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Bill Staines

Going to the West

Liner Notes
_
BILL STAINES:
LEAD VOCALS, GUITAR, SYNTHESIZER, AUTOHARP

BRIAN WOOD:
6-STRING, 12-STRING & HIGH STRING GUITAR, PEDAL STEEL, BANJO, ACCORDION
RANDY GLINES:
BASS HARMONICA
RON ERWIN
DRUMS, BODHRAN
GENE ELDERS: VIOLIN
DAVID WEBB: PIANO
PAUL PEARCY: PERCUSSION
PAUL SWEENEY: MANDIOLN
JOHN HILL: PERCUSSION, VOCALS
MELISSA JAVORS:
DUET VOCAL, VOCALS
BILL HEARNE
LEAD ACOUSTIC GUITAR, VOCAL
BONNIE HEARNE: VOCALS

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The Songs

GOING TO THE WEST (TRADITIONAL)
CHILD OF MINE (BILL STAINES)
BUFFY'S QUALITY CAFE (BILL STAINES)
CHILLY WINDS
(TRADITIONAL, ARR. BY JOHN STEWART)
SHOW ME THE ROAD (HARVEY REID)
RIVER (BILL STAINES)
CROSSING THE WATER (BILL STAINES)
'NEATH THE MOON AND THE MORNING STAR
(BILL STAINES)
DISTANCES AND MILES (BILL STAINES)
FILL MY THIRST (DOUG CLEGG)
AUTUMN WALTZ
(THE WIND RIVER TURNAROUND)
(instrumental, BILL STAINES)
BLACK SHEEP BOY (TIM HARDIN)

_

Bill Staines
has been my hero since 1977.
He carries on where Woody left off... carrying on the tradition of stories and characters
you wish you knew

This album is so fresh. It's dusk in summer of fireflies in the yard and it's dark of winter in comfort and warmth. It seems a celebration , this record, of Bill's gift to us all.
Producer, Brian Wood, has created with Bill a masterpiece for us to treasure.
That will never grow tiresome or dated.

It seems to me that the art of folk music is passing it on wih clarity. I've no doubts that Bill Staines' songs will be around this earth for generations to come and this album feel the best to date to take wing to the future.

I've always said ... when I grow up I want to be Bill Staines or Harlan Howard, both of whom are timeless, will out live themselves, and are masters we seek to be as songwriters and heart-worn interpreters of our times...
This album, Going to the West, is Bill's testament of that.

_

Nanci Griffith
Franklin, Tennessee
August, 1993

_

 Produced by Brian Wood
for WoodWorks Productions

Co-produced by Bill Staines

Album concept by Bill Staines

Executive Producer Bob Feldman

Recorded and mixed by
John and Laurie Hill
at Loma Ranch Studio, Fredricksburg, Texas

Melissa Javors appears courtesy of Making Waves Records

Album Liner Photography by
Tom Hindle

Album Liner Layout and Design by
Linda Beauvais

Other recordings by Bill Staines on Red House Records
Available on CD and Cassette

The Happy Wanderer - RHR 53
Bridges - RHR 25

© 1993, Red House Records, Inc.
P. O. Box 4044
St. Paul, MN 55104
All rights reserved.
RHR CD 56

GOING TO THE WEST
NOTES
THE STUDIO WAS IN A BARN BEHIND AN OLD, STONE FARM HOUSE JUST NORTH OF FREDRICKSBURG, TEXAS. THE DIRT ROAD DRIVE, SOGGY AND MUDDY AT TIMES, MEANDERED FROM THE HOUSE THROUGH A HAY FIELD FOR THE BETTER PART OF A MILE BEFORE ENDING AT THE PAVED ROAD BARELY VISIBLE IN THE DISTANCE. I WALKED THAT ROAD EARLY EVERY MORNING, DOWN TO THE HIGHWAY AND BACK, LISTENING TO, AND FEELING THE WIND AGAINST MY FACE, WATCHING THE WAVES OF GRASS DANCE IN THE WARM SUN. IT WAS GOOD FOR MY SOUL, THIS PLACE. I HAD COME HERE TO WORK, TO FIND A LITTLE OF MYSELF, TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS AND TO RECORD GOING TO THE WEST.

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, A CAR A CAR WOULD DRIVE BY ALONG THE ROAD AND NOW AND THEN ONE WOULD TURN UP THE DRIVE, SLIP AND SLIDE THIS WAY AND THAT THROUGH THE MUD, AND END UP AT THE DOOR OF THE BARN. FROM THESE CARS CAME SOME OF THE BEST MUSICIANS AND SOME OF THE NICEST PEOPLE I HAVE EVER WORKED WITH.

FOR NEARLY TWO WEEKS WE LABORED ON THE PROJECT, STARTING AT NOON AND GOING WELL INTO THE EVENING. IT WAS MAGIC FOR ME TO WALK OUT IN THE SILVERY FULL MOON NIGHT AND LISTEN THROUGH THE OPEN DOORS OF THE BARN TO WHAT WE HAD RECORDED THAT DAY

MY THANKS GO TO ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO WENT WITH ME ON THE PROJECT, TO BRIAN, TO JOHN AND LAURIE, TO ALL OF THE MUSICIANS, AND TO ALL OF THOSE FRIENDS WHO DROPPED BY JUST TO SEE HOW THINGS WERE GOING, TO THE FOLKS AT RED HOUSE RECORDS, AND TO THE ARMADILLO THAT KEPT ME COMPANY ONE LONELY NIGHT.

LASTLY, FOR THOSE WHO LISTEN, I THANK MY LUCKY STARS.

BILL STAINES
NEW HAMPSHIRE JULY, 1993


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