NOTES FROM THE ALBUM:
A lot of people ask “Where is Hazel Hill?” We just usually smile and give a knowing wink. But that’s a cop out. Hazel Hill is a hard place to describe, but it’s not impossible.
Any set-list from almost any of our performances gives a pretty good indication. Mostly I think it’s a place where “Hard Times (Come Again No More)”. We are transported to another time where no matter what is happening in our day-to-day lives, hope is springing eternal.
The Contradance tunes that we play, are wordless and their titles don’t give much descriptive information (unless you take “Whiskey Before Breakfast” as an actual description). Nevertheless the very act of community dancing with a live (and lively!) band bring us back to days that our grandfathers and their grandfather’s grandfathers knew when they would take their wives or sweethearts to the weekly hoedown (or local equivalent).
And then there’s also the element of the composition of the Band itself. Part of the band are bona fide musicians. That is to say, they read music and have tons of experience playing the classical (and the pre-classical) repertoire. Another part of the band reads music with difficulty (if at all) and are pretty grubby as far as musicians go, but to make up for it they have real musical dirt beneath their nails. Every member of the band has history. In fact some people say we’re an old people’s band. Nevertheless age has it’s advantages and getting good on your instrument is one advantage for a musician.
In any event each and every one plays from the heart. Maybe that is why this music has the power to touch the heart.
Hazel Hill is where hearts touch. And that could be any place! See you there!
SOME NOTES ON THE TUNES and SONGS
Alabama Jubilee (Traditional, Public Domain)
A tune from the last century. And a high-stepping tune it is too.
Old Mother Flannigan/Golden Slippers (Traditional, Public Domain)
We don’t know where Old Mother Flannigan came from, but it’s reasonable that the good woman as well as the great tune are of Irish origin. Golden Slippers is a cakewalk from the early days of the last century.
The Girl I Left Behind Me (Traditional, Public Domain)
Joshua learned this song from some Kansas Bluegrass pickers and is the onliest person he knows to put a relative minor in it. It’s actually a very old song, perhaps being used by British forces to accompany them to war in Revolutionary times (not that we aren’t in revolutionary times right now!) We try to play it fast so they will have to run.
Cold Frosty Morning/Kitchen Gal (Traditional, Public Domain)
Another set of Irish songs stolen by them pesky Americans.
Under the Double Eagle (John P. Sousa, Public Domain)
A rousing march and a great song to start a dance with. The “Double Eagle” refers to the Austrian flag, which makes this the only Austrian folk tune in our repertoire.
Hard Times Come Again No More (Stephen Foster, Public Domain)
It seems like everybody in the world has done this song. Why should we be left out! We particularly like the idea of a “wail (or a whale) on the shore” and every time we hear this verse, we wants to go rescue him (or her). And the idea that we can ask for hard times to leave and not come back has a certain appeal.
It is noteworthy that Ruti sings this song, because not only does she sing so nice, she also was fortunate to have memorized all the words in second grade.
Colored Aristocracy/Redwing (Traditional, Public Domain)
These two tunes are Contra Dance favorites all over the world. We once played this in a house concert and a former solder in the British Special Forces told us that we shouldn’t play that song as he knows the words to it and they aren’t very nice. But as we don’t know those words, we play it heartily.
The Star of the County Down (Traditional, Public Domain)
It’s been said that the Irish are upset with the Americans for stealing their good tunes. All we can say is they shouldn’t have come up with such good ones if they didn’t want them stolen.
900 Miles (Traditional, Public Domain)
Joshua first heard this song many years ago on a New Lost City Ramblers album. He’s been looking for the Old Lost City Ramblers ever since.
Pig Ankle Rag (Traditional, Public Domain)
We often use this to warm up the dancers, and we always like making those little squeals!
Down by the Sally Gardens (Traditional, Public Domain)
This is a lovely melody, we thinks. But the words, Yeatsean though they may be, leave us, um cold. So we don’t sing them. You shouldn’t either. But the tune is indeed heavenly. For what it’s worth, “Sally Gardens” refers not to the vegetable patch of the girl next door, but rather to a grove of willow trees. “Salix” is Latin for “willow” and in some versions of the song the title is, “Down by the Willow Gardens.”
Bill Cheatham/Flop-eared Mule/Forked-tail Deer (Traditional, Public Domain)
In concerts we often get a laugh by saying that “Bill Cheatham” is one of the few tunes named after a lawyer. Well we get kind of a nervous laugh. Perhaps he was a partner in that esteemed Groucho Marxian firm, Dewey Cheatham and Howe. The truth is that we don’t know who Mr. Cheatham really was, and we’ve never actually seen a flop-eared mule, and fork-tailed deer we’ve only seen in pictures. Nevertheless, we like these tunes and we’re going to play them no matter what.
A Certain Little Lady (Joshua Goodman)
We all wait for lots of things. Some are waiting for a train. Joshua wrote this while waiting for a bus and thinking of someone but he won’t say who. At least not yet.
Red Haired Boy (Traditional, Public Domain)
This old tune is sometimes called The Little Beggarman with appropriate words. Red Haired Boy doesn’t have words and is often played for Contra Dances and is popular in Bluegrass jams as well.
Westphalia Waltz (Traditional, Public Domain)
Judi brought this back from one of her many excursions to San Diego, which has sort of become the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for old timey tunes. It’s hard to tell where this tune came from originally as there is a suggestion of German origin. Perhaps it is named for the German town. On the other hand it might be named after that thriving metropolis, Westphalia, Missouri. Or perhaps it’s the Texan Westphailia. But it doesn’t really matter as they’re all wonderful towns.
