Session Americana
December 12, 2009
Club Passim
Cambridge, MA

Jim Fitting – harmonicas, mandolin and vocals
Sean Staples – mandolin, guitar, banjo, mandocello, field organ and vocals
Jon Bistline – bass, guitar and vocals
Billy Beard – drums, percussion and vocals
Ry Cavanaugh – guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo, field organ and vocals
Dinty Child – guitar, mandocello, mandolin, banjo, accordion, field organ and vocals

guest appearances by:
Merrie Amsterburg – guitar and vocals
Melissa Ferrick – guitar and vocals
Peter Linton – electric guitar
Rose Polenzani – vocals

Once again I had the privilege of capturing the intimate and free-wheeling holiday shows of this six-man musical juggernaut at Club Passim in Cambridge. It’s truly a joy to watch a group of superlative musicians who are so comfortable with their abilities and each other as they perform a dazzling variety of original compositions, folk and country classics, and the odd cover of Prince and Captain Beefheart. This recording represents excerpts from both the 7:00 and 10:00 shows.

Disc 1 - from 7:00 show

1. intro to early show
2. Diving For Gold
3. The Drivin’
4. Raglan Road
5. You’ve Got To See Mama Every Night
6. Lonesome On’ry and Mean
7. Kern River
8. wigs and robes
9. We Three Kings
10. our own tables
11. I Could Never Take the Place Of Your Man
12. Beertown
13. band intros and acknowledgments
14. Ice Cream Man
15. I Can’t Get Out

Disc 2 - from 10:00 show

1. intro to late show
2. Trinity
3. Another Night With the Boys
4. Something Heavy
5. Via Chicago
6. The Shape I’m In
7. Merry Christmas Baby
8. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
9. Santa’s Suit
10. What Are Those Things (Big Black Wings)
11. Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight
12. Nowadays a Woman’s Gotta Hit a Man
13. acknowledgments
14. Born Again
15. The Coalburner

Stream the shows from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

House mix by Matt Smith
Recorded, mixed and edited by Keith Bergendorff

Milab DC-196 (Blumlein pair in front of stage) > Darktrain Silver cables > Oade Concert R-44 @24/44.1 > cardreader
SBD > Oade Concert PMD-661 @24/44.1 > cardreader > Voxengo r8brain (resampling to sync with R-44)
Mixed and edited with Audition 3.0/Ozone 4 (gain, mics/sbd mixdown, limiting, cuts, fades, MBIT+ dither)

Many thanks to the band and Club Passim for their permission and assistance.

Support the artists and buy Session Americana’s albums!

www.sessionamericana.com