LINER NOTES AND CREDITS TO HARVEY REID's "In Person" ALBUM

These in-concert performances chronicle the peerless musicianship, profound songwriting, vast musical background, and on-stage personality of one of the most skilled and versatile of our modern minstrels. Equally at home on 6,12-string & slide acoustic guitars, autoharp & bouzouki, Reid gives us 14 original compositions, plus a remarkable musical program of traditional and new folk, ragtime, blues, rock & roll, classical, celtic, bluegrass & jazz. The mostly-solo tracks, which contain 65 minutes of previously unreleased music, were recorded at 15 different concerts, featuring a wide variety of venues from the underground acoustic scene, ranging from a nightclub in New Hampshire to a monastery in California, a boat shed in Maine, a living room in New Jersey, a colonial Greek-revival church, and an historic grist mill.

disc 1
Off To Adventure/ A Windy Grave (Reid) (4:25)
Police Dog Blues (Blake) (3:00)
How Can I Keep From Singing? (Trad.) (4:07)
All Or Nothing (Reid) (3:44)
Duncan & Brady (Trad.) (2:44)
Archibald MacDonald/ John Barleycorn (Trad.) (11:17)
Maggots In The Sheepshide/ Fisher's Hornpipe (Trad.) (3:00)
Gathering Flowers/ Show Me The Road (Trad./Reid) (4:37)
Clyde (Cale/ Beaver) (3:19)
5 Cent Cigar (Reid) (3:27)
Sing Me A Lullaby (Reid) (3:18)
Rock Bottom (Hunter) (3:25)
Si Bheag Si Mhor/ Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine (Trad.) (3:29)
Dreamer Or Believer (Reid) (3:16)
Summertime (Gershwin) (5:18)
To The Western Wind (Reid) (4:18)

DISC 2

Red In The Sky (Reid) (2:47)
Delia (Trad.) (6:25)
Waltz Of The Waves/ Crown The Queen (Reid) (4:46)
Vigilante Man (Guthrie) (6:34)
Too Old To Ride (Reid) (3:15)
Gospel Medley (Trad.) (4:27)
Oh Marie (Horning) (4:27)
Spider And The Fly (Jagger/Richard) (4:03)
Jack Tarr The Sailor/ Southwind (Trad.) (5:57)
Cryin' Shame (Reid) (3:55)
Cindy/ Cripple Creek (Trad.) (2:11)
My Louisiana Love (Monroe) (2:43)
Cocaine Blues (Trad.) (10:55)
A Very Old Song (Reid) (5:09)

Program Length: Disc 1- 69:49 Disc 2- 72:31

CREDITS
Harvey Reid 6-string, 12-string & slide guitars, autoharp, bouzouki, foot, lead vocals
Lynn Rothermich Harmony vocals on All or Nothing, Western Wind & My Louisiana Love
Brian Silber Violin on Maggots/Fisher's & My Louisiana Love, viola on All or Nothing
Rick Watson Mandolin on Maggots/Fisher's & My Louisiana Love, piano on All or Nothing
Producer Harvey Reid Mastering Dr. Toby Mountain, Northeastern Digital, Southboro, MA
Recording Information (*) a Sony DATman was plugged into a Fishman Acoustic Performer amp, recorded by the artist from stage; (@) An Alesis ADAT was used [engineered by Jim Tierney on Maggots/Fisher's, T.S. Baker on Western Wind, All or Nothing & Louisiana Love] and mixed at Fishtraks, Portsmouth, NH Jan 1997 by Harvey Reid, Jeff Landrock & Rick Watson; ($) a DAT machine was plugged into the soundboard. No overdubs of any sort were done.

