ADD: Flight 641 - songs by Lawrence Hammond

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,maury
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 09:34 PM

Met L. Hammond when he was a med student living in Beacon Hill in Boston and studying at Harvard. This must have been in about '81. We got together a couple times to play and share songs. The number and quality of songs he had written were fairly astonishing to me at the time. At this time I think he was sort of hooked up with the mercurial Deborah Henson-Conant, who has gone on to become a famous jazz harpist and quite a fixture on the Boston music scene. I enjoyed picking with him, and really did not completely appreciate until later how well-written those song-stories were. I was just tickled to find this site and to re-acqaint with these lyrics. He did record the Little Britches song, and I remember he played me a tape of it he had recently finished in California. He also recorded the Border Patrol song about the same time, and I remember the track was long and very haunting with some interesting instrumental work. I moved on to Oregon and I guess he went on the finish his medical training in Boston. Does not surprise me he wound up in New Mexico, at least for awhile, but Washington State does surprise me. Enjoyed the cover of "Coyote's Dream" on you tube (but who is the singer?) . Mr W. Nelson should record that song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,blueRRtrain
Date: 09 Mar 11 - 03:36 PM

have grown up playing "George Gudger" from Doc Watson's performance. Knew nothing about the writer. Never had a clue he had written so much other stuff. Am gonna try to score an LP copy. Sounds like I've been missing something.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,madmaximum
Date: 12 Mar 11 - 03:07 PM

yeah, who IS that singer on the youtube cover of "Coyote's Dream?"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 12 Mar 11 - 07:08 PM

Bill Lowe (Backwoods Bill)
Springville, Utah

As found here http://www.youtube.com/user/sinawava42

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 12 Mar 11 - 07:10 PM

Better make that Backroads Bill!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Cindy Caldwell
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 10:32 PM

Heartbreaker of a song. I'm gonna chase down Hammond's own recording of it. From the web, it looks like vinyl copies of that album are getting scarce. Saw him play a couple solo sets at U.Nevada-Reno in about '77. Or rather, he had a mandolin player (from Mexico I think) and a string bass for about 6 or 7 tunes. The cowboy tunes were pretty unique. He did do that Little Britches thing as I remember. I thought to myself, there's a story I've been missing here. Then he disappeared from the scene. Had his finger on a whole lot of musical threads. Hope I hear more of him. Mudcat is really cool, you know? I've found out so much about so many musicians I had lost track of over the years.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Sophie Rochambault
Date: 08 Apr 11 - 12:34 AM

I think of that time in the 1974-76 era with longing. During this time I also worked in Africa alongside Secorra Plarres-Montes and was in love with those songs of Lawrence Hammond that I heard tapes of, before I had through her a chance to meet him and see him play with that wonderful guitar-player he had, James Parber. This was a time we were all optimistic and committed, and tragedies just seemed to roll off of our backs.....until the one that didn't. I am happy to see that people remember her, her work, and elan, and remember too his haunting and inventive songs. They were a lovely pair and it was all too heartbreaking. I have through friends been told that his Coyote's Dream album is going to be rescued and more songs released besides but I do not know how imminent this is.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,graphiceye
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 04:08 PM

hey-does anyone know who is responsible for the great photo work on the Coyote's Dream album jacket? I loved the record, but I really bought it for the artwork!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,redheaded siren
Date: 22 Apr 11 - 04:22 PM

Was great wasn't it? My credits say Fumi Matsumoto. I googled. Teaches art in Juneau. A wonderful album and an seldom-recognized classic.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Cindy Caldwell
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 03:38 PM

Are there any other you-tubes of Hammond songs?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,madolinorange
Date: 19 May 11 - 02:43 PM

Nope, could not find any others. Wonder why "Trucker's Nightmare" was never included on any of the many trucking-song compilations over the years. Nothing else quite like it

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Cindy Caldwell
Date: 19 May 11 - 09:09 PM

Hmmm. I found some you-tubes of Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers doing "John Deere Tractor" and another bluegrass group doing the same song (but not as well). You could make a pretty funny video out of "Trucker's Nightmare!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Cian O'Meara
Date: 21 May 11 - 10:33 PM

I just bought a used copy of "Coyote's Dream" at a farmer's market stall, mostly on the strength of the cover and the Takoma Records reputation. The artist was a mystery to me. Vinyl's in pretty good shape really! Was knocked out by the lyrics. How did this guy fly so far under the radar in the 70's? Did the music biz totally have its head up its arse? At least someone at Takoma didn't, but maybe they did....Why was there no 2nd record. I checked, could not find one, but I see above that one WAS made. Takoma folded and perhaps that record was a casualty of their demise. The playing on the record is really very good, apparently from the band backing him at the time, and the melodies and chords are just off-scale for country at the time (even now) so no surprise Nashville did nto come knocking, but somebody should have. Did not realize he wrote the Larry Sparks/Judds "John Deere Tractor" song, but after listening to their versions again, I have a hard time envisioning Hammond doing the song that way. This thread is pretty loaded with info, thanks to all who posted. I learned a ton.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Brinnelsen
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 09:09 PM

I found some info on his musicians at The Steel guitar Forum website. Worth checking it out!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Sandie Harley
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 05:05 PM

