Hugh Blumenfeld - Big Red - Hugh's Newest Release from Switzerland!

BIG

RED

Now available online from
Brambus Records

Big Red is here.

This album was recorded in Buchs, Switzerland on November 13, 14 & 18, 1999. For my third tour of Europe I brought percussionist Shane Shanahan, who has played with me for two years. We were joined in the studio - and at two concerts - by Swiss singer-songwriter Doris Ackermann, who has become a friend since my first visit here in 1996. It's been an honor to work with both of them. (Check out Doris' site for more pics - German text).

My first on Brambus Records is intended mainly for European distribution. So, in addition to seven new songs - some just a few weeks old - we included several favorites from previous albums, as well as a cover of Tom Meltzer's Cezanne, a concert staple for years. We performed them in the studio just as you hear them, with only a handful of harmony overdubs on one song and a few shakes of the tambourine on another. The album attempts to convey the natural feel of a live concert, complete with the imperfections.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Hansjürg Meier, Tonspur Studios, Buchs Switzerland.

Doris Ackermann

Shane Shanahan

Big Red - Songlist

Big Red
King of Chicago
Bring Stones
Brothers
Shoot the Moon
Did You Hear the Rain
Where's Marlene
Snow Grain Stone
The Raven
Paul Cezanne (by Tom Meltzer)
Raphael
Just Say the Word
Loony @ The Muni

Big Red
[In New England, autumn comes like a great fire; the trees turn yellow, orange, and the sugar maples go fiery red. Everything is consumed.]

The hurricanes are over, and the corn is in the crib
Come on, Big Red; come on Big Red
The axe is in the woodpile and the canning jars are full
Come on, Big Red; come on Big Red

Come on - and you shake the trees
Come on - and you scare the geese
Come on - swirlin' through the streets
Every year it's the same old thing

Come on - with your hunter's coat
Come on - you old scarecrow
Come on - with your last dark rose
All the young hearts burn for you

And the stubble fields are grieving, and the cider's in the press
Come on, Big Red; come on Big Red
And the trawlers and work scows have the harbor to themselves
Now, come on, Big Red; come on Big Red

Come on - and you shake the trees & c.

Come on - with your sidelong glance
Come on - Mr. Baggy Pants
Come on - when you call that dance
All the young hearts turn for you

Summer's just a hard act to follow
With her lovers strolling on the green
And if we cry
Those first cold nights
Well you know how quick we are to blame
The thief of things we have no claim to...

And the children on the corner throw their jackets on the ground
Come on, Big Red; come on Big Red
And their breath clouds in the morning, till your school bus tracks them down
Come on, Big Red; come on Big Red

Come on - and you shake the trees & c.

Come on - with your harvest moon
Come on - and your open wounds
Come on - and your choirs all ruined
Every year it's the same old story
- every year it's the same old thing

Come on Big Red, Come on Big Red

The King of Chicago (songlist)

[There is a city where poets legislate and the philosopher is king.]

The King of Chicago wears comfortable clothes
Survived forty years on fishes and loaves
And his love is like a red, red rose
All hail the King of Chicago!

The King of Chicago gets up around noon
Singing old ballads from wild Saskatoon
And he's often mistook for the man in the moon
All hail the King of Chicago!

The King of Chicago don't photograph well
He's got nothing to hide he's got nothing to sell
And his voice has a crack like the liberty bell
All hail the King of Chicago!

And up in his room
he's got a rooster named Red
And it sits on a post
at the foot of his bed
And the sun comes up out of the top of his head
And it's always already tomorrow

From the east and the west they show up at his door
They clean out his fridge and they sleep on the floor
the restless, the wreckless, the purposely poor
All hail the King of Chicago!

The king of Chicago is never put out
His shout is a whisper his whisper a shout
And everyone knows what he's talking about
All hail the King of Chicago!

And up in his room
he's got a rooster named Red
And it sits on a post
at the foot of his bed
And the sun comes up out of the top of his head
And it's always already tomorrow

The King of Chicago has his own coat of arms
A lion couchant in a sinister bar
and a field of blue holds the last morning's stars
"L'amour et Laphroaig" is his motto
All hail the King of Chicago!

Bring Stones (songlist)

[There's a tradition of welcoming the new year by casting off the burdens of the old.]

