Good Stuff, and Larry Rice, Comes Out of the Woodwork

Here's one for all you Larry Rice fans. I see you stop by for one reason or another and now hopefully here's a better one.

One of the disadvantages of iTunes -- and there aren't many -- is that you don't always get all the liner notes and who-plays-what and so forth, certainly not when you buy a song, but often not when you buy an album.

That happened to me the other day when I heard this great song on FolkAlley. I looked it up and the album just got these great reviews and I said, wellllllwhaththeHECK, I think I just gotta add it to my collection. And I did, and I'm really really REALLY glad I did, except that I don't have the liner notes.

Woops!

The album is called Out of the Woodwork and features Tony and Larry Rice, and Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen.

Native Californian Hillman is known to many of you as a founding member of the Byrds, whose first hit, Bob Dylan's "Tambourine Man," kind of ushered in the whole folk-rock thing. (If you want some rock band drama check out the wiki bio here. But then come back and read and listen, ok? Ok.)

Most of you know the Rice Brothers. Tony Rice is often mentioned here because his playing just doggone settles my soul down. His brother Larry, a mandolin player, died last year after a long illness, and by all accounts is missed a great deal. Banjo player Herb Pedersen began recording with Hillman in the 1980s and together Chris and Herb have made close to ten albums plus the work they did as two of the Flying Burrito Brothers. The duo will play The Kent Stage on Friday the 13th of April. I'll be stuck in the Nashville muck at the bottom of my sister's pond so I hope you catch the show for me.

As I was driving out to Kent the other night to the Stage, I was enjoying this recording and thinking, wow, so there he is, that's Larry Rice there on mandolin -- and vocals. And I thought of all the people who still stop by here because of an old post they found on Larry when he passed away. What a fool I am, I've been missing something pretty wonderful.

Larry also lends vocals on a number of the tracks, and tonight, on my way home late from a meeting and feeling a little tired and sad, it was such a great comfort to have him along singing and playing there beside his brother Tony. He does a cut of Richard Thompson's Dimming of the Day that just brings on the longing. (Thompson hits the Stage this Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.)

SO this album really is a find, and like its title came sort of "out of the woodwork" for me, like many of the best things in life do. The more I stop looking for answers and just keep on plugging away, the more pleasant the surprises come.

What caught my attention in the first place is a track called So Begins the Task. It's a Steven Stills tune, actually. Larry Rice gets the first solo, and I'm looking forward to spending some time with it and playing it over and over. I'll never be perfect but Larry knows I try.

And I do try. And sometimes, something good comes out of the woodwork.

So Begins the Task

And so begins the task

I have dreaded the coming of

For so long

I wait for the sun

To remind my body

It needs restin'

And I must learn to without you now

I must learn to give only part some how

Camping on the edge

Of your city I wait

Hoping someday

You might see beyond yourself

The shadows on the ceiling

Hard, but not real

Like the bars that cage you within yourself

And I must learn to without you now

I must learn to give only part some how

And I must learn to without you now

As I cannot learn to give only part some how

All of these cages must and shall be set aside

They will only keep us from the knowing

Actors and stages

Now fall before the truth

As the love

Shared between us remains...

Growing

And I must learn to without you now

As I cannot learn to give only part some how