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The Dead Ice Is Here

by Benjamin Wetherbee

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1.
Introduction 04:02
2.
Dead Ice 03:48
The mummies walk through time and space on their eternal flights. I saw one just the other day, no empire in sight. His tattered linens lying out like Hansel and Gretel's trail, and at the end a naked king, all solemn, cold, and bare. I asked him why of all these worlds he chooses this here strife. He said he wants to find the price of his eternal life. And just as he was heading out, he whispered in my ear. "I have a final warning now. Just for you to hear." The dead ice is coming. The dead ice is here. The dead ice is coming The dead ice is here. Hazel's head is spinning 'round. She's spitting out new nails. I took them to the market place and bought fuel by the pail. I put it in my engine now and went to see the priest. He said that he could fix my friend but for a modest feast. He said that he wants just one nail to hang upon his wall. He's rising in the ranks you see. He'll see you all next fall. Hazel's head came spinning down from off the pure white ceiling. She said "I think I've figured out exactly what you're feeling." The dead ice is coming. The dead ice is here. The dead ice is coming The dead ice is here. The dead ice is coming. The dead ice is here. The dead ice is coming The dead ice is here. The dead ice is coming. The dead ice is here. The dead ice is coming The dead ice is here.
3.
Reuben had a train. He went from England to Spain. He never got no letters from his ma. Oh me, oh Lordy my. He never got no letters from his ma. Well Reuben went to town and the police shot him down. You could hear the poor boy holler a hundred miles. You could hear the poor boy holler. You could hear the poor boy yell. You could hear the poor boy holler a hundred miles. Reuben had a wreck. Lord, he broke his frickin' neck. His poor body ain't never been found. Well they found his head in the driver's wheel about a mile and a half from town. If you don't believe I'm gone watch the train that I crawl on. I'm 900 miles from my home. I'm 900 miles from my wife and my child. I wish I was 900 more. If my lover tells me so I won't moonshine no more. I'll cut down that still and go home. Oh me, oh Lordy my. I'll cut down that still and go home. Said the hobo to the bum You got some cocaine give me some. I believe great God I'm coming down. Oh me, oh Lordy my. I believe great God I'm coming down. Well I took my razor blade, I laid Reuben in the shade. Going to start me a graveyard of my own. Oh me, oh Lordy my. Going to start me a graveyard of my own. Oh me
4.
Well I played cards in England, I gambled in Spain. Going back to Rhode Island for to play my last game. Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, I've known you for old. You robbed my poor pockets of silver and gold.
5.
Boat's up the river and I won't come down. Well I believe to my soul that I'm waterbound. Well I went down to that river and I laid right down. If the blues overtakes me I'll jump in that river and drown. I went down to that river, laid my rocking chair. If the blues overtakes me I'll rock away from there. Boat's up the river and I won't come down. Well I believe to my soul that I'm waterbound. I went down to that railway and I lay on the track. Let the passing freight train roll and take me back. Boat's up the river and I won't come down. Well I believe to my soul that I'm waterbound. If the river was whiskey and I was a duck. Well I'd sink to the bottom and I'd never come up. But that river ain't whiskey and I ain't no duck. Well I'll play on fiddle and I'll keep testing my luck. Boat's up the river and I won't come down. Well I believe to my soul that I'm waterbound. I believe to my soul that I'm waterbound.
6.
Interlude 01:40
7.
Why do I stand out in the field and ghost lights fly from or’ the hills? And up above pitch blackness heals. I thought the mountains block out what kills. I do not know I do not know where we’ll stand as time goes slow. You walk away so graciously. I do not know I do not know. I saw you sailing out to sea on wine-dark waves and tattered leaves. You fly so high on your way 'round. How can I catch you on your way down? I do not know I do not know where we’ll stand as time goes slow. You walk away so graciously. I do not know I do not know. I saw you playing out in the field. A wise young man with a twisted beard. Who’ll play the tunes out by the pond? I thought they said you were dead and gone. I do not know I do not know where we’ll stand as time goes slow. You walk away so graciously. I do not know I do not know.
8.
Cold mountains they are here around me. Cold waters runnings through the streams. Though in my sleep I think I found him, but when I wake, it's but a dream. True, when I wake and can not find him, all on my bed I weep and moan. Just like the raindrops without numbering it's all because I'm left alone. Oh I hate the time when I must leave you Oh i hate the time when we must part. Though I have loved you without measuring, I'll give my hand, you have my heart. Cold mountains they are here around me. Cold waters runnings through the streams. Though in my sleep I think I found him, but when I wake, it's but a dream.
9.
Yonder stands little Maggie with a dram glass in her hand. She's drinking away her troubles. She's courting some other man. The last time I see little Maggie She was standing at the banks of the sea with a forty-four pistol around her and a banjo on her knee. I'm going down to the station with a suitcase in each hand. Little Maggie, you've been trouble. I'm leaving fast as I can. Pretty flowers were made for blooming. Pretty stars were made to shine. Little Maggie, I hope I'll love her and I'll see her all the time. Lord you know how much I hate it not to see your true blue eyes. They shine like diamonds in the moonlight, like two stars in the sky. Go away, go away little Maggie. Go and do the best you can. You can get you another woman I can get me another man.
10.
O My Stars 06:45
Kiss me once, oh, kiss me twice Give me a taste of paradise I don't need the blues always on my shoulder They give me a cold feeling Getting colder O my stars how you undo me O my stars O my stars You undo me The sun's going down and the sky different colors Baby run and see the different hues I feel alright but these times are bad Mama run here, help me with these blues O my stars how you undo me O my stars O my stars You undo me You see that spider going up the wall? He going up there, get his ashes hauled He taking that trip along the mighty top He learning them ladies the old spider rock O my stars how you undo me O my stars O my stars You undo me