Bring Stones
Bring Stones to the river if they weigh your pockets down
Bring Stones to the river, skip them on the water
Circles of light and ripples on the other shore
Bring Stones

Bring stones
Bring stones to the river if you find yourself alone
Bring stones to the river, dip them in the water
Say a little prayer and praise each holy soul,
Bring stones

Stones, stones, stones, you must bring stones
Stones, stones, stones

Bring stones
Bring stones to the river if the rain is hard and cold
Bring stones to the river, lay them by the water
Till the levee is high and there's lights burning here below
Bring stones

Bring stones from the altar, stones from the tower
Stones from the courthouse and from the prisonhouse
Stones from the mine, stones from the mill
Stones from the big man's house on the hill

Bring stones from the sinner in the house of glass
Stones that the Davids and the Cains have cast
Bring stones from Berlin and Beijing's wall
Stones from Delphi, stones from Sinai

Bring stones from the hearth, stones from the moon
Stones with moss and stones with none
Bring stones of fire, stones of gall
Stones from the heart where the valves have stalled

Stones, stones, stones, you must bring stones.

Brothers (songlist)

[By the age of five, my younger brother was taller than me. I got all his old hand-me-down clothes - even his first car. I was driving it through Manhattan when I wrote this song, pulling over every 15 minutes to let the engine cool and write a verse.]

My brother is a dark-eyed gentle man
We see each other when we can
For dinner or some music
But there's always been this tension
Neither mentions
It and then
The conversation dies down
And I think sometimes it's just as well
We live in different towns

CHORUS:
Some say we're like day and night
The Southern Cross and the Northern Lights
He's half a world away from me
Still he's half the world to me
And doesn't even know it

When we were young we fought till our mom cried
Forgave each other when she died
And swore we'd try to close the gap
And though we both are loyal
And enjoy each other's triumphs
We don't understand them well
And each other's friends are ciphersAnd each other's heaven hell

CHORUS

I recently got married high upon a hill
My brother spoke as brothers will
About growing up behind me
And when the vows were over
He broke down on my shoulder
I was not prepared
And I held him as he crossed the distance
I had never dared

CHORUS

© 1986 Hugh Blumenfeld/Hydrogen Jukebox Music (ASCAP)
"Brothers" first appeared on The Strong In Spirit (Grace Avenue Records, 1987; Prime-CD, 1994) (songlist)

Shoot the Moon (songlist)

["Shoot the moon" - to bet everything on a longshot. Americans, of course, always take things literally.]

When I was young all I wanted was the moon
Hung that National Geographic map in my room
In seventh grade, Mythology 101
They called me Little Endymion
-- You remember me now

And space was the object of all my country's desire
And the skies of my childhood were laced with launching pad fire
And I was the boy who stood under streetlamps at night
Waiting for those strange blue lights
To come take me away

-- Shoot the moon
Set me down in the Sea of Tranquillity
Just the stars and me
-- Shoot the moon
Give me a home in the 21st century
A little less gravity
I could fall free
Shoot the moon

If I'd been ten years older, I might have been tripping on Yasgur's farm
But I probably would have been a Phantom flying over Vietnam
In a dream of altitudes where blue turns black
And never looking back
At the pieces on the ground

But I saw the choppers rise out of Saigon's fall
And my fingers traced the writing on the long black wall
And I knew there'd be no spaceships in my future
I guess I was born a little late, or way too soon...

-- Shoot the moon.... we could fall free

Well, a quarter of a million miles isn't really that far
It took me two Chevys, but I've done it in a car
Driving from town to town with this old guitar
Built in 1969
One small step for mankind

-- Shoot the moon.... it is our destiny

© 1997 Hugh Blumenfeld/Hydrogen Jukebox Music (ASCAP)
"Shoot the Moon" appeared on Rocket Science (Prime-CD, 1998) (songlist)

Did You Hear the Rain (songlist)

[In late December 1998, in the Galilean hills, I woke in the middle of the night to Israel's first rain in nine months. As I listened, it started to sound like chanting...]

