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    THE BOAT YOU ROW (2022)
    In this project, Aubrey and Elwood curate archival American folk songs and dance as well as contemporary pieces by Sonny Houston, Jean Ritchie, Billy Edd Wheeler and Elwood himself.
    Ever growing and expanding, award-winning vocal, instrumental and dance artists Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly present The Boat You Row, their 14th album. Joined by top-notch musicians, Cathy Clasper-Torch, Erin Lobb Mason and Torrin Ryan, their breathtaking vocals are accompanied by mountain dulcimer, banjo, whistle, guitar, harmonica, foot percussion, violin, cello, piano, bass, Uilleann pipes and tambourine.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Boat You Row Atwater-Donnelly 2022 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    14
    releases

    Get all 14 Atwater-Donnelly releases available on Bandcamp and save 10%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Boat You Row Atwater-Donnelly 2022, The World Is Old Tonight, Each Other's Story 2011, The Weaver's Bonny 2009, The Halfway Ground 2007, When Winter Calls 2005, The Blackest Crow 2004, And Then I'm Going Home 2001, and 6 more. , and , .

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about

Bill Turner
Words and music by Sonny (Martin Wayne) Houston (1949-2017)
Based on Al Stewart's story of his house being taken for the highway, except that Al didn’t shoot anyone.
He literally grew up at Hindman Settlement School--his widowed father brought him to board at the school when he was 4. His home place was right where Hwy 81 is now, and when they took that part of his land, they cut his house in half to move it over to the side, but refused to build it back, so Al lived the rest of his life in a house that was open in the middle. Al founded Appalachian Heritage magazine and also started the Appalachian Writers Workshop.

lyrics

I was walking from the pasture when the man came through the gate
Bill had started out the screen door and I saw him hesitate
From his mouth the man’s teeth gleamed at Bill like hot coal in a grate

Now look here Mr. Turner, oh hell, I’ll just call you Bill
We’re gonna build a highway and we need this field
We’ll fatten up your bankbook; you can leave it in your will

We’ve offered you a whole lot more than this old farm is worth
And I don’t know why you insist on staying
We’re gonna build a highway nothing like you’ve ever seen
Line it up with Long John Silver, Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen

Now this farm was my father’s and his father’s before him
They want me to sign a paper now and give it to them
If they think I’m that crazy then they’d better think again

First they took the timber; then they took the coal
Strip-mine got the water; black lung took its toll
I’ve precious little left to lose except maybe my soul

The black cloud’s drawing closer but its meaning isn’t clear
Push too far a man begins to harden
Look down on me Jesus; guide my eye and still my hand
They’ll get my independence long before they get my land

In Bill’s hand was his old pistol; I could see it through the door
I told you the last time never come up here no more
The bark from Bill’s revolver left the stranger on the floor

They sent him off to prison, a bitter broken man
His children got his money; the highway got his land
Justice is a mistress sometimes hard to understand

Don’t sing another chorus of “My Old Kentucky Home”
She stands arrayed in splendid desecration
A vision of a people in a world that might have been
Apparitions drifting on the coal dust in the wind

credits

from The Boat You Row Atwater​-​Donnelly 2022, released August 19, 2022
Aubrey Atwater: vocals, mountain dulcimer, whistle
Elwood Donnelly: vocals, guitar
Cathy Clasper-Torch: vocals, cello
Erin Lobb Mason: bass
Torrin Ryan: Uilleann pipes

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Atwater-Donnelly Warren, Rhode Island

Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly, present delightful programs of traditional American and Celtic folk songs, a capella pieces, old-time gospel songs, dance tunes, and original works, blending gorgeous harmonies with guitar, Appalachian mountain dulcimer, mandolin, tin whistle, harmonica, banjo, bones, spoons, limberjacks, and Appalachian clog dancing and French Canadian footwork. ... more

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