Devachan Music - Recordings & Merchandise

Mark Simos is, in Mick Moloney's words, a "musician's musician," whose aptitudes extend beyond a single instrument or musical genre. Over the past 20 years, he's performed and recorded as a guitar and piano accompanist for many of the great traditional musicians of Ireland and America. A popular contra dance and old-time fiddler and teacher at numerous dance camps and festivals, Mark has penned fiddle tunes played by dance musicians across the country. As a songwriter, Mark's songs have reached the listening public through the voices of respected artists such as Laurie Lewis, Kate Brislin and Jody Stecher, Ranch Romance, and Freyda Epstein and Acoustic Attatude.

In this debut sampling of his own compositions, Mark presents us with more than just a collection of interesting new tunes performed in a good hard-driving way. Playing both in and with the structure of traditional Southern fiddle music, Simos has created a suite of tunes that work together in a coherent fashion, cinematically evoking varied moods and places. This is due in no small part to the stellar cast of musical associates chosen for this project. Led by Mark's fiery fiddling, hot and driving yet thoughtful and melodic, they achieve a tight, concise sound, whether the ensemble be a fiddle-banjo duet or a big-band extravaganza-all captured in a scant three days of recording. The result is an aural concoction of great depth and emotion, played by folks who bring a respectful irreverence to their music. This recording is for all of you out there: musicians searching for new tunes to play, fans of traditional fiddle music, the mix and match set, and those of you that like a good travel tape to make a long trip go faster. Enjoy!

-Bob Carlin Lexington, NC/3-4-1995.

Mark Simos: fiddle, piano, mandolin, vocals

with:

David Cahn: electric bass, mandolin, guitar Jere Canote: guitar Peter Langston: tenor guitar, acoustic bass Dirk Powell: fiddle, banjo, mandolin, acoustic bass, Cajun accordion Daniel Steinberg: piano, flute, melodica Molly Tenenbaum: banjo

And Guests:

Mark Graham: harmonica Piper Heisig: snarehead, vocals Molly Stouten: vocals

Producers: Peter Langston and Mark Simos Engineer: Neville Pearsall Recorded to 16-track ADAT, mixed and edited by Neville Pearsall, Peter Langston, Mark Simos, at Synergy Sound, Pt. Townsend, WA. Mastered by David Glasser, Charlie Pilzer, Mark Simos, at Airshow Studios, Springfield, VA. Cover art and graphic design by Marty Somberg/Somberg Design. Photos by Elizabeth Hamlin.

© 1995 Mark Simos dba Devachan Music/BMI. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Produced and manufactured by Devachan Music; released in cahoots with Yodel-Ay-Hee Records. For information write to: Devachan Music, 36 Warwick Road, Watertown MA 02172. Manufactured in the U.S.

INTRODUCING THE PLAYERS:

In July 1993, I plucked some esteemed musical pals off the roster of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington and whisked them, still slightly sleep-deprived, into Neville Pearsall's Synergy Sound Studios at Ft. Worden to record these tunes. Many of the players herd hear hail from Seattle:

Molly Tenenbaum and I were high-school chums in Los Angeles; she is a poet, and teaches English in Seattle. More of her banjo playing can be heard with fiddlers Armin Barnett and David Cahn in the Queen City Bulldogs, and on her own solo cassette And the Hillsides Are All Covered with Cakes (Cat Hair Music CAT-101).
Computer music guru Peter Langston is veteran of more music scenes and groups than I can count, among them the Wretched Refuse String Band and the 1950s NYC country music scene. He's part of the old-time duo "Peter & Molly" and teaches at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop.
Jere Canote is an instrument builder, inventor, and, with his equally cheerful twin brother Greg, a member of the Small Wonder Stringband. They can be heard on many recordings and on radio with Sandy Bradley's "Potluck."
David Cahn has played bass, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, dobro, pedal steel, and drums in various bluegrass, country, Cajun, and old-time bands over the past 20 years. Besides playing with Molly in the Queen City Bulldogs and with Daniel in the Rodney Miller Band (Greasy Coat, Sage Arts 1301), he has recorded with Wade Mainer, Charlie Moore, Helen Carter, and Clyde Moody.
Rounding out the Seattle contingent, harmonica whiz Mark Graham plays with Kevin Burke, Sandy Silva and Paul Kotapish in Open House; he has also played with the Hurricane Ridge Runners, the Chicken Chokers, and Frank Ferrel.
And, from elsewhere in the country:
Daniel Steinberg, master of both piano and computer keyboards and old time flute, plays (with David) in the Rodney Miller Band, as well as with the Bay Area-based contra crossover band the Hillbillies From Mars (HFM CD-1301).
Piper Heisig, another Bay Area musician, plays bass and sings with Cats 'n' Jammers and thirty-four other bands.
Molly Stouten fiddles, plays banjo, sings and studies art in the Twin Cities.
Southmost but not least, the Alpha and Omega Dirk Powell now lives in Louisiana and is a part of Balfa Toujours (Swallow Records). He has played everything with everybody and been everywhere. His fiddle and banjo playing can be heard on several other Yodel-Ay-Hee recordings.