Did
Did you
Did you hear
Did you hear the rain last night
Pounding on the roof last night
Did you hear the sky
Open with a sigh
Did you hear the rain

Did
Did you
Did you hear
Did you hear the rain last night
Soak into the clay last night
Did you hear the sound
Of the hungry ground
Did you hear the rain

Did you hear the streams
Gather in your dreams
And wind down to the sea
Did you hear the trees
Whispering their griefs
As you turned to me

Did you hear the streams
Gather in your dreams
And wind down to the sea
Did you hear the trees
Shaking off their griefs
As you turned to me

Did
Did you
Did you hear
Did you hear the rain last night
Thunder like a train last night
Did you hear the rain, did you hear the rain, did you hear the rain
Did you hear the rain, did you hear the rain, did you hear the rain....

Where's Marlene (songlist)

[This song was made the traditional way - in my head, a patchwork of truths and lies.]

All the boys called her Marlene
Some are lost and never found
Young enough to be his daughter
And the first snow on the ground

She would haunt the East Side tavern
- I'll have what the singer's having

See her cross the empty dance floor
See her standing at his back door

- I know why you sing so sadly
I know what you need so badly

- Love's a thing I half remember
All you'll find is ash and embers

She undressed before the fire
There was no way to deny her

Every cry was like a warning
She was up and gone by morning....

How he wandered through November
Disappeared in deep December

A bit of rope and a bit of bourbon
His old father found him hanging

Love is like the sweet magnolia
White in spring as it is all winter

Some still think I have an answer
Some still ask me where's Marlene

Snow Grain Stone (songlist)

[My wife Andrea wrote this tune, inspired by an anonymous poem - the first four lines - which hung in her room at college.]

We learn so awkwardly what snow knows how to do
Approach so hesitantly, touch so infrequently
While the good snow courses down
Holds the hard earth gently and long
Go and ask the snow

We learn so awkwardly what stones know how to do
Stand firm so hesitantly, stay so infrequently
While the good stones all remain
Stable and sure, change slow with the rain
Go and ask the stone

We learn so awkwardly what the grain knows how to do
Rejoice so hesitantly, we sing so infrequently
While the good grain sways along
Bends with the wind, gives her a song
Go and ask the grain

©1980 Andrea Gaines/Hydrogen Jukebox Music (ASCAP)
"Snow Grain Stone" first appeared on Barehanded (Prime-CD, 1993) (songlist)

The Raven (songlist)

[As children, we learn the story of Noah - 40 days of rain, a dove with an olive-branch, a rainbow in a clear sky. But the text suggests a darker story - a full year of tossing on the waves and a post-holocaust world that first had to be cleared of the dead. Still makes a nice children's story.]

After the rain
came months of fog
man and beast
were sick as dogs

Borne on the flood
seeking haven
before he sent the dove
Noah sent the raven

He slid the plank
from the ark window
yellow eye
grew very narrow

And Noah cried,
"Great God above
to this most loathed of your creatures
show your love"

Tiger paced
grey wolf howled
viper hissed
monkey scowled

Grizzly grumbled
mammoth blew
the doves all fluttered
raven - flew!

He set the bird
set it in the sky
a croaking mote
in God's blue eye

And the raven's black
irridescent wing
made an ebony rainbow
shimmering, shimmering

And the water glowed
with a greenish light
the scavenger
Hunted all night

And the raven stayed
true to his red creed
and brought back entrails
for his master to read:

You shall drive your plow
Through shallow graves
And plant your vines
In the mouths of babes

And pitch your tents
On heaps of bones,
And tune your harp
Where the wild wind moans.

After the rain
reaching haven
In the beginning
went the raven....

© 1997 Hugh Blumenfeld/Hydrogen Jukebox Music (ASCAP)
"The Raven" was commissioned by the St. Louis Hillel Center (songlist)

Paul Cezanne (songlist)
by Tom Meltzer

[This folk anthem of the NY intelligentia has always been a favorite of mine. It first appeared on the Five Chinese Brothers' Singer Songwriter Beggarman Thief. MOMA is NY's Museum of Modern Art.]

