Roots Music Report

Liner Notes:

About the Album

Long Before Light was recorded in August, 2014, at Paradise Sound in Index, Washington

Producer and editor: Tristan Clarridge

Recording and mixing engineer: Pat Sample

Assistant mixing engineer: Johnny Calcagno

Mastering engineer: David Sinko

Art director: Tom Collicott

Photography: Teresa McCann and Riley Calcagno

All tunes copyright 2015 by The Onlies, except “Jubilee” (trad), “Chips and Sauce” (copyright Ira Bernstein), “Moll Ha’penny”/”Dennis Murphy’s” (trad), “Freddy's” (copyright family of John Morris Rankin), “Handsome Molly” (trad), and “Home” (trad).

The Onlies: Sami Braman, Riley Calcagno, and Leo Shannon.

Guest musicians: Tristan Clarridge and RuthMabel Boytz.

The creation of Long Before Light was as much a personal experience as it was a musical one. We hope that this recording captures the joy of playing music all night long with the people we love.

All songs/tunes were arranged by The Onlies, with the help from our musical mentors, especially our producer, Tristan Clarridge.

For more info, please visit:

TheOnlies.com | facebook.com/TheOnlies | info@TheOnlies.com

1. Cheese Closet (Leo Shannon)

Feeling inspired after spending a long night with friends at Mount Shasta Fiddle Camp, playing music, romping around in the woods, and raiding the semi-off-limits closet of food (which happened to contain some very high-quality cheese), Leo sat down to write this tune just as the sun was starting to come back up over the trees.

Leo: Fiddle (left)

Sami: Fiddle (right)

Riley: Banjo

Tristan: Cello

2. Past the Fog (Leo Shannon)

This song was inspired by “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac.

Leo: Guitar, lead vocals

Sami: Fiddle, vocals

Riley: Mandolin, vocals

RuthMabel: Bass

Sit down and set off our secrets

In fine black pen

Maybe someday we’ll see them again

Close the book for now

I’ll take the next train west

The sinking sun sets the frozen air on fire

Nothing to do but run run run

Keep heading west

Don’t look back

I won’t look back

Chorus:

And they say that you’ll never get out of that town

I’m running away

Sorry I can’t stay

So squint or look away so that you can’t see past the fog

Settle in for the winter

Hop of the train just north of Monterey

Stumble blindly down the coast

Don’t hear any engines

Don’t see any people

People are what I need the most

Chorus

Maybe someday you’ll escape

Leave that bitter town behind

We can go forward together

Falling in and out of our minds

Chorus

3. Skipping Stones (Riley Calcagno) / North Fork (Sami Braman)

Riley: Guitar, lead vocals

Sami: Fiddle, vocals

Leo: Banjo, vocals

RuthMabel: Bass

Skipping stones on a cold winter afternoon

Through the parting sky we can see the rising moon

The windowpanes may keep us dry

But a cold, lonely feeling slips inside

Saw a creek heading out to sea

And I told you to follow me

Up the hillside we did bound

Try to keep our heads above the ground

Chorus:

Wish I could tell you, the words you want to hear

We wore the day out, back and forth along the pier

Take a step now, if it feels right take another

Don’t see a way out except away from all the comforts

That are holding us here

Walked down to the beach and sat on the shore

Of this daylight we won’t see much more

We have to forget what could have been

Or what could have been will throw us again

Chorus

We’ll stay up late, commiserate  

Wait for the new day

And for the days to hit us while we stand and wait

Chorus

4. Jubilee

On the last night of Big Sur Fiddle Camp 2014, we stayed up all night playing old time tunes with our friends and favorite musicians. As the night went on, the old-time tunes started to morph into glorious songs. Kristin Andreassen, an amazing singer/songwriter and wolverine enthusiast, played this song with us. We sang it over and over that night, loving its familiar and repetitive melody and lyrics. Though traditional, the version we play was originally recorded by Doc Watson and Jean Ritchie in 1963.

Leo: Guitar, lead vocals

Sami: Fiddle, vocals

Riley: Banjo, vocals

All out on the old railroad,

All out on the sea

All out on the old railroad,

Far as I can see.

Refrain:

Swing and turn, Jubilee,

Live and learn, Jubilee.

Hardest work I ever done,

Was workin' on the farm,

Easiest work I ever done,

Was swingin' my true love's arm.

