The Cider Miller's Daughter

Blogging our way through each song on my album, we have visited and heard every song so far but one. Maybe your nerves are still a little on edge from “Rice Crispies and Gin”. I considered ending the album with that abrupt surprise ending to that creepy song, leaving my listeners twitching, wide-eyed and with a new fear of the dark.

I thought better of it and decided to 'kiss it and make it all better' with a musical Band-Aide; something simple, romantic and sweet. I also thought it would be good to do something I've never even attempted before...

All acoustic.

My uncle ended his own life just before my parent's fortieth anniversary, ten years ago now. When I arrived for the my parent's party most of my uncle's belongings had been dealt with, but my father had set something aside for me: a four-string tenor banjo, not a very good one. It had no resonator and the neck was out of whack. Still it was an instrument and it was my uncle's, who as far as I know, didn't play a note.

The banjo sat on top of a pile of stuff in the passenger seat of my car as I drove myself nearly non-stop from New York back to LA. Every once in a while I reached over and plucked the strings of the banjo a little. Just to keep me company and keep me awake.

When I got home I realized I didn't even know how to tune the thing. I did what any bass player would do... I tuned it in fourths, like a bass (but higher). I messed around with a few things but one idea stood out so I expanded on it and recorded it.

The time setting of the storyline is deliberately ambiguous. There are references and language that could place the story at several different possible points across the 20^th century. The place could be many but it is clearly far from any city.

For a long time I called the song “Don't Stomp” but it bothered sounds too close to 'don't stop' so I went with a title that hopefully matched the country charm and innocence of the story.

The lyrics for the song evolved from several sources. The first lines “You fell out of the water, sank deep into the sky,” I used to set the stage of a whimsical and paradoxical world, a world like the one I met my wife in.

The First Verse:

I had not yet met my wife when I started writing this song, but talked to her every day. We met online through a pen pal site and had been corresponding and even talking on the phone. “The Cider Miller's Daughter” was not about our relationship directly but inspired by the youthful 'first love' feelings I had for her and how badly I wanted to meet her face to face and just hang out.

Just like a young man in Victorian times getting a glimpse of a young woman's bare ankle, merely being in the same room and sitting on a couch with my 'online girlfriend' would have (and eventually did, by-the-way) put me over the moon. Though I list this as the content of the first verse, the theme of my yearning and tribute to this breathtakingly beautiful and completely unique girl, continues throughout the song.

The Second Verse:

I loved the idea of a country house with a porch and a nearby pond. It's evening and the critters around the pond begin to come to life, making the sounds of their own courtship.

Into this world I placed a romance-minded young man using his record collection as a foot-in-door to the girl of his fancy. The girl, bored to tears with her home life, simply wants to 'stomp' to the music and have some fun. It's up to our hero to convince her that slow dancing, and a smooch or two can be fun as well.

The Third Verse:

Long ago, my mother once wrote a wonderful short story. Part of that story involved a boy kissing a neighbor girl for the first time. She “tasted like apples” the young man observed. That imagery stuck out in my mind for years.

I thought, if she tasted like apples perhaps it would be cool if her father was an apple farmer... but no, too basic, not romantic enough. I had visited a cider mill near Canandaigua Lake during a school field trip as a kid. I also happen to 'fancy' a particular girl who's name is “Miller” (sort of) , so I changed a few words and renamed the song...

The Cider Miller's Daughter

© 2002 Joel T Johnson

Here's the link so you can listen as you continue

You fell out of the water

Sank deep into the sky

You're the cider miller's daughter

and the apple of my eye

Your split personality

Doesn't bother me

Does it bother you?