Mark Simos plays a fiddle made by Boston violin-maker Bob Childs, and is a proud member of Childsplay, an ensemble of fiddlers who play Childs fiddles. Mark wrote the title track for the new Childsplay CD The Twelve-Gated City (Sage Arts 1001). His music is also featured on the soundtrack to Laurel Chiten's award-winning documentary about Tourette's Syndrome, "Twitch and Shout."

NOTES ON THE TUNES...

These tunes range in vintage from teenage creations to tunes born days before the recording. Some are wicked twisty (the crookedest took Dirk fifteen whole minutes to learn!) and some just good late-night trance tunes. For me stories are part of the fun of tunes. These notes hint at some of the many friends, cats, odd aromas and turns of phrase that have mused, midwoofed and ministered to the tunesmith's craft over the years.

Though a few of these tunes have been in circulation, none have been recorded before with the possible exception of "Word in Edgewise" (#4). I played this tune for someone at a party in Bloomington in 1979, while travelling east with the band Knock Na Shee. Rumor later reached me that a Midwestern old-time string band had recorded it as a traditional tune "learned from a California fiddler." I've never tracked down the band or the-well, what would have been a record in those days. (Any information re same gratefully received.) I take comfort in the knowledge that being mistaken for that famous composer A. Nonymus is a high compliment for a tunesmith.

Fiddle (where non-standard) and banjo tunings are written with fiddle tunings spelled coarse (low) to fine, banjo tunings spelled 5th (high drone) 4th 3rd 2nd 1st string. I hope players will be inspired to learn these tunes and to write their own.

1. Sail Away Ladies (trad.) Sail Back Home Again (1992)

Mark: fiddle; Molly: banjo (gEADE); Jere: guitar; David: electric bass; Dirk: fiddle; Daniel: piano

The first tune, the only traditional tune herein, is a favorite I've played and taught for years. It's based on a version recorded by Uncle Bunt Stevens, whose harmonious discords and shivery bowings can be heard on the reissued Harry Smith-Anthology of American Folk Music Vol II (Folkways FA 2952).

When I first heard Molly's banjo setting it transformed my hearing of the tune yet again, like the tune's perfect mirror heard under water. It serves as point of departure for my own crooked variant. Musicians seem to eavesdrop on an inner landscape (call it folk cyberspace) where old tunes age, sprout variants, get misremembered, disremembered, and re-dismembered; spun by the same forces that guide tradition's game of Telephone out in the "Real World."

2. Scotty (1982)

Mark: fiddle (AEAE); Dirk: banjo (aEAC#E)

In the early 1980's Nancy Dols (now Neithammer; see #8), a friend from Cali-fornia, moved to Philadelphia and started working for the Scott Paper Company. This tribute is sort of an old-time fiddler's idea of a Scottish tune, with a musical sneeze in the third part. Someone taped it during a late-night session at the Brandywine festival shortly after I wrote it; then it slipped into oblivion. Years later I met the already legendary Dirk Powell on the stairs of the dance hall at Fiddlehead Camp. He said, "Let's play that tune 'Scotty'". Since I thought no one knew my tune, I quickly deduced I'd inadvertently stolen a traditional tune name. I said, "Don't know that one," he said, "You wrote it..." I've hoped to record it with him ever since he taught it back to me.