Guitars 1995 Larrivee C-10 (unless specified),1984 (T) Taylor model 810 six string, early 1970's Metal-body Dobro (D), 1987 Taylor maple jumbo 12-string (12), BF= bare finger, FP= flatpick
Bouzouki 1992 Trinity College model 335 octave mandolin
Autoharp 1973 Oscar Schmidt 21-chord Appalachian
Design, Type & Graphics Eileen Healy, Aphro-Graphics
Cover Illustration Cover photo at the Troubadours of Folk Festival 1993, UCLA stadium, Los Angeles. Tray card inside photo by Wendy Rubin.
Liner Notes Harvey Reid Special Thanks Eileen Healy, Toby Mountain
(^) A partial capo was used on the guitar. http://www.partialcapo.com
All selections traditional or ©1980-1997, r1997 by Harvey Reid (Quahog Music, BMI) except Oh Marie © by Click Horning (Shine Music, BMI), Clyde © by J.J. Cale & C.W. Beavers (Johnny Beanstalk Music, BMI), Spider & the Fly © Jagger/Richard (ABKCO Music, BMI), Rock Bottom © 1991 (Hunter's Moon Music, BMI) & My Louisiana Love © Bill Monroe (Bill Monroe Music, BMI) Used by permission. This booklet © 1997 by Harvey Reid.

This is a compilation of virtually unedited recorded performances culled painstakingly from my archive of hundreds of hours of concert tapes. It contains what I think are some of my best musical performances, though it is admittedly almost impossible to make the choices, and perhaps someone other than myself should have done so. Hopefully this music offers something vital, not attainable in a studio environment. The shows were recorded with stage mikes and pickups, with a strictly historical and documentary attitude. No extraordinary meaures were taken, no special equipment was used, no attempt was made to organize a special performance for the purpose of taping, or to mike the audience or alter the sound of the applause (or lack of...) If this was photography, these would be snapshots. So often the real issue is simply whether or not you brought a camera, and this is what was captured from those concerts that were taped. We can only imagine what got away during the 4000 or so other performances in my life I did not record. There were also plenty of cuts I might have used, but rejected because they were out of tune, the mix was bad or I sang a wrong line or something. The sole purpose of this recording is to present the best music I could find, no matter how humble the gig. (Harvey Reid -Feb 1997)

About the Music...

