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Stephen Wade

from My Message by Paul Kotheimer

/

lyrics

Well, it looks like a record, but it's got no groove
You turn the crank-handle and the motor makes it move
and then the little needle carves out the sound
and a little bit of acetate'll come snaking down.

Oh, Stephen Wade.  Good Stephen Wade
knows every Folkways record ever made,
and every banjo picker that ever played
is known and familiar to Steven Wade.


Now Stephen Wade tells of Fiddler Bill.
His great grandchildren remember him still,
for Copland's "Hoe-Down" got its famous start
from Bill's "Retreat of Bon-y-parte."

And Bozie Sturdivant, says Stephen Wade,
was a gospel singer who was never afraid.
Now Bozie's headstone won't never be found,
'cause ain't no grave could hold his body down.


There's The March of Coal Creek and the old Frog Song,
and Vera Hall singing "Another Man Done Gone"
There's the Nashville Washboard Band and John Work the Third
and even old Tom Ashley, who sang "The Coo-Coo Bird"

So, in the next life, old Stephen Wade
might put an old record cutting lathe out in the shade,
and then the Angel Band will gather all 'round,
and cut a few sides right there in the Heavenly Glade.
Looks like a record, but it's got no groove
You turn the crank-handle and the motor makes it move
and then the little needle carves out the sound
and a little bit of acetate'll come snaking down.

credits

from My Message, released September 1, 2014
Words and music by Paul Kotheimer. Guitar and vocal by Paul Kotheimer, recorded by Colin Althaus at Matt and Andy's home studio in east Urbana, March 2014. Banjo by Chris Strand, recorded June 2014 at PK's house. The song is based on Stephen Wade's 2012 book and CD set, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience. An hour-long video of a presentation and performance by musicologist and banjo player Stephen Wade can be found by searching the internet for "stephen wade cambridge forum".

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Paul Kotheimer Urbana, Illinois

For well over 30 years now, Paul Kotheimer has been writing songs. And then recording them. And then putting them together into albums.
At first, way way back in the actual 1980s, he used a cassette player and a microphone from Radio Shack. Now he's the proprietor of Pillow Monster Home Studio, complete with lots of musical instruments and recording gear and one actual pillow monster. YAY MUSIC! ... more

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