3. Luther (1986) The Last Straw (1985)

Mark, Dirk: fiddle (EDAE); Molly: banjo (bEBEF#); Jere: guitar; Daniel: flute; David: electric bass It seems every tunesmith must needs pen the obligatory paean to cat or dog. The night I reluctantly adopted my cat Luther, last unpicked kitten of a litter marooned at a contra dance, he cried piteously in the car on the way home until I put on a tape of Luther Strong (a great fiddler who recorded for the Library of Congress). Soon I noticed he was meowing along with the fiddle; that's how he was named. We play the second tune the traditional way... one too many times.

4. The Word in Edgewise (1978)

Mark: fiddle; Molly: banjo (aDADE); Jere: guitar; David: electric bass; Peter: tenor guitar; Piper: snarehead; Daniel: flute; Dirk: mandolin

This tune is a musical tribute to twinship, particularly the Spoonoplian twinful (Twinoplian spoonful?) of Greg and Jere Canote. Daniel's flute serves as a stand-in holding up Greg's end of the conversation. Get out your sliderules for the shift to waltz time.

5. Lit Splickety (1992) I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (1986)

Mark: fiddle; Molly: banjo (gDGBD); Jere: guitar; David: mandolin; Dirk: acoustic bass; Daniel; piano; Peter: tenor guitar

The first tune musically depicts reasons to give up coffee. (I'm still trying!) The latter tune, written at Fiddle Tunes '86 and debuted there with Molly, aims to capture that state of mind romantics call inspiration and pragmatists call sleep deprivation.

6. Pony Boy (1986)

Mark Simos: fiddle (ADAD); Mark Graham: harmonica

The first fiddle tune I wrote. My late mother liked to tell the story of when she took me to the synagogue as a child during High Holy Days. I was so jealous at all the attention the cantor was receiving I got up on my seat and sang the only song I knew- "Pony Boy"- at the top of my lungs. This one's dedicated to her memory, for giving me the courage to stand up and howl.

7. Dirk's Escape (1986)

Mark: fiddle (EDAE); Dirk: banjo (eDGDE); Daniel: melodica; Peter: digital whittling of didjeridu sample

A tune written for Dirk on the occasion of his exiting a rather regimented educational situation to enroll, along with the rest of us, in the School of Life and Music. In sympathy, the tune tries to escape from itself throughout. In this rendition it succeeds unexpectedly, becoming even more crooked by my inadvertently dropping a crook the last time through (consider it the dropped stitch in my Navajo blanket).

The fiddle tuning I use is fun for creating a low drone sound. We've augmented that with Daniel's subliminal melodica and a didjeridu sample from the playing of Alan Dargin on Bloodwood (Natural Syphonies NS-331; Small World Records, U.S. distributors). We've used only authentic North Carolina sample whittling techniques as described in Foxfire's Summer 2010 edition.

8. Woody of the Lake (1985) Neithammer Honeymoon (1984)

Mark: fiddle (standard); Molly: banjo (gDGBD); David: mandolin; Jere: guitar; Peter: acoustic bass

Cold winter New Year's 1985: sitting in the Ashokan sauna with Woody Woodring, a great Philly fiddler, and some other friends. Woody and I dare each other out into a hole in the frozen-over pond, not once, not twice, but three times just before dawn. What a way to start the year! The second tune is the sequel to "Scotty"; it celebrates Nancy's marriage to Rusty Neithammer, a local Philly banjo player. Shows there's more to life than working at a toilet paper factory.

9. Armin's Socks (1983) Sliding Up the Bannister (1977) Common Cold (1977)

Mark: fiddle (standard), mandolin; Molly: banjo (aDADE); Jere: guitar; David: electric bass; Daniel: flute

I got to know Armin Barnett, a great Seattle fiddler and fiddle-maker, when he was studying violin-making in Philly in the mid-1980's. One night he, Bob Childs and I were playing at a party when we noticed the smell of an Egyptian mummy emanating from the vicinity of our tapping feet. Investigation revealed Armin's socks as the culprits-enter musical metaphor. Savor the return of the first, pungent phrase at tune's end, just when you trust hygiene has been restored. I wrote the two latter tunes when learning the fiddle in my late teens. I had not yet discovered gravity.

