Seatrain

[pickinray]

Originally Posted by janinep7

I doubt you're too old.

I will have to listen to the other two versions. I think all the songs on that Seatrain album kind of work together as one musical experience. I like their version of Willin' but now that I know there are others, I'll have to compare.



I just discovered a few other versions of "Loves Me Like A Rock," beyond the Paul Simon one. It's amazing how different artists interpret the same song.

Richard Shindell also does a good version of Willin’. It’s a great song, one of my favorites to play.

I'm putting that one on the list, too.

I'm so happy they moved this thread to Play and Write. I might not have ever gotten here but what a fabulous resource and wealth of knowledge.

I have been looking at the photo from the cover of the Seatrain album. I think it looks a lot like the Marin Headlands. Does anyone happen to know where the photo was taken? Google tells me they started in Marin, but relocated to Mass.

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

This is a little off the subject, but in the early 1980s I got to know John Gregory very well. He and I played a couple of Martin acoustic guitars in a church group with my wife and several other folks. He was a great guitar player, and he and I had a lot of fun making music together.

He had been working nearby on the Satsop nuclear site project as a carpenter. As the nuke site wound down here and his job was at risk, he packed his family up and moved down to Texas headed for another similar project. That was the last I ever saw of John Gregory. It was a very sad parting; we had gotten to be really good friends.

- Glenn

I was just doing more googling, and it looks like John Gregory was only with them for the very beginning. I don't know that I've ever listened to anything but the first album. But how cool that you knew him! Maybe you could find him and get back in touch? With the internet, social media, etc. it shouldn't be too difficult. Life has a way of bringing people back together like that. Let us know if you do!

[Arapaho G]

I'm old enough and I do remember them, although I don't remember much beyond "13 Questions". I'm sorry but to me this is just a hatchet job on a truly great song from Lowell George. I may be biased as I'm a huge Little Feat and Lowell George fan, but I've never heard a version of "Willin" I thought was better than the original. And Peter Rowan? The best thing he ever did was team up with Tony Rice.

[kkrell]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Um.....I decided to google Seatrain song book, and it looks like you're in luck if you're okay with the price:

https://tredwellsmusic.com/seatrain-self-titled

Cheaper at Biblio or Amazon, for $22 to $28 (used & new).

[pickinray]

Originally Posted by Arapaho G

I'm old enough and I do remember them, although I don't remember much beyond "13 Questions". I'm sorry but to me this is just a hatchet job on a truly great song from Lowell George. I may be biased as I'm a huge Little Feat and Lowell George fan, but I've never heard a version of "Willin" I thought was better than the original. And Peter Rowan? The best thing he ever did was team up with Tony Rice.

I wouldn't call it a hatchet job, but the Seatrain version is definitely more up-tempo than the Little Feat version, which I also think is the best. Lowell George was a great talent who left us way too soon. Peter Rowan is very talented in his own right. His work with Tony Rice was fantastic, but so was his work with Bill Monroe, David Grisman, Clarence White, etc. Peter Rowan is a Bluegrass/Americana music legend.

Originally Posted by pickinray

I wouldn't call it a hatchet job, but the Seatrain version is definitely more up-tempo than the Little Feat version, which I also think it the best. Lowell George was a great talent who left us way too soon. Peter Rowan is very talented in his own right. His work with Tony Rice was fantastic, but so was his work with Bill Monroe, David Grisman, Clarence White, etc. Peter Rowan is a Bluegrass/Americana music legend.

I am probably a fan club of one over here, but I like the Seatrain version the best because it's more upbeat. The Little Feat, Linda Ronstadt and Richard Shindell versions sound like they are dragging to me. If I'd heard them do it before Seatrain, I might feel differently. Clearly, I will have to do my own version, adding to the long list of artists who have covered what is definitely a great song!

[Arapaho G]

To each his/her own. My mother always told me if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all. Probably should have kept my mouth shut but it just struck a nerve.

The Seatrain songbook arrived from inter-library loan. It's interesting because it's actual sheet music with guitar chords but not tablature. It makes me wish I knew how to read music for real. It'll be a challenge to see if I can figure out how to actually play any of the songs.

Also, in their version of Willing, according to the sheet music, they do "Alice, Alice, Alice" vs. "Alice, Dallas, Alice." I guess everyone has to put their own spin on things!

[rule18]

Originally Posted by janinep7

Duet some time at Front Porch?
If you'd be Willin'...

I see whatcha did there...

[fpuhan]

I know this has been mentioned already, but the song "Willin'" was penned by the late Lowell George, of Little Feat fame. But like others, I first heard it on the Seatrain album back when I was in college. In fact, I used to have their first three albums (I think they only recorded four).

Anyway, a quick fix for questions like this always leads me to two online sources: Ultimate Guitar and Chordify.

[fpuhan]

Originally Posted by janinep7

The Seatrain songbook arrived from inter-library loan. It's interesting because it's actual sheet music with guitar chords but not tablature. It makes me wish I knew how to read music for real. It'll be a challenge to see if I can figure out how to actually play any of the songs.

Also, in their version of Willing, according to the sheet music, they do "Alice, Alice, Alice" vs. "Alice, Dallas, Alice." I guess everyone has to put their own spin on things!

I had to chuckle at this, because I have a lot of songbooks from the late 1960s and 1970s (maybe I could make money selling them on fleabay?). Nearly every one of them, even the "official" publications by the artist/studio are flawed in some ways.

I have a Robin Trower songbook from the 1970s and the "tab" used in it is so far removed from anything seen today that it's almost like a different language. But that's because tablature hadn't become standardized at that time.

Originally Posted by fpuhan

I had to chuckle at this, because I have a lot of songbooks from the late 1960s and 1970s (maybe I could make money selling them on fleabay?). Nearly every one of them, even the "official" publications by the artist/studio are flawed in some ways.

I have a Robin Trower songbook from the 1970s and the "tab" used in it is so far removed from anything seen today that it's almost like a different language. But that's because tablature hadn't become standardized at that time.

What a gorgeous photo! I had so many of those albums. I wish now I had not gotten rid of all my vinyl. I moved around like a gypsy too much in my 20s and 30s, eventually CDs and MP3s took their places, but it's not the same multi-modal aesthetic experience of a real album - music, art and the liner notes, esp. if they were well written. Live and learn. I do love it that younger people are getting into vinyl these days.

After just a preliminary attempt to follow the sheet music while listening to the song, I see I have much to learn! It's nothing at all like trying to follow a chord sheet or a tab. It's like trying to read a foreign language. And whoever did the chords in this book must've been from a different planet where they don't actually play guitars!

One song I really love off that Seatrain album is called "Broken Morning." But who ever wrote a song with so many flats, minors, minor flats, flat minors, etc? My next task, other than trying to roll my own chord sheets from some of these is to learn how to transpose to a much simpler key. And because the key signature is also in musical notation, I can't even tell which one it is!

But we've got a long holiday weekend coming up, and I just decided today to go out and buy myself my very own real "big girl" guitar (that's called a S-NGD - Stealth NGD, when you sneak it in as a casual mention and then wait to see who notices), so that should keep me plenty busy.

Thank you for posting the photo of those song books. It's a beautiful trip down memory lane.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by janinep7

But we've got a long holiday weekend coming up, and I just decided today to go out and buy myself my very own real "big girl" guitar (that's called a S-NGD - Stealth NGD, when you sneak it in as a casual mention and then wait to see who notices), so that should keep me plenty busy.

Aha! I thought I spotted something smelling good around here

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

Aha! I thought I spotted something smelling good around here

You are the only one so far.