With Teeth (1999)

A hot new platter! It's the biggest B.E. sound yet, with the five-piece (fiddle, winds, frets, bass, drums) lineup kicking it out on eleven tracks. Some are favorites from our live repertoire, and others soon will be. Songs and tunes from all over (England, America, Ireland, Bulgaria, France...). We promise this is the only record you'll hear this year that has a Croatian dance, an English music hall song and a Bob Dylan cover. Available on CD (CS 1707D).

With Teeth

Produced by
Tommy Joyner

Broadside Electric is:
Ashley D'Andrea
Amy Ksir
Tom Rhoads
Jim Speer
Helene Zisook

All selections researched, deconstructed, adapted, reinvented, orchestrated, juxtaposed, arranged, interpreted and otherwise performed without remorse or hesitation by Broadside Electric.

With Teeth was recorded at Milkboy Recording, Philadelphia, PA, January through June, 1999

Engineered by Kieran Mulvaney, Noel van der Goes, and Tommy Joyner

Engineering assistance: Darrel Asbury

Additional production: Kieran Mulvaney

Mixed at The Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Mastered by David Musial at SkyRoom Studios, Jersey City, NJ
Manufactured by Healey Disc, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Guest appearances by:
Melissa Demian
Rachel Hall
Paul Mimlitsch

Cover design and layout: Helene Zisook
with lots of help from her friends at Miller Designworks

Many and various thanks to: Mike Ciul, Paul Grzelak, Lovely Nancy D'Andrea, Gene Shay, Larry Gold, Cory Hubbert, Dianne Tankle, Dr. Bob Cohen, Ray Ashley, Gail Rundlett, Jerry Weene, Dave Palmater, Paul Mimlitsch, Brian Seymour, Ann Bies, Mike Agranoff, John Mahoney, Robin Richards, Bruce Rogers, Herman Melville, Abby Kay, Simple Gifts, and Einstein's Little Homunculus

Thanks for teaching us songs and tunes: Rachel Hall, Tich Cownie, Jerry Zisook, Eleanor Lewis, Henrik Norbeck, bil mckenty, Walter Smith, Marian McKenzie, Birgit Burke, Mary Richards, and The Snowy Range International Folkdancers

Royal Oak
(words: trad. English;
music: Tom Rhoads)
with Barham Down
(trad. English)

JD: drums, backing vocals, finger cymbal; AK: whistle; TR: vocals, citterns, electric guitar; JS: bass; HZ: violin

A pleasant day's sail spoiled only by a little fire and drowning. The protagonists of this song clearly have more guts than brains (being willing to fight when outnumbered ten to one) but, unlikely as it seems, they emerge victorious. We found the words in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, in a version collected in Surrey in 1912. Tom wrote a new melody very loosely based on the original, which was deemed too ungainly.

Barham Down is an English Country Dance whose tune appears in Playford, as well as on a wonderful recording by Bare Necessities.

With Her
Head Tucked
Underneath
Her Arm
(R. H. Weston and Bert Lee)
with Ternovka Sher
(Dave Tarras)

JD: drums; AK: oboe, additional vocal; TR: vocal, acoustic guitar; JS: Chapman stick®, bass clarinet; HZ: violin

Weston and Lee were a popular songwriting team, active in the early 20th century. They composed music initially for the English music hall repertoire, and eventually for films and certain show-biz luminaries of the time. This song was most likely written for Stanley Holloway, who recorded it in 1934. Jim first heard it on the "'Ere's 'Olloway" album, and thought it would make an excellent Klezmer vehicle.

Helene learned the Ternovka Sher from an Andy Statman album. It is by the marvelous American Klezmer clarinetist and band leader Dave Tarras.

Decapitation is not endorsed by Broadside Electric.

Three
Pounds
Ten
(trad. Canadian)
with Virginia
(words: Isaac Watts;
music: Oliver Brownson)
and The Gravel Walk
(trad. Irish)

JD: drums, backing vocals; AK: vocals, whistle, backing vocals; TR: dulcimer, backing vocals; JS: bass, stick, backing vocals; HZ: violin, backing vocals

A song for whale hunters and graduate students the world over about a project that never seems to end and for which one is paid very little.

Amy first heard this song from The Woods Tea Company. It was collected by A.L. Lloyd from sources in Newfoundland, and appears in Dan Milner and Paul Kaplan's song book, A Bonny Bunch of Roses, as well as on recordings by A.L. Lloyd, Kallet Epstein and Cicone, and the Battlefield Band (who put the pub in Edinburgh). It's often called "Wings of a Gull" or "The Weary Whaling Ground." We added an Irish tune, a shape note hymn and .04% (by volume) of Moby Dick.

The Gardener
(trad. Scottish)

JD: drums, backing vocal; AK: oboe; TR: vocals, electric and acoustic guitars; JS: bass, bass clarinet, alto saxophone; HZ: violins; MD: vocal

Child #219. The entire story can be summed up as: "A gardener propositions a young lady; she tells him to get lost." The dialog parallels that of riddle-songs like "Scarborough Fair," but the imagery makes it one of the most poetic of folk lyrics. There are a number of modern recordings of this song, mostly based on Ewan MacColl's version. The one that sparked Tom's interest in it was Roger Wilson's great rendition on a record by the House Band. Some additional lyrics were found in Child.

