79. Bicycle Built for Two (Wynn Price)

DAY SEVENTY-NINE

The Prices in 1984

This is day three of the Wynn Price catalogue.  I have been working on a song I’ve done with field recordings I took from Panguitch, Utah.  I have come up with an arsenal of sounds and songs I’ll be posting for the 365.  Admittedly, with all this traveling, I’ve been able to get a few days ahead because of all the fortuitous meetings I’ve had with people.  I arranged another song with my dad while I was home.

This is one of the first songs to which I remember memorizing all the words.  I even remember being taught it in music class in elementary school.  I have a hard time remember words, but I remember these!  I played the mandolin on this song (since my dad has one).  Though the mandolin and the violin have the same tuning, and I feel I have no excuse, I don’t know how to play it that well.  It’s a hard instrument for me to play.

Jonathan and I returned this morning at 2 am from Utah.  The burial of Jon’s dad, Thomas Cecil Clark, took place yesterday morning in Panguitch, Utah.  It was so hard and sad… but happy at the same time: remembering all he was and all he symbolizes.  Because it was in Panguitch, as his dad requested, Jonathan was able to take me to Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon.  So beautiful.  I will post a few pictures later today.  As Jonathan and I flew home, I realized we had become that couple on the plane you see who sit really close together and whisper quietly.  I have seen couples like this before, sitting very close.  There are times when I’ve, very rudely, mentally rolled my eyes and thought, “Get a room.”  But maybe they were coming home from burying one of their parents, too.  Maybe I shouldn’t have judged them so quickly and harshly.  As a person who currently has both her parents still living, it’s hard for me to fully grasp the surreal nature of losing a parent who was close, who was so influential.  All I can do is hold his hand and hug him all the time.  So, on the plane, that’s what I did, not realizing at first that we had become the couple on the plane I had seen.  I thought back to all the times I had flown.  I wondered, “How many of those people had just returned from burying someone they loved?”

I do remember one time when I was flying home to Pittsburgh from Salt Lake City.  A young woman got on the plane, sat down immediately across the aisle from me and immediately got on the phone before take-off.  I could hear her talking about a grandfather and funeral arrangements. When the plane was up in the air I looked over after a while and, in the darkness, I could see her, head in her hands, crying.  What an odd experience for me, though I might be construed as the eaves-dropper: interrupting her private moment, subtly, with my eyes and ears.  I guess I never thought that girl across the aisle would be me, and, last night, it was.

Sending you lovely thoughts for a hopefully lovely day.
EHP

A Bicycle Built for Two

78. Four Wet Pigs (Wynn Price)

DAY SEVENTY-EIGHT

Twenty four pigs being driven along Day Street, Sydney, by a truck, ca. 1929 / Sam Hood

In Panguitch today spending time with Jonathan’s family getting ready to attend the graveside services tomorrow.  It’s a day of singing, singing and more singing.  Kathy, Jonathan’s sister-in-law, brought her tenor uke, and we’ve been playing songs together, as I have brought mine as well.

This is another song I did with my dad (see yesterday’s posting).  This song is the first he learned on banjo using the claw hammer technique.  This is a weird song, but funny because Jonathan is a vegetarian, and it actually makes me want to be one, too!  Gross!

You will notice that we get faster and faster and faster… not intentional… but you can hear my mom come in the room and say, “Faster!” No thanks! Ha!

I’m not clear on the history of this song, though I’ve looked it up and Greg Brown’s name comes up.  I’m not sure if he wrote it or just has the most popular recording of it…

Four Wet Pigs

Here’s a little song about four wet pigs
Here’s a little song about four wet pigs
Two of ‘em little and two of ‘em big
They danced all night at the Pigtown Jig

The two that were little were just half-grown
The two that were big were big as a barn
Big as a barn and tall as a tree
Took ‘em right down to the factory

Slice ‘em into bacon, cut ‘em into ham
Roll ‘em into hot dogs, squeeze ‘em into Spam
Throw their little eyes out into the rain
Pickle their feet and scramble their brains

Here’s a little song about two wet pigs
Leanin’ against the trough and smokin’ their cigs
Hopin’ to heaven that they never get big
They danced all night at the Pigtown Jig

23. Z for Zacharia

DAY TWENTY-THREE

Franz Nicolay

Well, here it is: the moment you’ve been waiting for…a banjo song!

