Spencer Bohren - Carry the Word

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Carry the Word

After decades of mining the roots of American music, it was inevitable that Spencer Bohren would someday dig into the fertile soil of his own gospel-singing childhood. His explorations led to a musical place filled with imagery from a distant America. Here there were lonesome train whistles, big rivers, chariots of fire, epic battles, long journeys and heavy burdens, as well as strong men and beautiful women. Here the enemy was doubtlessly in league with the Devil and all paths led to Gloryland.

The theme that emerges is not really salvation, however, but rather the quest for freedom. These songs sing of crossing those rivers, escaping bondage, flying away, and generally slipping the chains of this mortal plane.

Carry the Word is a loving collection of Gospel-related Folk Music in which Spencer Bohren takes the listener from the sweet Southern Quartet sound of the Carolinas to a charismatic sanctified country church meeting in the Delta, with stops along the way for a Kentucky banjo piece, a heavenly instrumental version of Amazing Grace, and a couple of gorgeous originals. Inspiring!

Best CD by a Louisiana Artist 2001, Keith Spera/Times Picayune, New Orleans.

Tracklist

1. I am a Pilgrim

2. Bound for Glory

3. Samson and Delilah

4. Wings of an Angel

5. One Kind Favor

6. Carry the Word

7. River Jordan

8. Gospel Plow

9. I’ve Been Delivered

10. Amazing Grace

11. Beulah Land

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Spencer Bohren - Dirt Roads

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Dirt Roads

According to Dirty Linen, the Folk Music “bible” of New England, Spencer Bohren's DIRT ROADS is “…the most stunning Blues recording of the year!”

It is an unusually atmospheric set of music, paying tribute to a musical era before radio, television and the media informed the public taste. The title implies a period before pavement, before the automobile.

It was a time when music was a pure expression of the heart, soul, or the circumstances of life. The acoustic instrumentation of Spencer Bohren on guitar, slide and mandolin, backed by JAB Wilson on harmonica, is as comfortable as an old pair of boots. It's soothing to the soul.

Included are traditional blues, spirituals and field hollers, along with several of Spencer's “traditional originals,” inspired by back roads music from America's past. DIRT ROADS became an instant favorite among Spencer Bohren fans worldwide.

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Tracklist

1. Down the Road

2. Born in a Biscayne

3. In-Between Friends

4. Hard Time Killin’ Floor

5. C’Mon Down

6. Witch Doctor

7. Broke Down Engine

8. Been ‘Round the World

9. Long Gone Lonesome Blues

10. No Expectations

11. Dirt Road Blues

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Spencer Bohren - Makin' it Home to You

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Makin’ it Home to You

What’s the old saying…

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue? The adage describes this album just about perfectly. A couple of gems from my long-ago repertoire are reimagined with the able assistance of my crackerjack band, the Whippersnappers. There are several new songs, some of which were being polished until the last take of the recording sessions. A couple were borrowed from friends. And blue? Well, some people say everything I sing is blue to some degree.

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Tracklist

1. Travelin’

2. A Thousand Dusty Miles

3. Lost Forever in Your Kiss

4. I’ve Been Delivered

5. Is Your Heater Hot Tonight

6. In the Absence of the Sacred

7. Thief in the Night

8. Makin’ it Home to You

9. The River’s Risin’

10. Delia

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Spencer Bohren - Seven Birds

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Seven Birds

According to persistent legend a truck carrying a load of green parrots turned over on the Interstate highway near New Orleans sometime in the late twentieth century and spilled its colorful cargo into the local mythology. Whether the story is true or not, there are green parrots all over town and they often congregate noisily in tall palm trees and on telephone and electric wires above the heads of the citizens. The song, Seven Birds, was inspired by the activities of these birds and their similarities to the activities of my son, Tucker, and his teenage friends during high school. Like the parrots who fly away one at a time, Tucker’s friends dispersed slowly as they grew into adults. There are eleven stories on this album, but this is the only one told from the perspective of a flock of birds.

