This is a cassette tape I made about twenty years ago. I was accompanied by Gilles Malkine on guitar and, once again, by John Sebastian on guitar and harmonica.

 
  1. Dear Mother Earth

One of about six compositions for solo five string banjo which grew out of 'just foolin' around wood shedding.  As time goes by, when played every day, they grow organically and usually eventually crystallize into a coherent piece with beginning, middle and end.  I call them my Long, Boring Banjo Pieces.

 

  2. Song of the Grand Canyon Mule Driver / Matkatamiba I spent many months in the Canyon. Matkatamiba is a feeble attempt to describe how the creek changes its nature as it cuts through different layers of the strata on its way down through the side canyon to the Colorado river.

 

  3. Bright Angel Rag (Faier's Rag) / Song of the Cuckoo These two ended up on the same track for reasons unknown.  I have recorded the CUCKOO a few times. This is my very favorite.

 

  4. Cosmo One day Gloria Ann Charles was looking at a book of flowers and I heard her sigh and say, "I wish my name was Cosmo instead of Gloria." So I started calling her Cosmo, which stuck.  The song followed.  And I love her still.

 

  5. Five String Fanfare Why not?

 

  6. For Me and My Baby This started out as a song idea.  'Theres something wrong with this whole damned world, 'Cept for me and my baby." The music kept growing, but the song didn't. One of the Long, Boring, Banjo pieces.

 

  7. Kemp's Jig I lifted this from a Julian Bream recording.

 

  8. Fragmented Rag Just an idea worth playing.  Long, Boring, Banjo piece.

 

  9. The Great Assembly We have been here before. From Will Calvin.

 

  10. Si Mi Quieres Escribir Words by Federico Garcia Lorca.  Music, Spanish Traditionalist.

 

  11. Cluck Ol' Hen Try to find the record I learned this from. It conjured an image of a giant striding over the mountains of the Appalachians. Lomax collection, LISTEN TO OUR STORY  or MOUNTAIN FROLIC, two 10 in. LPs from Decca Records.

 

  12. Solar System Music Another weird, Long, Boring,  banjo piece.

 

 

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