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about

Dedicated to Bela Man (1996-2010) and Russell G. Schonberg (1926-2010)

credits

released 01 December 2010
Credits for "Suites" 2010

Lead Vocals:
Nathan Dunton
and Leah Matthews

Background Vocals:
Leah Matthews
Laura Cheek
Talena Martinez
Jilliann Bartlett
Mary Teller
Erik Ferguson
Nathan Dunton

Strings:
Christina Garcia-Tamez: Cello, Violin
Katheryn Orr: Viola, Violin
Nathan Dunton: Erhu

Horns:
Jimmy Shortell: Trumpet
Terry Davidson: Trombone
Oscar Diaz: Trombone
Sam Marks: French Horn

Woodwinds:
Jim Cole: Alto Sax, Clarinet
Judy Cole: Flute and Piccolo
Paul Klemm: Bassoon, Alto Flute
Jim Worth: Alto Sax, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Eddie Olivares Jr.: Tenor Sax
Nathan Dunton: Clarinet on "Ruby the Cat"

Drums/Percussion
John Starek: Drums
Luis Villarreal: Congas
Jody Lopez: Timbales, Percussion
Nathan Dunton: Percussion/Drum Programming
Josh Morrow: Percussion/Drum Programming

Guitars:
Nathan Dunton: Acoustic Guitar
Josh Morrow: Bass Guitar

Piano:
Nathan Dunton
Adam Roberts: On "Cat & Mouse"

Organ:
Nathan Dunton
Josh Morrow (Ruby The Cat)

Accordion:
Nathan Dunton

MIDI/Sound Design:
Nathan Dunton
Josh Morrow

"Cat & Mouse" and "Leeds & Eloise"
Horns notated and arranged by Nathan Dunton and Glynn Garcia
Horn Ensemble conducted by Glynn Garcia

All songs Written, Arranged, Engineered, Produced and Mixed by Nathan Dunton and Josh Morrow 2007-2010.
Recorded at:
Third Coast Studio, La Casa Perra, Natoma, Studios in Port Aransas, San Antonio and Austin TX and
The Hyde Park Methodist Church Austin TX.

Mastered by Fred Remmert at Cedar Creek, ATX

All Lyrics by Nathan Dunton except:
"The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service, "The Ballad of Cleetus McGleech" by Nathan Dunton and Jason Doan.

"All Cats Go To Heaven" and "The Cat's Requiem" excerpted from the Latin Mass of the Dead.

"Not 'Till The Sun" excerpted from Walt Whitman's "To a Common Prostitute".

Artwork by Josh Morrow.

tags

tags: eddie olivares glynn garcia jazz jimmy shortell john starek orchestral pop world americana dunton leah matthews morrow port aransas production texas Austin

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Track Name: 1-Leeds and Eloise (Featuring Leah Matthews)
Leeds and Eloise
(Dunton)


Dear my darling Eloise,
Offering my protection,
Hiding my affection,
Sitting here trying not to stare.
Here I am.

Dear my darling Mr. Leeds,
Hold my hand if you are able,
Keep it underneath the table.
No I don’t think my momma oughta see.
Here I am.

Can’t you understand why I’m so torn.
I held you on the day you were born.
Now I’m not saying I don’t want you.
It’ll just take a little getting used to.

Dear my darling Mr. Leeds,
You know I feel so guilty,
Every time you kiss me
But stars above all shine for you and me.
Here I am.

Dear my darling Eloise,
My hands are shaking,
My will is breaking.
Waiting here loaded for the bear.
Here I am.

Can’t you understand why I’m so torn.
I held you on the day you were born.
Now I’m not saying I don’t want you.
It’ll just take a little getting used to.

Maybe someday when the time is right,
We will step into the light.
So many things can happen.
So many things to share.
I’m waiting on the clouds to break to feel prepared.
To face the bear…

Dear my darling Eloise.
Darling I am loaded for the bear.
Dear my darling Eloise.
Darling I am trying not to care.
Track Name: 2-Ruby The Cat
(Instrumental)
Track Name: 3-The Cat Strikes 12 (Intro)
When the Cat struck twelve at the old hotel,
he called her to his room.
She waited in the hall 'till she heard him call,
then stepped into the gloom.
Then no one knows what happened,
but something went awry
First we heard her laughing, then we heard a cry.
Then we heard him tell her, "We've only just begun."
Then we heard a door slam and she began to run...
Track Name: 4-Cat & Mouse
(Instrumental)
Track Name: 5-All Cats Go To Heaven
Deus libera eas de ore leonis - Free them from the mouth of the lion
Kyrie eleison; - Lord have mercy
Christe eleison - Christ have mercy
Rex gloriæ Domine - King of glory, O Lord.
Track Name: 6-The Cats Requiem
Requiem æternam dona eis -Eternal rest grant unto them
Requiem æternam dona eis -Eternal rest grant unto them
Domine - O Lord
et lux perpetua luceat eis - and let perpetual light shine upon them
Absolve Domine - Forgive, O Lord
animas omnium fidelium defunctorum- the souls of all the faithful departed
ab omni vinculo delictorum- from all the chains of their sins
et gratia tua illis succurente- and by the aid to them of your grace
mereantur evadere iudicium ultionis - may they deserve to avoid the judgment of revenge
et lucis æternae beatitudine perfrui- and enjoy the blessedness of everlasting light.
Track Name: 7-Not 'Till The Sun
Not ‘till the sun excludes you, do I exclude you;
And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
Track Name: 8-My Name is Rebecca (Featuring Eddie Olivares Jr.)
(Dunton)

