The elements of Wind and Water have been quietly invading my creative work since long before I noticed. The wind has been a constant companion thoughout my almost endless traveling, and I don't think I could live without a large body of water nearby to stare at. Here on the coast of New England the storms, breezes, tides, fog, rivers, rain and snow seem to merge into a single, ever-present force. These 7 songs and 10 instrumentals were recorded all-digitally, 'live in the studio', with no splicing, editing, or multitracking whatsoever. Assisting were my friends Rick Watson (keyboard), Lynn Rothermich (vocals), David Surette (guitar, bouzouki), Sarah Bauhan (tin whistle) and Susie Burke (guitar, vocal). The intent was to capture the urgency of live music while retaining the high standards of sound quality we expect from modern studio recording. Admittedly my acoustic guitars, autoharp, mandolin, banjo and words are a feeble way to portray the grandeur and power of the winds and waters- but they are the only way I have. And I suspect that we humans may be at our best when we try to use our own hands and hearts to portray much larger things. This music should sound best in a windy place, with a good view of some cold, blue water.

CREDITS:
Harvey Reid: Guitars, Autoharp, Mandolin, 6-String Banjo, Lead Vocals
Rick Watson: Roland RD-200 keyboard ()
Lynn Rothermich: Vocals (*)
David Surette: Guitar, Bouzouki ()
Sarah Bauhan: TinWhistle (ø)
Susie Burke: Vocals, Guitar (+)
Arrangements, Production: Harvey Reid
Digital Recording: FISHTRAKS, Portsmouth NH
Digital Mastering: Toby Mountain, Northeastern Digital
Engineering: Harvey Reid, Jeff Landrock, Rick Watson, Tom Daly
Guitars: 1984 Taylor rosewood dreadnought 6-string, 1987 Taylor maple jumbo 12-string
Autoharp: 1973 Oscar Schmidt 21-chord Appalachian
Mandolin: 1987 by R.L Givens
Banjo: 1988 6-string maple by Deering
Design and Graphics: Aphro- Graphics
Cover photo: The "Hesper" and "Luther Little", Wiscasset, Maine, by Brian K. Reid
Special Thanks: Tom Daly, Rex Holmes, Queen Margaret, Ephraim Shaw
(^) A Third Hand Capo in Esus configuration was used on the guitar. (Standard tuning, sometimes tuned low.) Contact http://www.partialcapo.com
All selections ©, ® 1979-1988 by Harvey Reid. (Quahog Music, ASCAP)

ABOUT THE SONGS

"Off To Adventure" (H. Reid) (3:15) Reminds me of a bagpipe record my folks had when I was a kid that was recorded as the band paraded by. It's eerie to think that my ancestors marched off to war to stuff like this, and to think about all the centuries of music before there were recordings.You wonder if soldiers could march to headphones. 12-string. (^)
"Silver Blue" (H. Reid) (5:22) When I'm away , I miss the water as much as anything, even though I don't do much except look at it and think about it. Real estate agents know that we all have a need to look at water. Maybe a mythic memory of the primordial soup. Out west a lot of water is unsatisfactorily brown. I like mine cold and blue, thank you. 6-string. (*)(^)
"Maggots in the Sheepshide / The Flowers of Edinburgh" (Trad.) (2:22) Two of my very favorite traditional fiddle tunes that date back to my street music days. I learned the first from a street fiddler, and I never met anybody who either knew the tune or a better name for it. The second tune is well-known, for good reason. Mandolin, rhythm guitar.()
"The Lakes of Pontchartrain" (Trad.) (7:05) Lately my favorite old ballad, and I don't know much about it. Probably a Civil War soldier yearning for his home water.12-string (^)
"The Keeper of the Light" (Reid / Bauhan) (4:55) My first collaboration with Sarah. All the lighthouse keepers left in Maine would probably fit in my car. Must be a lonely job for non-hermits, especially before TV and phones. Autoharp, tin whistle, keyboard.()(ø)
"Pieces of Eight" (H. Reid) (4:43) I think about pirates during this one.Written during the project and largely improvised. 6-string banjo, capo 5. (^)
"Show MeThe Road" (H. Reid) (4:01) Written in a hotel room in 1980, in honor of Washington Phillips, a street preacher who recorded some strangely beautiful gospel music in the 1930's. Susie Burke helped me dig this out of a pile of old tapes of songs I never sing, and it's a favorite now of songs we do together. Two 6-string guitars.(+)
"Midnight On The Water" (Trad.) (4:08) A lovely fiddle waltz that I learned in Nova Scotia. I hear it's from Texas, but I don't believe it. Sounds Celtic to me. 12-string.(^)

"Dance, the Storm is Over" (H. Reid) (4:22) Written in Portland, Maine during the free hour when I accidently showed up early for a gig due to a time change. Uses the 12-string like melodic style banjo, with a lot of splitting pairs of strings. Hard to do, but a nifty sound- sort of hammer dulcimer-ish, and another attempt by us guitarists to capture the drive of fiddle music. I imagine sailors dancing.Third Hand Capo-Open A. 12-string, bouzouki.()
"The Boatman" (H. Reid) (3:40) As a performer I often feel like a tour bus driver- you take people places and you don't really get to stay or even see what the travelers see, since it's all new to them, and old hat to you. Flatpick guitar -lower 4 strings capo 2. (*)
"Southwind" (Turlough O'Carolan) (4:45) Still my favorite melody, that comes from the greatest of the oldIrish harpers, who died in 1738. Somebody please play this one when you lower me into the grave. I mean it. Autoharp, tin whistle, keyboard.()(ø)
"April Rain" (H. Reid) (5:07) Written in Lubec, Maine, in 1978. 12-string (^).
"Crown the Queen" (H. Reid) (3:26) Autoharp players are always working hard trying to arrange music from other instruments. I can't play this on anything else but autoharp. It might be a march. Autoharp, rhythm guitar.()
"To The Western Wind" (H. Reid) (5:06) A sort of gypsy freedom song, this one reared its head in a friend's living room in Los Angeles, of all places. 12-string. (*)(^)
"Waltz of the Waves" (H. Reid) (4:08) Written at the beach on my birthday , before coffee, if you can believe it. Sat up, opened the eyes, and there it was. Autoharp, keyboard.()
"Candlelight" (H. Reid) (2:19) Written in the car in New Hampshire in 1979 in a cold parking lot in November. The only one of my songs I like as a poem. 12-string.
"A Windy Grave" (H. Reid) (2:09) There's a great story of a great violinist in prison who wrote a piece for the one string his captors let him have in the cell.Though not that ambitious, this melody is only on the E string, with both hands on the frets. 12-string.(^)

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