A Dark River Epilogue

Dark River: Tributaries. (Listen).

Here at long last is the follow up album to Dark River, released in 2011, back when my hair was still blonde. I had collected so much music for my traditional music compilation project that it wouldn’t all fit on one album. I always intended for the extra tracks to be released some day as well. Happy to say the day is here and the music has all aged very well. A lot better than I have. But then the songs are very old, which is entirely the point. The ballads and popular songs in this collection have survived for a reason, and I knew a hand-picked team of some of Austin’s finest singer/songwriters could do what troubadors have been doing for millennia— reimagining old songs for their own specific moment in time—in a way that brings them to life and honors the source, while making of them something brand new.

It’s a time honored tradition.

The project was definitely ambitious and sprawled out over two years. It brought me into contact with so many vibrant artists I felt as though I had wondered onto the set of a movie, or into the pages of a fairy tale. The journey was its own reward all the way through and the whole process simply a joy; finding the songs, divining which artist to approach, reaching out, making contact and bringing them on board (or not, I had a pretty dynamic success rate), recording the track, mixing it, and finally, each artist’s photo shoot with legendary ACL photgrapher—Scott Newton. Happily a lovely Dark River video was made from the hundreds of shots taken and fifteen spectacular locations, with the track I contributed as the soundtrack.

Worth a look and a listen.

Making Dark River was life changing and opened the way to the rest of my career, which even at my age feels as if its just beginning—well, I got a late start.

I suppose I could have released all of the material in one very long album, and certainly any one of these Tributary songs could’ve proudly appeared on Dark River. Especially Jeff Plankenhorn’s rendering of The Lakes of The Ponchatrain (with the incomparable Warren Hood on both violin and mandolin)—an evocative ballad about a hard case traveler in post Civil War Louisiana whose Southern money is worthless, but who nonetheless falls in love with a dark-skinned Creole beauty. Or Tina Mitchell-Wilkins’s aching version of Wild Mountain Thyme (lushly supported with harmony vocals and soaring violin by Leah Zeger, whose career has since stratosphered), or Rich Brotherton’s gritty interpretation of The Cuckoo, with Rich magnificently on Irish banjo, guitar, and National Steel.

In the old days it would have made a wonderful double LP.

Well, I have to go with my decision to keep the length of the original Dark River within reason, and respect my caveat that the tunes presented here on Tributaries would one day get their own seperate time to shine. Super happy that the day has arrived.

All things in good time.

Making this music was an artistic odyssey, but also an intensely human experience. I have the greatest respect for all of these wonderful artists. Spending time in their world and continuing to work with many of them has been learning journey and a high point for me—like ascending a mountain to confer with the master. In the years after Dark River I formed an enduring creative partnership with Austin’s most mystical of singer/songwriters Erin Ivey (Johnny’s Gone for A Soldier —the ancient Suil A Run on Dark River)—a partnership that allowed me to reach another high peak with her much lauded album—Solace in the Wild.

Sadly, two of the great Austin stalwart’s on dark River, who so generously contributed and were both so spot on with their interpretations, are no longer with us. We lost Jimmy LaFave nearly ten years ago and Jon Dee Graham last March. Jimmy was very special to me. Many years ago now he’d listened to my KUT Live Set performance on his way back from Oklahoma, and thought enough of it to reach out and tell me how much he enjoyed it. A big important moment in my own evolution. Jimmy was a real sweetheart and so funny as well as a great balladeer. Watching and listening to him bring Lorena to life in his incredible Music Road studio was absolutely stunning. I didn’t know Jon Dee that well but he was another genius and another sweetheart. Working with him to bring out the true nature of Rye Whiskey—was equal parts gritty, hilarious, and heartbreaking.

Dark River to Dark River: Tributaries; a momentous fifteen year span that encompasses a lot of ground in my life, in the lives of all who contributed, in the life of Austin—truly a rainbow bridge of time and history and culture!