Lyr/Chords Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips

Subject: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Lee Shore
Date: 04 Aug 01 - 09:35 PM

Looking for lyrics & tabs for Rocksalt and Nails, trad. Appalachian, recorded by either Joan Baez or Emmy Lou Harris. Anybody got?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: GUEST,gene
Date: 04 Aug 01 - 10:01 PM

you can find A VERSION AT COWPIE LYRICS SITE...

*** CLICK TO COWPIE ***

OR COPY/PASTE URL

http://www.roughstock.com/cowpie/songs/songslister.html/e/ely_joe/rock_salt_and_nails.crd

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Barry Finn
Date: 04 Aug 01 - 10:02 PM

Great song, I've been listening to my wife sing this forever. It's written by Utah Phillips. Do a search in the DT of Bruce Phillips & you'll find this along with some of his other gems (but only the words, no tune). Happy hunting, Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Aug 01 - 10:52 PM

The tune is printed in his songbook:

Click Here

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Lee Shore
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 05:47 PM

Thanks Stewie, You Mudcatters are flat unstumpable as well as erudite and amiable. I'm impressed. Max

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 06:21 PM

Someone sang this at Barry Finn's house - SusanA-R or Jeri? Was a show stopper.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: kendall
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 08:30 PM

I sing this one, was it I?

The chords I use.

C on the banks of the river, where the F willow hangs C,down

C The wild birds all Am warble, with a low moaning C sound
C Down in some Am hollow, where the water runs cold

It was there I first F listened, to the lies that you C told.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 08:45 PM

It was you, Kendall. All I remembered was the silence when you finished. Hard to describe the impact. Powerful, angry song.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: kendall
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 08:56 PM

I like it because it sounds so traditional. But, it is quite black.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Barry Finn
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 09:40 PM

Am I now married to Kendall? That was my wife who sang that at our party. What's confusing about this is that Justine's voice is about as close to Kendall's as Kendall's looks are to her. OH NO, OH GOD HELP ME. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 11:30 PM

Barry,
How late in the evening was this? After I emptied the red wine bottle, I switched to something brown. That may explain my confusion. Kendall's on his own here. Don't know how he confused himself with Justine.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 11:31 PM

Of course, he had recently gotten rid of the beard...and there was the arrest for exposing himself.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: kendall
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 08:20 AM

I dont remember

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Barry Finn
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 04:11 PM

Oh, oh, I had a holdfull of drunks & couldn't even tell. It seems as if Kendall only asked if he had sung the song, not knowing himself & that says a page full right there. It sounds like it was a good time, lets do it again & see how much we can forget if we put our wills to the task. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Midchuck
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 05:24 PM

When?

P.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: kendall
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 06:43 PM

Only if you stop picking on me...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Erica Smith
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 05:31 PM

Mudcat comes through again! I'd found these lyrics (not attributed) on some old-timey lyric web site recently, and i vowed to hunt down a recording . . . looked in All Music Guide but it wasn't coming up with much.

which recordings of this song do y'all recommend?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 06:07 PM

Maybe Kendall's but be sure not to get it mixed up with Justine's. Barry gets upset when we do.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 06:40 PM

I'd urge you to buy Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin's Heart Songs (The Old-Time Country Songs of Utah Phillips). The recording of that song alone is worth the price of the CD. The recording of Miner's Lullaby (whom those who were at Sandy and Caroline's songswap at Old Songs will recall a couple of ladies whose names I didn't get also doing an incredible job on)is also, alone, worth the price of the CD.

The thing with that recording of the song is Jody's guitar intro. As I said on Flatpick-l once, it's a textbook demonstration of making music with the spaces between the notes as well as with the notes.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: kendall
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 07:22 PM

I too would suggest that recording.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 09:04 PM

Me too - it's a great record. There is also a lovely live recording by Kate Wolf and Don Lange from 1979 on one of those posthumous Kate Wolf CDs: 'Looking Back at You' Rhino R2 71613.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Barry Finn
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 09:19 PM

Why not try a recording by Utah Phillips the guy who wrote it, he sings it just like Justine (heh, heh, for you Sinsull).