I can come on 'round tonight

And bring my records

If you want me to

But please,

No, don't stomp

Don't stomp, we're going to skip the record

Please, no don't stomp

Just put your arms

And dance real slow with me

The crickets and the peepers

the moonlight on the pond

The path that leads to your house

And your house just beyond

The reality

Of you sitting next to me

Really turns me on

Let's turn the lamp real low

and save the light

(Just while your daddy's gone)

solos

You're pretty in your blue dress

There's an ocean in your eyes

You taste like summer

And your Mama's apple pie

Your split personality

Doesn't bother me

Does mine bother you?

I can come 'round tonight

And bring my records

if you want me to

But please,

No, don't stomp

Don't stomp, we're going to skip the record

Please, no don't stomp

Just put your arms

And dance real slow with me

The Recording

I had to adjust my recording techniques to record this all acoustic piece. Truth be told, I recorded the banjo with a homemade piezo pickup sitting between the bridge and the 'drum' head, in addition to a microphone.

To make a piezoelectric pickup from scratch:

• Buy piezo buzzers, or if your lucky just the raw piezo disks from a electronics surplus store.
• Carefully extract the disk from the buzzer -it's okay to damage the casing, but not the piezo disk..
• Cut one end off a guitar cord (use the one that's broken on one end -we all have one).
• Solder the signal wire from the guitar cord onto the white center section of the disk and the shield or the secondary wire to the metal outer section.
• Plug the other end into a preamp or mixer and viola you can attach that sucker to any instrument or get creative and find unusual things to attach it to. Ever wondered what a cymbal sounds like from the inside when you draw a violin bow across the edge?
• If there is too much output from the piezo you can simply trim the disk down with a pair of scissors.

I'd love to say that I used my Uncle's banjo to record the two banjo tracks (the second one a 'sweetening' double for the most part) but sadly, that old banjo wasn't up to the task and I had to buy a slightly better one on Ebay. Still, my rudimentary banjo skills and the less than stellar instrument meant I had to work hard to get some usable takes. The little banjo solo before the fiddle solo was especially challenging.

I recorded spoons early on and did a terrible job frankly. I'm not proud, but after extensive surgery, painstakingly shifting every ill-placed spoon note back on beat, the spoons were right on.

I wanted a real fiddle player to to play on the track since there I myself could not create a legit sounding quasi-blue grass song.

Through a blues/country musicians website, that I myself got most of my work in California from, I dialed up Luke Halpin. I could tell he wasn't thrilled at the rate I was paying ($20 an hour) but he didn't put up much of a fight.

One of the greatest advantages to living in LA is having access to incredible musicians for very little money. The opposite side of that coin is, as a musician it nearly impossible to make a living for the same reason.

I had never met Luke or even heard him play but he seemed to Google-out pretty well. Most importantly, he seemed like a great guy. Sure enough, he was a joy to work with and soon enough he was sitting in my living room (Windpower studio A) and I had a great sounding fiddle track.

Luke Halpin, fiddle
check out he and his girlfriend Stephanie here

Time was running short. After recording several versions of the fiddle solo, he said he didn't feel great about any of them on the whole, but if my Frankenstein editing skills were up to the task, I could surely piece together a killer solo.

That's exactly what I did.

The upright bass part I tracked at Anna Stadlman's house using her bass complete with the wind chimes in the background.

Originally I wanted to bring some female back-up singers including Luke's girlfriend and my friend Danielle, but time and money ran short and I tracked the backing vocals myself. This song was deceptively difficult for me vocally. I had to make good use of my newly found "middle voice" to sing solid notes in the upper register without screaming the heck out of my chest voice. Thanks again Roger Love -vocal coach & author.

The whole song was a step outside my usual modus operandi, but I feel pretty good about it. It sounds down-home like I wanted it to, but unlike a typical country/blue grass tune.

The Journey's End

Well we've completed the twelve week journey through all eleven songs on my first album. I was happy to have you along for the ride. There are already songs brewing for album number two!

With some minor editing these blogs will soon become liner notes for the album available on my regular website.

Don't go away though, I'm still bloggin' every Saturday. Part I of my annual Christmas story is on deck!