10. Buckeye (1986)

Mark: fiddle (AEAE); Dirk: banjo (aEAC#E)

Written for my birth state of Ohio.

11. New Valley Forge (1992) Sandy's Shoes (1993)

Mark: fiddle (ADAD); Dirk: banjo (aDADE); Jere: guitar; David: electric bass

The first tune is vaguely reminiscent of the old tune "Valley Forge" with the happy part removed. Unlike "Sail Back Again," the result is a sort of proto version of the tune, proving time in folk cyberspace can rewind as well as fast forward. It has been printed in Vol. 6 of that cult classic, Sam Bartlett's Journal of Tuneology and Stuntology (A-Go-Go). "Sandy's Shoes" arrived two nights before the recording session, as I fiddled to the pedistinato of Sandy Silva's silver footgear. Sandy plays tunes with her feet so well that this time I let her feet write the tune themselves.

12. Mandolin Boomerang (1985)

Mark: fiddle (standard); Molly: banjo (aDADE); Daniel: piano; David: guitar; Peter: acoustic bass

The stories behind "Mandolin Boomerang" and "The Last Straw" (#3) are closely intertwined, and concern the loss of another, beloved cat (Kazatzke), a wisdom tooth, and a family heirloom; too much whiskey at a Morris Ale, a broken window, a mysterious disappearance and reappearance, a daring rescue, and the mixed blessing of getting what you ask for. Molly plays great banjo on this until the great Afghani rebab player Muab Nen Etyllom elbows her out for the banjo solo.

13. Race the River Jordan (1993)

Mark: piano, vocals, fiddle; Dirk: Cajun accordion; Molly Tenenbaum: banjo (gDGBD); Piper, Molly Stouten: vocals; Jere: guitar: David: mandolin; Peter: acoustic bass

I dreamed this melody (sans words) one September night in 1988, and awoke knowing it was called "Abraham." Band said, "Nice melody; what are the words?" The phrase "Race the River Jordan," title of a great fiddle tune by my friend Stefan Curl, came to mind and fit the tune perfectly. (I'll recount the story behind the name when I record Stefan's tune in the future.) So I wrote these quatrains about tunes (the dangling "them" in the second verse):

Oh play those tunes till dawn

Sing dance and carry on

Let the bows fly to the back of beyond

Still of one thing I am certain

When you dream them, you can tell

If they slip away, if they set a spell

Try to hold them, you might as well

Try to race the river Jordan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I've loved traditional old-time fiddle music since my early days in California when I heard the True and Trembling String Band, Tom Sauber, Jody Stecher and many others (mid-'70s). I love the grit in old-time music, and thank my fellow Sly Dogs, Mike (Dog) Gallagher and Tom (Dog) Schaeffer, for dirtying up my fiddling during my years in Philadelphia (mid-'80s). I thank all the fine old-time players, young and old, that have been so generous with their time and music over the years.

Heartfelt thanks to all who made possible the last-minute Ft. Worden miracle: The Band, for consummate musicianship, patience and good humor in learning tunes and arrangements at short notice; Pete McCracken, who did much behind and before the scenes; Neville Pearsall, a great engineer smiling unperturbed through artistic peccadilloes; Julie Yerxa, who proved good food is always a member of the band (even handing Dirk his espresso as he boarded the plane home); John Herrmann, Christine Balfa and other fellow travelers, cohorts and innocent bystanders (funny how the session personnel expanded when word got out Julie was cooking!); friends who listened and gave feedback over a year and a half (turns out the real Jordan is a mighty slow river); Charlie Pilzer and David Glasser for final digital mustachio-waxing; Kit Lia Ashera, for listening so often and so closely; and Peter Langston, a Cincinnatus of a producer (who the title would shirk often best does the work!) who proved truly instrumental in this recording.

[MARK'S FULL DISCOGRAPHY]