View Full Version : Spookgrass?
Beanzy
Oct-05-2011, 4:31am
OK totally lightweight post alert here.
Halloween is coming and we like to have a theme to our Bluegrass sessions if they co-inside with even the most tenuously linked anniversary or occasion.
Bluegrass is normally so up-beat even when dealing with death mayhem broken hearts etc. so what would you have on a Halloween play-list for your jam? a bit of info on your thoughts why too could be really interesting.
Mandolin Mick
Oct-05-2011, 4:49am
I'd love to hear a Bluegrass version of the theme from the Munsters! ;)
I used to greet the treaters with mandolin in hand and pick that spooky scalar thing. And I'd have Blues For Dracula playing in the background (Philly Joe Jones, Miles, etc.)...Bite yo momma goodnight, go avay, go avay.
Mark Hudson
Oct-05-2011, 6:47am
I just got NewFound Road's Live cd... there's a murder song on there called "Blackadders Cove" that will stand the hair up on the back of your neck! :-)
journeybear
Oct-05-2011, 7:10am
All you need is more than two banjos. Two is scary enough! :grin:
You could try bending the old pop song "Spooky" by the Classics IV to your will ...
Michael H Geimer
Oct-05-2011, 7:19am
"But sometimes at night, when the cold wind blows,
She digs up my grave, and gnaws on my bones."
- alt lyrics to Long Black View
Psyberbilly
Oct-05-2011, 7:52am
"But sometimes at night, when the cold wind blows,
She digs up my grave, and gnaws on my bones."
- alt lyrics to Long Black View
I remember that song , " The Long Black Vein " ..(no it's not a typo)....
journeybear
Oct-05-2011, 8:00am
Looking for the lyrics to "Long Black Vein," stumbled over the corpse of this long-dead thread (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-7065.html) in the crypt. Bunch of ghoulish suggestions there. BTW, that is the only hit I got in my search. It may have been a custom one-time toss off by the duuuude who posted it. If anyone can come up with all the words to it please post them.
pickloser
Oct-05-2011, 8:32am
"The Lantern." I've got it on a Baucom, Bibey, Graham & Haley CD. I think it's pretty scary. And of course there's "Ghost Riders In the Sky."
Mandolin Mick
Oct-05-2011, 9:09am
Well, I couldn't get the Musters Theme Song out of my head ... so I had to learn it ... :))
allenhopkins
Oct-05-2011, 4:48pm
Bringing Mary Home
Long Black Veil
Polly Vonn
Ghost Riders In the Sky
Bluegrass version of Bad Moon Rising
Ditto of Haunted House (Compton Bros. et al.)
Non-bluegrass:
With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm (my total fave)
Skin & Bones
Mrs. Ravoon
You don't know Mrs. Ravoon? You should:
y0DIkXbg-dY
Beanzy
Oct-05-2011, 4:55pm
Some spooktacular suggestions there.
I'll do some digging about tomorrow and see if I can come up with the bare bones of a playlist.
Then I'll see if I can begin to flesh it out a bit more.
:)
George R. Lane
Oct-05-2011, 5:11pm
Look up 'Ghost Story' on mandozine, sounds very halloweenish.
Spruce
Oct-05-2011, 5:19pm
"Haunted House"...
NdciJwXN9Ak
Mandolin Mick
Oct-05-2011, 5:27pm
The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake?
Cheryl Watson
Oct-05-2011, 5:30pm
This is me and Amandalyn-being silly and kind of Monroe/Comptonesque-spookgrassy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NktI8Z3bGd0
Charles E.
Oct-05-2011, 6:43pm
Mysterious Mose.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkSucgC5t_I
:disbelief::disbelief:
Marty Henrickson
Oct-05-2011, 7:14pm
This is me and Amandalyn-being silly and kind of Monroe/Comptonesque-spookgrassy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NktI8Z3bGd0
Cheryl, that was hauntingly beautiful.
Charles E.
Oct-06-2011, 6:38am
You don't know Mrs. Ravoon? You should:
y0DIkXbg-dY[/QUOTE]
Allen, that is pretty wierd. He got one thing wrong though, bow's are strung with horse hair, not gut. I wonder what the rest of the album is like?
journeybear
Oct-06-2011, 8:09am
I have to wonder, too. I think it is mostly more or less standard fare for the times. I found an old decrepit thread at mudcat (http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=18019) which, once its bones are rattled, offers some insight about the song, a few versions of the lyrics, even some input from Harry himself, in the liner notes:
Here's what Harry Tuft says about Mrs. Ravoon on the notes for his Across the Blue Mountains CD:
Tom Mastin came to the Green Spider, a coffee house in existence in Denver from the late '50's through the mid-'60's, I guess it was in 1962 or '63. From him I taped two songs made from poems: "Calico Pie" by Edward Lear and "Mrs. Ravoon" which Tom said is an old English rhyme. He put the music to both. Tom has since written many more fine songs, some of which can be found on Jefferson Airplane albums. My last contact with Tom was many years ago, when he was living in Estes Park, Colorado.
I believe this is the same Harry Tuft of the Denver Folklore Center. (NNrK0L-1vTg) *
Here is another version, by one of the contributors to that thread, Kendall Morse:
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* OK, yes indeed, one and the same. One last bit then I must move on. Here are the liner notes (http://www.folk-legacy.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=104) for the CD reissue on Folk-Legacy in 1999 (original release date 1976) which do not include the above quote (FWIW).
I just got NewFound Road's Live cd... there's a murder song on there called "Blackadders Cove" that will stand the hair up on the back of your neck! :-)
Yeah, seriously good song in the BG murdered lover tradition...anyone got tab or notation? Chords? If so, please pm me (I'm not the most diligent at following threads)...I'll play around on youtube later and see if I can figure it out myself, too. Looks and sounds pretty simple at first glance...alternate tuning, maybe?
Steve Ostrander
Oct-06-2011, 10:46am
How about "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins?
Or "Country Death Song" by the Violent Femmes?
allenhopkins
Oct-06-2011, 11:30am
...I believe this is the same Harry Tuft of the Denver Folklore Center. (NNrK0L-1vTg)...
I knew Harry pretty well from my Army days (1965-67) at Ft. Carson; he stayed at our apartment when he passed through Rochester doing a concert for Golden Link here. Great guy, and I am really happy the Folklore Center is still going after nearly 40 years.
journeybear
Oct-06-2011, 11:42am
It really is amazing how some of the meanders and research trails inspired by these threads turn up intriguing stories like this. That interview is very interesting. I was impressed by his decision back in 1961 that, since he didn't have the "fire in his belly" to perform, as he put it, to open a store instead - and then to make it grow and evolve into the community center it has become. He has probably affected more people's appreciation of music in a positive way through this path than through performing, and he seems just fine with his decision. As well he should. But at least as far as we are concerned in the context of this thread, he did take the time fourteen years later to record this collection, which is now finding a bit of interest 35 years after that. Music embraces time, but is also timeless.
Looks like that link is wrong. This should work. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNrK0L-1vTg)
Didn't see this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmu53fAN0DI
Has mention of bats !!
:popcorn:
Ed Goist
Oct-06-2011, 3:39pm
Swamp Witch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4QTZmR_VhI) by Jim Stafford
A classic!
Ed Goist
Oct-08-2011, 6:23pm
This is me and Amandalyn-being silly and kind of Monroe/Comptonesque-spookgrassy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NktI8Z3bGd0
Excellent!
I'm working on "It's Just the Night" as played by the Del McCoury Band.