liner notes : ever brightening day

I thought you might enjoy finding out more about the songs, composers and musicians on Ever Brightening Day.

(1998) SP101 Sweet Patootie Music / Koch Canada Distribution

who wrote that song?

1. Sweet Sorrow in the Wind (Jean Ritchie) Wistful love song in old-time style featuring banjo and mandolin. Jean Ritchie is a living legend of the North American folk world. She grew up in a singing family in Kentucky and is probably single-handedly responsible for reviving interest in the Appalachian dulcimer. A wonderful singer of some of the very old songs that were passed down through her family, she also writes beautiful songs that I think are timeless. Sweet Sorrow in the Wind provided the title of this album. I recorded both Sweet Sorrow in the Wind and Now is the Cool of the Day without ever having heard Jean Ritchie sing them. But I have now! Visit her website or read a nice bio of her on the Rounder Records website.

2. Let's Throw a Party for Ourselves (Eve Goldberg) An original swing/r&b style birthday song with trumpet, piano, bass, drums, and tasty backing vocals. I wrote four of the songs on this album. I consider myself a mere pup as a songwriter, but I'm working on it! I like songs that sound like they've been around for a while, which accounts for the sound of a lot of them. I'm not very disciplined, but I've recently read some great books about songwriting. Highly recommended: Steve Gillette's book Songwriting and the Creative Process and Jimmy Webb's book Tunesmith.

3. Waiting for a Train (Eve Goldberg) Traditional-sounding ragtime blues with guitar, harmonica, dobro.

4. Backwater Blues (Bessie Smith) Classic Bessie Smith blues with piano trumpet, guitar, bass, drums. What can you say about Bessie Smith? One of the best blues singers ever, she was another legend in her time. Backwater Blues is one of many songs written about the tragic 1927 floods in Mississippi. There is a yet-to-be published book by Sara Grimes called BackWater Blues: In Search of Bessie Smith, which explores Bessie Smith's life, legacy, and the social context in which her music emerged. Although you can't buy the book yet, you can explore its fascinating website.

5. Now is the Cool of the Day (Jean Ritchie) Solo a capella voice on haunting Jean Ritchie song.

6. Names (Cathy Fink) Cello and guitar underscore a moving song about the Names Quilt. Cathy Fink is a talented musician who performs as a duo with her partner Marcy Marxer. In addition to being one of the best banjo players around, Cathy plays a mean guitar, sings beautifully, and writes amazing songs. The two of them are also Grammy-nominated children's performers, producers, and generally a two-person powerhouse. Names is on their album Fink and Marxer and you can order it directly from them at their website.

7. Watermelon Sorbet (Eve Goldberg) Infectious original guitar instrumental with mandolin, dobro and banjo.

8. Having a Drink with Jane (Shelley Posen) Mellow jazz number with very clever lyrics featuring muted trumpet, guitar, bass, and brushes. Shelley Posen is an Ottawa-based folklorist who is a storehouse of knowledge about lots of things musical. He is a fine singer of early country music and traditional material from Canada and Britain, and he's a member of the excellent trio Finest Kind with Ian Robb and Ann Downey. Having a Drink with Jane is not the kind of song you'd expect Shelley to write, but having a PhD, he does throw in a lot of nice fancy terms.

9. Cold Wind Blowing (Eve Goldberg) Stark, modal song about lost love with fiddle, banjo and cello. Sounds like a traditional Appalachian song, but it's an original!

10. Know When To Move (John McCutcheon) A capella rendition of moving song about a strike in New Jersey. Gospel/spiritual feel. John McCutcheon is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, whose music moves from traditional American songs and tunes to his own compelling songs. He's also the president of my union, lucky me! His website is a wonderful resource to get lost in. I learned Know When to Move from a recording by the duo Rebel Voices.

11. Traveling Day (Kate Wolf) A short and sweet goodbye song featuring mandolin and dobro. Kate Wolf is well-known for songs like Give Yourself to Love and Across the Great Divide. She was a much-loved songwriter based in California who unfortunately died far before her time. Her songs have lived on, though, both in her own recordings and in recordings by dozens of other artists. Learn more about her remarkable music.

12. Creole Belle (Mississipppi John Hurt) An encore! This classic starts with solo voice and guitar, and gradually builds to a BIG PARTY! With piano, bass, drums, bass, accordioin, dobro, harmonica, trumpet, tenor banjo, and all-star background chorus. John Hurt was a blues musician who sang and played parlour songs, ragtime, and ballads with a gentle, magnetic quality that was mesmerizing. He recorded a number of songs in the late 1920s, and quietly went back to sharecropping on a farm in Avalon, Mississippi when the Depression hit. He was re-discovered in the early 1960s by enterprising fans who tracked him down and convinced him to travel north to record again. He quickly became a favourite on the folk scene, performing at folk festivals and theatres around the United States, but died in 1966, only three years after his re-emergence. Click here to visit an interesting and informative website on his music. His Creole Belle was actually a fragment of a much longer — and fascinating — parlour song which Michael Cooney recorded on his album The Cheese Stands Alone.

the musicians

Frank Barth (dobro) Pineapple Frank Barth is a multi-instrumentalist who has performed and recorded with lots of Toronto-area musicians. I am in awe of anyone who can play the dobro like Frank does. I saw him recently performing in a band with Rick Fielding and a bunch of other great musicians, and I was once again floored by his musicality.

Cindy Church (background vocals) Cindy is one of my very favourite singers, and I was thrilled that she agreed to sing on my album. She sings regularly as a solo performer, but she's also a member of Quartette, a fabulous female Canadian vocal quartet that also includes Caitlin Hanford, Sylvia Tyson, and Gwen Swick.

