Russell Potter -- The Lost Sessions:
Northfield, Vermont and Cleveland, Ohio, 1980-81
[previously released in 1981 on the LP "Russell Potter Volume II:
"Neither Here Nor There," Black Snake BLS-12002]
3. The Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Phillip XIV of Spain (Fahey)
4. Planxty Irwin (Arr. E Schoenberg)
5. Studie Number Three
6. Dirge and Celebration in C Minor
7. The Road to Lisdoonvarne / O'Keefe's Slide
8. Tabhair dom do Lamh
10. The Flowers of Edinburgh
11. The Return to Fingal / The Black Battle (arr. P. Bensusan)
12. Eirigh Suas a Stoirin
[click on seletced track names to download mp3s]
Recorded in 1980-1981 at Green Mountain Studios, Northfield, Vermont and at Agency Recording Studios, Cleveland, Ohio. Mastered at After Dark Recording Studios, Parma, Ohio; George Sipl, engineer. Digital Transfer: Jack McKenna. Mastering and Pressing at Boddie Records, Cleveland, Ohio. All compositions and new arrangements © 1981 Russell Potter. All these songs may be freely distributed and or/sampled and remixed as long as accurate credit is given.
THANKS DUE TO: Bob Frank, Don Swanson, Jay Berkowitz, Carl Burwell, Don Banzer, Robbie Basho, Greg Breth, Dennis Murphy, Ron Anderson, and Jack McKenna.
Cover Artwork by Carl Burwell. Rear cover photograph: Jay Berkowitz for Black Snake Productions. GUITARS USED: Banzer custom redwood 12-string (1 & 2); Alvarez-Yairi DY55 (4, 6, 11); 1925 S. S. Stewart Parlor Guitar (5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12); Fender Telecaster (3).
TRACK NOTES
The Voyage of the Nautilus. Inspired by the dark moods and underwater fugues of James Mason in the role of Verne's Captain Nemo, one of the few live-action Disney films in which the magic actually works.
The Half-moon Window. Named after a play written by one of my greatest teachers, the musical wizard Dennis Murphy, which I saw performed at the Music Temple at Goddard College in 1978. All hail the Great God Thoom!
The Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Phillip XIV of Spain. An electronic riff on the John Fahey slide classic. The reviewer for Guitar Player Magazine described this track as "fuzz fractured and painfully distorted."
Planxty Irwin. From an arrangement by Eric Schoenberg, this haunting slow dance has always been one of my favorites.
Studie Number Three. A fine bit of "noodling around,"
Dirge and Celebration in C Minor. Open C-Minor tuning is a wonderful thing.
The Road to Lisdoovarne / O'Keefe's Slide. Two old fiddle tunes arranged for guitar, as originally performed at the Goddard Music Temple in 1980.
Tabhair dom do Lamh. Irish Gaelic for "Give Me Your Hand." One of Turlough O'Carolan's finest tunes.
Morgan Magan
The Flowers of Edinburgh. I've been told that "flowers" was a euphemism for sewers, in which case I can only hope this tune sounds better than it smells.
The Return to Fingal / The Black Battle. The first tune is based on an arrangement by Pierre Bensusan; the second is an invention meant for an imaginary, Tolkienesque world that I had been creating at the time.
Eirigh Suas a Stoirin. A mournful ditty, based on the version by Maire Ni Domhnaill ,which haunts me to this day.
ON THE "LOST SESSIONS"
These recording sessions were made more than twenty years ago. At the time, I was a student at Goddard College, in Plainfield, Vermont, where I had recorded and released my first LP, "Russell Potter Volume I: A Stone's Throw" in 1979. That album had been recorded on a very basic reel-to-reel machine with a single cardoid microphone borrowed from Goddard's A/V services where I worked. For the follow-up LP, I rented professional recording facilities, and spent more than a year recording different takes of different tunes. The results were mastered and released in 1981, after I had left Goddard and returned to my hometown, Cleveland, Ohio.
I sold the LP at performances (The Hessler Street Fair, Farragher's Back Room, and various "open mike" nights), through mail-order, and by consignment in shops (Record Revolution, The Record Exchange). Over the next year, about 120 copies were sold; the rest of the original pressing of 500 sat in the basement, along with a box containing the original studio and master tapes. When I returned to look for them a few years later, about 2/3 had either warped or been damaged by moisture which made the vinyl stick to the sleeves. I salvaged a few copies along with the tapes, which themselves were damaged by moisture. A decade later, the tapes proved to be unplayable, and I was left with a few dozen LP's in various states of decay -- so much for the immortality of vinyl.
Happily, the recent emergence of technology to extract audio tracks from vinyl and create high-quality MP3 files has at last made it possible to re-issue these sessions. Nothing has been changed -- the surface noise you hear is real, and not the result of adding in digitally sampled cracks and pops. It sounds, as near as my ear can tell, exactly as it did when the LP first came out, only it now costs less to make than it did then. The LP was cut and pressed by Boddie Records in Cleveland, at a cost of about $1.50 per unit with plain cardboard sleeves (I added the covers, printed separately at a cost of about 70 cents each, myself). What cost $2.20 in 1981 costs about 75 cents today, with a blank CD and jewel case, and the album art printed on a color inkjet.