I also heard LH play "Texas Border Patrol " in @ UC Riverside somewhere around 1976-77. As my husband was later posted in the Patrol, I have hunted off-and-on for the words to this rather unusual song for years. It is odd to finally find it here and to discover what became of him. I play guitar and piano, and I wonder if anyone can come up with the chords to this one. I think I can sort of remember the melody (enough to fake it!) I remember he was not playing with a full band A few years ago I found a vinyl copy of "Coyote's Dream" and bought it online. Was disappointed this song was not on it, but as it is a long one I see how they might not have been able to fit it on. At Riverside, he was playing with a string bass player and a mandolin player for some of the tunes., but they were not the musicians pictured on the record sleeve.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,nigel
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 11:15 AM

this is a great site that lawrence knows about - he's still practising medicine every day up in the north west.

good news is that hopefully a lot of the unreleased material you've all been talking about will see the light of day in the months to come. plus some unreleased recordings by his late 60s band, mad river.

i am based in london, uk and in the process of writing an article for the online music magazine, caught in the act about lawrence's 70s musical endeavours and will post a link in due course - this will cover the various line ups and recordings of the whiplash band including 'coyote's dream' lp and the 'lost' second album.

more soon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Gilles de Gireau
Date: 25 Aug 11 - 12:50 PM

I knew both Lawrence Hammond and Secorra Plarres-Montes in 1976, near the end of her short life. I heard him sing at a party in Paris with some of her team comrades. His guitar playing was intricate and smooth and his songs seemed very unusual, although my English at the time was less fluent than I am now. She was working on an immunization project in Central America in 1974(?) and fell ill with encephalitis and then an inflammation of the heart. I know she spent about 10 days in an intensive unit in Mexico before she recovered, and was frail for about 10 months after. She seemed lively and strong in 1976 and we were very shocked by her death. I would like to hear more of his music from that time, but from reading the above, I remember hearing the 'Coyote's Dream" song, and the "Redwing Blackbird" one as well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,dalydouble
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 06:25 PM

Gosh. I had this wonderful man for a doctor for almost 3 years! I was sort of aware he was a musician. But I had no idea of any of this. I found this website when looking him up to see where he went after he was no longer practicing in our town. . My husband plays fiddle, so we listened to a couple of his songs we found on the web. There is a song called "Pale Eyed Companion" (see the words to this above) now on youtube, no video with it. I also listened to the MySpace website, and my husband and I enjoyed the fiddle playing on a song called "The Red-Dirt Texas Fiddler. Recommend it!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,alyssawardworth
Date: 15 Oct 11 - 02:12 PM

Searching last night for the writer of "Coyote's Dream" after hearing the YouTube version of the song by "Backroads Bill," I found that someone has posted on YouTube Hammond's own recordings of "Legend of the Pale-Eyed Companion", "Coyote's Dream," "Trucker's Nightmare," (that track is great, and very different from his other stuff it seems!) and 'Uncle John Mills." There are no videos accompanying, just the beautiful, iconic "Coyote's Dream" album cover, but really, someone could have fine time putting together a video for these captivating stories.

This Mudcat thread is amazing for how far back it goes. I'm wishing this songwriter would come out of his musical retirement and start performing again. I' am sure his medical career must be demanding, but I for one would make it a point to go out and hear him sing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,fretfly
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 03:27 PM

I discovered all of the "Coyote's Dream" album has been posted on You Tube by someone. In re-listening to "Empty Rails in Garfield County" I am again struck by the magical chord progressions. But the really welcome event is having the classic "Trucker's Nightmare" available. Cannot quite figure out why that was not a radio hit at a time when Commander Cody wagon the airwaves with "Hot Rod Lincoln" and "Mama Hated Trucks." The lead guitar player is hot.

(Well I DO why it wasn't on mainstream country radio).

Also up is "The Legend of the Pale-Eyed Companion" entered in Mudcat by DWR. That is one atmospheric performance for a cowboy ballad!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,D2828
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 09:10 PM

OK, I went looking on you tube. Where is it??? Could only find that Garfield County song....?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,nigel cross
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 01:06 PM

hi all,

i am pleased to let you know that 'jersey sloo', the mad river book and 12" i mentioned is now out and available from

http://www.starryeyedandlaughing.com/madriver.htm

the lawrence hammond article looking at his 70s music should be out shortly in the online mag caught in the act issue 8

more details

www.siiye.co.uk

best wishes

nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,Sienna Tenayo
Date: 29 Nov 11 - 10:27 PM

Well, speaking of Mad River, which was apparently mostly off on its experimental late 60's course, the standout track they recorded was, for me, "Cherokee Queen." That also really pointed to the direction LH would go in the next 6 or 7 years. Song had a great mood, wonderful harmonica part, strong vocal performance. Wonder if Hammond did any other Carl Oglesby songs. Never heard him do any live. Thanks to DJFranz for posting the words above.

Now, who has a recording of "Papa Redwing???"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641 (Lawrence Hammond)
From: GUEST,nigel cross
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 08:21 AM

hey folks -

hope the following will throw a little light on lawrence's 70s career.

http://www.siiye.co.uk/E8/PAGE_001.html

i also just unearthed a nice interview with lawrence in BAM (bay area music) magazine may 76 (he's also the cover star)

wishing lawrence friends and fans a great 2012

spread the word

nigel

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

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,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,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,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,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,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,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,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: 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,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: 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,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,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,luke toms
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 01:06 AM

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,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,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,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
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,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,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,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,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,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,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.