Midnight Delta gives us a feeling for the sights and sounds of rural Mississippi. I’ve Been Delayed tells of longing and loneliness. The Party’s Over describes the liberation of a woman who has finally had enough of her old life, while I’m the One paints a picture of acceptance of a status quo that is far from perfect. What’s in Your Pocket takes us on a tour of one man’s personal, portable treasures; and Disappearing Nightly illuminates the life of a traveling musician. The thread that ties these songs together is nothing more or less than life itself.

On this album I take advantage of a pool of musician friends in Germany. Sini, Reinhard, Fred and Mutz bring fresh ideas to the studio; and it is a treat to create music with them. The two tracks recorded in New Orleans give me a chance to introduce the wonderfully impish Aurora Nealand, one of my all-time favorite musical cohorts. But, of course, no matter how much we enjoy making music, the circle is not complete until someone hears it. Thank you for listening!

Spencer Bohren
January 2015, New Orleans

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Spencer Bohren - Tempered Steel

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Tempered Steel

“My relationship with the lapsteel guitar is unlike anything else in my life. It speaks both to me and through me, as if it had a mind of its own. When I play it in concert, people are often deeply moved, and every night someone asks, “Which CD has the most lapsteel?” At last, here is the definitive answer to that question. Every song on this recording is performed on the lapsteel guitar. It’s a slippery ride, so fasten your seatbelt!”

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Tracklist

1. Ring Them Bells

2. Money Blues

3. Suite Steel

4. No More Cane on the Brazos

5. Hallelujah

6. Wayfaring Stranger

7. Down in Central Tennessee

8. Broke Don Engine

9. Hard Times

10. Bobby Jo

11. Just Like a Woman

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Spencer Bohren - Blackwater Music

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Blackwater Music

Blackwater Music lines out what has been on Spencer Bohren's mind lately: a good friend caught in the past, environmental irresponsibility in Louisiana and his home state of Wyoming, the passage of time, deep love. The usual parade of guitars, particularly highlighting the lap steel singing both sweetly and raucously, define this emotion-filled collection of all original songs. Son André Bohren is featured on drums, percussion, and gospel piano, with further assistance from a variety of New Orleans notables. All new songs by Spencer Bohren.

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Tracklist

1. Old Louisa’s Movin’ On

2. Your Home is in My Heart

3. It’s Gonna Take a Miracle

4. Bad Luck Bone

5. Has Anyone Seen Mattie?

6. Borrowed Time

7. Take Me to Rampart Street

8. Blackwater Music

9. Your Love

10. The Old Homestead

11. Listen to the Wind

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Spencer Bohren - The Blues According to Hank Williams

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The Blues According to Hank Williams

Every song on this album was recorded or sung by Hank Williams more than fifty years ago. They pretty much cover the entire range of human emotion. Whether he was singing about love or loneliness, anger or ecstasy, salvation or sorrow, jubilation or indifference, Hank had a knack for getting directly to the heart of those feelings. His songs give voice to anyone who has ever lost in love, been in trouble, or felt their spirit soar or fall… in short, just about all of us.

I’ve been a Hank Williams fan for forty years, and I consider it an honor to sing these songs for you the way I hear them.

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Tracklist

1. Lonesome Whistle

2. I’m Gonna Sing

3. Honky-Tonk Blues

4. Weary Blues

5. Mind Your Own Business

6. Crazy Heart

7. I Can’t Help It

8. My Sweet Love Ain’t Around

9. Moanin’ The Blues

10. Cold Cold Heart

11. I’m So Lonesome, I Could Cry

12. Live and Love

13. Lovesick Blues

14. I Saw the Light

15. Ramblin’ Man

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Spencer Bohren - Live at Tube Temple

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Live at the Tube Temple

In October of 2007, Spencer Bohren christened the Tube Temple Concert Series in Solingen, Germany's recording studio of the same name. A few nights later, another show of his fall tour of Germany was recorded at the Music Star in Norderstedt, on the outskirts of Hamburg. Both recordings accurately capture the intimacy and atmosphere of a Spencer Bohren concert, and the highlights have been blended together to create “Spencer Bohren: Live at the Tube Temple.” But enough talk. Listen for yourself!

