Album Notes

Recipe for Alabama Chicken

On my way back from N.C. to S.F. my traveling partner D. suggested that we take a detour to Birmingham, Alabama to visit Butch Anthony, a folk artist she had recently met. Butch was showing his art: a dinosaur made of found objects, strange paintings, a blue bottle fly. I met his amazing fortune telling chicken, Bob Ross. Drop a quarter in the jar, look the rooster in the eye and recieve a fortune inside an egg. Throw in Les Blank's great film, "Sprout Wings and Fly", a doucumentary about old-time fiddler Tommy Jarrel. Stir it all together and you've got some Alabama Chicken.

The album Alabama Chicken was recorded on December 9th and 10th, 2002 in Suki Hill's living room in northern California. It was recorded by Paul Scriver. Joining Sean Hayes on the record are: Enzo Garcia on banjo,jaw-harp and musical saw, Jolie Holland on harmonies and violin, Garth Wells on bass, Dave Mihaly on marimba and drums and Will Waghorn on drums.

The recording has ten original songs including Dream Machine which was re-mixed for Mark Farina's new record Air Farina.The album also features the old-time tune Little Maggie and a new version of Bob Dylan's Walkin' Down the Line.




Sean Hayes plays Appalachian Ambient Folk Hop like an Irish rooster channeling Nick Drake... All night till sunrise music.
Born in August 1969 in New York city, a few years later Sean's family moved to North Carolina.
As a child Sean would stay home from Catholic school and sing along to his brother's records: Blondie, the Beatles, Bob Marley.
In the fourth grade Sean transferred from Catholic school to public school. Now it was beat boxing in the bathroom with Darren and drumming on desks with William.
His first singing performance was for a theater audition in high school. He messed up the words.
In college Sean planned on studying theater but he also lived down the hall from a very tall man named Dave who owned a banjo, a fiddle, a mandolin, a tuba and a high lonesome tenor.
Sean left school and began playing traditional American and Irish music with a band called the Boys of Bluehill. He traveled the south, from the Black Mountain Music festival in the Blueridge Mountains down to Charleston, South Carolina.
Since 1992, Sean has lived in San Francisco Ca., playing music everywhere, from night clubs (the Make Out Room, the Fillmore, Slim's) to the Acid Cabaret at Burning Man.
He has four independent releases "A Thousand Tiny Pieces", "Lunar Lust", "Alabama Chicken" and “Big black Hole and the Little Baby Star”.