My father was a real estate mogul
Who was barely ever home
My mother was a frivolous and selfish woman
Who left us to grow up on our own

I escaped into marriage at twenty-one
Had a child at twenty-three
Was the only time I’ve ever had anything
I could call a family.

And my name is Rebecca
Remember me lord
My name is Rebecca
And bless my soul

One day went with a friend up to Atlantic City
We sat in a car in the rain
She said “I know a way we can spend the day”
And pushed a needle into my vein

At that moment something deep down got shifted
And no matter how hard I tried
I couldn’t stray far from my dark master
And he’s still with me tonight

But pain and suffering don’t come cheap
And soon I was out on the street
My so called family they signed the papers
And took my little boy from me

And my name is Rebecca
Remember me Lord
My name is Rebecca
And bless my soul

Then one day I met a girl named Ruby
Who was already deep in the game
She took me in, became my friend
And taught me how to play

I remember the first time I got picked up
It was a gold Mercedes Benz.
I whispered the terms in his eager ear
And I’ve said them many times since then

I’ve had razors at my throat, head smashed through walls
I’ve been thrown out of a hotel balcony
They found Ruby dead in a dumpster
The only one around here who ever cared for me

I spend two-hundred dollars a day on horse alone
And hundreds more on the blow and the blues
Now that I’m getting older I can’t save a dime
‘Cause my body ain’t selling like it used to.

And my name is Rebecca
Remember me Lord
My name is Rebecca
And bless my soul

Sometimes in quiet moments
I close my eyes and I see
All my sisters in the world who are all good girls
Who’ve ended up like me

I have accepted that my life is over
But it breaks my heart to know
That something’s gonna happen to some poor girl
Tomorrow and tomorrow

So all you fathers and mothers that are watching today
I know you’ll probably forget all these words that I say
But please grant me a favor, a dying wish of a slave
Next time that you look at your little girl
You’ll remember my name

And my name is Rebecca
Remember me lord
My name is Rebecca
And bless my soul
Track Name: 9-The Cremation of Sam McGee
Robert Service (1874-1958)

The Cremation of Sam McGee

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell."

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold, till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being dead — it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you, to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows — Oh God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May."
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared — such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear, you'll let in the cold and storm —
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
Track Name: 10-The Ballad of Cleatus McGleech
The Ballad of Cleatus McGleech
(Dunton & Doan)

Cleatus McGleech
Was stuck on the beach
No skipper would take him aboard
‘Cause his feet really stank
And in the mornings he drank
And by noon he was totally floored

“Don’t step in the bite!”
Cried Cleatus one night
As he spat at a greenhorn named Jed
“Aye, the line’ll go tight
And you’ll go over alright
And when we haul back the gear you’ll be dead!”

He pounded the dock
In ‘Tuffs without socks
He stank of cheap (stale) whiskey and beer
He sang like a whale
And howled like a gale
You could always tell Cleatus was near

Cleatus was born
On a cold, frosty morn’
In Seward beneath the old dock.
His mom was on pills
And she split for the hills
And left him for dead on the rocks

With his gaff hook and knife
He spent most of his life
Hauling gear in the wind and the spray
From the stern to the bow
On every schooner and scow,
From Ketchikan clear to Cold Bay

He was often the star
At the old Harbor Bar
When drunken beyond the pale
He’d slam down his glass
And he’d holler out loud
“Have you heard my old halibut tale?”

I’s alone in the skiff
With my gaff hook and pail
My hand line was down
As I bent at the rail

I fought that beast
For three solid days
‘till my fingers was bleedin’
And my eyeballs was glazed

I knew I had won
When my fish his the surface
My hand line was skookum
Had a good, solid purchase

I reached for the gaff
Just as she yarded
And I would have had her
But the damn ganyon parted

I remember the time
Cleatus scraped up a dime
And found a boat, a net, and a crew
There was Dumbass, and Dan
And One-Legged Dianne
And from the very first set they were doomed

Dan was just fine
‘Till he tripped on a line
And fell head first straight into the drink
And Dianne she got drunk
And crawled to her bunk
And Dumbass forgot how to think

With not a fish in the hold
He decided to fold
He was too drunk to know who to blame
Half broken down
He limped back to town
With barely a cent to his name.






Well, Cleatus McGleech
Was way out of reach,
Before anyone knew he was gone
He was miles from shore
Froze to his oar
With belly full of spot prawns.

There was not a dry eye
When old Cleatus died
The whole town was shocked by the loss
The bars were all quiet
The whole town fell silent
And the cops finally had the night off