Smitten is the title of our most recent CD. It features an assortment of reels, jigs and waltzes with a couple of airs and a swing tune for variety. Twenty of the 24 tunes on the disc were written by either John or Erik, one tune was written by Larry Unger and two tunes come from the deep well of tradition. For this third CD we returned to Minneapolis' Wild Sound studio and had a great time playing and seeing the project come to life. We're especially pleased that we finally succeeded in capturing the tune "Smitten" after nearly featuring it on each of our first two CDs.
(iTunes fans can click here to go directly to the page for Smitten.)
The Smitten Tunes
1) Loaves and Fishes (Goodin) / Too Many Goats (Goodin) / 4th and Walnut (Goodin)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
2) Puddle Jumper (Goodin) / Snow Day (Sessions) / Offshoot (Sessions)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
3) Bighorn River Sunset (Goodin)
4) Aly on the Plains (Sessions) / Hay to Market (Goodin) / Just 4 Guys (Goodin)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
5) Ladybug Lightning (Sessions)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
6) Mason's Apron (trad.) / Maggie in the Snow (Goodin) / Julia Delaney (trad.)
7) Lucy's Stroll (Goodin) / Box Elder Stomp (Goodin)
8) Smitten (Goodin)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
9) Fenstermann's Surprise (Goodin) / Stumpy (Larry Unger) / Bunch of Stuff (Goodin)
10) Manistique (Goodin) / What You Got There? (Goodin) / Scandy Twist (Sessions)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
11) Lost Summer (Goodin)
Ballroom Echoes is a collection of eleven waltzes, eight written by either John or Erik and was released in late 2002. Currently you can purchase the CD directly from band members, through this website, at the Homestead Pickin' Parlor in Minneapolis or at Kephart's Music and the Oneota Community Food Co-op in Decorah. To order a copy directly from us click here for an order form. You can also order a copy using a familiar online shopping cart from our friends at CDbaby.com.
Along with the title cut the disc features an instrumental version of Erik and Greg Huang-Dale's "Highlandville Waltz" and a rendition of Larry Unger's "Two Rivers." We think it's a great collection of tunes and might be an excellent gift for that friend or relative who isn't a contra dancer but who enjoys lovely instrumental acoustic music. If you have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer you can view a PDF file of the sheet music to "Ballroom Echoes" as it appears in the Contratopia Tunebook by clicking here.
(iTunes fans can click here to go directly to the page for Ballroom Echoes.)
The Ballroom Echoes Tunes
1) Mother's Day (Goodin)
(streaming Windows Media sample)
2) Shaoxing Waltz (Jenny & Greg Huang-Dale)
(mp3 from cdbaby.com)
3) Two Rivers (Larry Unger)
4) The Highlandville Waltz (Greg Huang-Dale and Erik Sessions)
(streaming Windows Media sample)
5) Ballroom Echoes (Goodin)
(mp3 from cdbaby.com)
6) St. Louis Christmas (Sessions)
(mp3 from cdbaby.com)
7) Evenings and Weekends (Goodin)
8) January Waltz (Goodin)
(mp3 from cdbaby.com)
9) Rose Island (Goodin)
10) La Bergerette Saint-Roch (trad., arrangement Contratopia)
11) Favors Her Father (Goodin)
(streaming Real Media sample)
Hands Four is Contratopia's first recording project and includes a wide selection of jigs, reels and waltzes. The majority of the tunes are written by either John or Erik and the performances were mostly recorded live in the studio at Minneapolis' Wild Sound. The beautiful cover art was created for us by Twin Cities' artist Tom Gau and is reproduced above with his generous permission. We have found that the disc is very listenable and appeals not only to dancers but to many kinds of music lovers. Dirty Linen magazine (June/July 2002) says the CD is "Rollicking good fun."
(iTunes fans can click here to go directly to the page for Hands Four.)
The Hands Four Tunes
1) Booth Shot Lincoln (trad.) / It Ain't the
Heat, It's the Humidity (Sessions)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
2) Reel St. Joseph (trad.) / Star of
Munster (trad.) / Two Legged Stool (Goodin)
3) Ms. P's Waltz (Sessions)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
4) Sweet Music (Sessions) / Why Ted
Flies (Goodin) / 3-Legged Dawg (Erik Peterson, Greg Dale) /
Ron Wallace's
Fancy (Sherry Wohlers Ladig) / Books and Ladders (Goodin)
(Real Audio sample from Contracopia site)
5) South of France (Goodin)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
6) Sandy River Belles (trad.) / Little
Liza Jane (trad.)
7) Revelry Reel (Sessions) / French
Sneakers (Goodin) / Maggie in the Rain (Goodin)
(Real Audio sample from Contracopia site)
8) The National Road (Goodin)
9) Hogwart's Express (Goodin) / O'Keefe's
Slide (trad.) / Steady On (Goodin)
(mp3 from CDbaby.com)
10) Oak Woods Song (Sessions)
(Real Audio sample from Contracopia site)
11) Palisades (Goodin) / Christmas Past (Goodin)
/ Fairbanks (Goodin)
The group would love to sell you a copy of Smitten, Hands Four or Ballroom Echoes. To order a copy directly from us click here for an order form, come to one of our dances, or contact one of us individually.
You can buy Hands Four and Smitten online from Patrick McCullough's excellent Contracopia website. There you can find sound clips and information on dozens of contra dance recordings, including ours. Click here to see the entry for Hands Four. The Country Dance and Song Society offers all three of our CDs and the Contratopia Tunebook in its mail order and latest online sales catalog. Finally, our friends at CDbaby.com can sell you physical copies of all three CDs and have also made it easy for us to offer legal downloads of our tracks from a variety of services like Apple iTunes and Rhapsody.
If you prefer the physical shopping experience you can purchase copies at the Homestead Pickin' Parlor in Minneapolis or at Kephart's Music and the Oneota Community Food Co-op in Decorah.