Album Notes

I’m Charley Sandage and I played Rockabilly when it was a new sound, frequented coffee houses when the folkie era was in full swing, and followed my childhood memories of old time string bands and shape note church singing into years of collecting and performing traditional Ozark music. Throughout all of those experiences, I wrote songs, many of them now forgotten and for good reason. But quite a few of those songs have stuck with me and more are appearing from time to time, and I’ve decided it’s time to share a few of them. Not that I haven’t tried a bit before – some years ago I tried to do the long-distance Nashville dance. I met some kind people, learned a lot, had a very, very modest bit of success, and then decided to focus on writing what I wanted to write.

Now I live in the Arkansas Ozarks, play traditional music at the Ozark Folk Center, and check my insides every morning when I wake up to see if there’s a bit of a song floating around. I also use rock to build planting beds for my wife Vicki’s herbs and flowers and I do some other writing, mostly about Arkansas history. Good acoustic musicians and real folks for friends are abundant around here, and I can count more recording studios than MacDonalds’ within driving distance of my home. Mix in a few years of experiencing life’s ups, downs, and unexplainable quirks, and it all adds up to reasons enough to keep on writing and singing. Some of my friends enjoy listening. Maybe you will, too.