Refrain

Coffee grows on the white oak tree

Sugar runs in brandy

Boys as pure as a lump of coal

Girls as sweet as candy

Refrain

If I had me a needle and thread,

As fine as I could sew,

I'd sew my true love to my side

And down this creek I'd go.

Refrain

If I had no horse to ride,

I'd be found a-crawlin'

Up and down this rocky road

Huntin' for my darlin'.

Refrain

Some will come on a Saturday night,

Some will come on Sunday;

If you give 'em half a chance

They'll be back on Monday.

Refrain

I won't have no widder man

Neither will my cousin,

You can get such stuff as that

For fifteen cents a dozen.

Refrain

5. Moll Ha’penny/Dennis Murphy’s

A set of traditional Irish tunes that Leo brought to the group, the first from a recording of Maeve Donnelly, and the second from Randal Bays.

Leo: Fiddle (left)

Sami: Fiddle (right)

Riley: Guitar

6. Gathering Up the Hours (Leo Shannon)

Leo has quite an obsession with writing train songs. Maybe it stems from heavy exposure to watching “Thomas the Tank Engine” at a young age. This song tells the story of a man preparing to leave town.

Leo: Guitar, lead vocals

Sami: Fiddle, vocals

Riley: Mandolin, vocals

RuthMabel: Bass

I had trouble sleeping last night

So I went for a walk in the snow

The pond frozen over and the bushes all bare

I kept my hands deep in my coat

I know that there’s packing I should get around to

But I walked and walked and gathered up the hours for you

Your train must be halfway to London by now

The cold night alone in your bunk

You fell asleep before long to the railroad tracks

Thumping like a heartbeat thumps

I watched over the night like an old man with one more chance

To get his way

And I’ll see you at the end of the day

Long before light made a face for itself

I slipped back inside and lay down

My mind as blank and as bare as the shelves, I took one last quick look around

Later today I’ll lock up the house and follow you out

It’s taken too long but I’ve made my mind up now

7. Recast (Sami Braman)

When Sami wrote this tune, she recorded it on her phone to remember for later. Initially thinking the tune bore some similarities to Texas-style old time fiddling, she named the recording “Texasy Tune,” but upon discovering that her phone autocorrected “Texasy” to “Recast,” she renamed it. Since then the tune has developed into something that doesn’t sound very Texasy at all, with Leo’s fretless banjo and Tristan’s deep cello.

Sami: Fiddle (right)

Riley: Fiddle (left)

Leo: Banjo

Tristan: Cello

8. Zenith Point (Riley Calcagno)

Riley: Guitar, lead vocals

Sami: Fiddle, vocals

Leo: Banjo, vocals

RuthMabel: Bass

Come and we must rest our weary souls

As the sun sets in the distant Weiser sky

Come and we must rest our weary souls

At this zenith point that someday we may find

Chorus:

I’m tired of waiting for that high point in the day

When nothing but nothing can dissuade

A fleeting feeling, so blissful, can’t take it away…can’t take it away

Floating down a stream in the dead of noon

All of these flowers are in bloom

Why can’t I touch them with each of my cells

But we let the shallow winds, roll over the summer swells

Chorus

To left of me, a sensation, I can’t rightly connect

To the sun setting in the distant Weiser sky

And somewhere else the world restarts, and it’s daybreak

The sun will rise tomorrow, not a moment too late

Chorus

9. Chips and Sauce (Ira Bernstein)

This tune resurfaced some thirty years after Ira Bernstein wrote it, and Leo and Riley played it for the first time in a late night jam with Sally Jablonsky under the stars in Weiser, Idaho. Of all the tunes played that week in Stickerville, this one stuck with them the most and we have been loving it ever since. In the studio, we recorded the tune in a small circle with the lights dimmed, trying to capture the energy of the first night we played it.

Sam: Guitar

Riley: Fiddle (right)

Leo: Fiddle (left)

10. The Way We Sung (Riley Calcagno)

Riley: Guitar, lead vocals

Sami: Fiddle, vocals

Leo: Mandolin, vocals

RuthMabel: Bass

We lit a fire to stay awake

A few hours from now, we’ll head our separate ways

The day is slowing down, the lights are coming on

The wind through the trees, moving us along

Chorus:

And we walked all night long

Over the valley up came the dawn

And I could still hear, the way we sung

As if it was the last time

Drifting off as the world starts to wake

Hiding in the wake of every step it takes

Eyes closed, our visions in the past

Always moving forward, we know it never lasts

Chorus

Perhaps this life is all we have

The only thing etched into the sand

Chorus

11. Freddy's (John Morris Rankin)

A Cape Breton tune that, though written by the late John Morris Rankin, is considered a traditional favorite. Sami brought it to the band; Riley and Leo incorporated a bluegrass-inspired backup.

