Where to get "K.E.W.T"

Mill Street Books
52 Mill Street, Almonte
613-256-9090
http://millstreetbooks.com

CD Baby
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kewt

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K.E.W.T. - MOTHER LODE LINER NOTES
 
Unless otherwise noted, instruments used on this session were:
K.E. - 9 ft Steinway Grand
W.T. - '14 Peggy White 6 string steel
J.G - '52 Bass by Wenzel B. Wilfer
 
1 - SNOW ANGELS TAKE FLIGHT - K.E. Briggs
well, what if they could fly?  Written from my 12th floor roof apartment, during a most beautiful snow storm…
 
2 - FRONT ROOM - W.T. Tufts
Wrote this in the front sun porch at the home of some friends. Nice little refuge. For the Jaylie.
 
3 - WHIMSY - K.E. Briggs
Inspired by my beautiful homestead.
 
4 - WILLIAM WON’T TELL - W.T. Tufts
A play on W.T.'s first name and a Gioachino Rossini riff.
W.T. - '04 Marc Beneteau 7 string steel
 
5 - GRACE AND WONDER - K.E. Briggs
For Dave and Heidi
 
6 - HERE’S TO A BETTER YEAR - W.T. Tufts
Started out as a Christmas Carol and kinda turned into a prayer for a bill payment.
 
7 - VALENTINE FOR LOVELACE - K.E. Briggs
For Bob and all the impassioned folks who helped make a difference.
 
8 - LUNASA II - K.E. Briggs
For my beautiful daughter.
 
9 - THE BETWEEN - K.E. Briggs
For one of my favourite authors, Charles De Lint, and his exquisite skill for paving the way to an otherworld I often escape to.
W.T. - Linda Manzer Pikasso Archtop
 
10 - LAST FLIGHT OF LA VIGILANCE - W.T. Tufts
On September 2, 1922 pilot Don Foss and mechanic Jack Caldwell set out on what was to become the last flight of La Vigilance, one of four Curtiss HS-2L WW I flying boats (used as submarine chasers) purchased by Laurentide Forestry for purposes of aerial survey. After landing in a small lake to wait out bad weather, the plane cart wheeled on the water surface when it failed to get sufficient altitude for take-off. She slowly sank into the silt over the next fifty years until recovered for preservation in the sixties. The remains of this plane and the working replica now sit in The National Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, the last examples of an almost forgotten vehicle. W.T. wants one for the back yard.
 
11 - RHYTHM OF SPRING - K.E. Briggs
A May Day song, because I was happy.
 
12 - IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE - W.T. Tufts
W.T. originally wrote this as a two finger exercise for 6 string guitar.
 
"If I should ever fall from grace
And falter in thine eyes
I pray thee would for mem'ry s sake
Thy mem'ry not deny.
 
Forgive my wayward path and trail,
Thy blessings let be mine.
And kindness rule thy heart so true
As like I'd be inclined." - W.T. Tufts
 
13 - WALKING JANICE HOME - W.T. Tufts
K.E.'s mother, Janice Blair Briggs (maiden name Davidson) asked W.T. to play something light for leaving her grave site. This is what resulted. Love ya bunches, dearie.

Mill Street Books
52 Mill Street, Almonte
613-256-9090
http://millstreetbooks.com

or contact us at:

bluenorthernmusic@gmail.com

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K . E . W . T .   - WINTER LIGHT
A COLLECTION OF SEASONAL SOUNDS FROM SAMHAIN TO SOLSTICE
Blue Northern Music - Made In Canada
Kathryn Briggs - Piano, Vocals  John Geggie - Bass  Terry Tufts - Strings, Vocals

1  - See Amid The Winter's Snow - Edward Caswell

 Imagine a snow-covered log cabin in the woods, with an old upright piano named Prudence.  Friends have stopped in to play and are waiting out a snow storm.  They don’t mind the wait at all...  - K.E.
 
2  - Big ‘Ol Toboggan  - W.T. Tufts
 
When I was about 4 or 5, my brother Tim, my cousins and I took my father's gynormous beast of a toboggan down to the shore of Lake Erie and launched it from the Hatch's pagoda-roofed boat house.  We destroyed the toboggan.....then we ran and got out the saucers and followed suit. - W.T.
 
3  - Great Wheel (Tumble Down) - W.T. Tufts
 
An aural illustration of the sun as it commences tracing its' wheel around the sun at Winter Solstice. - W.T.
 
4  - A’Soalin’ - Noel Paul Stookey, T. Batteast, E. Mezzetti
(Neworld Music/Warner/Chappell)
Guest vocalists - Beth Tufts, David Francey
 
First heard this performed on the recording PETE, PAUL, AND MARY IN CONCERT.  Many thanks to David Francey and daughter Beth for adding to the humour, joy, and laughter of the project....and to Ken Friesen for letting us bring horses into the studio.  (Sorry 'bout the mess.  I promise I'll get to it.....) - W.T.

