STEVE GARDNER'S CD-0-PEDIA-EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW...AND THEN SOME

[Rambling Steve Gardner]

STEVE GARDNER-CDs
WALKIN' THE DOG

WALKIN' THE DOG is a collaborative musical project that began with Steve Gardner, from Mississippi, now based in Tokyo and Washboard Chaz Leary, of New Orleans. The two put a plan for a recording into the works after a series of successful Tokyo performances, that centred around the annual Tokyo Bourbon Street Mardi Gras Festival, which was Washboard Chaz’s introduction to Japan.

The Nashville, TN. based Jake Leg Stompers string band members, Bill Steber and Brandon Armstrong, along with Steve Gardner’s Tokyo Bottleneck Blues Band members, Bill Benfield and Hisa Nakase, agreed to play the Walking The Dog session in New Orleans. (The four, had recorded and toured with Steve Gardner and were veterans of the stage and studio, however the four had never played together with Steve Gardner and Washboard Chaz as a group until they met up at the French Quarter studios of WWOZ, New Orleans community radio August 16, 2009; where they played a two hour on air live show for Peggy Lou’s Saturday Night Lunar Tunes program . A Special Thanks to Peggy Lou and WWOZ for all of the on going support. Check them out at-wwoz.org)


WALKIN' THE DOG is a combination of original tunes; New Orleans, Mississippi and Memphis string band and jug band standards, a few obscure tunes from the turn of the century and a spiritual thrown in for good measure.

The vocal work is shared between Steve Gardner, Washboard Chaz Leary and Bill Steber with everyone else in the house, including recording engineer Nick Vitter, singing back-up, clapping hands or barking like a dog!

Brandon Armstrong handled the tuba, trombone, bass, banjo, guitar and backing vocals while Hisa Nakase played bass and rhythm guitar and sang back up. Bill Benfield played mandolin, lead guitar and slide guitar.

About the tunes on the record:

This CD, “Walkin’ The Dog”, is like a journey down the Mississippi River, which runs brown like whiskey through the Mississippi Delta, all the way to New Orleans. The tunes float along lazily and crazily just like that mighty river.

WALKIN' THE DOG, the opening tune, by the great Ruffus Thomas, of Memphis, TN . is the image of pure desire conjured up from a hobo longing to hop a freight train that just won’t slow down. When a freight train hits a fast run of track, shimming away with no chance of a hobo getting a ride, that is called “walking the dog”. It just like sexy Mary Mac, dressed in black, walking her dog....

AIN’T THAT LOVIN’ YOU BABY has always been one of my favorite Jimmy Reed tunes since I heard it growing up in Mississippi listening to the radio. (If you want a picture of COOL- just check out a photo of Jimmy Reed, playing a harp in a wire wrack around his neck and working his guitar like a magician.) He sings that he is willing to jump in the ocean, kill someone and even rise from the dead... “and she still don’t know my name.”

DIGGIN’ MY POTATOES is a Peadmont (North, South Carolina, Georgia) favorite and one of ours too. It is the story of a fellow who has found someone trying to steal his woman and he is doing his best to catch him at it.

FREIGHT TRAIN is a traditional tune put together by the left handed guitarist from the Carolinas, Elizabeth Cotton. She and this tune gained a new popularity in the early folk blues revival of the 1960’s.

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL according to legend is the night train which ran out of Houston, TX. It is said that its light would shine into the Sugar Land Prison as it headed down to San Antonio. As the legend goes, a prisoner would be set free when the light from the Midnight Special shone into his cell. The song is quite old and originates in song legends passed down from the late 1800’s and may have had its origins in North Carolina; but we based our version on the 1934 Huddie William “Lead Belly” Ledbetter version recorded by John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress.

JESUS ON THE MAINLINE is a traditional gospel tune that adds a very modern twist for the time- that prayer is just like talking to Jesus on the telephone. In the days before private phone lines, all calls were put through a switch board and handled by an operator who connected everyone to the “mainline”.

SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD, by the Mississippi Shieks, is one of the early “standards” that set a pattern for other great classics like “You Got To Move” and “Come On In My Kitchen”. I spent many memorable afternoons, playing blues sitting in the Hollandale, Mississippi home of Sam Chatmon, the last member of the Mississippi Shieks. Mr. Sam left me two great pieces of advice-(1) Everyone needs a chance to be told to sit down. Which he often did. (2) Play your own music as yourself, not trying to be someone else. Which I try to do every day.

