Steve Gillette - "Texas & Tennessee"

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They say that if you've lived in two places, you know more about both of them. There are songs that have dual citizenship too. I spent about ten years on a journey that was all about that kind of song. The odyssey described in the songs here has led me from the campfires of Kerrville to the studios of Nashville and back. It's a journey that isn't over. While much of this writing was done for the business of music, I've never quite been able to believe a song until I have the experience of hearing it with my campfire ears.

According to similar wisdom, the journey begins long before the journeyman takes his first step. Like many fifties kids I played cowboys and Indians. I still have a couple of arrowheads scattered on my desk among the flatpicks and an old corroded nameplate from an Old Town canoe. They cluster around the base of my bronze cowboy boot lamp. I still take my old Stetson with me when I return every Spring to the Texas Hill Country. I always wanted to grow up to be just like Hopalong Cassidy. I just didn't expect to look like him.

This album is dedicated to the Kerrville Folk Festival.
May it always be there.

Here are the songs: (Click on each title for the lyrics)

1. Here's To the Rocky Road

Words and music by Steve Gillette, Dennis Dougherty, & David Kleiner
(c) 1998 Compass Rose Music, BMI, CESAC

A song that celebrates the observation that life is fuller when it's not always the "easy" way.

Vocals, guitar, Steve Gillette --- Slide Guitar, Orville Johnson --- Drums, Rey Castillo --- Harmonica, Mark Graham--- Bass, Wayne Hartel--- 12-String Guitar, Mike Williams

2. Cornstalk Pony

Words and music by Steve Gillette, Kim Person and Lana Puckett
(c) 1998 Foreshadow Songs, BMI

Cowboy nostalgia and a bittersweet treatment of the loss of innocence. At the end is a brief bit of the old Sons of the Pioneers classic, "Cool Water."

Vocals, guitar, Steve Gillette --- Piano, Pete Wasner--- Lead guitar, Jeff Gillette --- Drums, Larry Atamaniuk--- Bass, Mark Schatz --- Vocal harmonies, Mike Williams--- Fiddle, Pete Sutherland

3. Ghost Rider's Medley

"Riders In the Sky" by Stan Jones
Edwin Morris & Co. Inc. ASCAP

"Fast Freight" by Terry Gilkyson
Unichappel Music, Inc. BMI

"Runnin' Out of Sunlight" by Steve Gillette & Charles John Quarto
(c) 1988 Ensign Music / Foreshadow Songs , BMI

An exploration of the lure, the alienation and sometimes desperation of the traveling life.

Vocals, guitar, Steve Gillette --- Drums, Rey Castillo--- Bass, Wayne Hartel --- Rhythm guitar, Steve Richards --- Fiddle, Pete Sutherland --- Vocal harmonies, Cindy Mangsen & Anne Hills

4. Railroad Written All Over Him

Words and music by Steve Gillette & Charles John Quarto
(c) 1987 Ensign Music / Foreshadow Music, BMI

Our hero makes an irreparable break with a life that's not quite authentic and faces the unknown. In this song, it's seen from the perspective of the one left behind.

Vocals, guitar, Steve Gillette --- Pianos, Charles Cochran--- Bass, Roger Spencer--- Drums, Larry Atamaniuk--- Fiddle, Pete Sutherland --- Lead Guitar, Jeff Gillette--- Vocal harmonies, Cindy Mangsen & Anne Hills

5. Two Ten Train

Words and music by Linda Albertano & Tom Campbell
(c) 1965 Famous Music, ASCAP

This song expresses the anguish of captivity in a song which is true to the folk process.

Vocal, guitar, Steve Gillette --- Bass, Mark Schatz

6. Two Men In the Building

Words and music by Steve Gillette
(c) 1998 Compass Rose Music, BMI

The central event of this song happened to all of us. The process of working through the issues of surviving that event has affected much of the work of this writer's life.

Vocals, guitars, Steve Gillette --- Drums, Rey Castillo--- Bass, Wayne Hartel

7. Lorena

Traditional, Public Domain

This beautiful old melody has said more than words can since the early 19th century. During the Civil War, southern troops were forbidden to play it because the emotions and memories it evoked caused so many desertions.

