It’s “Mandomonium” around Here!

The long-awaited reissue of Mandomonium Mandolin Orchestra’s CD, Mandomonium, is a reality, and we’re glad to say, it will has a home on Swift River Music! Sporting the wonderful music art of Karen Cannon (who also did the covers for Andy May’s Cafe’Americana CD and Dance of Life reissue, newly remastered by our go-to engineer, Nathan Smith at Mainframe Recording Studio in Nashville, TN, and bursting with all the fun and spirit of the original release, we are delighted to add this title to our catalog.

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It’s Blackberry Season! Have a Taste of Andy’s “Blackberry Jam”!

This sweet video was created by Andy’s good friend and former band mate, the late Tabby Crabb, just for fun. (Thanks Tab!)

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Blackberry Jam - Andy May - cover art

Blackberry Jam – Song

©Lauren LeCroy MayAndy May (Swift River Music/BMI)

Behind the Song

Lauren (words): I wrote this lyric the first summer we lived in Tennessee, after we have been once through all the seasons. We had moved from Colorado at the end of the previous May with our then 2-year-old, and wild blackberries, which didn’t grow in the part of Colorado where we had lived, were a revelation to us. (So were chiggers, but that’s another story entirely!) Every bit of this song is true: Blackberry picking with our kid and our old black dog became a part of our summers, and blackberry jam became a part of our winters.

Andy (music): When Lauren first showed me this lyric, she asked if I could work in a break using a bit of the old fiddle tune, Blackberry Blossom when I scored it. I worked with it a bit and realized that the structure of her lyric fit Blackberry Blossom perfectly – it just needed a “b part.” Lauren re-worked one of her verses into a b part/chorus and I based the entire melody on Blackberry Blossom – including working in the break that Lauren has asked for.

Several years later, my buddy, Tabby Crabb, made a music video of this song for us. (Below) 

Listen

(… more, credits, lyrics)

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Andy May & CurtisMcPeake at Mainframe Studio

Photos: Recording on new Curtis McPeake-Andy May CD completed!

10 tracks. 4 musicians. 4 instruments. 1 heckuva good time!

Curtis McPeake Session - Mainframe Studio

View full-size on flickr

After a fast and furious week of recording, mixing and mastering, the new Curtis McPeake CD, as yet unnamed, is ready for the next step. Andy produced the old-time bluegrass project, featuring Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, Tim Dishman on bass, Andy May on lead vocals and guitar, and – of course – Curtis on banjo, at Mainframe Recording Studio in Nashville with Nathan Smith as engineer. More details to follow, but here are some pictures for you, now:

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Andy May-Room for Roots-Release Party-Station Inn

Photos: “Room for Roots” Release Party at the Station Inn

Station Inn, Nashville, TN. September 1, 2016.  Official release party for Andy’s 2016 CD, Room for RootsIt was a great night with a cast of thousands: Andy on guitar(s), Maura O’Connell, Jennifer O’Brien, Odessa Settles, and Nellen Dryden on vocals, Tony Paoletta on pedal steel, Kenny Malone on percussion…

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