The Herring
(trad. English)

JD: vocal; AK: vocal; TR: vocal; JS: vocal; HZ: vocal

Seafood
Invasion
Langstrom's Pony
(trad. Irish)
Donald MacLean of Lewis
(trad. Scottish)
Eel in the Sink
(trad. Irish)
Walter Sammon's
Grandmother
(trad. Irish)
Sheehan's Reel
(trad. Irish)

JD: drums, vibraslap; AK: whistle; TR: electric guitar, EBow; JS: bass; HZ: violin

This is derived from the tune set with which we opened most of our 1998-99 live shows. Helene and Amy put together most of our tune sets, including this one, back in the proverbial smoke-filled room.

Langstrom's Pony is a traditional Irish tune Amy learned at a seisun; the variation is Ashley's. Donald MacLean of Lewis is a Scottish tune (credited to PM Donald MacLeod, QOH) that Helene learned from a Brenda Stubbert album.

Amy and Helene found Eel in the Sink and Walter Sammon's Grandmother in Henrik Norbeck's tune collection on the web. Both are traditional. Sheehan's Reel is a well-known Irish and contra dance tune, but Helene learned it from a Natalie MacMaster recording.

Masters
of War
(Bob Dylan)
with Julia Delaney
(trad. Irish)

JD: drums; AK: vocal, whistle; TR: vocal, dulcimer; JS: stick; HZ: violin

©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

Minka
(trad. Bulgarian)

JD: drums, percussion; AK: flute; TR: dulcimer; JS: bass; HZ: electric violin, mandolin

This is a Bulgarian women's dance, traditionally played in 7/8 - an odd time signature by Western standards, but Ashley couldn't leave well enough alone, oh no. It's now in 7/4, which means 2 measures of old tune are here squeezed into one measure of the new. Ashley obfuscated it further with occasional counterpoint in five and three. Of course the downbeats get completely fouled up, to the great consternation of international dancers everywhere. Have fun.

looped piece
(Paul Mimlitsch/Jim Speer)

PM: Warr® touchstyle guitar & electronics; JS: MIDI'ed stick & electronics

J'ai vû le loop!

Bruton Town
(trad. English)
with Final Advance
on Reykjavik
(Jim Speer)

JD: drums, kettledrum; AK: oboe, whistle, vocal; TR: acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, cittern, vocal; JS: stick; HZ: violin

This ballad has been in our live repertoire since 1996. It's got a little of everything: love, conspiracy, hunting, murder, a ghost story, sibling rivalry and class struggle. We first heard it from a recording by the Pentangle, and we use much the same version of the words and tune. According to Sharp, the story goes back to the Middle Ages and appears to be of European (likely Italian) origin. There's a longer version of it in Bocaccio's Decameron, which inspired a poem by Keats.

Horses' Teeth
Horses' Branle
(trad. French)
Nebesko
(trad. Croatian)
Polka Piquee de Gerardmer
(trad. French)
Polka With Teeth
(Rachel Hall)

JD: drums, triangle; AK: soprano recorder, soprano crumhorn, PVC fife, oboe; TR: dulcimer, electric guitar, cittern; JS: bass, alto recorder, alto saxophone, tenor crumhorn; HZ: violin, mandolin; RH: concertina

Horses' Branle (pronounced "brawl", but it's actually a dance) is one of the first tunes we performed when we started out about nine years ago, and we're only just getting to recording it now!

Nebesko is a tune to a fast but repetitive Croatian dance.

The Polka Piquee was found on a recording of French epinette players, and Polka With Teeth is a favorite from the repertoire of fellow Pennsylvania folk group Simple Gifts.

Jellon Grame
(words: adapted by
Jim Speer and
Melissa Demian
from trad. Scottish
and Scandanavian;
music: trad. Bulgarian)

JD: drums; AK: flute, vocal; TR: citterns, vocal; JS: bass; HZ: violas; MD: vocal

A seldom heard ballad, but with a terrific story.

The surviving versions of "Jellon Grame" (Child #90) are unclear and confused. It is closely related to another ballad, "Fause Foodrage" (Child #89), and their contents have been mingled and cross-poluted over the centuries. Most of the words used here were extracted from Child. Certain verses have been heavily re-written or newly authored by Jim and Melissa. Plus, in an attempt to present a more compelling and straightforward story, we've re-introduced a handful of additional goodies, taken from cousin-ballads from Denmark and Färöe.

The music we apply here is based on a Bulgarian dance called "Dospatsko Horo."

April Morning
(trad. English)

JD: drums, backing vocal, tambourine; AK: backing vocal; TR: electric 6- & 12-string guitars, high-strung guitar, vocal; JS: bass, backing vocal: HZ: electric violin, backing vocal

Tom first heard this song on a June Tabor record and quickly noticed two things about it: one, that it was great fun to sing, and two, that the lyrics are just this side of being pure, cheesy pop fluff. It seemed only logical to come up with an arrangement that emphasized both the fun factor and the fluff factor. The vocal arrangement offers a tip of the hat to the group Finest Kind, who also sing a great version of this song.

Bibliography:
The ABC web page: http://www.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/
B. H. Bronson, The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads
David Buchan, Ballads of the North of Scotland
F. J. Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads
Richard Geisler, The Bulgarian Collection
John Playford, Playford's Dancing Master
The Sacred Harp (S.H.P.C./Denson collection, 1991 edition)
Cecil J. Sharp, ed., One Hundred English Folksongs
Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd, eds.,
  The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs

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More information and even greater detail are available at our really huge web site: www.broadside.org

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©(p) 1999 Clever Sheep Records
PO Box 331 - Ardmore, PA 19003 - www.broadside.org