Scott Ezell - FROM THE WINDOW OF A TRAIN

FROM THE WINDOW OF A TRAIN

ALBUM INFO

From the Window of a Train—Demos and Runaways, 2001 – 2004

Listen to samples from FROM THE WINDOW OF A TRAIN

FROM THE WINDOW OF A TRAIN is a roadmap of years on the road in America and Asia, years of living with traditional peoples, years of picking up diverse musical ideas and instruments and weaving them together into an experimental whole. These compositions include acoustic guitar, percussion, banjo, bamboo flutes, harmonicas, jews harps, tonkori (an instrument from the Ainu tribe of Hokkaido, Japan), and electric guitar feedback. The album ends with a live version of “Industrial Love” from the Sugar Factory performance art venue in Dulan Village, on the Pacific coast of Taiwan.

FALLOUT ORDER OF THE SONGS

1. For One Who Does Not Answer Questions – guitar, harmonica, percussion, bass

2. Traintracks Rusting in the Sun – electric slide guitar

3. News of Death on an Autumn Evening – guitar, harmonica, bamboo percussion, slide

4. Rice Wine in a Bamboo Cup – aboriginal bamboo flute from the Amis tribe of Taidong, Taiwan

5. Swing and Turn Jubilee – traditional (I sing the chorus as “swing and turn to believe” because I mis-heard the lyric on a Doc Watson tape)

6. Tonkori – tonkori, guitar, flute (The tonkori is a traditional instrument from the Ainu tribe of Hokkaido, Japan. It’s built with a rock enclosed within the wooden body, representing the heart and spirit of the instrument. The creaking sound in the song is me turning the tuning pegs trying to keep the tonkori in tune while the tape was rolling.)

7. Electric Still Life in F# – guitar feedback with tape-reversed acoustic guitar

8. Circles – guitar, percussion, bass

9. Jews Harp and Bamboo Flute

10. Ming-sho’s House on Orchid Island – banjo

11. Dulanshan – Chinese bamboo flute

12. Lanyu – Spanish guitar

13. Industrial Love, Live at the Sugar Factory – electric guitar and flute, with percussion by Brian Curran and vocal cameos by Yiming and the Open Circle tribe, recorded live at the Sugar Factory in Dulan, Taiwan

SCOTT EZELL: From the Window of a Train--Demos and Runaways

These songs comprise a synthesis of folk Americana with Asian traditions, and their textures and colors are a topographical map of musical, cultural and physical journeys between America and Asia from 1992 to 2004.

Most of these songs were recorded on analog tape in a driftwood studio I built with the help of my aboriginal woodcarver friends on the Pacific coast of Taiwan. I’m grateful to those friends from the Open Circle Tribe (you can hear them on the last song), as well as to Taiwan TV for fireasale-ing their beautiful analog tape machines; to the indie label Taiwan Colors Music for signing me to record an album of train songs that was never released; to the directors who hired me to compose a soundtrack for a documentary film on Orchid Island that was never produced; to JR for not becoming a chicken farmer; to Kate and Te Toh above and beyond the call of duty; and to Ming-sho for quietude and small things.

All music written, performed and engineered by Scott Ezell except:

“Swing and Turn Jubilee,” traditional, arranged by Scott Ezell;
percussion on “Industrial Love Live” by Brian Curran.