LINER NOTES TO #123CD SOLO GUITAR PROJECT- VOL1 by HARVEY REID

1- Racing the Storm* (H. Reid) [4:48]
2- Amazing Grace/What a Friend/Swing Low (Trad.) [4:34]
3- Prelude in Dm (J.S. Bach) [1:44]
4- Canal Street Strut (H. Reid) [2:36]
5- Uncloudy Day (Trad.) [3:18]
6- Cindy/Cripple Creek* (Trad.) [3:05]
7- Scotland Suite- Part 1: Requiem* (H. Reid) [10:00]
8- Pegasus* (H. Reid) [6:57]
9- French Quarter Concerto (H. Reid) [8:21]
10- Flüf’s Vacation (H. Reid) [3:04]
11- Archibald MacDonald of Keppoch* (Trad.) [4:05]
12- Dirty Dish Rag (H. Reid) [2:23]

*These tracks use a partial capo. For more information about the partial capo, visit http://www.partialcapo.com. Harvey pioneered this idea, and has recorded over 120 tracks using more than 20 configurations of partial capos.

CREDITS
Harvey Reid 6-string, 12-string & slide guitars
Arrangements, Production, Engineering Harvey Reid
Recording Woodpecker studio, & The Cottage
Re-Mastering Thomas Eaton, Newburyport MA
Guitars See individual track notes... The 6-string banjo & autoharp on the cover do not appear on this album, though the other guitars do.
Design & Graphics Aphro-Graphics
Front Cover photos Nancy Moulton Wyatt (1990)
Special Thanks Joyce Andersen, Rex Holmes, Tom Daly

All selections ©P1986-2000 by Harvey Reid (Quahog Music BMI)
Tracks 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 were recorded using MOTU Digital Performer, Audio-Technica 4047 mikes, API 3124 pre-amps & Apogee 8000
Tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 12 were recorded using Panasonic DAT machines & Audio-Technica 4051 mikes
Track 11 was recorded to TEAC reel -to-reel using Nakamichi mikes

