Pepper's Ghost
& other banjo visitations
liner notes, as published with CD
by Joel Mabus
Page 2 notes:
Let’s do the numbers: I started on the five-string banjo when I was in
fifth grade. It’s been my haunt now for 50 years. (Maybe that makes me the
ghost – or poltergeist – in the machine?) In 35 years of recording, and over
20 albums, this is my third project wholly devoted to banjo. So here with 13
banjo numbers – “a devil’s dozen” – is my latest visitation.
Conceived, performed & produced by Joel Mabus for Fossil Records
Recorded, mixed & mastered by John Stites for Arcadia Recording
Banjo built by Bart Reiter: his Round Peak model.
©(P) 2013 Joel Mabus - All Rights Reserved
Page 5 notes:
Sometimes, during an especially “spirited” jam session, playing some
snaky old fiddle tune over and over for the umpteenth time, I get the uncanny
feeling that long-dead musicians who once rendered the tune are catching a ride
on my fingers. Now, I don’t believe in ghosts – especially not the Banquo or
Jacob Marley kind. But sometimes the departed do insist on visiting. Often the
mere fragrance of pipe tobacco or fresh-baked pie can conjure an old uncle or
grandmother. Rational people might chalk that up to “sense memory” or vivid
imagination. Philosophers would toss in Zeitgeist or Weltanschauung, or some
other big German word. I say tap out the ashes, slice up the pie and play
another tune. And if somebody on the other side wants to listen in, by Jinx, let
‘em listen!
-- Joel Mabus
Page 3&4: track notes:
1.
Pepper’s Ghost
(2:32) is a new tune named for an old-time stage illusion
still used today. With a hidden room and an angled pane of glass, things appear
or disappear as lighting is manipulated. “Professor”
John Pepper of
London
first used the trick in 1862, to create a ghost in a Dickens Christmas play.
It seemed a good title for this reflective tune.
Music by
Joel Mabus ©2013 Fingerboard Music, BMI
2.
Panhandle Prairie (5:08) paints a spectral encounter in the
midst of the great dust bowl. I
borrowed some traditional elements here, but my unfortunate rake is a little
more ghastly than most. Music
& lyrics by Joel
Mabus ©2013, Fingerboard Music, BMI
3.
Dogs on the
Davenport
(2:02) is a rambunctious thing I made up on the banjo – a lot like
a dozen similar “mountain minor” tunes.
But still there’s a difference: in mine you hear the dogs bark.
Music
by Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
4.
By the Waters of
Minnetonka
(3:05) is by Thurlow Lieurance, a classical composer in the romantic
“Indianist” movement. In 1911 he took an Edison cylinder device to the Crow
reservation in
Montana
to record Sitting Eagle, who sang this song of star-crossed lovers.
Lieurance arranged the primeval tune applying principles of Western
music; his 1913 setting was hugely popular in its day, a gem beside the many
faux “Indian Maid” songs from Tin Pan Alley. Public domain,
arranged by Joel
Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
5.
Leather Wing Bat (3:15) is the folksong we’ve known forever.
Except here, only the first verse is traditional.
I wrote the rest for other “children of the night.” Traditional, w/
new lyrics & arrangement by Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard
Music, BMI
6.
Billy in the Low Ground (2:32) was a favorite of my great
uncle, Oliver Wendell Lee – farmer, fiddler, and prairie sage.
(I can remember him fiddling this tune with a pen knife wrapped around
the bridge for a mute!) Some say the
title refers to the lowlands’ King Billy – or just some poor hillbilly laid
low. Traditional,
arranged by Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
7.
Joke on the Puppy (2:28) a.k.a. Rye Straw.
Also cousin to Forked Deer and other titles. I’ve heard lots of vague
and crooked versions of this 3-part tune, but I prefer mine firmly squared. Traditional,
arranged by Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
8.
Two Little Sisters (5:44) is my retelling of an ancient folk
tale known world-wide, sometimes as The Singing Bone, or as The Two Sisters –
the definitive musical ghost story. Music
& lyrics by Joel Mabus ©2013 Fingerboard Music, BMI
9.
The Bunch of Roses (3:24) This march is one of the lesser
known tunes that some call Bonaparte’s Retreat.
In ballad form it’s sung as The Bonny Bunch of Roses – wherein young
Napoleon II and his mother bemoan his father’s failure to pluck for them
“the bonny bunch of roses” (i.e. the
British Isles
). Traditional,
arranged by Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
10. Three Thin
Dimes (2:15) A bunch of us learned “dimes” about 40 years ago
from The Hutchison Brothers, a hot bluegrass band from
Barnesville
,
Ohio
. “Lost” John told me they got
this roaring 3-part fiddle tune from their daddy, “Seed” Hutchison. Traditional,
arranged by Joel
Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
11. When They
Ring the Golden Bells (7:19) was in our church hymnal when I was
young, but we never sang it there. Perhaps
because the lyrics didn’t mention Jesus? Written in 1887 by the remarkable
Dion De Marbelle. Public
domain, arranged w/ additional material by Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
12. American
Patrol (3:34) was an instant hit for F.W. Meacham in 1885.
A “patrol” was a popular fad back then for piano recitals – an
ordered medley of marches imitating a brass band on parade.
Adopted early on by actual
marching bands, it was a standard long before Glen Miller’s 1942 foxtrot
version. Public domain, arranged by
Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
13.
Fire on the Mountain (1:32) Most fiddlers like to burn this one down,
lickety-split from top to bottom. I
prefer to let it smolder first. Traditional, arranged by Joel Mabus ©2013
Fingerboard Music, BMI
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