Lyr Req: High Atmosphere (Robin & Linda Williams)

Subject: High Atmosphere?
From: Mike T.
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 02:02 PM

Herd a song at a jam recently.(on tape) Don't know if it was Folk, Bluegrass, Country or what and I can't remember where, when or who had the tape.(Yes I am over 50) I do remember a few of the words in the Refrain. (I think) They (could?) moan, They ........ whine, Like the wind, Through the pines. .................. .................. The voices of the ???, In the High Atmosphere. Any Help? Thanks Mike

Subject: Lyr Add: WALLS OF TIME (P Rowan & B Monroe)^^
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 03:59 PM

Sounds like bluegrass to me! How about this one by the Father of Bluegrass himself:

WALLS OF TIME
Peter Rowan & Bill Monroe

 C
  The wind is blowing 'cross the mountain
  				     F
  And down o'er the valley way below
       C
  It sweeps the grave of my darlin'
  	 F			        C
  When I die, that's where I want to go.

(Chorus)
Lord, send the angels for my darlin'
And take her to that home on high
I'll wait my time out here on earth love
And come to you when I die.

I hear a voice out in the darkness
It moans and whispers through the pine
I know it's my sweetheart a callin'
I hear her through the walls of time.

Our names are carved upon a tombstone
I promised you before you died
Our love will bloom forever darlin'
When we raise side by side.

It's a great tune, done by Monroe, and also recently by Salamander Crossing, among others.

Subject: RE: High Atmosphere
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 07:39 PM

I wish someone would tell us what this song is. Iv'e got that one line going round and round in my head. I know it from somewhere. Help.

Subject: RE: High Atmosphere
From: The Shambles
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 02:11 PM

Hooray! Don't do this again to me please. The old brain finally ground out the answer.

It's written and performed by Robin and Linda Williams. I have a copy of it but it's only on a sampler that was given given away with Folk Roots magazine in the UK.

I will see if I can give you some more info on it, now I know what it is.

Subject: RE: High Atmosphere
From: McMusic
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 09:34 PM

If I recall correctly, "High Atmosphere" can be found on Robin and Linda's recording--"Devil Of A Dream". If not on that one, check "Sugar For Sugar".

Subject: RE: High Atmosphere
From: The Shambles
Date: 23 Oct 98 - 09:37 AM

It was Sugar For Sugar!

(Sugar Hill SHCD 1052)

Sugar Hill Records, PO Box No 55300, Durham, NC 27717-5300

Subject: RE: High Atmosphere
From: FIDDLER MIKE
Date: 23 Oct 98 - 01:48 PM

Thanks Y'all,

Have located the recording. Actually my Niece has it. Sorry Shambles, didn't mean to cause any stress.

Tid-bits of that song have been waking me up at night for months now. Guess I'll try to learn it, then I won't be able to recall it at all. Ah - but rest comes in the strangest ways.

Mike T.

Subject: RE: High Atmosphere
From: The Shambles
Date: 23 Oct 98 - 02:49 PM

Reading the 'World' thread and discovering the average age of us here,Is the song about all at The Mudcat- 'The voices of the old in the high atmosphere'?

Subject: RE: High Atmosphere
From: The Shambles
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 01:27 PM

Could anyone supply the words to this one?

Subject: Lyr Add: HIGH ATMOSPHERE (Robin & Linda Williams)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 May 05 - 09:01 AM

Here it is, copied from Robin & Linda Williams' website:

HIGH ATMOSPHERE
Robin & Linda Williams
(The New Music Times/Southern Melody Pub. Co., BMI)

In a dark holler where the trees shut out the light,
Nothing could shake the loneliness of a moonless night,
Like familiar refrains passed down through the years,
From the voices of the old in the high atmosphere.

Melodies formed and fit by time,
Harmonies that sent shivers up my spine,
They warmed my soul whenever I did hear
The voices of the old in the high atmosphere.

CHORUS: They could moan; they could whine
Like the wind through the pines.
They could break your heart while they brought you cheer,
The voices of the old in the high atmosphere.

Down off North Mountain onto Jackson Street,
Strangers are the only people that I meet.
I'm lost in my solitude and desperate to be near
The voices of the old in the high atmosphere. CHORUS

Like those hills of home, I'm tired and all used up,
'Cause Jackson Street is cold and Jackson Street is rough,
And I have nothing to comfort me down here
Like the voices of the old in the high atmosphere.

* * *
Sung by Robin & Linda Williams on "Sugar for Sugar," Sugar Hill CD #1052, 1996.

There is an album, often mentioned at Mudcat, called "High Atmosphere," Rounder LP #28, 1974 (reissued as a CD with additional tracks, 1995). It is a collection of Appalachian field recordings made by John Cohen. I don't know the origin of that album title (there is no song or tune with that title on the album) but I suspect it was the inspiration for Robin & Linda's song.

There is another collection called "Hills of Home: 25 Years of Folk Music on Rounder Records." HILLS OF HOME is also the title of a song by Hazel Dickens that is on that album. ALL USED UP is a song by Utah Phillips.

Evidently R&L conceived this song as a tribute to the songs, singers and albums that have inspired them. Are there any other references I missed?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: High Atmosphere
From: The Shambles
Date: 24 May 05 - 11:42 AM

Thank you for the words - Jim - it only took 5 years...............*Smiles*

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: High Atmosphere
From: Midchuck
Date: 24 May 05 - 12:03 PM

Kris & I been singing it a couple years now. Could of given you the words sooner if I'd ever come upon the thread.

We should maybe have a permathread entitled "Songs people want lyrics to and can't find," from which songs would be deleted as soon as the lyrics turned up. I donno how one would set up such a thing, though.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: High Atmosphere
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 May 05 - 02:35 PM

Midchuck: Actually, there is such a list. Go to the drop-down menu in the upper corner of this page. (The default option is "Quick Links.") Open the menu by clicking the little triangle. When the menu opens, select "Unanswered Requests" and click "Go." That will bring you to this page.

Not all unanswered requests are listed here, because the list hasn't existed as long as Mudcat has, but there's enough there to keep you very busy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: High Atmosphere
From: Stewie
Date: 24 May 05 - 07:54 PM

The term 'high atmosphere' originates from an interchange between Wade Ward and John Cohen following Ward's recording of the tune 'Half-shaved' that appears on the Rounder 'High Atmosphere' album. The relevant part of the conversation goes something like this:

John: You used the word 'atmosphere' last night. What did you mean by that?

Wade: Well, [chuckles] I don't know how come to say that, but I guess I tune my banjo in A or something and I said that is in 'atmosphere' or something along that line - 'a different atmosphere', I believe that's the way I put it, wasn't it? Well, that's when I'd change from one tuning to another - say, for instance, now if I tuned in A and then tuned back up in D, I'd say that is a different atmosphere. That's about the way of it.

John: Well, when you made up that tuning for 'The Fox Chase'?

Wade: Yeah, well I don't know how come it ever get started in that kind of tuning. I don't know, I just kinda made that thing all up myself and I don't know how I staggered on to it, but somehow [laughs] I got it figured out anyhow.

John: Maybe that word 'atmosphere' had something to do with it.

Wade: Well, [laughs] it might have been, you know, (it's put?) a 'high atmosphere' when you get on the mountain where I had this fox race.

--Stewie.