother died of wounds she had received earlier. I too found myself in a camp in what seemed like a very cold UK. However, I do not remember anyone on the plane matching the description of Ms Plarres-Montes. But, there was a nurse or doctor who visited the camp several times after my arrival and treated an infection on my face (I was 8 at the time). My memory of this is quite vivid. She did match the description. An angel really. Many of the kids seemed to know her and she was swarmed. I left the camp, and my family eventually made its way back to Asia. I work in the music business now and have very eclectic tastes. I have been researching an article on modern American cowboy music, both from the US and the Argentine Pampas. I became interested in Lawrence Hammond's songs. So, I found my way to this site quite by accident, but could not rest replying to Tasmin Ondondware's post. Seems we were both very lucky to be touched by someone so remarkable!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,tasmin ondondware
Date: 22 Feb 12 - 07:43 PM

In 1972, my parents were murdered by Idi Amin's soldiers in Uganda. I was 4 years old. I was taken by my brother in the middle of the night to a hiding place in the north of the country, and from there we were discovered by aid workers and taken to a temporary orphanage. In early 1973, we were flown out of Uganda to the UK. I believe the pilot of the plane, a woman, was the late Sheila Bell, who died in Scotland not too long ago. I was terrified on the airplane, and was, for most of the long flight, held on the lap of a young woman dressed in a khaki jumpsuit. She spoke some English but mostly spoke to her co-workers on the plane in French I think, and they called her Cori or Correy. I still remember the smell of her dark skin and the curls of her blondish hair almost better now than the feel of my own mother's arms. She comforted me and the other children on that plane. After our arrival in Britain, we were placed in a refugee camp. It was winter and very desolate there. I told her I did not want her to leave me there. She came to visit me and my brother twice that winter but said she had to go work in Central America (I had no idea where THAT was). I did not ever see her after that, and for years after I have searched for some trace of her. Now I find myself here on a site about the music of a man from another culture, but I am certain, that woman was Secorra Plarres-Montes who is mentioned in these posts. I am very sad that she died so young. She has a place in my heart. I am now grown, with a family of my own, and am a great lover of music. Out of curiosity about her, almost more than anything, I have sought out Lawrence Hammond's coyote album. I am trying to reconcile in my mind, these songs with my intense memories of that young woman. Thank you to Mudcat for providing (at least some) answers for me