About the Tracks...
1- Racing the Storm (H. Reid) From a fascination I have with traditional fiddle tunes, which you can’t play on guitar with the drive that fiddles give them. It started out as a jig, and gradually grew un-fiddle-like kicks and corners, to the point where I doubt this would sound good on a fiddle, or if anyone would even consider it a fiddle tune. You can’t really play it slowly or gently– it’s like a race car that wants to go fast, and is hard to drive down city streets. Standard tuning, down 1 half step. FP (T) [Recorded 4/10/00] Partial capo 0 2 2 2 0 0. Released on the “Guitar Voyages” CD (114)
2- Amazing Grace/What a Friend/Swing Low (Trad.) Roots-style bottleneck versions of three well-known non-secular songs. Nobody knows where slide guitar came from, but when it works it sure works. Gospel songs often sound good on slide guitar. FP (D12) Open Eb tuning. [5/9/89] From “Solo Guitar Sketchbook” (105)
3- Prelude in Dm (J.S. Bach) Music like this disputes theories about monkeys with typewriters eventually writing the Constitution– no guitarist could ever have written it. Basically it’s Segovia’s arrangement, though no doubt he wouldn’t have approved of it on steel strings. FP (T) Standard tuning. [5/30/89] (105)
4- Canal Street Strut (H. Reid) Describes the unique and wonderful feeling you get in your feet when you walk in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Also in honor of Merle Travis. FP (T) Full capo 2. [5/22/89] (105)
5- Uncloudy Day (Trad.) This traditional gospel song has haunted me for years. It’s an echo of my years of playing old-time and bluegrass, which you often can’t hear in my music. This version probably owes also to blues and Joseph Spence-style gospel fingerpicking. The chorus goes “I hear tell of an uncloudy day,” though some sing “unclouded day.” My favorite version is an Ozark mountain dulcimer LP by the Simmons Family. I tried every tuning and technique I know, every guitar, and all kinds of flatpicks and fingerpicks, and finally settled on this barefinger version in Drop D tuning with my Taylor 810. BF (T) [4/29/00] (114)
6- Cindy/Cripple Creek (Trad.) After years of playing traditional music I finally found a way to generate this fundamental fiddle and banjo dance rhythm on the solo guitar. It’s a weird sort of reverse banjo-style pseudo-frailing, whatever that is. FP w/bare thumb (T) Full + partial capo 5 7 7 7 5 5. [5/30/89] (105)
7- Scotland Suite 1: Requiem for the Last Minstrel (H. Reid) This piece started on the banks of the sea in Scotland. I wrote a few tunes in this imitation-bagpipes style in the 80’s when I first developed it. The technique was inspired by the two-handed playing of Eddie van Halen and 80’s rock guitarists, and I have never heard anyone else use two-handed “tapping” to play Celtic music. This is not the first time I have woven together strands from Celtic and Baroque influences, with the drone bass of one and the counterpoint of the other a nice juxtaposition. I have a nice old edition of the Sir Walter Scott epic poem about the Last Minstrel. Minstrelsy was outlawed in the 1590’s by Queen Elizabeth I. (L) BF [3/10/00] Partial capo 0 2 2 2 0 0. (114)
8- Pegasus (H. Reid) I developed this approach to 12-string in 1982, using the split pairs of the 12-string like a chromatic banjo. It sounds somewhat like a hammered dulcimer at times, and requires a very controlled yet fast right hand, plus some stamina to play this long. If you strike the octave pair (not too hard) from the treble side with a finger, you sound only the lower octave of the pair, and if you strike it with the thumb from the other side, you get the octave string. If you strike it harder from either side you sound both strings, which is a different sound than either of the 2 individual strings. Tuned C# F# B E A C#, which is standard tuning 3 steps low with the B string sharped one fret. Partial capo 0 0 2 2 2 0. FP (T12) [4/9/00] (114)
9- French Quarter Concerto (H. Reid) This one sets a record for length of time in an unfinished state. It first appeared when I was a street musician in Jackson Square in New Orleans in 1975, when I hitchhiked to Mardi Gras and stayed for a month. I have carried it around ever since in my head, never taping it, and never being able to finish it or forget it. There was a guy operating a jackhammer nearby, which made me feel like I was the orchestra and he was the soloist. I always referred to it as the “Jackhammer Concerto”, but it earned a better name. I have fond memories of French market coffee, grits & biscuits for breakfast, and a streetcorner portrait painter I met there. I used to watch her paint while I played guitar, and she would listen, which seemed like a perfect collaboration. The tune is meant to evoke baroque images and techniques. FP. Standard tuning-1. Full capo 2. (T) [4/25/00] (114)
10- Flüf’s Vacation (H. Reid) An adorable little Maine coon cat named Flüf visited me for her summer vacation in 1999. Flüf was sort of a comedian among cats; she loved to sleep in open drawers and boxes, and could amuse herself with a paper bag for hours. This tune is based on the snap-string blues style of slide guitar playing, but I don’t think it employs the clichés or even really sounds like the blues. (D1) Open Eb. BF. [1/31/00] (114)
11- Archibald MacDonald of Keppoch (Trad.) This eerie Scottish air often pops up in my head when I go to the ocean on a gray day. It was one of my earliest Esus partial capo arrangements, and I still love the tune. (T) BF Partial capo 0 2 2 2 0 0. [10/6/86] (103)
12- Dirty Dish Rag (H. Reid) Written in a driveway in Kent, Ohio in 1980, this one pits a Scruggs roll in the treble against a Travis thumb line. If you don’t know what that means, it is supposed to evoke ragtime piano moods. Should go well with beer & pizza. I bravely played this in the National Fingerpicking contest when I won it in 1981. Capo 2 (T) [5/22/89] (105)

(BF)= bare finger (FP)= fingerpicks GUITARS: (T)= 1984 Taylor 810 Rosewood dreadnaught guitar #3086 (T12) = 1987 Maple jumbo Taylor 12-string, serial #5460 (D12)= unusual 1965 Mosrite 12-string Dobro with only 6 strings (D1)= Early 70’s metal-body Dobro #0410 (L)= 1999 rosewood Larrivée model C-10 serial number #27236

All selections ©1981-2010 by Harvey Reid (Quahog Music BMI)

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