Meet Franz Nicolay.  He can do everything: piano, accordion, banjo, guitar, saw, produces, writes books, I mean…the list goes on.  Franz has played with a whole bunch of people, too.  (He even has a page on Wikipedia.)  He’s played with me, too!   He is the mastermind behind the accordion on my EP, The Crux and The Bluestocking and Pearl and the Beard’s record, God Bless Your Weary Soul, Amanda Richardson.  (both available on iTunes)  Needless to say, I love Franz.  His music-making mind is magical…(alliteration no.2)

I met Franz at his house today at 11:15 (parking problems), and after some tea, a biscuit, some buckwheat, and awesome Ukrainian music, I was out the door at 5:30.  What a fantastic way to spend my day: writing and recording with Franz Nicolay.

The first question of the day was, “Do you have something you’ve been working on?”  This past Christmas I went home and played around all my dad’s instruments.  He has a baritone uke that I had written a one little stanza on, but without the uke, I didn’t really want to finish it, so it’s just been a fragment up until today.  The lyrics were, sung in the style of a straight waltz: You are mine tonight/Despite the world and all its ills tonight/You’re mine tonight. I’m not sure what my original intention was with these lyrics and melody, and I knew they would just sit around untouched otherwise.  Franz then pulled out his banjo and played a progression he had been playing with since he started playing banjo that didn’t have a home either. So, we put these two homeless ideas together.

I told Franz I had a hard time writing love songs because the line between good and total cheesy is frustrating for me, so I normally try to avoid writing them (at least sitting down to write them intentionally).  However, after some tossing around of ideas, I had this total random idea, “What about a plague?,” to which Franz replied, “…a Love Song From a Plague to its Victim!”  We broke it up into sections to help organize it: Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today.  My favorite moment of our collaboration was when we got to the verses after the first chorus, Franz asked, “Well, should we go biblical?”  I love it.  The reference to Z for Zacharia is a nod to the book of the same name.

Franz is a real genius at a style of writing to which I’m not gifted naturally, which is really cool for me.  I like how he phrases lines and, more importantly for me, he can write very well very clearly and linear, but still fantastic and symbolic.  I think Franz really made this song come to life (i.e. he came up with the line Like a salesman giving of myself but taking much more. I would never have thought to use the image of a salesman, but it’s so clear and such a strong image.) not only with lyrics, but with his voice as well.  I liked so much how he phrased the verses, I really wanted him to sing them all and have me on choruses.  The effect is chilling, I think.

If I was going to tell you how I really felt as I approached Franz’ house to meet with him, it would be somewhat like describing me attending a meeting to write with my jazz improv teacher from college, whom I completely revere; I’m just saying I arrived intimidated and a little nervous.  When I scheduled a day to write with him, I thought- Brain, be sharp!  Don’t come across as a total moron! But when we got working, I found such ease with him, and he had great ideas for the direction of this song.  I found the longer I actively engaged myself in working and focused on learning from him and his style of lyric writing, any insecurity was pushed away.  It was such a fulfilling experience.

I really like this song, and not only was Franz an awesome collaborator, he was also a fantastic producer.  There are several different instruments you can hear on this track: banjo, baritone uke, wooden xylophone, glock, and two tracks of mandolin.  (Love the mandolin on this recording.)  I played the bassy cello part and the baritone uke.  I must tell you, I’m pretty handicapped when it comes to hearing instrumental additions to songs if I’m not already very familiar with it.   (Hearing different instruments and voices to add to a song is a skill I’m trying to acquire, too), so to have Franz take the initiative on thinking about instrumentation was a real relief.  And he was really good at it.

I think the best part of collaborating is feeling like the other person really likes what has come out, too… At the moment, this is a demo, but there was talk of recording this song in a studio one day, which would be really great.  The other really fantastic thing about collaboration is how fruitful ideas are, how they come out so unexpectedly sometimes.  Each tiny idea or thought by one person can be taken a totally new direction by the other.  It’s so unexpected and a really nice time as well.  Franz!  Thank you!

Z for Zacharia

instrumentation: banjo, cello, mandolin, xylophone, glock, uke and Franz Nicolay

You are mine tonight

Despite the world and all its ills tonight

You’re mine tonight.

I touched her skin

Hot oil burned

She breathed me in

Stroked her face

Rearranged her hair

Put every strand in place

Yesterday it was your sister

Tomorrow, your mother

Tonight, you’re mine

Tonight you’re mine/You are mine tonight

Despite the world and all its ills tonight

I go door to door

Like a salesman giving of myself but taking much more

I bless the first-born and the next

Take them wholly and give them rest

I’ll pass by, I’ll find you Z for Zacharia

I’ll pluck out your eyes

You are mine tonight

Despite the world and all its ills tonight

You’re mine tonight.

Tonight you’re mine.