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Robin was a unique spirit who loved old music and knew more about it than anyone. Luckily Jen Maurer asked me several times to record Robin because he needed to have a legacy. I embarked on this project hoping to have it released as a CD, but we never got to that point. Those who knew Robin understood that he didn't socialize well, and I knew that working with him could be a challenge. But I thought his music should be recorded, and I appreciated his love and deep knowledge of music history. He never appeared angry or critical of anyone, and had a Zen-like ease in the world.
There were many memorable moments, but two were so interesting I wrote notes about them. Once, when I was telling Robin that I could take noise out of a track, he said "I'm sure it'll be fine once you clean the buckshot out of it." Another time, I was recording him at his church piano at the United Church of Christ in Kent. Outside was a hill on rte. 59. He was staring out the window as a truck loudly labored up that hill when he said "Yeah, I hear ya buddy. You've got a heavy load. I've got a heavy load, too." Robin was from another era, but I'm sure glad he visited ours.
The tracks span a mix of old blues, Irish, and gospel songs. The gospel tunes come from his commitment to his faith.
Robin tapped his favorite players to add appropriate instruments to some tracks. Personnel -
Rockin' Robin (Robert) Montgomery, piano and vocals
Wallace Coleman, harmonica
Kevin Okey, acoustic and electric blues guitar
Ellen Eckhouse, harp
Tina Dreisbach, concertina and flute
Paul Dreisbach, sax
John Reynolds, fiddle
George Lee, bass
Gospel quartet is from the choir at the United Church of Kent. I don't have names, sorry.
Luckily I turned on a recorder when Robin and Wallace Coleman, legendary harmonica player from Cleveland, got into a discussion about old music. Clips from that are included here under the titles "Talk xx." Each clip is quite short. Musicians will appreciate some of the arcane history discussed. Everyone will enjoy hearing Robin.
Robin rewrote some lyrics to "Memphis Tennessee" to acknowledge a couple musicians who influenced him greatly.
The last 5 songs are from a private house concert in Kent around 2010, recorded by Larry Cole. Robin's intros to the songs are fascinating!
Now that Robin has passed, I feel that his music should be made available. I'm sure Robin wouldn't mind. He previously approved all the tracks. I gave him copies of everything several years ago. I also hope that this project gave him a sense that people value his musicianship.
Recorded and mixed 2011-2014 by Brad Bolton.
- Genre
- Folk & Singer-Songwriter
Contains tracks
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