DARK TOWN STRUTTER’S BALL the 1917 Shelton Brooks tune is one of the earliest traditional jazz songs to become a jazz standard. It was inspired by the 1915 Pacific-Panama Exposition in San Francisco. It is still up-to-date and fun today after nearly 100 years!

BAD LUCK BLUES is Blind Lemon Jefferson’s 1926 gambler’s lament, win or loose we all want to go back home.

MEAN OLD FRISCO is a traditional tune that blues legend Jessie Mae Hemphill used to play for me when we would be jamming together in her mobile home up in Komo, Mississippi.

HIGH STEPPIN’ TO NEW ORLEANS was composed as a group effort among the whole band and headed up by Bill Steber. During his crayfish omelette breakfast Bill hummed and wrote the lyrics down on napkins for a couple of mornings before we all headed into the studio for another day of recording.

HELP ME is one of the many Sonny Boy ll classics that have inspired generations of musicians, just like us. As a matter of fact it was the inspiration for the Memphis classic, “Green Onions”.

GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH is a spiritual which has been passed down since the American Civil War. As children we heard it and sang it. One of our favorite recorded versions of this tune is by the great North Mississippi Fife player, Mr. Othar Turner, who always played it at his picnics and live shows and who has gone before us to “lay his burden down”.

We hope that you enjoy this Cd and the music that is on it. Thanks for your support. So, stand tall, drink your whiskey straight, play your music loud and walk your dog every chance that you get!

Steve Gardner
Tokyo, Japan January 2009


JERICHO

“Jericho…the trumpets sounded…and the walls came tumbling down….”
(Joshua 6:20)

As a small boy growing up in Mississippi I often heard the Bible story of how music tumbled the walls of Jericho. Later on I heard the recordings of some of the best wall tumblers ever, Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly. Their music has been a guiding light in my life-especially as I have Rambled With The Blues from Mississippi to Tokyo along the tangled path, past the Big Delta Crossing to the walls of Jericho.

I recorded Jericho in Nashville, TN., the cradle of American roots music, with my good friends, the Jake Leg Stompers, forces of nature in their own right. They are a string band who always play their hearts out but never stay on the job too long!

So like the song goes, “It’s hard to hear freedom ring, 9-11 changed everything, be careful who you hate and who you fear….” And let music, tumble your walls down.

Jericho- real stories, real music, right now.

Steve Gardner
Nashville, TN.
August 2007

jessie mae hemphill and friends
CD/DVD dare you to do it again 2003

See web site-http://www.jmhemphill.org for full details and please check out Steve’s story about Jessie Mae Hemphill in the Ink Spots section of this web site.

BIG DELTA CROSSING, is my second CD. It is a simple collection of songs about life, love and adventure tempered with hard times, tall tales and simple truths filtered through the wiser eyes of experience. Big Delta Crossing is the blues running forward and looking backward as we wander into this new century.
The blues remind me that we never really leave our troubles behind no matter how far we roam from home and that life is for living not wishing and waiting. An old man I met once on my travels took the time to tell me that he thought that, "life was like the best bottle of whiskey you would ever get...so drink it all and try not to waste a drop!" Steve Gardner, Tokyo 2006



RAMBLING WITH THE BLUES is the sound of a guitars and harmonicas echoing the low groans once sung across fields or flung out of church windows, off back porches or tossed about at fish fry's and in hot front rooms. The Blues...stomped out and shouted...beat on drums or played on cane fifes...stories that make us all laugh and cry...music that touches our very soul.

This CD, RAMBLING WITH THE BLUES, was made with deep respect for the music and those who played and walked before me. Those who were generous enough to share their music, their lives, their blues with me...they gave me the chance to grow in spirit, to grow in the music and the responsibility to pass on to others the blues...the spirit of the blues.

Rambling with the blues. Mississippi on my mind.
Steve Gardner Tokyo 2002

[Rambling Steve Gardner]

[Rambling Steve Gardner]

My first CD, Rambling With The Blues, was the audio companion for my photo book, RAMBLING MIND, which contained a selection of images of, the people and places of the blues- MISSISSIPPI.

[Rambling Steve Gardner]

Here is a link to CD baby for the Cds, Big Delta Crossing, Jericho and Walkin' The Dog

[Rambling Steve Gardner]

cover for Walkin' The Dog-Steve Gardner, Washboard Chaz, The Jake Leg Stompers and Friends

[Rambling Steve Gardner]

Cd cover of Steve Gardner's-Big Delta Crossing