Off to Adventure/ A Windy Grave (H. Reid) One of my favorite musical discoveries is how to use a 12-string guitar to get a Celtic, bagpipes sound. These two pieces are conceptually similar, written in 1987 to showcase that sound, but they are hard to perform together, since I use fingerpicks on the first one, and I play the second bare finger with two-hand tapping. The whole 2nd tune takes place on the high E string(s) with the low drone. You can play this on guitar in almost any tuning. Standard tuning, tuned low. (12) Esus (^) [Recorded: 5/5/96 Happy Days Visitor Center, Cuyahoga, OH ($)]
Police Dog Blues (A. Blake) Recorded in 103 degree heat, outdoors, at a small town festival on a bandshell after driving for 5 hours and barely making the gig. The crowd was in the park and on the street, quite a distance away and is barely audible. This is a showpiece of solo American guitar, one of many 78's recorded in the 1920's and 30's by the mysterious Arthur ‚'Blind' Blake. I am not the blues scholar I should be, I just like the song and play it by ear because it is fun, and some day I hope to find the time to learn it exactly right. I humbly salute all the great musicians from that era, those who brought the recording gear to them, plus the musicians, record collectors and DJ's who have loved and preserved their music. I do not salute those who have profited unduly from obtaining ownership of the copyrights or publishing rights from the often unwitting musicians or their heirs, and in some cases I urge you to steal and not buy the reissues of old blues records. Any serious student of American guitar needs to study Blake's work. Open Eb tuning. [Recorded: 6/29/96 Summer Solstice Festival, Plymouth, CA (*)]
How Can I Keep From Singing? (Trad.) This recording was made the 3rd time I ever performed this song, which I have been hearing for decades, and finally found a way to play and sing. I recorded the 1st time, and almost put it on this album, except I sang a wrong line. There was a bigger crowd, but I decided I had too much respect for the song and those who know it well to release it that way. It does not lend itself to an instrument rhythm, and really needs to be sung a capella. The song is of unknown origin. Sounds like a Sacred Harp song to me. I learned it from my favorite recorded version, a 1975 LP of Ed Trickett, Ann Mayo-Muir & Gordon Bok, who learned it from Vince DeFrancis, who learned it from Pete Seeger, who learned it from Doris Plenn, who learned it from her North Carolina family. Esus. BF. (L)(^) [Recorded: 10/27/96 Old Vienna Kaffeehaus, Westboro, MA (*)]
All Or Nothing (H. Reid) I love playing this song with these 3 people-- it's how I hear the song, and how I first recorded it in 1983. I rarely play it solo. This was only the second time we have all performed together in public, though I have known Brian for 20 years, Rick for 16, and Lynn for 19. I wrote this when Lynn and I were living in Nashville in 1979-80. The publishers said it was too ambiguous, and that songs should be black and white and not gray. So I left Nashville to be with my gray songs. The South Church in Portsmouth is a circa 1800 Greek revival architectural gem that has wonderful acoustics and is one of my favorite places to play. (T) Capo 1, Esus. (^) [Recorded: 10/5/96 Unitarian Church, Portsmouth, NH (@)]
Duncan & Brady (H. Reid) I think I learned this from a tape a friend had in 1977 of Dave van Ronk, and I think I got the idea to rev it up and make it into a rock & roll song during the many years I played taverns and had to protect myself by being rowdy because I absolutely could not sing like James Taylor or Van Morrison. It takes a lot of energy to play this song, and I have no idea why I decided to play it in a meeting house in western NH where I should have been doing Shaker hymns or something. 2 feet of snow had just fallen, causing the worst power outages in NH history, and I think I was mad at having driven 100 miles through snow to play for a small crowd. Open Eb. FP. [Recorded: 12/8/96 Unitarian Church, Peterborough, NH (*)]
Archibald MacDonald Of Keppoch/ John Barleycorn (Trad.) I have known John Barleycorn for many years, and tried more than a few times in vain to record it. This version was played in a cavernous, overgrown former monastery with a lovely rose garden, a lot of cracked plaster, and a 50 foot ceiling. It was 110 degrees that day, the last gig of a grueling trip, and this was the last song of the show, not planned and played as a sudden impulse because of the resonance and spiritual feel of the room. Part 1 is a Scottish air learned from John Cunningham. Esus. BF. (^) [Recorded: 7/1/96 St. Joseph Cultural Center, Grass Valley, CA (*)]
Maggots In The Sheepshide/ Fisher's Hornpipe (Trad.) These are fiddle tunes I played in the streets 20 years ago, and they are still favorites. The 1st is obscure, the 2nd very common. Rick switches to piano from mandolin to give a New England contra dance rhythm. My bouzouki is tuned as an octave mandolin, (1 octave lower) and has a very short neck, almost viola scale length, so I can play the tunes with the same fingerings as a regular mandolin if I really stretch. It's hard work, since the strings are so thick. [Recorded: 10/10/92 Unitarian Church, Portsmouth, NH (@)]
Gathering Flowers From the Hillsides/ Show Me The Road (Trad./ H. Reid) I first recorded this song on guitar, and usually perform it now on autoharp. The 1st half is an obscure Southern mountain ballad completely titled “Gathering Flowers From the Hillsides” that I like to sing, except that I feel strange singing the verse that goes “It was on a bright June morning, The roses were in bloom, I shot and killed my darling, Oh what will be my doom.” I wrote the other song in Intervale NH in a hotel room at Tuckerman's Inn on a solo winter tour in 30 below zero weather. [Recorded: 5/5/96 Happy Days Visitor Center, Cuyahoga, OH ($)]
Clyde (J.J. Cale/C.W. Beavers) From one of my favorite albums, “Naturally” by J.J. Cale. I had been having fun playing this song during the period this was recorded, and was surprised to find out that I liked the way it sounded. It's very hard work for 1 guy to keep this one going, and I like to jam on the groove. I got empowered to play solo rock and roll after hearing some feeble 'Unplugged' performances by certain rock stars. Open Eb tuning. [Recorded: 7/13/96 One World Coffeehouse, Essex, MA (*)]
Five Cent Cigar (H. Reid) A snappy version of #3 in my series of Merle Travis/ragtime style guitar pieces, which I play pretty much the same every time. This is one of the great styles of solo guitar, one that has as few masters as any other. I grew up in the South, but moved away, which qualifies me to play this style now and then. Recorded in a log cabin, WPA era building in Cuyahoga National Park near Cleveland during a Spring thunderstorm. C position, no capo. [Recorded: 5/5/96 Happy Days Visitor Center, Cuyahoga, OH ($)]
Sing Me A Lullaby (H. Reid) This song was modeled after the religious slide guitar work of Willie Johnson, Willie McTell and others. There is something about unison slide guitar and voice that reminds me of Southern religious music, preaching and what used to be called Negro Spirituals. There is also something particularly eerie in the way they sing about and personify death in their songs. I had just driven 8 hrs in pouring November rain to get to this gig. Open Eb tuning. BF. [Recorded: 11/8/96 Golden Link Folk Society, Rochester, NY (*)]
Rock Bottom (R. Hunter) Reeva Hunter is originally from Baltimore, and writes very literate songs. I loved this one from the first time I heard it. It says a lot, quite economically. The older I get, the more I empathize with the story of Sisyphus. [Recorded: 7/13/96 One World Coffeehouse, Essex, MA (*)]
Si Bheag Si Mhor/ Bonaparte Crossing The Rhine (Trad.) The first piece is Turlough O'Carolan's best-known melody, and one played by virtually all Celtic musicians. I like it played slowly, though some give it a brisk waltz tempo. I am guessing the 2nd tune is an Irish march, and if it was not before it is now. I also play it on fingerstyle guitar, and recorded a version on 12-string banjo, but this arrangement has more rhythmic drive and works better as a solo concert piece. [Recorded: 5/25/96 Prallsville Mill, Stockton, NJ ($)]

