this is such a cool song to try things out on.  it's such a simple lyric, but a tried and true story!

i'm playing this on the cuatro. it's a neat little instrument with an interesting tuning.  you can play all sorts of things on it.  i've had a good time playing 2 and 3-finger banjo style on it - which i'm doing on this recording; but clawhammer is also fun.  the latin folks strum it like a guitar, and it shares similar fingerings.  my friend daniel brought it back to me from columbia.  

i posted it here on my Traditional page.  

here are the lyrics:

Wild Bill Jones
Traditional
 
It’s pass around your long neck bottles, and we'll all go out on a spree
Today was the last of Wild Bill Jones, and tomorrow’ll be the last of me

As I went down for to take a little walk, and I came upon that Wild Bill Jones
He was walking and a talking by my true lover's side, and I bid him to leave her alone

He said “My age it is but twenty-one, too old for to be controlled.”
I drew forth my pistol from off of my side, and I destroyed that poor boy's soul.

He stumbled and he staggered, and he fell to the ground, and then he gave one dying moan
I threw my arms arms around my true lover's neck, saying “Darling, now you left all alone.”

They took me down to old Franklin town, and they locked me up in jail.
They tied up my hands, and they tied up my feet, with no one for to go my bail.

And now I’m down in the old prison, boys, and I never shall be free.
It’s Wild Bill Jones and them long neck bottles that have been the ruin of me.

So it’s pass around your long neck bottles, and we'll all go out on a spree
Today was the last of Wild Bill Jones, and tomorrow’ll be the last of me.

 I just put up take of PG doing "All or Nothing" here.   I think this is when we really started to kick this one up a few rpm's.  I am continually amazed by the fiddle playing of Tom Swafford.  The guy can play ANYthing on that fiddle, and make it sound like a sweet, sweet bon bon.  

Part of the Olive Street Sessions.

 I've been working on this tune called "It's The Whiskey" for several years now.  It started off as just a piano lick.  Then, over it, I started to sing "The Whiskey......trouble every time.....The whiskey....."  That was all well and good, but it wasn't about anything except whiskey!  And while I love whiskey, and love whiskey songs, I wasn't saying anything new.  So, it sat on the shelf for a few years.  

While going through old recording sessions, I rediscovered it, and an idea for a lyric struck me almost immediately.  So, I've been working on it again ever since - in fits and spurts - and it's darn close to done.  I did a demo of it this afternoon just to get it down.  

"Salt Water Jam" is a very old tune.  I probably wrote the original version back in 2001 when I was 22 and extremely stupid.  But there's a certain charm about looking at the way I was thinking back then, even though I generally want to shake the living shit out of myself to stop living in a fantasy world.  What do they say?  Youth is wasted on the young.  

At the time, I was feeling very isolated, and the song says, "Lonely, lonely."  It's about wanting to live vicariously through your own sense of isolation.  There is a sense of catharsis that can come from the...sort of ... self-aggrandizement of your own worries and desperation.  Cigarettes help.  

The song just kind of sat there for a few years.  I decided to use it on my "IWMNWJ" album, and it got kind of a makeover.  Then, I starting using it again with a few cosmetic adjustments.  I continue to work on it, alter the verb tenses, etc.  It's one of those songs I have, like "Vincent VanGogh's Bad Ear" that I'm never truly happy with, so I continue to mess with it.   

I have included a couple alternate versions of the tune on the LISTEN page:  
Live during the CD Release Party for "IWMNWJ" - 6.20.06
A recent demo  version +/- 2007 (with recent instrumental additions)

If anybody REALLY cares, I can did up the old ORIGINAL version from the Cakes Sessions.  

 

This is my second full length record, "I Wish My Name Were Jack."  


This is when I just started to get into bluegrass, old-time and country - 2006-ish.  You can hear much more of a cabaret-jazz influence in this endeavor. 

It's interesting to look back at your older work, and think about all the stuff you didn't know!  In 2006, I know about half of what I know now about recording and production. (Which is TWICE what I knew when I did my first album, the embarrassing 2004 effort "Lullaby For a Junkie.)  I was not a banjo player at this point.  I didn't have many guitar and piano styles under my belt.  I was just coming into my own as a songwriter.

Still - this is not a bad record.  Songs from "Jack" are still active members of Potbelly Gumbo's sets.  Sometimes I think how fun it would be to go back and re-do these songs, and add all of my NEW licks and techniques on the tunes.  But, who has the time?    

Download it here.   

Potbelly Gumbo is very excited to announce our residency for the month of May at Brooklyn's Spike Hill. We'll be playing every other Sunday night at 8 pm. May 3, 17 and 31.
***
Playing with us on 5/17 at 7 pm will be PG banjo player Matthew Chase's group, Frankenpine.  They do indie-rock with hillbilly instruments.  Matthew's bride Kim sings beautiful lead vocals.  

myspace.com/frankenpine
spikehill.com

I am making most of my music available free to both listen to and download for your own personal consumption.  

The Toenail Jar.  







My most recent full length record.  When I think about this record, two influences pop into my mind:  my father's death and old-time music.  A year removed from this record, I see how those two things have always gone hand in hand.  

You can down download individual tracks, or you can get the whole album as a zip file.  The zip file includes all the tracks, as well as a PDF booklet with lyrics, liner notes, pictures, etc.  

Get it here:   The Toenail Jar

We just booked a show at one of my favorite dive-bars, Banjo Jim's. I'll be playing with my band, Potbelly Gumbo. They have a piano there, too, so I'll be playing some new grooves I've been working on!

Thursday, March 19th at 10 pm.