about

I've been thinking recently that playing music is a form of dance. I play what feels necessary in my bones, in my face, in my hands and limbs, in my fiddle, in my throat as I sing, in my mind as I let the music choose its path. I move my body accordingly. The notes I choose to play with my fingers are as much my body's reactions to the music as they are musical decisions. Music guides the body which guides the music. It's cyclical - a chicken or the egg kinda deal. All this in the service of that which is to be communicated.

In truth, the songs on this album were mainly picked because they're the ones I knew when I recorded on November 10th and 11th, 2018. Some of them I recently learned or wrote, but for some my memory's a bit foggier. Some of them directly speak to ways I've been feelings recently, while others are standards of old time music. I've tried to pick music to celebrate the musicians who have impacted me so far in my life.

1. An improvisation out of the ether.

2. Sometimes life feels like a bad fairy tale.

3. I learned this song from my mom, Ruth Rappaport, and from The Chicken Chokers. Versions of it exist across Appalachia, though the earliest report of it that I've read about is attributed to two black singers in Florence County, South Carolina in 1905 (see Norm Cohen's book, Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong).

4. I vividly remember being at the Harry Smith Frolic in Greenfield, MA in 2015, and watching Rosie Newton, Jed Greenberg, Brian Slattery, and Jim Miller play some of the most transcendental old time music I've ever heard. I swear half the festival was watching. After playing a ferocious A-tune, someone jokingly yelled "Play a waltz!" and this is what came out. They played under a tree in a field under the stars and I remember wanting to be nowhere else in the universe.

5. This is a Roscoe Holcomb song, though I've been pretty swayed by versions from James Leva as well as Jim Miller, Jeb Puryear, Tara Nevins, and Richie Stearns.

I forgot the lyrics mid-song at one point and had to craft some of my own and they stuck.

6. An improvisation.

7. This is one I came up with while busking in Northampton last summer. Then, one day a few months later, I was in a rut and decided to drive up to Vermont until I had found a place to eat a sandwich and finish writing this song.

This song is for Jon Bekoff.

8. This is my own version of a Texas Gladden song which I first heard from Richie Stearns and Rosie Newton. I think my take on the melody has been Sacred Harp-ified.

9. I first heard this from Ralph Stanley, and felt inspired by Ginny Hawker and Jim Miller's harmonies on a Dirk Powell recording. Over time, some of the lyrics have become my own.

10. A song of beauty in the face of pain from Michael Hurley. My parents first date was to see Michael Hurley, so I credit him for my existence.

Thank you to Andy Cass, Dan Richardson, Ruth Rappaport & Joe Pete Wetherbee, Stuart Kenney, Tim Eriksen, Stash Wyslouch, Max Wareham, Hazel Edwards, the Stuga, and Taipei & Tokyo in Northampton for providing the chopsticks used on Dead Ice.

credits

released February 19, 2019

Fiddle + Vocals + Stomping + Cover Art = Benjamin Wetherbee

"Dead Ice" and "I Do Not Know" by Benjamin Wetherbee

"O My Stars" used with permission from Michael Hurley.

Everything else is either traditional or I made it up on the spot.

Mixed and engineered by Andy Cass at Sleeper Cave Records, Williamsburg, MA.

Mastered by Dan Richardson at Not Too Loud Music, Brattleboro, VT.

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Benjamin Wetherbee Boston, Massachusetts

Old time music, singing, freaky fiddlin', and painting outta New England.

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