Chris Coole (banjo) Chris is probably my favourite banjo player. He also plays guitar and pedal steel, and he's a great singer of old-time songs and ballads. Among other things, he can often be found busking in the subways of Toronto; he's a member of the bluegrass/old-time band Crazy Strings, who play every Wednesday night at the Silver Dollar Room in Toronto; and he performs as a duo with my other favourite banjo player, Arnie Naiman.

Al Cross (drums) Al is another amazing musician who has recorded and performed with dozens of respected bands and musicians. Al's percussion is always tasteful and just right for the music. It seems like every time I turn on the TV, I see him on one of those CBC music specials featuring Natalie McMaster, Jane Siberry, and/or Rita McNeil. He's also a member of the band Big Sugar.

Bill Garrett (guitar) My producer! Bill also played guitar on a few cuts. I love his playing style. He and his partner Sue Lothrop perform as a duo and you can find out more about them by visiting Borealis Recording.

Sue Goldberg (all-star background chorus) That's my Mom! I've stolen some of my best material from my mother, who dragged me to folk music concerts and festivals from an early age. I used to protest, but now I feel incredibly lucky to have seen Sonnie Terry and Brownie McGhee, Gordon Bok, The Watersons, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and lots of other folk musicians at such a tender and impressionable age.

Ruth Goldberg (all-star background chorus) That's my sister! Ruth's been a great influence on my music. As the youngest kid, you get subjected to your older siblings' musical interests, so I feel very grateful that she has such good taste. She introduced me to some of my favourite musicians (as did my brother, by the way). She also started performing herself when I was still pretty young, so that's probably where I first got the idea that I might be able to get up on a stage. She lives in the Washington, DC area and plays in a really neat band called The Urban Legends.

Randy Kempf (background vocals) Randy is a superb bass player who's played with Quartette, Cindy Church, and many many more. I loved Randy's backup singing. He had a way of sneaking himself in there so smoothly you can hardly pick his voice out of the blend. His job was made especially challenging by the fact that he was the last one to record his parts, which left him with fewer options than the rest of us!

Ellen Long (accordion, all-star background chorus) Ellen is my life partner, and she's also a very good accordion player, although she's very modest about it. She is a great lover of music, and she contributed a lot to this album besides her accordion. In her "real" life, she does research on literacy and adult basic education. Click here for information on her research.

Arnie Naiman (fiddle) When I wrote the song Cold Wind Blowing, I pictured Arnie playing fiddle on it. Arnie's a multi-instrumentalist with an incredible repertoire of old-time music. He often performs with Chris Coole, or with his partner Kathy Reid as Ragged But Right. The three of them together are The Extraordinary String Band. Kathy and Arnie used to host a Sunday afternoon music event in Toronto, and I used to love going down and listening to them. Visit the Merriweather Records website, where you'll find info about all of the aforementioned.

Dennis Pendrith (acoustic and electric bass) Dennis has performed and recorded with just about everybody — Raffi, Ken and Chris Whiteley, Bruce Cockburn, and lots more. Working with Dennis was so easy, it did't feel like work.

Mose Scarlett (all-star background chorus) I used to take guitar lessons from Mose. Usually our one-hour lessons would stretch to at least two or three hours. He is a unique person with a unique outlook on life. He's also got a smooth bass voice (which we made good use of!), and he sings wonderful old swing songs. Visit his web pages at Borealis Records.

Kelly Walsh (cello) Kelly was someone I didn't know at all, and when we decided to use a cello for a few songs on the album, I had no idea who to ask. It was lovely to hear someone come in and play so beautifully without having known me or the songs previously.

Chris Whiteley (trumpet, harmonica) Chris is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and singer who's been a fixture on the Canadian music scene since the 60s. He's performed and recorded with hundreds of musicians and singers, and he's an incredibly nice person to boot. He's released a couple of solo albums featuring original swing and blues, and you can often catch him playing at clubs around Toronto. He also sometimes tours with Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Café Orchestra. You can find out more about him and his recordings at Borealis Records.

Dan Whiteley (mandolin) Dan's got it in the genes. A member of the multi-talented Whiteley family, how could he not be a fabulous musician? In addition to mandolin, Dan plays jazz, blues, and bluegrass guitar, and he's a good singer too. He performs regularly with the band Crazy Strings, accompanies his dad Chris Whiteley playing jazz and blues, plays with sister Jenny Whiteley, and is a sometimes member of The Whiteley Brothers. He has also released a solo album.

Ken Whiteley (piano, guitar) What can I say about Ken? He has more talent in his little toe than any human being should be allowed to have. He's a master of blues, jazz, swing, gospel, and other styles and he plays about twenty instruments. He's also an excellent producer who is much in demand. Ever Brightening Day was mostly recorded in his Casa Wroxton Studio. I've been very lucky to have received lots of musical advice from Ken over the years, and I was very pleased that he contributed to the album. You can visit his website or learn more about his CDs at Borealis Records.

Rick Whitelaw (guitar) Rick is a versatile guitar player and side person who has an impressive list of credits including playing with Ian Tyson; Quartette; Colleen Peterson; Sharon, Lois and Bram; Chad Mitchell; Tom Chapin; and now, me! He's got a great solo instrumental album called Polishing the Stone which you can find out about on his website.

Other people who helped make this CD:

Producer: Bill Garrett is a great musician, a wonderful producer, and a nice person! What more could you ask?

Engineer: Nik Tjelios, the best set of ears in Canada. Nik twiddled the knobs at Ken Whiteley's Casa Wroxton Studios for us.

Graphic Designer: Mallet-Wallace. David Wallace provided a clean and simple design, just how I like it!
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