Sami: Fiddle

Riley: Banjo

Leo: Guitar

12. Little Mert (Sami Braman)

Old-time tunes in the key of F are the best. Sami decided that since she only knew four of them, she would write a fifth to contribute to obscure F-tune jams wherever she went.

Sami: Fiddle (left)

Riley: Fiddle (right)

Leo: Guitar

RuthMabel: Bass

13. Handsome Molly  

This traditional song comes from Grayson and Whitter, a great old-time duo that emerged from Ashe County, North Carolina and Fries, Virginia in the late 1920s and early 1930s. We took some liberties by incorporating the octave fiddle.

Leo: Fiddle, lead vocals (left)

Sami: Fiddle (right)

Riley: Octave fiddle

I wish I was in London or some other Seaport town

I’d set my foot in a steamboat and sail this ocean round

While sailing around the ocean

While sailing around the sea

I’d think of Handsome Molly wherever she might be

I rode to church a Sunday

She passed me on by

I knew her mind was changing

By the roving of her eyes

Do you remember, Molly, when you gave me your right hand

You said if you ever married that I’d be the man

And now you broke your promise

Go home with whom you please

While my poor heart is aching

Here lying at your knees

Her hair was black as a raven

Her eyes as` black as coal

Her cheeks they shone like lilies

Out in the morning cold

While sailing around the ocean

While sailing around the sea

I’d think of Handsome Molly wherever she might be

14. Home

This is another track we learned late at night on a porch at Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle School from the singing of some incredible friends. We’re unsure of its origins, but the melody and simple words have stuck with us.

Sami: Fiddle, vocals (right)

Leo: Guitar, vocals

Riley: Fiddle, vocals (left)

Tristan: Cello

Home, Home, Home

Evening is ending, the landlord is sending me

Home, Home, home

Night now is falling, the old man is calling me home

15. Big Sur Tune (Sami Braman)

Sami wrote this tune with an ensemble of other amazing musicians attending Big Sur Fiddle Camp 2014. It was based on a simple Scottish air, “Logan Water,” that Tess Clancy played for the ensemble. Sami ruined it with old-time bowing, speed, and a B-part.

Sami: Fiddle (right)

Riley: Fiddle (left)

Leo: Guitar

Tristan: Cello

RuthMabel: bass

Special Thanks

Acknowledgements: There are so many people, not to mention inanimate objects, for us to thank. In the living beings category, we thank first and foremost each other, our families, and our friends. You support us even when we play five-minute sets at random rainy farmers’ markets. Parents, you provide us with happy homes, food, car rides all over the place, and access to all the music in the world. We love you. We must also thank as intensely and profusely our producer, Tristan Clarridge. He provided the best ears to fine-tune this record, helping us arrange, leading hours of metronome practice, tuning a single mandolin string for 45 minutes without complaint, incorporating his glorious cello sounds into our own, laughing with us, and teaching us the importance of adding flax seed oil to every culinary experience. His feedback was always positive, yet deeply insightful. We thank all of the instructors at Mt. Shasta String Summit 2014 who helped us meld our sound into something cohesive. We thank our sound engineer Pat Sample who stayed up way past all of our bedtimes to ensure that that one last take (ha!) would be impeccably recorded. We also thank Johnny Calcagno, who supported the mixing process technologically and in a million other ways; and Tom Braman, who kept the whole train moving and brought it all home with his promotional savvy. We are so grateful. We thank Tom, Therese, and Samia for letting us practice in their cabin in Index, Washington in the days leading up to our recording. You granted us the gift of no Internet access so we would focus on the music and the inspirational beauty of that small town. Thanks to mastering engineer Dave Sinko, artist Tom Collicott, and photographer Teresa McCann for their artful finishing stamps. We would especially like to thank our “music-family” community with whom we spend so much of our summers. You know who you are and we love you so much. Thanks to all our teachers that have taught us not only about music, but and about life. As for non-living things, we’d like to thank Tristan’s metronome that we named Raquel and Pat’s soundproofing foam that we named Danté. Plus our always-reliable instruments that allow us to express our creativity (they have too many names to list). Finally, thanks to everyone who has touched our lives, musically and personally: You have contributed to this record. You are where our inspiration comes from. This music is for you.