BGNEWSLETTER: Recording and Performing in the 1950s, by Jesse McReynolds
T H EN E W S_LETTER (Oct. 28, 2004)
http://www.candlewater.com/BLUEGRASS_NEWSLETTER/Oct2004/
Read this interview and hear Jesse McReynolds talk about
about his experiences recording in 1952 Nashville.
Follow this link to the The Bluegrass NewsLetter URL:
http://www.candlewater.com/BLUEGRASS_NEWSLETTER/Oct2004/
A MUST READ FOR BLUEGRASS FANS
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This newsletter reveals the inner workings of Jim & Jesse
at a time when Nashville had a single recording studio located in
a hotel. #Also, see pictures of DAWG and WAKE as well as the
current tour schedule for the GO EAST Tour and much more.
Jim Moss
A Story for Halloween: #(first draft)
Well, there are a couple of true stories that I like to offer up on this day,
here is one. #This is from my teen years when I lived on a hill side
near a river in Northern California. # This was during the time when many
of us were looking for the Comet Kohoutek with our little telescopes.
http://www.fact-index.com/c/co/comet_kohoutek.html
Well my girl friend at the time, Pat, had a refractor telescope and since
I have always been a night person, I found myself out on the side of
the hill looking for the comet. # To be accurate, I was on the side of a
hill, but there were 2 small cabins that had been built there in the 1920s
when the area was being logged for the first time. # My girl friend and I lived
in one of these two 4 room cabins, which consisted of a single bedroom and bath,
a kitchen, a living room and what seemed only to be a sewing room lined
with bay windows.
The two cabins were build as a mirror image of each other, propped up on the
mountain side, and both facing the river which was about three quarters of
a mile down in the canyon. #The cabins were positioned at the top of a
ribbon of stairs, about 150 as I remember, mostly cement. #The wooden stairs
ran from the patio area that sat below the floor line of the cabins, to the doors
of each cabin.
The other cabin, the one that was not inhabited, that sat 15 feet from the
bedroom wall, had a back wall that had been cut away with a chain saw, revealing
the inner wall of the rooms that had faced it. # We assumed that this was done
to limit termites or dry rot, but we had no facts to back this up. #The outer back
wall was clearly gone and that was enough for us. #This was the wall that backed
up to the mountain. # Between the cabins were the wooden stairs that ran from
the patio where the house was suspended by 4 x 4 redwood stilts, to the
glass windowed door of the lonely cabin. #The back of the house was built
on the actual hillside without the use of stilts, thus leveling the house.
During the summer before this winter I had helped the owner of the land to
store a lot of junk from the larger main house that was half way down
the hill, in this little cabin. # I remember how old 5 gallon paint cans and
furniture had lined the floor. #Before we were done we had made it
impossible to move around in the cabin.
For some time we had noticed that kids from the mountain road above us were
using the stairs to get to the main road down below. #We never saw them, but
we could hear them running down the steps from time to time. #Sometimes
this would be at night and it would wake us up.
Anyone who remembers the Comet Kohoutek will also remember that it was
pretty much a no show. #Not knowing this, I was out there between 2 and 4 am
each night with the telescope searching the night skies for a sign of the comet.
I had a pretty comfortable and level cement platform in the patio that ran out
below the unused cabin, with a clear shot at the sky. # On what would become
the last night of my concern for the Comet Kohoutek, I remember the following
as it if it were just yesterday.
At about 4 am, having been drinking coffee, #I began hearing faint
sounds coming from behind me. # I didn't pay much attention to these at
first, but with the night being so crisp and silent, so much so that sounds
of an owl way up the river was clearly audible, I was increasingly drawn
to the sounds that were getting louder from behind me. # I stood up and
looked around and noticed that the sounds were actually coming from
inside the cabin, from the floor which was just above my head as I stood
there on the patio.
Well, this was enough to send shivers down my spine and surely got the
adrenaline pumping. #I have no problem telling you that I was petrified.
The sounds were clearly foot steps in the classic form that you would
expect from a movie. #Standing under the house floor I could follow the
sounds as they moved from one corner of the house, the side facing
the canyon, to the door. #At the door they would stop and then return
to the corner of the house again. #By this time, the sound was so clear
that it was impossible to ignore. #After a while my senses calmed down
again and being of scientific mind, I decided to investigate.
The sound was one of a slow pace, slipping slightly as if there were
slippers involved. # Now, I knew that it was impossible for any living
being to walk from one side of the house to the other as these
footsteps were traveling. # It was impossible because of the junk
that was stored there. #As I stood there I realized that this was one
of those times that I would reflect upon for the rest of my life.
If I were to avoid kicking myself for the rest of my life, I knew that
I had to look further. #I had to look inside the cabin. #It was getting
cold as I zipped up my coat. # I walked to the wooden stairs and
began to, quietly, move towards the house.
