Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen "A Sense of Place"

A true labor of love,
this album is as close as we could come
to a musical synesthetic of our life in Vermont.

click on the highlighted titles for the lyrics

1. Tide and the River Rising

Cindy Kallet's beautiful anthem

2. Sunrise

Cindy wrote this song based on a true story related by Bob Copper in his book A Song for Every Season. Bob's recollections of his early years are a treasure (and a great read). The Coppers are a well-known singing family from Sussex, whose songs go back hundreds of years.

3. Reel Beatrice

A peppery Quebecois dance tune complete with feet. We first heard this tune from fiddler Donna Hebert of the group Chanterelle. We encouraged Pete Sutherland to take it in his own direction.

4. Eclipse

Jack Hardy's magical song about young love forbidden

5. Traveler

The musical journey

6. Margery Grey

A woman and child lost in the trackless woods of Colonial Vermont. On Margaret MacArthur's recording Vermont Ballads & Broadsides, she sings a setting of a poem entitled Margery Grey, written by Julia C. Dorr in the late 19th century. The poem, in Ms. Dorr's words, was "founded on a half a dozen lines that caught my eye in some newspaper, simply stating the fact that a woman of the pioneers, being lost in the woods and unable to cross the Connecticut River, had wandered northward round its source and come down the other side." Steve has rewritten the story, with the poem and Margaret MacArthur's generous help as guides.

7. Buddy & Carol's Waltz

Composed at the Kerrville Folk Festival, Spring of 2000, for Buddy & Carol's wedding under the Ballad Tree

8. Ou Vas-tu, Mon Petit Garcon? / Point au Pic

"Where Are You Going, My Little Boy?" is a song found in Nova Scotia, which Cindy discovered in a book entitled Jongleur Songs of Old Quebec, by Marius Barbeau. Each verse poses a riddle, which the seven-year old boy smartly answers. We've followed the song with Point au Pic, a well-known Quebec tune.

9. The Architecture Song

Jon Ims' wonderfully unconventional lovesong to a simple farmhouse

10. Shenandoah Falls / Cincinnati Rag

Two bright instrumentals back to back. We learned the first tune from Pete Sutherland, and the second from a Madison, Wisconsin band called The Last Gaspe (great name, great band)

11. When the First Leaves Fall

A love song with a strong sense of time and place

12. Long, Long Trail

An old chesnut, a dreamlike vision of a happy ending. A song from the WWI era, the Long Trail is also Vermont's portion of the Appalachian Trail, which passes within a few miles of our house.

Steve Gillette: vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, high-string and feet
Cindy Mangsen: vocals, guitars, accordion, English concertina,
mountain dulcimer
Mark Schatz: bass
Scott Petito: bass on "Traveler"
Pete Sutherland: fiddle, piano
Jennifer Weeks: oboe
Jack Williams: guitar on "Long, Long Trail

Produced by Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen
Recorded at Compass Rose Music, North North Bennington, VT and
Charles Eller Studios, Charlotte, VT
Mixed & Mastered by Scott Petito at NRS North, Catskill, NY
Graphic design by Al Brandtner
Cover photo by Molly Westring
Back photo by Irene Young
Additional photos by Cindy Mangsen

To Order a copy of "A Sense of Place" (available as a CD only) please send a check or money order for $10 plus $3 for shipping and handling to:

Compass Rose Music
* P.O.Box 147 *
North Bennington, VT 05257

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