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HARVEST DANCE
ABOUT THIS REGOURDING
Liner Notes
The Gospel Agourding to Chance
Thanks for beautiful accidents. April 2003, I met Drew Arata in his Earth & State shop. There he introduced me to an array of devilishly playable, and wonderfully intonated, instruments made by Stephen Catania. I bartered a couple of gigs at E & S for Stephen to fashion me a made-to-speces gourdalin (4-stringed gourd tuned like a mandolin).
Earlier this year Stephen made three prototype instruments, a banjo, mandolin, and guitar. I pursued an interest in the gourd guitar. In Oct/Nov. of 2005, Michael Gibbons and Jamie Brown opened Media Music Studio. Via arrangements by Drew, they donated time and space for me to make this regourding. Media Music studio features 64-track recording but I only used two tracks, so don't worry, there are plenty left for the rest of you. Thanks to Michael, the President, for vision and generosity and to Jamie, Engineer/Producer extaordinaire for musical, listening, and technical skills. Checks the guys out.
In Search of the Lost Gourd
The gourd guitar is about three-quarter size and I used it in various tunings. Its open tuning is comparable to placing a capo on the fifth fret of a standard guitar. At the outset of Tom & Drew's Excellent Adventure, I discovered by trial and mostly error that the guitar gourd encompassed a treasure of sound potential, depending on the voicing and picking styles used. It is pure, it is organic.
Of My Own Agourd
The gourd guitar was a singular instrument in this world. I went on a journey to find it's solitary essence. The soul of wood is so very vast for it's purpose and will in our lives. Wood houses our bodies. Transformed into instruments by wizards like Stephen, it nourishes our spirit with song. The songs that I offered to the soul of wood were partly compositional and often improvisational. Perfect and imperfect. Some pieces are new, some harvested from elder season's passing moons. But, I never play anything the same way once.
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