Rick Lee – Natick

Natick, Rick Lee’s first solo recording, updates the folk tradition with fine musicianship, a superb selection of 15 songs, some history and high spirits.

Lee performs contemporary and ancient songs with piano and old time banjo. The title song tells some of the tragic English Settler/Native American history of Seventeenth Century Massachusetts.

Here is the first recording of “The Harvest,” by Andy and Lauren May, an extraordinary portrait of a farm town in drought.

Several traditional Appalachian songs anchor the recording. “Lady Margaret” and “Locks and Bolts” are recorded with only voice and banjo. Included are songs collected by Lee in Scotland and Ireland. The classic ballad “Tam Lin” has been reworked; “Rise When the Rooster Crows” and Jez Lowe’s “The High Part of the Town” walk on the lighter side.

Born in New York City and raised in Texas, Lee comes from a musical family. His grandmother was a church organist and pianist. “My mother played the piano. My earliest memories are of lying under the piano and listening to them play duets.” Rick Lee has been a mainstay of the New England folk scene since moving to Boston in 1963. Natick is a wise and generous recording with appeal to good people of all ages. (Andrew Calhoun, Waterbug Records)

Natick was previously released on Waterbug Records (WBG0016) and was reissued by Swift River Music in 2003.Rick Lee: Natick

Tracks

1. Natick (Rick Lee)
2. High Part of Town (Jez Lowe)
3. The Tinkerman’s Daughter (M. McConnell)
4. I Made the Prison Band (Tommy Collins)
5. Strangers (Rick Lee and Holly Gettings)
6. Lady Margaret (trad., arr Rick Lee)
7. Love Comes to the Simple Heart (Chuck Hall)
8. Moonless Nights (Andy & Lauren May)
9. Rise When the Rooster Crows (trad., after Uncle Dave Macon)
10. The Prodigal Son (trad. – after “Dock” Boggs”)
11. Quabbin Moon (Andy May)
12. Locks and Bolts (trad., arr. Rick Lee)
13. The Harvest (Andy & Lauren May)
14. Lights Across the Bay (Phil & June Collclough)
15. Tam Lin (trad., arr. Rick Lee)

Credits

Produced by Andy May

• Rick Lee: vocals, 5-string banjo, keyboards
• Andy May: guitars, mandolin
• Holly Gettings: second vocal & guitar on Natick
• Joel Glassman: fiddle on Natick
• Ray Wassinger: drums on The Harvest
• Engineered by:
  • Randy Miotke, Eye in the Sky Studio, LaPorte, CO
  • Huck Bennert, Wellspring Sound, Concord, MA

Cover Photo: Edie Gale Hays

Design: Lauren & Andy May, Swift River Music

Liner notes: Rick Lee