Live from Mountain Stage
Song Titles
He peeks out of the curtain at another empty mall parking lot. His eyes are barely open before he is headed to the mandolin to write down another idea before it gets away. No telling how many tunes he writes before he lands on that magic one. When he does, it's right.
He usually works right up until it's time for Red Lobster to open. He seems to get a lot done in this time. I remember hearing the beginnings to "More Big Bull Fiddle Fun" while I was half asleep on the couch in the front of the bus. Then we would eat breakfast and head to the venue.
Everything on this CD has been tested. The music gets thought about a lot in the morning and played to an audience at night. Back on the bus, he still gets in some time before bed, where he probably dreams about it too. After a period of time the cream surfaces.
- Jamie Hartford
This recording is only our second - in a series of 21 - devoted entirely to one artist. The first, featuring Bill Monroe, was a natural, since he originated a whole new genre of American music, bluegrass. John Hartford is the perfect follow-up, because he's a true hybrid of old and new, popular and traditional, humor and tenderness.
Mountain Stage has always stood for the principle that music can't really be separated into categories. A true music lover can and will love a great bluegrass band as well as a five string quartet, a virtuoso African drummer and a talented singer-songwriter, a smooth jazz pianist and an evocative old-time fiddler. What other artist better personifies the graceful combination of opposites than John Hartford? He can follow an obscure Appalachian fiddle tune with one of the most popular songs of our times, "Gentle on my Mind," and make them seem like two puppies from the same litter. But that shouldn't be surprising, coming from a man who's been both a riverboat pilot and a regular on a prime time television show.
An old friend of mine who used to be John's landlord in Los Angeles once told me that John said there were three kinds of songs: "theirs (the audience's), ours, and mine." If the crowd was with him, he moved from theirs to his during the show and took them with him. Surely you'll agree that every cut on this album is one of "our" songs. It's as easy to listen to as the ripple of the Mississippi on the bow of the Julia Belle Swain.
- Larry Groce, Host and Artistic Director for Mountain Stage
Performers
John Hartford: vocals, fiddle, banjo, tap dancing
Mike Compton: mandolin, harmony vocals
Darren Vincent: bass
Jerry McCourey: bass
Bob Thompson: piano
Album Production
Executive Producers: Al Bunetta and Dan Einstein
Associate Producer: Billy Prine
Production Coordinator: Andy Bleyer
Digital Editing and Mastering: Erik Wolf, Wolf Mastering
Photos: Senor McGuire, Brian Blauser, Patty Cole, Art Dickinson, David Ulmer
Design: Angela Haglund for Second Sight Design
Recorded live at The Cultural Center Auditorium, Charleston, West Virginia for the Mountain Stage radio program on March 17, 1994; November 19, 1995; and May 19, 1996.
Mountain Stage Radio Production
Executive Producer: Andy Ridenour
Host/Co-producer: Larry Groce
Associate Producer: Linda McSparin
Technical Director/Recording Engineer: Frances Fisher
Engineering Assistant: Michael Lipton
House Sound Engineer: Scott Robinson
Monitor Mixer: Richie Collins
Production/Stage Manager: Paul Flaherty
Promotion Coordinators: Michael Lipton and Greg Proctor
Corporate Underwriting Manager: Marilyn DiVita
P.R.I. Program Director: Mark Kausch
Production Assistants: Woogie, Angie Crowder, David Jarrell, Mary Lee and Steve Johnson
Special Thanks
Blue Plate Music and Mountain Stage wish to thank John Hartford, Keith Case, Jamie Hartford, Dale Rhodes and the West Virginia Public Radio staff, Public Radio International, Ashland Oil, Columbia Gas Transmission Corp., the citizens of West Virginia, National Endowment for the Arts, Brian Blauser, Andrea DiVita, Katherine Ridenour, Jean Simpson and General Seafood Catering, Jerry Parkins and Angela Hammad and the staff of the Charleston Marriott Town Center Hotel, Catherine Moore, Karl Brack, Charlie Ryan, The West Virginia Department of Tourism, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, TAMARACK: "The Best of West Virginia", West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood, and all of the friends of West Virginia Public Radio.
BPM 401
Released: 2000
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