Hi Midchuck, when, what? Ok, I'll try but I don't think I could swing it untill next year (it'll take me that long to remember how do it), & I guess I'll have to stop picking on Kendall (I haven't been to bad, have I?) & let him bash me about a bit, I must at least owe him that by now, probably more, he's such a sweetie.
Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 10:13 PM

Actually, Barry, I have it on an LP by Utah Phillips but like Kendall's better. Unless, of course, I have Justine's mixed up with both of them. Maybe we can straighten it out at your next gathering if you stop picking on Kendall and Justine agrees to fill in for Utah.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: GUEST,Roger in Baltimore
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 07:15 PM

I loved this song the first time I heard a recording of Utah doing it. It does sound traditional and has that wicked zing at the end. What really nails the song for me though is the tune. It has a few wonderful, unexpected chord changes in it that keep you awake and alert for the end.

I heard a radio interview with Bruce Phillips many years ago and the DJ played this song. Bruce said he no longer sings the song because it is too angry. It saddened me that a great rebel like Bruce would feel anger was unacceptable. I think it is a natural human emotion. The best description I've ever heard was that anger means we are getting too much of something we don't want or too little of something we do want. It isn't anger that is bad, it's what we do with our anger and writing a damn fine song seems to me to be a good use for our anger.

Roger in Baltimore (at the library)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Jeep man
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 10:47 PM

Could anyone suggest a Midi or download so I can hear this tune?

I know, I should go buy it, but I can't buy'em all. Jeep Man

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Jeep man
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 06:13 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Dharmabum
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 05:25 PM

I was listening to Gene Shay's radio program on WXPN 88.5 out of Philadelphia last night.He played a version of Rocksalt & nails by a male/female duo that wasn't Jody Stecher/Kate Brislin. Unfortunately,I didn't catch the name & XPN doesn't have a playlist for Gene's 8/12 show available on their website yet.

Any guesses as to who it may have been?

Really blew me away.

DB.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Tedham Porterhouse
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 05:35 PM

Sinsull,

I'm kind of surprised that you have Utah Phillips' LP with "Rock Salt & Nails" on it. I thought I had all of Utah's recordings, including "Nobody Knows Me," his 1962 debut on Prestige, and its not on any of them.

A couple of years ago, I asked Utah about this song and he said that he only sang it once in his life and that was in Rosalie Sorrels' kitchen and that it was Rosalie's doing that the song spread out to other singers. He told me it was a very personal song that he wrote to purge himself of some feelings about his first ex-wife and that when he'd purged the feelings, he was done with the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: MAG
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 06:52 PM

Well, he played it on his radio show anyway.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: ponytrax
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 06:59 PM

hmmn. I seem to remember 1st hearing it on a many-artists album in say 1971 or 72--"Will the Circle Be Unbroken"?--perhaps Bonny Bramblett harmonizing? Not enough brain cells left have purged too many details.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 11:52 AM

Tedham - just came across your post and went through all my LPs and CDs. You are right. No Utah Phillips' "Rocksalt and Gravel". Now I have to figure out whose recording I do have. A filing system would help...Mary

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: open mike
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 02:41 PM

definately Kate Wolf's version is recommended...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Barbara
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 07:25 PM

Well, I dunno about Bruce (U. Utah) putting it on a record, but he put in his songbook, what I have. Y'want a Mudcat Midi? Or I can ship you an attachment or a fax.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 08:00 PM

Bruce told me back in the early 1970s I think that he'd written this song when he was stationed in Korea during that war. His wife had pretty much sent him a devastating letter ending their life together. And he said he'd only sung it one time---to get past the situation and the pain.
On Garrison Keillor's radio show, when Mr. Phillips was a guest, other guests on the show -- Roland White and others plus Prudence Johnson did a great medley of Utah's songs which the man himself narrated with personal background, insights and observations. I thought it was great.----- On that same show he did a truncated version of a tale I suspect I was responsible for popularizing----a little thing I called The Great Turtle Drive---based on N. Howard "Jack" Thorpe's telling of it in his book Pardner Of The Wind -- (1945 -- The Caxton Printers---Idaho). I was pretty honored.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 08:08 PM

What I'm saying is that this song was apart of that good medley on Prairie Home Companion. He didn't sing it himself but did tell some about it.

Sorry.

Art

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Rocksalt and Nails
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Oct 09 - 03:34 AM

Does anyone know the chords to miner's lullaby?