Auction: ShoreGrass in Connecticut CD

Subject: Auction: ShoreGrass in Connecticut CD
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 09:25 AM

Our band ShoreGrass released its first CD a few months ago and we have offered 2 copies - 100% proceeds - to the Mudcat auction. (Thanks to Susan - WYSIWYG for putting it up).

Here's a thread where I listed the songs and liner notes: Mudcatter CD's. We do a mix of bluegrass /folk /traditional /original songs, with guitar, banjo, bass, mandolin and fiddle.

1. Six Wild Roses (Norman Schell) 2:51 Norman was a band mate of Frank's in the 70's folk/rock group "Clean Living." We wonder if he recognizes the song since we put the grass to it.

2. Lonely Tombs (Traditional) 3:40 We first heard this on a Hobart Smith album recommended by Sandy Paton, and thought we had come up with a fresh new arrangement. Then someone told us this is just how Ralph did it. But only Paul can sing this high.

3. Connecticut Waltz (Barbara Shaw) 2:41 We sat around many a jam playing the Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and other state waltzes. After looking and not finding one for Connecticut, Barbara wrote this for her home state. Lyrics still need to be de-corned.

4. Man in the Middle (Tom Harley Campbell) 2:38 We've heard this in G major, and liked a slightly minor slant to it. It's also known as Three Men on a Mountain.

5. One More Miner (Barbara Shaw) 2:23 This is a (mostly) true story about Barbara's grandfather, who died when her father was 10. There were miners out West, too.

6. Last Old Shovel (Traditional) 3:00 The guys at Hank's Garage always request "that shovel song," so we had to include this.

7. Against the Tide (Barbara Shaw) 4:27 Our friend Tex asked if there were any songs in minor keys in bluegrass. In response, Barbara set out to write a bluegrass gospel tune in a minor key. It turned out to be not bluegrass, probably not gospel, but it's definitely minor.

8. Jordan (Traditional) 2:10 Louis makes his singing cameo on this old gospel number.

9. Sing Away the Sorries (Barbara Shaw) 2:35 The guys in Clean Living had a reunion once and surprised everyone by doing this on stage. Since we didn't record that evening, we included this one.

10. Keep on the Sunny side (Traditional) 2:48 Just about every jam includes this at least once. The Carters inspire much of our music.

11. A Waltz For You (Frank & Barbara Shaw) 2:11 Frank originally wrote the first verse of this song to Barbara. She collaborated and wrote the second verse by paraphrasing a stanza from Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." Larry's classical training got us through the modulations.

12. Cajun Rock (Norman Schell) 3:14 Norman lived this song.

13. Old Man at the Mill (Traditional) 2:16 Bluegrassers know this as an old Dillard's tune, and folkies know it as "The Jolly Miller."

14. I Can't Go Home (Barbara Shaw) 3:37 This was written after the hardware store closed in the town of Branford. It reflects the bluegrass festival lifestyle, rolling down the road in a camper.

15. Tear My Still house Down (Gillian Welch) 3:22 Gillian went to Berklee, where Jonathan was a student, so we like to support the place and it's graduates. Easy to do with such a great song.

Here's another thread where the CD was reviewed by Mike Miller of the Philly Folksong Society and included in their February 2002 newsletter (I'm told): Review: Independent Recordings Reviewed.

ShoreGrass is an old timey/bluegrassy/contra-dancey band from the Connecticut seaport town of Branford. They play at the Branford Festival, the Branford Folk Music Society's Trinity Coffeehouse and, I have no doubt, at every venue in their fair community. Their guitarist is a retired projects manager, their fiddler teaches strings at the local intermediate school, the banjo player is a manufacturing engineer who once sang lead for a folk/rock group and their bassist is a photographer who used to play with the Greenbriar Boys. They sound like every group I ever heard in the parking lot at Sunset Park, which is to say they sound terrific. Their enthusiasm is infectious, their blend is sweet, and their repertoire is varied easy listening. I gave this CD the old dishwashing test and it lasted all the way through the dinnerware, even surviving the wok, which gets done last.

Here's the ShoreGrass "official biography":

Barbara plays guitar and is the primary songwriter of the group. She is a retired telephone company information technology project manager. Her husband Frank plays banjo, and is a manufacturing engineer and branch manager. He was bass player and lead vocalist in the 70's Folk / Rock band Clean Living, which recorded two albums on the Vanguard label. Paul Pozzi plays mandolin and is an architect. Larry Rothermel is director of the strings program at the local intermediate school, and also plays violin with the New Haven Civic Orchestra and trumpet with the high school pit orchestra. Louis Audette, bassist, is currently a remote control aerial photographer, having retired from previous careers as instructor, lecturer, entrepreneur and bass player with the Greenbriar Boys and the Gray Sky Boys.

ShoreGrass is pleased to present their first CD "In Connecticut." It was recorded at American Melody Studio in Guilford, CT with nationally renowned bluegrass musician Phil Rosenthal (former guitarist and lead singer of Seldom Scene) doing the engineering and mixing. The songs reflect their strong roots in traditional acoustic music as well as their affection for New England, especially the debut of the new "Connecticut Waltz," and "I Can't Go Home," which comments on changes in hometown Branford, CT.

There are 8 original songs, 5 traditional, and 2 others (by Harley Campbell and Gillian Welch). All proceeds go to the Mudcat, so I'm hoping someone will buy them and I can feel like I'm contributing something to this community!

Subject: RE: Auction: ShoreGrass in Connecticut CD
From: Allan S
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 02:12 PM

Great CD one of the best. How is that from your favorate groupies. Allan and Arden

Subject: RE: Auction: ShoreGrass in Connecticut CD
From: The Pooka
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 10:01 PM

Hurrah for ShoreGrass, Bluegrass, & Connecticut!

Barbara, I think of "The Connecticut Waltz" as what is usually done by our two-bit two-step politicoes in Hartford just up the road from here; but I'm sure your version is a *whole* lot better.

-- Pooka; Newington

PS: Up Branford! (Guilford, too :)

Subject: RE: Auction: ShoreGrass in Connecticut CD
From: kendall
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 10:07 PM

Hey I am their number one groupie! Seriously, these folks make really good music, and, if I didn't already have this CD, I'd bid on it myself!

Subject: RE: Auction: ShoreGrass in Connecticut CD
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 08:45 AM

Hey, nice to hear from my favorite (only) groupies and an actual bidder!