LINER NOTES AND CREDITS TO HARVEY REID's "CHESTNUTS" ALBUM

All of these songs have words, though this is an instrumental album. Most are in the old songbooks that sat on the piano in the days before recorded music, and the rest are still pretty commonly played around campfires and jam sessions- “Here’s an old chestnut...” they’ll often say

1 Hard Times Come Again No More solo 12-string guitar (2:57)
2 My Grandfather’s Clock two 6-string guitars (3:37)
3 Scarborough Fair 6-string guitar, viola (4:40)
4 Gathering Flowers From The Hillsides autoharp,bouzouki (3:06)
5 Jesse James 6-string banjo, guitar (2:06)
6 The Minstrel Boy solo 6-string guitar (2:46)
7 Down By The Riverside/Old Time Religion solo slide guitar (2:30)
8 The Banks Of The Ohio guitar, autoharp, viola (2:30)
9 The Old Spinning Wheel two six-string guitars (2:48)
10 The Blue Bells Of Scotland solo 6 string guitar (2:33)
11 Simple Gifts solo 12-string guitar (2:33)
12 Wayfaring Stranger solo 6-string guitar (5:35)
13 Buffalo Gals 6-string guitar, mandolin (3:00)
14 Four Marys autoharp, viola (2:45)
15 Listen To The Mocking Bird solo 6-string guitar (2:35)
16 Old Black Joe solo 6-string banjo (3:12)
17 Annie Laurie 6-string guitar, bouzouki (2:46)
18 Bill Bailey 6-string banjo, guitar (2:23)
19 Londonderry Air (Danny Boy) solo 6-string guitar (4:02)

Total program: 60 mins
© 1994 by Harvey Reid

CREDITS

Harvey Reid: 6-string, 12-string & slide guitars, autoharp, 6-string banjo
David Surette: guitar (9), mandolin (13), bouzouki (4,17)
Moondi Klein: guitar (5,8)
Brian Silber: viola (3,8,14)
Dan Crary: guitar (2,18)
Arrangements, Production, Engineering, Mixing: Harvey Reid
Recorded at The Cottage, near Bath, Maine & Woodpecker Towers, York, Maine, Bill Bailey recorded Juniper Studios, Burbank, CA. engineer Jim Emrick
Harvey’s Guitars: 1984 & 1990 (T) Taylor model 810 six strings, 1967 Wood-body round-neck Dobro, 1987 Taylor maple jumbo 12-string. FP = fingerpicks, BF= bare finger ST= standard tuning.
Bouzouki (Octave Mandolin): 1994 by Bob Abrams, Portsmouth NH
Mandolin: 1920’s Gibson model F-3
Banjo: 1988 Maple 6-string (guitar tuning) Deering Banjos Lemon Grove, CA.
Autoharp: 1973 Oscar Schmidt 21-chord Appalachian
Design, Type & Graphics: Aphro-Graphics, Fil Kennedy, Eileen Healy
Cover Painting: Fil Kennedy
Liner Notes: Harvey Reid
(*) A partial capo was used on the guitar or banjo on tracks 1,3,5,6,10,11,12,16,19. Contact http://www.partialcapo.com for more info.
All selections Public Domain, arrangements © 1994 by Harvey Reid (Quahog Music, BMI)
This album was recorded in “living stereo” by the artist, direct-to-digital, using only a matched pair of Audio-Technica AT-4051 microphones and a Panasonic DAT digital tape recorder. No overdubs or multi-tracking of any sort were done.

