Album Notes

“On the Spirit Trail” is a CD deadicated to all those that make the yearly journey to the music festivals and gatherings in the spirit of a magical Grateful Dead road trip. Woody has been going to the shows for many years, always with a guitar in hand to jam with friends and family along the road…

The inspiration for this CD came from many years of road trips but mostly from Woody’s road trip of 2006 through Colorado, up to 10,000 lakes music festival for Phil and Friends, and back through Eugene Oregon for the String Cheese Incident and ending at Horning’s Hideout for the Northwest String Summit, and also from anticipation of the upcoming 2007 road trip where we will do it all again…

“On the Spirit Trail” starts off with “Irish New Years”, a song written between Xmas and new years this year. Woody bought a Mandolin the day after Xmas, had never played one before, and wrote and recorded Irish New years on New Years eve after only a few days with the new instrument. Like the road trip, Irish New Years starts off kind of slow but gets crazier and crazier as the song goes on, kind of like the road trip.

“Northbound Train” is the second song on the CD. It tries to capture the feeling of heading down the road on the way to the shows, with all the anticipation of the great times ahead. Inspired by last years journey up north to 10,000 lakes and the anticipation of returning to 10,000 lakes this year .

“Mando in G Minor” is the third song on the CD. Another Mandolin/Guitar instrumental that was written and recorded this winter. As the road trip goes, it tries to capture the arrival at the shows, setting up the tents, and the build up to the show’s opening.

“Fire on the Mountain” is the fourth song, and tries to capture the spirit of the show in one song. I suppose I choose that one as it was somewhere between Scarlet Begonias and Fire on the Mountain at my first Grateful Dead show where I was converted to a Deadhead, plus I liked the guitar work. It was recorded on the equinox Sept 21, 2006.

“Terrapin Sunrise” is the fifth song on the CD. It is an instrumental, part of which I have been playing in the middle of the acoustic version of Terrapin Station that I have been working on for years. If you look me up in the campground this year, I’ll play the whole Terrapin Station for you. As the road trip goes, it tries to capture the feeling right after the show, the all night after party, like that one in Eugene last year after the String Cheese shows, and the sunrise that follows.

“Dark Angel” is the sixth song on the CD. It is a Blue Rodeo song written by Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy and is on their 5 days in July album, which was one of the CDs I listened to a lot while on last year’s road trip as I made my way through Colorado up to 10,000 lakes and then back through Colorado. As the road trip goes, for my CD it tries to capture finally getting some sleep after the show and all night party and the wild dreams one might have.

“Brown Eyed Women” and “Mexicalli Blues” are the 7th and 8th songs on the CD. No real significance to the road trip other than listening to lots of those old Grateful Dead tapes while on the road, and those 2 songs were a couple of the better Dead cover songs that I recorded last year.

“Angel Band” is the last song on the CD. It has its roots in Old Traditional Bluegrass, but with some new original lyrics.

All vocals and instruments, guitar, bass, drums and mandolin were performed by Bob (Woody) Woodruff. It was recorded in his basement recording studio. Woody did his own mixing of the CD along with all the album art and then had it professionally mastered and manufactured. Pictures are from his 2006 road trip adventures… I recommend this CD as great listening for folks that are taking a road trip to the shows.