I didn't want to alarm whatever it was in the house so I was careful
not to cause noises as I made my way, one step at a time, up the
stairs toward the main entrance door, a door with a large window
in the upper half. # Reaching the top or the stairs, with my face only
inches from the window, I looked through the glass. All along, as I
had slowly climbed the stairs the foot steps had continued.
As I stood with my face to the window the steps had not stopped.
Because the front and sides of the cabin had bay windows from
about 3 feet up from the floor to the ceiling, #I could see the
dirt fogged windows illuminated from the street light on the road
below. # What I am saying is that I could see what looked like
back illuminated soaped glass windows which were on the opposite
side of the cabin. #I could see through the room although the room
itself was very dark, the windows on the other side of the house
were bright. # If anything were to cross the path of between those
windows and the door window were I was standing, I would clearly
see it.
As I stood there, face to the window, the footsteps were faint as they
started toward me at the opposite side of the cabin. #As the steps slowly
paced toward the door where I was standing, which took an eternity
as I remember, but probably took about 30 seconds to complete, #the
foot steps grew louder. #As they neared the door, coming right up to
the window were I was standing, they stopped. #I remember thinking
that there must be less than 8 inches of separation between whatever
this was and my face. # I might have moved back, but I was frozen
stiff. #I don't know if it was fear or just a lack of blood flow in my
legs at that point due to fear, but moving did not seem like an option
at that point. #I kept thinking, this is a great moment, a great opportunity
to witness a unique event, I must be careful to not make judgments
but simply take in data. #I realized that the footsteps had begun pacing
back to the other side of the cabin again. #Finally, I realized that there
was nothing interrupting the light from the other side of the room.
There was nothing that could block light... #associated with these footsteps...
The footsteps continued and after about 30 minutes I actually grew
tired of the experience, a result of using up all of my adrenaline I am sure.
So I returned to the cabin where I lived and told Pat about the
experience. #She said that she had been digging up the area in front
of the cabin earlier that day and that she had intended to plant flowers.
In the days following this event, when we would hear someone running
down the stairs between the cabins, we would jump up and look
to see if there was anyone traveling down the 150 cement stairs
to the road below. #We saw nothing. #When we looked behind
the cabins, we saw that the hill was actually a steep shale cliff
above which was the next mountain road. #It would be impossible
for kids to run down this cliff and continue on down the stairs.
We knew that there were no kids involved.
In later years I had heard from Pat that others had similar experiences,
but by then I had moved away. #I heard that these cabins were torn
down in the late 1980s. # #Then I asked my step father who had lived
in the town about this cabin. #He did say that a merchant marine captain
had been murdered there. # Something about a treasure story he use
to tell.
This is the absolute truth as I witnessed it. #Not being one to believe
in things, I am totally of a scientific mind therefore I refuse to
draw conclusions. #My job is to relate the actual experience as faithfully
as I can, and I have.
Jim Moss
FWB
Peter Hackman
Nov-01-2004, 7:06am
Speaking of Jim and Jesse; I used to own a budget
all gospel album, which I believe was recorded
in their early days. Just the guitar and mando,
maybe bass, and a vocal trio. The one song I remember
is "Sing, sing sing". Anyone familiar with that
album? When was it recorded?
I don't know when that was recorded, but
I have it on tape. I knew a record collector
once who had it. I keep trying to get Frank to
sing it, but he had another arrangement on it.
I like that recording, they sing softly on it.
Jim Moss
KevinM
Nov-02-2004, 12:38pm
Spooky tale Jim. Sounds like there's a fiddle number in there somewhere!
Actually, I later wrote a tune and recorded it with
Jesse McReynolds, Kenny Baker and Bob Black in 1981
or so on the Tanyards album. #To get the feeling of total
and eternal loneliness I spend a night up at a grave
yard in the mountains of Northern California. #I was
young at the time and wanted some inspiration.
This was an abandoned graveyard from the 1800s
and was about 40 miles from anywhere.
I tried to get into the feeling of what it would
be like for a spirit to be floating around up
there for a hundred years. #That lonely feeling I
wanted to put into a fiddle tune. #So, armed with my
earlier experience that I just wrote about, I hiked
up there that summer and with only my cutoffs on
I found a slab of stone that covered a grave
and sat there all night. #Well, most of the night.
I just relaxed, closed my eyes and tried to see if
I could feel any sprits traveling through me.
It was very dark and very lonely. #
I recommend it to anyone wanting to understand
elements of our own senses and the feelings that
result from what we sense. #It worked for me and my
blues fiddle tune. #I want to go back there and film
it for one of our videos, however, I don't think I
would ever spend the night there again. #I am older now.
Jim Moss
FWB