Dreamer Or Believer (H. Reid) Bluegrass music sounds awesome when you are driving, and I often listen to the same song over and over when I like it, which explains the reference to the mandolin. I wrote a 4th verse to this, sang it once, and never wrote it down. It starts out 'He's gonna make his mark, like a flame in the dark...‚' Maybe someday I will remember the missing lines. Sometimes what we are dreaming of doing is more important than what we are doing (but not always...) There were quite a few college students at this gig, and I always feel better when I sing this song around younger people, who are probably the best dreamers and believers. I wrote this song when I was 28, and it may be the first song I ever wrote in the Esus capo configuration, which I discovered right around that time. Esus (^) [Recorded: 12/8/96 Unitarian Church, Peterborough, NH (*)]
Summertime (G. Gershwin) This arrangement is sort of fluid, and takes different forms during the middle improvised section. If I am playing brunch and no one is listening, it can go on almost forever. [Recorded: 7/1/96 St. Joseph Cultural Center, Grass Valley, CA (*)]
To the Western Wind (H. Reid) This has been a sort of theme song for me. Some of us have been wandering musicians for even longer than Ulysses was traveling, and we search for peace and a stable life like a sailor looking for land. I almost included a solo version, but I tossed a coin, and this duo version won. FP. (^) Esus [Recorded: 10/5/96 Unitarian Church, Portsmouth, NH (@)]

