Songs and Poems:
1. Spring!
2. Red Red Robin
3. The Creek
4. Susquehanna
5. Making Pies
6. Precipice
7. Step Into the Water
8. Astilbe
9. Blood Red the Stain
10. Journey’s End
11. Someone to Come Home To
12. Holiday
13. Gone but not Forgotten
14. Glance in a Mirror
15. Where?
16. Bells of May Street
17. Shiny White-Toed Hightops
18. All the Pretty Birds
19. His Hometown
20. I Wrest My Joy
21. Blessed
22. Hanging up the Snowshoes

Produced by Anand Nayak

Waterbug
po box 83/glen ellyn, il 60138
www.waterbug.com

© 2006 Molly Gamblin Music

Shh
Come close and closer still
And tell me what you see. What reflection
dim and hazy in the ancient clouded glass

Shh
Lean close and closer still
And still your mind. Turn gently back
Turn gently back, remembering

And carry the burden gently


Produced by Anand Nayak
Recorded by Greg Steele, Derek Studios, Dalton, Massachusetts
Anand Nayak, Dizzydog Recording, Northampton, Massachusetts
and Alan Stockwell, SounDesign Studios, Brattleboro, Vermont
Mixed by Huck Bennert, Dog Earz Recording, Portland, Maine and Anand Nayak
Mastered by Colin Sapp at Specialized Mastering, Framingham, Massachusetts
Photographs by Daniel Johnson
Design by Lehndorff Design


MUSICIANS:
Lui Collins: vocals, guitar and banjo
Anand Nayak: acoustic and electric guitars and basses, mandolin, banjo, shaker, harmony vocals
Rani Arbo: fiddle
Scott Kessel: percussion
Keith Murphy: piano, harmony vocals
Dana Robinson: guitar, banjo
Rose Sinclair: accordion
Larry Unger: banjo

My enormous thanks go, first and foremost, to Anand, who poured himself into this project and brought it to life. Thanks to all the musicians and engineers, and to Andrew, for welcoming me into the Waterbug clan; to Dan, Peter and Kathy, and to Rose for all her website design and maintenance work. To Al and Barbara for the chocolate. To Pam and Ari. To the Leue Family for sharing Journey’s End Farm, where most of these poems were written. To my Mom and Dad, for a house full of singing and Beethoven and Broadway musicals, all those music lessons when I was a kid, and so much more. And to my oh-so-grown-up children, Maggie, Sylva, and Tim, ever my radiantly inspiring teachers.

1. Spring! (©2001 Lui Collins)
2. Red Red Robin (Harry Woods ©1926 Callicoon Music) I learned this song from my Mom, who learned it from the radio when she was three years old. My grandmother used to tell stories of her bopping around the house singing it. Even as I was growing up, my Mom sang constantly around the house; this song is the one I most identify with her. Lui: vocal, guitar; Anand: bass, mandolin, harmony vocals; Dana: banjo; Rani: fiddle; Scott: Drumship Enterprise (see www.raniarbo.com for full explanation)
3. The Creek
4. Susquehanna. Written on its banks, just off the Southern Tier Expressway in western New York State. Lui: banjo; Anand: bass, guitar, mandolin; Larry: banjo
5. Making Pies (Patty Griffin ©2002 Almo Music Corp/ASCAP) Lui: vocal, guitar; Anand: bass, banjo, electric guitar, harmony vocals; Scott: brush kit
6. Precipice (©2001 Lui Collins)
7. Step Into the Water (©1992 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI) Lui: vocal, guitar; Anand: bass, guitar, mandolin, harmony vocal; Keith: harmony vocal; Rose: accordion; Scott: cajon
8. Astilbe. With apologies to any horticulturists, who will have immediately recognized that the plant described is not astilbe at all – it’s actually a type of kalanchoe. I claim poetic license on this one, as I didn’t find that out till after the poem was written. I kept the original for the sheer pleasure of the sound of the word.
9. Blood Red the Stain. Images from the movie The Red Violin haunted me for weeks, inspiring the writing of this song, a re-telling of the making of the violin. With thanks to François Girard, director of this compelling film, and to Bob Franke for the writing assignment. We were on tour together the weekend I sat in on his workshop; I fear I was poor company on the drive back from NYC to New Haven, immersed as I was in the writing. Lui: vocal, banjo; Anand: bass, resophonic guitar, mandolin; Rani: fiddle; Rose: accordion; Scott: tambourine, triangle, cajon, tom tom, brushes
10. Journey’s End (©2001 Lui Collins)
11. Someone to Come Home To. Lui: vocal, guitar; Anand: bass, electric guitar; Keith: piano
12. Holiday (©2001 Lui Collins)
13. Gone But Not Forgotten (©2000 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI) Written in and for the Oberlin Village Cemetery, a freed slave graveyard in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks to Bill Padgett for taking me there. See my website’s December 2000 Musings for the full story. Lui: vocal, banjo; Anand: bass, guitar, mandolin; Keith: harmony vocal: Rani: fiddle
14. Glance in a Mirror (©2001 Lui Collins)
15. Where? Lui: vocal; Anand: shaker
16. Bells of May Street. For the students at May Street Elementary School, Hood River, Oregon. Lui: banjo; Anand: bass, guitar, mandolin; Larry: banjo
17. Shiny White-Toed Hightops (©2001 Lui Collins)
18. All the Pretty Birds. Lui: vocal, banjo; Anand: bass, mandolin; Dana: guitar
19. His Hometown (Cheryl Wheeler ©1999 Amachrist Music/ Penrod & Higgins/ASCAP) Lui: vocal, guitar; Anand: bass, electric guitar, mandolin, slide guitar, harmony vocal; Rose: accordion. See Cheryl’s website www.cherylwheeler.com for background on the song and its subject.
20. I Wrest My Joy (©2001 Lui Collins)
21. Blessed (©1988 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI) Lui: vocal, guitar; Anand: bass, resophonic guitar, mandolin; Keith: harmony vocal; Rose: accordion
22. Hanging Up the Snowshoes

All songs and poems, except as noted, by Lui Collins, ©2006 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI
See individual song lyric pages for notes on guitar and banjo tunings.