The Manhattan Valley Ramblers (John Saroyan and Bill Christophersen) is an acoustic duo that has played old-time and bluegrass music in the New York City area for some three years. In Ballads and Barnburners (November 2009), the band's independently produced debut CD, Saroyan and Christophersen blend songs culled from the classic “brothers duets” of early country music – the Blue Sky Boys, the Stanley Brothers, the Louvin Brothers – with fiddle-banjo tunes of an older stamp.
California-born multi-instrumentalist John Saroyan (“Live and Pickin’ in New Orleans”) spent several years in New Orleans playing with Hazel and the Delta Ramblers and making forays into Appalachia, where he met, and later guested with, Wayne Henderson and the pickers who recently toured the Northeast as the Crooked Road. New Yorker Bill Christophersen (“Hell & High Water,” “The Mysterious Redbirds: 1992-1998,” “The Lazy Aces: Still Lazy After All These Years,” “The Fly-By-Night String Band”) has recorded and performed with John Cohen and Tom Paley of the New Lost City Ramblers; his Rock-House Gamblers recently opened for Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. John plays guitar, banjo and mandolin; Bill, fiddle and guitar.
Ballads and Barnburners, Bill admits, is a nervy endeavor. “Not many voices, after all, can compare with the likes of the Louvin Brothers'. We’re definitely punching above our weight. But we’ve tried to stay close to the spirit of the original songs and to keep the production simple so that the songs remain front and center. We’ve also resisted the temptation to bring in slick-picking guest musicians. There are no additives here.” Says John, “We think listeners will be struck by the material and by the straightforwardness of our approach, and we hope hard-core genre purists will recall that, once upon a time, old-time and bluegrass weren’t armed camps facing off against each other.”
The Manhattan Valley Ramblers began in 2006 as a fiddle-banjo duo. John and I had each played old-time music for years, so it wasn’t hard to find tunes we both knew. When we started performing locally, we added some songs to round out our sets. But as we began working up harmonies and integrating the mandolin into our sound, the wealth of ballad material by the likes of the Carter Family, the Blue Sky Boys, the Stanley Brothers and the Louvin Brothers lured us further into the realms of bluegrass and country. Love, death, betrayal, loss, incarceration – it’s all here in the songs. But in between, you get to dance. You do dance, don’t you?
—Bill Christophersen
This recording is dedicated to Ray Alden, whose name is probably as well known to Southern and Midwestern old-time players as to Northeastern. His extensive field recordings of singers and pickers document a musical tradition that his banjo playing, good humor, generosity and friendship have enriched. We are deeply in his debt.
(On the following tracks John plays banjo, mandolin and guitar; Bill plays
fiddle and, where indicated, guitar.)
1. Wayside Tavern (Carter Stanley, Trio Music Co., Inc., Fort Knox Music, Inc.)
The Stanley Brothers recorded this ballad, also known as “The Girl Behind the Bar,” about a rounder who takes up with the wrong woman at the wrong place and time.
[Bill: lead vocal; John: tenor vocal]
2. Railroading on the Great Divide (Sara Carter, Peer International Corp.)
Given the overall mood of the program, we thought we’d put something serene up front.
[John: lead, tenor on chorus]
3. Hell Broke Loose in Georgia (trad., P.D.)
This four-part dance tune, recorded by Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, commemorates Sherman’s bloody campaign in northern Georgia. (“The Skillet Lickers, Vol. 2”; County)
4. Midnight on the Stormy Deep (Ernest Stoneman, Southern Music Pub. Co., Inc.)
The Blue Sky Boys recorded this rueful elegy in the 1930s.
[Bill: lead, guitar fills; John: tenor, rhythm guitar]
5. Forked Deer (trad., P.D.)
The melody, popular decades before the Civil War, became alternately known as “Bragg’s Retreat,” a title that links it with an ill-fated, roundly hated martinet in the Confederate Army.
6. Childish Love (Ira and Charles Louvin, Sony / ATV Acuff-Rose Music )
In which the speaker plays the guilt card for all it’s worth, but to no avail.
[Bill: lead, guitar; John: tenor]
7. Why Don’t You Shovel? (trad., P.D.)
This no-frills Illinois tune was popularized by Gary Harrison and recorded by Lynn “Chirps” Smith. (“Prairie Dog,” Marimac)
8. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (W. Fowler, Universal - Songs of Polygram Int’l.)
. . . As in love, or 401(k)s. With great temerity, we’ve borrowed this one from the Louvin Brothers’ song bag.
[John: lead; Bill: baritone, guitar]
9. A Year Ago Today (John Hutchison)
Hear the original version of this lament on “The Hutchison Brothers” (Vetco).
[Bill: lead, guitar; John: tenor]
10. Gray Eagle Jig (trad., P.D.)
It’s no jig, but that’s what Ed Haley called his treatment of the war horse “Gray Eagle.” The spunky second part gives new life to fiddlin’ Thomas Jefferson’s favorite tune.
11. The Fields Have Turned Brown (Carter Stanley, Peer International Corp.) A Stanley Brothers number about a rambler who’s been away from home too long.
[John: lead, tenor on chorus]
12. You’ll Forget (Ira and Charles Louvin, Sony / ATV Acuff-RoseMusic)
Here’s a love song in which doubt and credulity vie, but only for a few seconds.
[Bill: lead; John: tenor on chorus]
13. Florida Blues (Arthur Smith, Venus Music Corp./ Berwick Music Corp.)
A flamethrower of a tune from fiddling pyromaniac Arthur Smith.
14. My Baby’s Gone (Hazel Houser, Central Songs / Beechwood Music Corp.)
The Louvin Brothers’ recording is the gold standard; Red Allen and the Kentuckians covered it memorably.
[John: lead, tenor on chorus]
Notes by Bill Christophersen, with John Saroyan.
Recorded, mixed and mastered at Jon Gordon Studios; New York, NY.
Design by Steve Christensen
Barn photo by Michael Darter/Getty Images.
Band photos by Kristin Saroyan.
Crusty Scone Records, 2009
For bookings, e-mail:
manhattanvalleyramblers@gmail.com
Also available by John Saroyan: “Live and Pickin’ in New Orleans”
Also available by Bill Christophersen: “Hell & High Water”
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