with the support of you in my seat studios uh... you have your hands little cold but i think Hey everybody, it's Chad, Dolly Parton's America.We are currently editing the final episode of the series.It will drop a week from today.
In the meantime, I want to wish you all a very happy holidays.And as a holiday offering, in a token of our appreciation for listening to the series, spreading the word, I want to share with you a little more music that we gathered along the way.
I mean, we were super lucky on this project.We got to work with some incredible musicians who performed some Dolly songs for us, shared with us some of their own work.
In this bonus EP, you're going to hear two different performers, singer-songwriters, starting with the musician Nora Brown.
This is, it's a fretless banjo.
Okay. Nora is a very wise, very old soul who is actually only 14 years old.Already well established in the old-time music scene, already has an album.We'll link to it from our website.We recorded her at this beautiful church in Brooklyn called St.
Augustine Church.Really big domed ceilings and we sat sort of right in front of the altar and she got out her banjo and played us a song.How did you even learn to play this?
I started with this man named Shlomo Pesco.He was based out of Brooklyn. He started teaching me old-time music when I was six, but not on the banjo, on the ukulele.
And then he passed away, and then I started learning banjo from him.I just began to learn the banjo before he died, but I didn't really get much out of learning from him.So then I started learning from some other people around.
The song she played for us is called The Very Day I'm Gone, which was written by the late ballad singer 80 Gram.Nora first heard it off an album of 80 Gram's songs, performed on that record by the duet Anna and Elizabeth.Here's Nora's version.
I just can't stop playing the song.
You will know the train I am on You will hear the whistle blow I drink a lot You will hear the whistle blow
My honey says so I'll railroad no more I'll sidetrack my engine and go home Yes, I'll sidetrack my engine It's all sidetracked I'll go back home again Cause I'm a ramblin' woman, God knows Cause I'm a ramblin' woman, God knows
Yes, you'll hear the whistle blow a hundred miles Yes, you'll hear the whistle blow a hundred miles That is beautiful.Wow.
Can I just give you a high five?That was just perfect. You'll hear more of Nora in the next episode.She assisted us in creating a scene from Dolly's childhood.
Next musician that we want to play for you is a woman named Amethyst Kia, who's based in Johnson City, Tennessee, not too far from Knoxville.Amethyst recently collaborated with Rhiannon Giddens, Alison Russell, and Layla McCalla.
They formed the group Our Native Daughters. and just released an album called Songs of Our Native Daughters, critically acclaimed album.
And we initially contacted Amethyst and asked her if she'd be willing to play an old mine workers labor organizing song from West Virginia that told the story of some of the violence that occurred in those labor camps.
We didn't end up using that song because we cut the whole scene from episode seven, but in the course of things, Amethyst ended up performing an original song of hers that, like the last one from Nora, just stuck so deep in my head.
This song is called Firewater. Melancholy always seemed a word for me.Wistful and uncertain are my dreams.Stardust forms into shapes that never leave.Strange and weary they all seem.I'm a ghost in the hall of haze.
How many spirits does it take to lift a spirit?I don't know, I don't know.Cause I bought every spirit and I'm still laying here crying on the floor, on the floor. So can you just leave me be?
Being drenched in fire water won't save me I'll forsake the path of filth and fleas Can you just leave me be?
Pins and stairs are the only crowns I've ever gleaned So in the dark I find the answers that I need City lights are the only stars I ever see How many nights until I finally can breathe? How many spirits does it take to lift a spirit?I don't know.
I don't know.Cause I bought every spirit and I'm still laying here crying on the floor.On the floor.So can you just leave me be? Being drenched in fire water won't save me Half a sick, a path of filth and fears Can you just leave?Can you just leave?
That was Amethyst Kia performing the song Firewater at the Willow Tree Coffeehouse in Johnson City.Thanks to Terry Dozier for lending us that space to record in, and thank you to James Napoli for recording.
And thanks to Justin Hiltner, bluegrass player from our first bonus EP, who really connected us to Nora and Amethyst. And thanks also to Sam Gleaves for doing the research and performing that mining song, really bringing it to light for all of us.
You can find out more about Amethyst and Nora on our website dollypartonsamerica.org.We will be back in one week with the final episode.In the meantime, happy holidays, everybody.
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