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| John Showman, Max Malone & Chris Coole are putting out a 14-song live album recorded at Vancouver's Anza Club back in 2019. |
Here's the scoop...
"Lively Times - Live at the Anza Club – out November 26 – is a collection of 14 songs and tunes taken from a show we did in Vancouver in November 2019 for The Pacific Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Society Community Group. We had the show filmed by Approach Media, and luckily, we got Andrew Smith at Vancouver Live Sound to multi-track record the show so we had some mixing capability.
"We weren't planning to do a live album and had sort of forgotten about the show until earlier this year. When we did get back to it, we loved what we heard and realized we'd captured a special night. We choose our favourite tracks from the two sets, John Showman mixed them, then Andrew Collins mastered the whole deal. Now, we have an album that we're really proud of, and we think you're going to like!
"The 14 tracks cover some of our favorite songs from our first 4 albums. Over the next 6 weeks we will release 6 videos of tracks from the album as they were played the night we recorded it!"
You can listen to a preview, read the liners, and pre-order the digital download here: https://lonesomeace.com/pre-order-lively-times. Check the track listing below.
Lively Times: Live at the Anza Club
1. The Hills of Mexico – We’ve been playing this tune since the very beginning. In fact, it’s the very first tune on our first album. There are many versions of this classic folk song, but this version owes its roots to the great KY banjo picker and singer Roscoe Holcomb. We first heard it on a recording by The Renegades which featured the wonderful singing of Carol Elizabeth Jones.
2. Laketown Blues - Richard Inman is one of Canada’s great contemporary songwriters. Everyone in the band is a big fan. Laketown Blues is just one in a vast catalogue of moving songs he’s written.
3. Long Hot Summer Days – John Hartford’s style of stringband music, especially his “windows approach” has had a very big influence on the way we play as a band. We also love his songs, which has prompted us to record quite a few of them. Although Coole was utterly aghast to have flubbed one of the first words of this song (“towboats” should be “empties”), we thought the crazy spirit of the performance more than made up for it! Watch a performance of "Long Hot Summer Days" below.
4. The Only Other Person in the Room – Who says you can’t honky-tonk with just a banjo, fiddle, and bass? This song comes from the great Texas duo Noel Mckay and Brennen Leigh. It may not be that old, but it’s already a classic to be sure.
5. Black Lung – A moving piece from the great W.V. songwriter and singer Hazel Dickens about the trials and tribulations of life in the coal mines. This piece was originally recorded (by Hazel) as acapella, but we have taken some liberties and interpreted some chords. Watch a performance below.
6. Cluck Old Hen – This version is based on the playing of the great KY (or WV, depending on who you talk to) fiddler Ed Haley.
7. Stone Walls and Steel Bars – Originally recorded by The Stanley Brothers, this song was written by Ray Pennington and Roy Marcum. We’ve changes the chords here a bit from the Stanley’s version to make it even more dark sounding. This is a great example of a song that paints a vivid picture with very few words! Watch a performance below.
8. Highlander’s Farewell/Monroe’s Farewell to Long Hollow – The first tune in this medley comes from fiddler Emmet Lundy (1864-1953) from Galax, Virginia. The second tune is one that Bill Monroe wrote but never got around to recording. Thankfully, James Bryan save this amazing piece from obscurity by putting it on his album “Lookout Blues” back in the early 80s.
9. Damned Old Piney Mountain - Craig Johnson was an amazing fiddler and banjo player who performed with The Double Decker Stringband in the 80's and early 90's. He was obviously also a great songwriter as he wrote this song based on a conversation he had with an old logger he met in West Virginia.
10. Going to German – This song comes from the repertoire of Gus Cannon who recorded widely in the 20s and 30s with his band “The Jug Stompers”. Apparently, the German in this song was referring to a prison.
11. Big Iron – It’s easy to overlook what an amazing songwriter Marty Robbins was. Even if he’d never sung a note, his catalogue of songs would still immortalize him. This is one from his classic 1959 album “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs”.
12. Too Much Water – Speaking of great songwriters whose singing overshadowed their songwriting ability, this under-known honky-tonk classic comes from George Jones.
13. Cherry River Live/Gauley Junction – The song in this medley comes from West Virginia banjo picker and singer Jenes Cottrell. Fun fact - apart from being a powerful singer and player, Mr. Cottrell was known for making banjo rims using the aluminum torque converter rings from 1956 Buicks. The second tune in the medley was written by John and named for the beautiful confluence of The Gauley River and the New River in Fayette County, West Virginia.
14. Mississippi Dew – We wind things up with another great John Hartford song played in high-gear!
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