5  - Sojourn - (K.E. Briggs, J.D. Geggie, W.T. Tufts)
In Medley With: We Three Kings (John Henry Hopkins), La Marche Des Rois Mages (Trad.), God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (Trad.)
 
A tone poem illustrating the journey of the 3 kings through the desert at night, by way of the stars.  Thank you, Ian Tamblyn for the loan of a Gibson B45-12.  After years of listening to the guitar work of Scott Fraser (from the band Space Opera), I took to tune the octave strings to fifths.  Kathryn and I jammed it into rough shape and once we started full rehearsals, John embellished and put the final touches on it.
 
6   - The Huron Carol (lesous Ahatonhia) - Jean de Brébeuf
 
Since my days in Sunday school, this has always been a favourite, though its’ significance has shifted for me over the years.  The sparseness in this arrangement is all about the moonlight through the leafless trees and the welcome stillness winter brings. - K.E.
 
Iesus Ahatonnia/The Huron Carol

Ehstehn yayau deh tsaun we yisus ahattonnia
O na wateh wado:kwi nonnwa 'ndasqua entai
ehnau sherskwa triv-ota nonnwa 'ndi yaun rashata
Iesus Ahattonnia, Ahattonnia, Iesus Ahattonnia

7   - Dorval’s Descent - W.T. Tufts
 
For Yves Dorval inspired by a near-death experience on a toboggan....ok, adrenaline boosting experience at least.  Scared the hell out of me. - W.T.
 
8   - In The Bleak Midwinter - Christina Rossetti/Gustav Holst
 
While we chose not to use vocals for this, I still hear them as we play...
For Christina Rossetti, one of my women’s studies heroes - K.E.

9   - Slouching Toward Bethlehem - W.T. Tufts
 
The title comes from a poem by William Butler Yeats called THE SECOND COMING.  At the end of WW I people were so universally touched by four years, three months, and fourteen days of horror that a movement emerged promoting the belief that the Messiah MUST be returning if only to alleviate the hopelessness brought on by political manipulation and death.  The image painted by the last two lines of the donkey carrying mother and child were most striking:
 
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
 
Linda Manzer, maker of the Pikasso used on this cut, says "Yeats lived in my mother's house in Oxford England when she was a wee baby."  Selah. - W.T.
 
10 - The Sussex Carol - Luke Wadding
 
“News of great joy...”  Yup, we’ve got the joy down. - K.E.
 
11 - Song For A Winter’s Night - G.M. Lightfoot (Moose Music)
 
Always been a nice snowy tune...even though it was written in Cleveland in a thunderstorm. - W.T.

12  - Love Came Down At Christmas - Christina Rossetti
 
Did I mention I loved Christina Rossetti? - K.E.

13 - Stile Nacht, heilige Nacht - Franz Xaver Gruber
 
Terry envisioned a parlour party, hence the autoharp.  This interpretation invites singing... - K.E.
 
14 - Winter Light
12th Century Trad. Melody - The Wexford Carol
Lyric - W.T. Tufts
Guest vocalists - Beth Tufts & David Francey
 
This is the sub-sonic sound of the stars labouriously swinging into line to point to the sunrise on December 25th.  New lyrics because we wanted to send everyone home with a good thought.  The melody is a wonderful 12th century mixolydian roadmap credited to County Wexford in Ireland.  David Francey said "It's like Hendrix meets baby Jesus."  Kudos to Ken Friesen for the soundscaping and Beth, David, and Kath for the angel choir and John Geggie for being the sun... and Thor. - W.T.

DISCOGRAPHY

Kathryn & Terry as K.E.W.T.
2014 "Mother Lode"

Terry's recordings
1987 "Terry Tufts" (Snowy River Records)
1990 "Transparent Blue" (Blue Northern Music)
1995 "Down the Eighth and Gone" (Blue Northern Music)
1999 "2 Nights Solo - Live At Rasputin's" (Nutshell Music)
2001 "Walk On" (Borealis Records)
2002 "2 Nights Solo" re-release (Borealis Records)
2003 "Six Strings North of the Border, Vol 2" (Borealis Records)
2004 "Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot" (Borealis Records)
2005 "The Better Fight" (Borealis Records)
2008 "Artists For the Algonquin" (Leopard Frog Studio)
2008 "These Times" (Borealis Records)

Terry has also made special appearances on many other artists' recordings including
David Francey, The Arrogant Worms, Peggy White, Susan Aglukark and Marie-Lynn Hammond.

Purchase/listen to Terry's music here:  http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TerryTufts

Kathryn's recordings
2000 "Small Awakenings" (Blue Northern Music)
2006 "Carols for a Christmas Eve" with David Francey (Laker Music)
2008 "Artists For the Algonquin" (Leopard Frog Studio)

Purchase/listen to Kathryn's music here:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kathrynbriggs
Purchase Francey Christmas here:  http://www.davidfrancey.com/order.html