About the songs...
1- Hard Times Come Again No More (Stephen Foster) My Mother’s favorite Foster song, learned from her. A lot of people are singing it lately, which is good. [Sept 1994 (*) Esus capo, ST tuned low. FP]
2- My Grandfather’s Clock (Henry C. Work) The author wrote many popular songs of the era. A standard with campfire guitar pickers. [June 1994 (*) I play fingerstyle FP, ST,both guitars capo 5]
3- Scarborough Fair An unusual tuning, and a re-working of Paul Simon’s pirating of Martin Carthy’s arrangement of this old English song. [Sept 1994 (*) Guitar tuned Open Db, E-minus capo. BF (T)]
4- Gathering Flowers From The Hillsides A Southern mountain song, about lost love. [Oct 1994 (*)]
5- Jesse James The ballad of Jesse James, the outlaw and folk hero, shot on the sly by his friend Robert Ford. An odd form of fake clawhammer banjo I invented for the guitar-banjo that sounds an awful lot like traditional 5-string mountain style. [Sept 1994 (*) Capos 5 & 7, Open A capo, ST FP]
6- The Minstrel Boy An old Irish air called The Moreen. Thomas Moore wrote the words that gave the song its modern name. The minstrel was captured and refused to play his harp in prison, destroying it instead. [­­­­­May 1990 (+) Esus capo, BF]
7- Down By The Riverside/Old Time Religion I like playing spirituals and Southern gospel songs in Southern blues, slide-guitar style. [Sept 1994 (*) Eb tuning. Wood-body Dobro FP]
8- Banks Of The Ohio A beautiful and grisly murder ballad, sung by a lot of old-time and bluegrass musicians. [Sept 1994 (*) Guitar capo 3, dropped D tuning]
9- The Old Spinning Wheel A parlor song, the kind you might hear at the circus on a calliope. [Oct 1994 (*) Breaks 1 & 3 is me, ST, C position capo 2, David: breaks 2 & 4, dropped D tuning. Both guitars flatpicked.]
10- Blue Bells Of Scotland The blue bell is a flower; the song is about a woman lamenting her Hieland Laddie, who was drafted to fight for the English. Not heard much nowadays; learned from my mother. [Oct 1994 (*) Esus capo, tuned to Eb, BF]
11- Simple Gifts I play this melody on every instrument I pick up. This is a re-make of a version I recorded on my first album in 1982. [Sept 1994 (*) Open A capo, tuned low. FP]
12- Wayfaring Stranger Another tune I have tried for years to find a way to play solo, that uses same odd minor-key tuning as track 3. [Recorded Sept 1994 (*) (T) E-minus capo, tuned very low, BF]
13- Buffalo Gals A late-night jam session, sort of Bluegrass, Zen and Calypso, but it worked so we kept it. [Oct 1994 (*) Guitar capo 2, C position, ST FP]
14- Four Marys The ballad of Mary Hamilton, part of the collection of Childe Ballads. “There was Mary Beaton, Mary Seaton & Mary Carmichael & me”sings one of the many ill-fated wives of King Henry VIII. Learned from The Simmons Family of Missouri. [Sept 1994 (*)]
15- Listen To The Mocking Bird Written in 1854 by someone named Alice Hawthorne, also often called “Sweet Hallie”; most often heard played these days by contest fiddlers, who sometimes include bird calls. [May 1990 (+) ST capo 2, FP]
16- Old Black Joe (Stephen Foster) A perfect example of a song that’s uncool to sing these days, yet a stirring melody that deserves to live. Slow banjo is a rare & poignant sound. [Oct 1994 (*) Esus capo, capos 5 & 7, ST, BF]
17- Annie Laurie One of Scotland’s grandest melodies, and my grandfather Charles MacKay’s favorite song. Spelled Annie Lawrie in some old books. [Oct 1994 (*) Dropped D tuning, BF]
18- Bill Bailey A vaudeville-type song, heard these days mostly as a polka. [Feb 1989 Guitar ST capo 5 Banjo ST no capo. FP]
19- Londonderry Air Has two sets of nice words, and is the only song I ever heard my grandfather play on the violin. [Oct 1994 (*) Esus capo, tuned to Eb. BF]

BF= bare finger
FP= fingerpicks
ST= standard tuning

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