v DISC TWO
Red In The Sky, Blood On The Water (H. Reid) Written on Thanksgiving Day, sort of in honor of a shrine that my mother made on an island on the coast of Maine, to her mother who lived 96 years and my niece who lived 3 weeks, fueled by the Brandenburg Concertos of J.S. Bach. (I am not musically fit to shine Bach's shoes, but he honestly did inspire this feeble tribute, and I did sort of imply the mystical counterpoint of baroque music.) The One World Coffeehouse is a classic, unglamorous but wholesome and satisfying New England church basement gig, with nice people, cookies and coffee at intermission. This day there was a hurricane, and the winds and rain were howling outside. Esus. BF. (^) [Recorded: 7/13/96 One World Coffeehouse, Essex, MA (*)]
Delia (Trad.) An amalgam of a lot of versions of this old song I have heard all my life. The slide guitar seems to have the plaintive feel I like best for this song. I heard they don't let people have their guitars in jail any more, a good reason to stay out. Open Eb . [Recorded: 7/1/96 St. Joseph Cultural Center, Grass Valley, CA (*)]
Waltz Of The Waves/ Crown The Queen (H. Reid) Somehow the autoharp stayed in tune in the heat (see notes on Police Dog Blues) A what-used-to-be-called drunken bum came up onto the stage right after this song, apparently attracted by the sound of the autoharp, and stood about 2 feet in front of me and introduced himself as a member of the committee that hired me, wanting to speak into the mike. It took several difficult minutes before the audience and me figured out that he should be escorted away. I thought he was with them, and they thought he was with me. Maybe he knew that I played this as well as I can play it, but was unable to find a more appropriate expression for his appreciation. I usually do not need a bouncer. These were both written on my birthday, in 1987 or 1988. [Recorded: 6/29/96 Summer Solstice Festival, Plymouth, CA (*)]
Vigilante Man (W. Guthrie) I have been playing this song for years, and have recorded many shows where I played it, and for some reason this is my favorite of them all. I was playing to a small crowd, mostly young apprentice boatbuilders, and they had made a wooden stage from planks that were nailed across the rails they used to launch boats out the back door. The water was 5 feet behind me, and I was leaning backwards at an awkward angle, looking up the boat ramp. I lost a pick which fell in the mud between the planks. The place reeked beautifully of hardwood sawdust and Maine tides, and they had swept the floors and vacuumed up the sawdust an hour before the concert. The beer keg and food were placed on the various machines and worktables. The only reason this tape exists is because Karen Svenson, who organized the gig, borrowed a DAT machine from Tim Murray. Somehow in the haste, the levels were set correctly. Open Eb tuning. [Recorded: 9/9/95 The Apprentice Shop, Rockland, Me ($)]
Too Old to Ride (H. Reid) One of my most 'photographic' songs, that always gives me images of the Wyoming sun and dusty cowboy boots and leathery old cowboys. I spent an evening at the Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1976, hanging out with my singer friend Esta and a retired Brahma bull rider named Mac, who was quite a yodeler. The song is really about that fact that I used to think it would be hollow to do something like sports, where you had to hang it up and then just talk about it for the rest of your life; and now I think that would be just fine to be good at something and then retire. Big of me, huh? Standard tuning, capo 1. BF. [Recorded: 10/27/96 Old Vienna Kaffeehaus, Westboro, MA (*)]

