A Harvest of Gentle Clang

History

With tracks such as "Jay Gould's Daughter," "John Riley" and "Farmer's Cursed Wife" (a re-working of "Old Lady and the Devil" by Bill & Belle Reed, whose version is included in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music), the album is part traditional folk album and part vehicle for Sky's wry sense of humour (the latter quality is represented by tracks such as "Good Old Man," a spoken word advertisement for Ajax and a punning cameo by Mississippi John Hurt). The Ajax reference was perhaps an allusion to the similarity between Vanguard Records' knight-on-horse logo and Ajax's use of a similar image in its 1960s advertising. The album's clever title and Hurt's brief appearance receive special mention in Dave Van Ronk's posthumously published autobiography, in which Van Ronk writes warmly about his friend Sky. On the album Sky alludes to Van Ronk before "St. Louis Tickle," which Sky says he "learned from a walking piano roll with a beard." A portion of the original liner notes is also attributed to "Terri Van Ronk and Dave."

Never having been released on CD, the album was once available as a Vanguard Digital Vault album available for download through iTunes (with seven bonus tracks) but is currently unavailable.

Side One

1. "Jay Gould's Daughter"
2. "A Girl I Once Did Own"
3. "Are You From Dixie"*
4. "Cape Cod Girls"
5. "Good Old Man"
6. "Keep On Walking"*

Side Two

1. "Mahogany Row"
2. "St. Louis Tickle"
3. "Farmer's Cursed Wife"
4. "John Riley"
5. "Give to the Cause"*
6. "Need Somebody On Your Bond"

Bonus Tracks on iTunes download

1. "Mahogany Row" (Alternative take)
2. "She Moved through the Fair"
3. "One Grain of Sand"
4. "One Sunday Eve"
5. "Candyman"
6. "Words without Music" (Alternative take from Sky's self-titled debut)
7. "Nectar of God" (Alternative take from Sky's self-titled debut)

Personnel