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Old Man at the Mill It happened like this... I was a young man of 15 when my band-mate Bob Yalacki gave me his copy of Ian Matthew's album Valley Hi. Ian had traveled from England to L.A. to make this album, and was sorely disappointed to find that the back-up musicians that the studio had hired were not those that he had chosen to record with him. Showing typical British fortitude, and a stiff upper lip, he made do and got down to work. The band was called Matthew's Southern Comfort, and I remember the fiddler was Byron Berline. The producer was Michael Nesmith, from the band The Monkeys (he also invented the genre "Country Rock.") The song Old Man at the Mill quickly became my favorite, and I wore it grey from repeated playings. I learned the lyrics and the chords, and it found regular rotation in my repetoire.
Then, disaster struck...
To this day I think it was Diana K. who swiped my album, but I couldn't prove it. I just know it went missing after we broke up. I could never find another copy, as it went out of print.
Fast forward 20 years About 10 years ago I was browsing in a local record store, and just for yucks I thought I'd look in the Ian Matthews bin. There before me sat a CD titled "Iain Matthews--the soul of many places The Electra Years 1972--1974." With trembling hands I turned it over and read the song list. #4 was Old Man at the Mill. Quickly paying for my CD, I rushed home, dropped it in the CD changer, and heard something totaly different than what I'd been playing all these years. It seems I was an unwitting participant in the "folk proccess", and had transformed that old traditional tune through my own interpretation. I did, consiously, add the Heron verse.
I'm still performing that song, and I still love it as much as when I first heard it so many years ago. Nick and I were playing in his studio when this cut took shape. We started with me playing mandolin and singing, while Nick played guitar. He later added his banjo and bass. We sound like a band, huh? Visit Nick at www.kroesnest.com Return to Music Downloads
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