As Contra Dances usually always end with a waltz, we’ll end this collection of tunes with Westphalia.
ALTERNATE NOTES:
Welcome to a new experience. Come and enjoy stepping bcak to a time and place that we have grown to know and love. Hazel Hill.
From Hazel Hill pours a fresh stream of fun as it was back when the folk were as rowdy and innocent as the songs they played.
You may recognize some of the tunes. Or you might just be curious about our music. For whatever reason you find yoruself picking up this CD, you won't be disappointed.
Prepare yourself for a wonderful tim eof foot-stomping, hand-clapping, and singing along with our tunes. Because that's what the music from Hazel Hill does to people. It offers a whisper of life frm teh almost forgotten past. Enjoy. This is for you.
We look forward to seeing you at a dance or at one of our performances. And if we can't meet you in person, join us at www.hazelhillstringband.com
Some notes on the songs:
Alabama Jubilee
By the 1830s, African musical traditions and European dance and folk instrumental forms had merged to create minstrel music - a hybrid and thoroughly engaging style. Through the years, many composers tried their hand at the new style, including George L. Cobb and Jack Yellen, who published the music and lyrics, respectively, to Alabama Jubilee in 1915. Like most dance bands, this version does not include the lyrics or the verse tune, just the toe-tapping chorus.
Old Mother Flanagan/Golden Slippers
Though it sounds Irish, Old Mother Flanagan is apparently a home-grown American tune, first recorded in its current version in the 1970s. Golden Slippers was written by James A. Bland in 1879. Originating in the minstrel tradition,, it was also sung by many blackface performers in the 19th century, going on to become a bluegrass instrumental standard.
Known in America as early as 1650, The Girl I left Behind Me was first published as An Spailpin Fanach (“The Wandering Labourer) in Dublin in 1791, while in Britain it was popular as a military march called Brighton Camp. The tune has a host of military verses about going into battles through the ages, celebrating the sweethearts awaiting the soldiers on their return.
Cold Frosty Morning commemorates the crushing defeat of the Highlanders at Culloden Moor on April 16, 1746 which ended the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland.
Kitchen Girl is a traditional Appalachian tune. Several musical elements are joined: from the eastern woodland Native American culture, that of the European immigrants as well as African American elements. They are beautifully expressed in one of the classic melodies of this unique region.
Under the Double Eagle is a rousing march recorded three times by John Philip Sousa and his orchestra and frequently attritubed to him as well. In fact, the tune was written by Josef Franz Wagner, known as the “The Austrian March King”. Written in 1902, the title refers to the Austrian coat of arms and to this day is the official regimental march of the 1st Austrian Artillery Regiment No. 2.
Colored Aristocracy is a classic Cakewalk. Based on the “walkarounds” of travelling minstrel shows, the walking, bowing, waving of canes and doffing of hats became elaborate parodies of upper class dancing. The form was so popular, that the Cakewalk was the first American dance to cross over from black to white society as well as from the minstrel show stage to the ballroom.
Red Wing has been so popular for so long, even folklorists frequently forget it was composed by Kerry Mills and published in 1907. The lyrics tell the story of the eponymous Indian maiden, part of a fad for things Native-American that swept the country in the first decade of the 20th century.
Star of the County Down is an old Irish ballad. Cathal Garvey’s lyrics describe the yearnings of a young man for his beautiful love who hails from County Down in Northern Ireland. Like many classic melodies, it is known in other settings, as Kingsfold in England and the popular hymn “Led by the Spirit as well as Ralph Vaughn Williams’ setting as Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.
900 Miles is a tune made famous by Woodie Guthrie in the 1940s, but has relatives in several tunes like Old Reuban’s Train, a traditional melody that was embellished by Gilliam Banmon Grayson's into his 1927 tune Train Forty-Five. Simple and moving, this classic train song remains a universal favourite.
Following the Cakewalk dance rage that started in 1889 Americans promptly fell in love with the syncopated rhythms of Ragtime in the 1890s. Pig Ankle Rag is one of the many old-timey traditional rags from that period.
Down By The Salley Gardens is a well-known poem by William Butler Yeats. Taken from the Irish word for willow tree, the poem was first published in 1889. In 1909 Herbert Hughes set the words to the popular air The Maids of the Mourne Shore, and the combination has enjoyed an enduring popularity.
Bill Cheatham/Flop Eared Mule/Forked Deer
The traditional tunes in this medley hail from a variety of sources across the United States. Bill Cheatham is an old-time breakdown common in the Southern states that made its way north only in the 1940s. Flop Eared Mule is an American reel related to the Scottish Bluebell Polka. Forked Deer, which sounds like the quintessential old-timey tune, was originally called Van Buren and probably originated as a campaign melody during the 1836 presidential election. It had its name changed first to reflect changing politics and then again to Forked Deer, a 19th century slang term.
A Certain Little Lady (Joshua Goodman, 2009)
We all wait for lots of things. Some are waiting for a train. Joshua wrote this while waiting for a bus and thinking of someone but he won’t say who. At least not yet.
Red Haired Boy originated as an Irish story-song called The Little Beggarman, changing key and shedding its lyrics as it crossed the ocean. In the New World it became an instrumental American fiddle mixolydian standard played at dances across the country.
Westphalia Waltz
Pytala Sie Pani is the name of a Polish waltz beloved of Polish-American communities which were swelled by immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Cotton Collins, a Texas fiddler who heard the original during his service in Europe during WWII, recorded the tune in 1946, probably naming it after a Texas town not far from Waco. His version became very popular and an old-timey favorite.
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