Guitar, Steve Gillette--- Bass, Mark Schatz--- Piano, Fiddle, Pete Sutherland --- Concertinas, Cindy Mangsen

8. No Pronuncias Mi Nombre

Poem by Roque Dalton, music by Steve Gillette
(c) 1998 Curbstone Press / Compass Rose Music, BMI

Roque Dalton was a brave Salvadorean poet. The son of one of the famous bank robber brothers, he was a marked man himself for his radical political stance and once escaped execution when the prison he was held in collapsed in an earthquake.

The song refers to the ancient custom of honoring the memory of the dead person by not speaking his name. It carries the added meaning that speaking the name of this poet was a dangerous thing to do in the days of the Salvadorean dictatorship.

Vocals, guitars, Steve Gillette --- Bass, Mark Schatz--- Vocal harmony, Accordion, Cindy Mangsen

9. The Windows of Heaven

Words and music by Steve Gillette and Pat Pfister
(c) 1998 Compass Rose Music, BMI

If we could know the hopes and fears of others I believe we'd let down our defenses and embrace the possibility of a better life for all of us. The verse borrows ideas from Abraham Lincoln and Rollo May.

Vocals, guitars, Steve Gillette --- Piano, Fiddle, Pete Sutherland--- Bass, Mark Schatz

10. One Door

Words and music by Steve Gillette and Mike Faltin
(c) 1998 Foreshadow Songs, BMI

An innocent song about family wisdom.

Vocal, guitar, Steve Gillette --- Lead Guitar, Jeff Gillette --- Drums, Larry Atamaniuk --- Bass, Mark Schatz --- Piano, Pete Wasner --- Fiddle, Pete Sutherland --- Vocal harmonies, Richard Curiel & Cindy Mangsen

11. The Eye of the Hurricane

Words and music by Steve Gillette and Rex Benson
(c) 1998 Foreshadow Songs / Rex Benson Music, BMI

A way of trying to express the inexpressible about that one other person.

Vocals, guitar, Steve Gillette --- Drums, Larry Atamaniuk--- Bass, Mark Schatz --- Piano, Pete Wasner--- Lead Guitar, Jeff Gillette

12. The West Texas Wind

Words and music by Steve Gillette and Charles John Quarto
(c) 1998 Compass Rose Music / Starry Garden, BMI

A place can also have a sense of history and possibility. Charles John and I used to watch the storms come up from Mexico from Jesse and Django's treehouse. This song is based on Charles' poem.

Vocals, guitars, Drum, Steve Gillette --- Bass, Mark Schatz --- Fiddle, Pete Sutherland

13. If You're Ever In Texas

Words and music by Steve Gillette and Charles John Quarto
(c) 1987 Foreshadow Songs / Makin' It Up Music, BMI

"Midnight On the Water" Benny Thomasson, Public Domain

Parted lovers, in this case, she was offered the record deal and he had to stay behind in Austin. That long drive has accompanied many an unfolding song. The fiddle tune at the end is "Midnight On the Water," Benny Thomasson's famous version of a beautiful old melody.

Vocals, guitars, Steve Gillette --- Vocal harmony, Mike Williams--- Lead guitar, Jeff Gillette --- Bass, Roger Spencer --- Drums, Larry Atamaniuk --- Fiddle, Pete Sutherland--- Piano, organ, Charles Cochran

Produced by Steve Gillette for Compass Rose Music
Executive Producer for Redwing Records, Jim Netter

Primary recording done at:
Jack's Tracks, Nashville, TN, Mark Miller, eng.
Compass Rose Studio, Bennington, VT, Steve Gillette, eng.

Additional recording and production work done at:

Ad Astra Studio, Williston, VT, Peter Engisch, eng.
Charles Eller Studios, Charlotte, VT, Lane Gibson, eng.
Custom Taylored Studios, Fountain Valley, CA, Keith Taylor, eng.
Headroom Recording, Nashville, TN, Rick DeLima, eng.
Eagle Canyon Music, Coto de Caza CA, Dave Kirkey, eng.
Tom Holzen Studio, Brentwood, TN, Kurt Storey, eng.
Mountaintop Studios, Petersburg, NY, Joel Patterson, eng.
SounDesign, Brattleboro, VT, Alan Stockwell, eng.
Westwires Digital USA, Allentown, PA, Wayne Becker,eng.

Final mixes and digital mastering done at:

NRS Recording Studios, Hurley, NY, Scott Petito, eng.

Graphics and design by Al Brandtner
Cover Photo by Tom Newbill
Back Cover Photo by Irene Young

(c)1998 Redwing Music, Inc.
P.O. Box 577575,
Chicago, IL- 60657

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