Ladies and gentlemen, a warm round of applause, please. All the way from New Orleans, Louisiana…

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Tracklist

1. Night is Falling

2. Morning Blues

3. Weary Blues

4. Wade in the Water

5. Hey, Hey Daddy Blues/Maple Leaf Rag

6. Wings of an Angel

7. Darkness

8. Lovesick Blues

9. People Get Ready

10. Linin’ Track

11. Long Black Line

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Spencer Bohren - The Long Black Line

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The Long Black Line

“Every New Orleanian knows about the long black line, the dirty bathtub ring left by receding floodwaters. Folk/blues troubadour Spencer Bohren threads that indelible image through a post-Katrina landscape laced with the menace and moan of a slow-crawl, doomsday acoustic slide guitar. His unflinching narration resonates with the authority of an Old Testament prophet. “The Long Black Line” could serve as the soundtrack to a Katrina documentary, but video footage would be redundant – Bohren's song paints an all-too-vivid picture.

“Also performed are an array of topical songs that give the listener the feeling of reading the news of the day.”

– Keith Spera for the Times Picayune.

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Tracklist

1. Long Black Line

2. Canned Heat

3. Full Moon

4. Iowa Night

5. Ode to Billy Joe

6. Deportees

7. Sand to Sand

8. Cairo Blues

9. Another Day

10. Somebody on Your Bond

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Spencer Bohren - Down the Dirt Road Blues

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Down the Dirt Road Blues

Beginning with a melody carried in the heart of a man chained in the hold of a Sixteenth-Century slave ship, Down the Dirt Road Blues tells the story of one song's journey through American history and culture. Using era-appropriate instruments as accompaniment, the African melody travels from the cottonfields of Mississippi to urban Memphis, Tennessee, and on to the Appalachian mountains, the studios of Nashville, the genesis of the Rock 'n' Roll era, and the Folk Boom and English Invasion of the 1960s.

Performance of Down the Dirt Road Blues in schools, universities, and community concerts, both nationally and internationally, garnered Spencer the 2010 Keeping the Blues Alive award from the Blues Foundation in 2010.

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Tracklist

1. Africa

2. Slavery Days

3. Homemade Banjo

4. Birth of the Blues

5. Delta Slide

6. Jug Band Music

7. Take to the Hills

8. Blue Yodel

9. Back to the Delta

10. Nashville Bound

11. North to Chicago

12. Urban Shuffle

13. Rock and Roll

14. English Invasion

15. Folk Room

16. Full Circle

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Spencer Bohren - Southern Cross

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Southern Cross

Spencer Bohren's lifelong interest in America's musical history comes full circle with Southern Cross. In his capable hands, a variety of stringed instruments breathes life into a cornucopia of traditional blues, gospel, country, and rhythm 'n' blues songs.

His original pieces fit so seamlessly into the tradition that one must look at the liner notes to identify them, and the comfortable pace and depth of performance make it his most mature effort to date. From the powerfully evocative lapsteel intro of “People Get Ready” to the lonesome frailed banjo of his own “East Kentucky Coaldust,” Spencer takes the listener on a sublime and unforgettable musical journey.

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Tracklist

1. People Get Ready

2. Goin’ Down the Bayou

3. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

4. Blues Stay Away From Me

5. Wake Me, Shake Me

6. Long Black Veil

7. East Kentucky Coaldust

8. I’ll Be Around

9. Parchman

10. Workin’ on a Building

11. Lost Highway

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Spencer Bohren - Solitaire

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Solitaire

Spencer Bohren's Solitaire documents many of the most beloved songs from his concert repertoire in their acoustic form.

Though several of the tracks have been previously released, these versions are what the audience typically hears at a Spencer Bohren concert. All of the elements are here, from the deep delta bottleneck slide work of Been 'Round the World, to a chilling rendition of the original, Witch Doctor, performed on the supremely evocative lapsteel guitar.

Other original contributions include the ever-popular Born in a Biscayne, the lonesome ballad, In-Between Friends, and the jaunty Down the Road. Blind Willie McTell, The Rolling Stones, Hank Williams, Skip James and Charley Patton fill out the songlist.

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Tracklist

1. Down the Road

2. Born in a Biscayne

3. In-Between Friends

4. Hard Time Killin’ Floor

5. C’Mon Down

6. Witch Doctor

7. Broke Down Engine

8. Been ‘Round the World

9. Long Gone Lonesome Blues

10. No Expectations

11. Dirt Road Blues

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