It was a dark and stormy night.
Well maybe not stormy but definitely dark that night at "Log Jam" in Wausau Wisconsin back in 1995. It had been a long day of dealing with the public. At any rate, Ma had gotten tired and as usual she was bedded down in the tipi but I, (also as usual), was not ready to give up the ghost. Somewhere off in the distance I could hear laughing and talking by a group, so I ambled over that way and found a whole bunch of skinners gathered around under the single night light in a parking lot.
In those days, there were a couple of skinners that just naturally drew a crowd wherever they went. Just to name a few, there was Snake, John L Dean, Jay Hondo, Hank & Curt, and the feller pictured here called Blackhawk Visit his website. He was the main attraction at Log Jam doing daily shows for the public and private after hours shows when the whole camp got involved. At any rate this motley crew were gabbin about anything and everything out in the parking lot. I joined in the conversation for a while then was taken over by (possibly too much free beer) and decided it was time for me to make a spectacle of myself in front of all. I don't remember exactly how it happened that I was suddenly the center of attention standing next to Blackhawk and mumbling something about a song I wanted them to hear, and what is even more amazing, is how the hell I got the thing sung without a hitch or a guitar.. But I did, and when I was done there was a stunned silence for a second or two then the whole danged crowed cheered! Mind you, I was new to this buckskinning thing at that time, I had been in front of many audiences singing and playing before but this was special indeed. When the cheering died out Blackhawk said "I like that, how would you like to record it"?. "I'll talk to my producer and set it up". He did, we did, and here tis.
We recorded this album in the home studio of Al Jewer, it took a few hours to drive down there from home and it was a fine drive. Al, his wife, and a friend of theirs Christine, all extraordinary musicians, made us feel right at home. We decided to tape the original album in a natural manner as would be heard around a campfire with little or no effects.
Side Note: I did not bring a guitar to play on this album, mine was in no way good enough. Al handed me a beautiful martin (I think it was) and said "try this one". Oh that was the sweetest guitar I have ever heard or played since. I found out that it was brand new, belonged to Blackhawk, and he hadn't even tried it out yet. So the entire album is done with me gingerly playing Blackhawk's guitar.
It was a good start with Skeeter Plews, the first track got taped then AL and Mike added the bass, flute, and 12 string in later. Then Mary sang Coal miners Daughter, none of them had heard her sing before so we took a short break to adjust her mike as her voice is much clearer (and louder) than mine and the crew was really impressed with her. We didn't know how these things were supposed to go, so we were not prepared. We had no idea what all we were going to put on the album. We had a lot of original material, but just a few that we did often enough to remember all the words, and then there is the way I do things...differently every time.
We followed Coalminers with a thing I had just started to perform occasionally, called "Crazy man's Run", or Cottonwood Tree on the album, its about a young guy down on his luck and out of options on the road in modern times. This young guy is visited by the ghost of a long dead trapper who was also down on his luck, to the point of, well, you be the judge. The inspiration for the song is lost to memory. The Cottonwood tree, which was along the river in Adams Friendship, was destroyed during a violent storm in the late 90s.
Side Note: I missed my words in one of the verses and to this day it makes me cringe to hear that slip.
I wrote "Shine" while I was in the Langlade County lockup back in the 80s. Mary was entered in a contest sponsored by ®Wrangler Jeans, with first prize being a recording contract and road tour across the midwest. The back up band for the vocal category was "Heartland", they played (and played well I might add) for the contestants who did not play their own instruments. In the first two rounds, Mary received standing ovations for her "Coal miners daughter", and "Before I'm over you". Subsequently in the third round, she lost her breath doing "Sentimental old you" by Charlie Maclane, and got beat out by another competitor who sang the same song. But she is a star anyway.
Grasping at straws, we next did the only thing we could do and that was to just start putting down anything and everything that we could think of. Naturally the next song to go on the album was a favorite of mine by John Prine, Mullenburg County and that ended the A side.
Mr. Odie Whiffer, came about when Mary baby sat for a little guy. The both of them would sit around making up verse after verse to the delight of the kid who'd laugh his head off. The song is based on a true story about a baby skunk we had when we lived in a bus out on a deserted country road in the early 70s. It also is not finished.
We quickly added "Battle of New Orleans and Once a day then started Amanda, it can be heard on the tape that I started laughing at something in the last chorus. I was into it and looked sideways at mary who was laughing at me, I could not control it, I had to laugh too...It worked though so we left it in.
Ghost Riders in the sky is my favorite song to do when I can use an amplifier and mike and have backup. For the original album, I did the vocals and rythym guitar first then recorded the lead instrumental on a separate track, then Mike the engineer mixed them together.
Mary Ended the session with her original "Won't be a fool", which is really named "I Played the Fool", done in the key of F. this particular chord is hard for me to do but when she wrote the song it was the chord she was doing it in...so...
We spent only 5 hours recording this album and took only one or two breaks during the session. It was fun beyond belief for both of us. We started the trip back home that night after ten P.M., got off on the wrong road and it was coming on sunup when we finally got home.
We will always be extremely greatful to all of those wonderful frends who helped make this album, especially Blackhawk, who first saw the possibility.