I love Cubism, it's my favorite style
When I see a Cubist painting, I've just got to smile
But there's one painter, I'm his biggest fan
He's the father of Cubism and his name's Cezanne - Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne - the father of Cubism

Some people say that it was Picasso
Other people say it was DeChirico
I heard somebody say it was Modiglian(i)
I said --step outside, it was Paul Cezanne - Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne - the father of Cubism

When Paul Cezanne sat down to paint a flower or a face,
He had to solve a problem, three dimensional space
He said "Form is content," he smoked a Gitane
He was right, now he's Paul Cézanne - Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne - le pêre de cubisme

Ooooh--

Cezanne's father wanted him to be an avocat
But Paul just looked at him and said, mais non, pas
I want to be a painter, oooh I know I can
Now his oevre's in the Louvre he's Paul Cezanne - Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne - the father of Cubism

Well I had an aunt, and she was in a coma
So we loaded up her bed and we took her down to MOMA
We wheeled her through the door, you wouldn't belive what began
She sat up and started screaming, hey -
Where is that Paul Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne - the miraculous father of Cubism

Well Paul Cezanne is famous now and I think that's really nice
His melons look like footballs, his apples look like dice
So all you would-be painters, get out your brush and can
You may be the next Paul Cezanne - Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne - the father of Cubism

Oh, woah, woah Cezanne Cezanne,
Cezanne, Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne - the original father of Cubism

Raphael (songlist)

[In this version of Adam and Eve's fall from Paradise, the culprit is part friendly Prometheus, part jealous fallen angel. I'd like to think that the origins of fire and of passion are the same.]

In the cool hour of the evening
The garden gold and breathing
My lover at my hand
Two virgins in the land
and angels on the wing
descending as they sing,
"Raphael, oh Raphael"

O how it made you warm
To see my lover's form
Who'd think a human touch
Could make an angel blush
and you'd leave grudgingly
as if you envied me,
Raphael.

You'd linger just to talk
For hours as we'd walk
Your feet burned on the hills
you never had your fill
Was it you who brought us fire
On your wings of desire,
Raphael?

And when the earth grew cold
the vision would not hold
heaven closed its doors
we never see you anymore
and our voices fill the air
like a table or a chair,
Raphael.

But I swear there's still an ember
of paradise remembered
a certain shade of blue
the nakedness we knew
and I wonder if you keep
the feel of grass beneath your feet
and when you seraphim embrace
now, does the blood rise in your face
Raphael?

Oh, Raphael, Raphael.

© 1995 Hugh Blumenfeld/Hydrogen Jukebox Music (ASCAP)
"Raphael" appeared on Mozart's Money (Prime-CD, 1996) (songlist)

Just Say the Word (songlist)

["but I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep..." - Robert Frost]

CHORUS:
Just say the word, babe
Just say the word, babe
Just say the word, babe
and I'll do what I have to

I'll do what I have to
I'll do what I must
work my fingers to the bone
till the bones turn to dust
And I will get married
I will be good
I'll do all the things
that I promised I would

Just say the word, babe....

I'll starch all my collars, make fistfulls of dollars
Maybe play some Fats Waller some nights when I'm done
And I'll bend to my calling
in the small hours of morning
and I'll never steal a minute from love

Just say the word, babe....

And I'll wish that my fingers
had never touched strings
that my words were all broken
and never had wings
that my knees had no strength
to stand on no stage
That I never have an inkling
of the spirit of the age

Just say the word, babe....

I'll put away this guitar
lay the strap over the strings
close the latches on the case,
put away foolish things
And I'll bend to your will
and the will of the crowd
who have had enough of sorrow
and true lovers' vows

Just say the word, babe....

Loony @ the Muni (songlist)

[The Muni in Hartford is a cavernous bar I used to play, and the gig called for some kind of drinking song. Jack Hardy says I stole the idea for this song from him. I did. Cheers, Jack.]

Half past 8 and the band was late
got a pitcher and a Perrier for me and my date
Too Tall Paul was climbing the wall,
It was loony at the Muni we were having a ball

CHORUS
And you never know, no you never know when the music will end
No you never know, no you never know
When your number's up, so drink up my friends, now

Half past 9 we were feeling fine
The special at the bar was a California wine
Too Tall Paul was getting small
It was loony at the Muni we were having a ball

10:15 we were picking up steam
Making conversation with old Jim Beam
Too Tall Paul was starting to drawl
It was loony at the Muni we were having a ball

12 o'clock we were starting to rock
People coming in from up and down the block
Too Tall Paul was doing The Crawl
It was loony at the Muni we were having a ball

1 o'clock, 2 o'clock going on 3
Hey bartender, give me back my keys
Too Tall Paul said: "Last call!"
It was loony at the Muni we were having a ball

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