Gospel Medley (Trad.) The song titles were too long to list on the cover: Amazing Grace/ Down By The Riverside/ Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Recorded in an historic grist mill in the Delaware Water Gap region of New Jersey, which is one of the best-sounding and feeling rooms I have ever played. The stage is on the big stone where the mill wheel was, and you look out the window at the canal and the Delaware River. Traditional music feels extra good in this room. Open Eb tuning. [Recorded: 5/25/96 Prallsville Mill, Stockton, NJ ($)]
Oh Marie (C. Horning) I recorded this with 2 guitars and 3 voices, and almost never performed it solo. Recently I found that it rocks on the bouzouki, and this was the 1st time it was performed in concert that way. I was having a good time playing with the rhythms. Learned from an electric reggae version by Click Horning (the author) and Night Kitchen, a NH rock band. There is something very hypnotic about this song, though I must confess that the correct name of the song is Oh Marie, and I never sing the 'Oh' word. Sorry, Click. [Recorded: 5/25/96 Prallsville Mill, Stockton, NJ ($)]
Spider And The Fly (Jagger/Richard) This was on the first LP I ever owned, by the Rolling Stones, an 11th birthday gift from my brother Russ. (I still have the LP!) I have been playing this song in bars and with bands for decades, but I had never taped it until recently, even for fun, and was again surprised to find out I liked it. No capo. FP. [Recorded: 7/26/96 The Press Room, Portsmouth, NH (*)]
Jack Tarr The Sailor/ Southwind (Trad.) Also recorded in the boatshed in Rockland ME, which actually had great acoustics, in addition to being a great setting to sing such a song. I remember thinking that some of the seafarers and young women in the audience, in a seafaring town such as this, would be able to identify viscerally with the story line. Every time a fisherman goes out, it's a little bit like a soldier going to war. The 1st song I learned from a local singer named Dave Behm, and the 2nd is a favorite melody, sometimes attributed to O'Carolan, and well-known among Celtic musicians. [Recorded: 9/9/95 The Apprentice Shop, Rockland, Me ($)]
Cryin' Shame (H. Reid) The guitar breaks on this song are from a classic slide guitar piece called Poor Boy, a 'jailhouse song' that I intentionally wove into this song. It's hard to perform this song in an intimate concert, since I hate to look people in the eye and bum them out when they just want to be entertained. There weren't many people there that night, though several cuts from that show made this album. When the crowd is small, you get discouraged, withdraw inward, and no doubt play better than usual, since if you don't at least play well then the night is a total waste. Black Jack D refers to a well-known brand of whiskey. Open Eb tuning. [Recorded: 10/27/96 Old Vienna Kaffeehaus, Westboro, MA (*)]
Cindy/ Cripple Creek (H. Reid) I invented this reverse, faux-frailing around 1985 on guitar, but have been doing it on 6-string banjo so much lately that I rarely do it on guitar any more. It's guitar's imitation of how a banjo plays fiddle tunes. This was a house concert in a living room, with 32 people crammed into a lovely log cabin. (^) Capo 5 + Open A [Recorded: 11/16/96 Tim & Lori Blixt House, Wayne, NJ (*)]
My Louisiana Love (B. Monroe) A little-known Bill Monroe gem that I had never played in concert. Since he had just died, we worked it up with the quartet the night before the 1996 Coming of Winter concert, and this was the 1st time we ever performed it. I love singing bluegrass duets as much as anything, and this one was sufficiently lonesome to include here, though we maybe didn't sing through our noses quite enough. I played hardcore Bluegrass for many years, and am particularly fond of playing rhythm, especially on waltzes. (T) Capo 2. FP [Recorded: 10/5/96 Unitarian Church. Portsmouth, NH (@)]
Cocaine Blues (Trad.) By far the oldest cut on this project, and one I should have left off, or at least edited to make it tamer. It used to be a blues song recorded and performed by a lot of people. Holstein's was a well-known folk club in Chicago, and it was a March road trip and a wet snowstorm. If I remember, I slept in my van that night on a city street. This was made on one of the very earliest digital recorders, and since this is a rare and unusual performance, here it is, for historical value if nothing else. (Actually, the resurgence of Juan Valdez in coffee ads influenced the decision.) An relic from those wild days when I had to survive in bars any way I could. I have not played this song in many years. I was playing my 1974 Gallagher guitar, which I still have. (P.S. There is no statement here- I have never owned or operated cocaine- it's just a wacky blues song. I was only drinking coffee and maybe a beer or two that night) Capo 2. [Recorded: by Rich Warren WFMT Radio 3/5/85 Holstein's, Chicago, IL ($)]
A Very Old Song (H. Reid) I wrote this song for St. Patrick's Day in 1981, and in honor of my friend Brian Silber, who plays violin like he is 300 years old. It was the title cut to my 2nd LP, released in 1984. I used to play hoedown style street fiddle, and I have 2 violins made by my great-grandfather. The only feeling I ever had (this lifetime) of having lived another lifetime was the first time I tried to play the fiddle he made from a sycamore tree. I was in an apartment in Calverton, MD, and I had a profound feeling that I had done this before, and I instinctively knew how to work the bow. I never can get any better or worse at violin playing, no matter how much I practice or don't. When I hear it done right, it moves me deeply. Esus (^) [Recorded: 11/15/96 Lycian Center, Sugarloaf, NY (*)]

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