Sunday, February 23, 2020

The Flagging Tapes, Vol. 1

Several months ago, I put out a call for musicians to participate in an album of tree planting themed music.  The goal was to make this music available as a free download for the entire tree planting community.  A number of artists responded, and the album is available now (the download links are in the middle of this post).  The album is called "The Flagging Tapes, Vol. 1"



Track Listing

01. Yankee Yanni & the Lowballing Jazz Band - Pockets Full of Cream.
02.  B Cruisey - Similkameen Rises.
03.  Claire Kuzmyk - This Life.
04.  New Red River Rebellion - Ride On Rooster (In Memory of Eric Rousseau).
05.  Sydney Sandia - Planto Ranto.
06.  Tommy Pelletier - Cigs & Scotch.
07.  Nigel Eberding - Treeplanting Song.
08.  Jennifer Noble - The Happy Planter.
09.  Stephane Levesque - Shoulder.
10.  Shnarby Mess - Tree Zombie Monkey.
11.  Lars Zergun - Gravediggerz.


Planters may recognize three or four of these songs which have been shared widely in the past.  Most of the other songs in this compilation are being released widely for the first time here.


Free Download

To download these songs, there are three choices:  Dropbox, RAR Archives, or SoundCloud.

To download from Dropbox:
1.  Go to my public Dropbox folder:  www.replant.ca/dropbox
2.  Go into the "Canadian Reforestation" folder.
3.  Go into the "Planting Music" sub-folder.
4.  Go into the sub-folder called "The Flagging Tapes, vol 1".
5.  You can either pick MP3's to download (good quality 320 kbps, smaller file size) or WAV files (uncompressed audio, slightly higher quality, larger files).

If you're able to uncompress RAR archives, either of these downloads would be a slightly faster way to grab the entire compilation:

Finally, to download individual songs from SoundCloud, click on the download arrows on any of the SoundCloud widgets throughout the rest of this page.




Liner Notes

Here's some detailed information about each of the tracks on the compilation, and the artists behind them:


SongPockets Full Of Cream
ArtistYankee Yanni & the Lowballing Jazz Band

About the Song: 'Pockets Full of Cream' was recorded in Toronto on January 12, 2020. It was played three times; this is take 2.

About the Artist:  Yankee Yanni enjoys coffee, prime numbers, and wearing appropriate PPE. He planted his first tree at age 4, and his second at age 19. The Lowballing Jazz Band can be both assembled and disassembled in a matter of minutes, making them the perfect choice for your morning meeting entertainment, or for long cache breaks in the shade.




 
SongSimilkameen Rises
ArtistB Cruisey




 
SongThis Life
ArtistClaire Kuzmyk





SongRide On Rooster (In Memory of Eric Rousseau)
ArtistNew Red River Rebellion

About the Artists:  Brothers Brian and Clayton Lorraine, the two founding members of Winnipeg roots rock band New Red River Rebellion, have planted trees all over British Columbia.  Their careers have spanned twelve and fifteen seasons respectively.

About the Song:  Eric 'Rooster' Rousseau was a true legend among the many characters encountered during all our years of treeplanting.  We were lucky to work with Rooster for several seasons around Merritt and Squamish, along with a crew of folks as tight knit as family.  It was a special period of our treeplanting careers, experiencing this family-like atmosphere.  A renowned skier and instructor at Whistler in the off season, Rooster was a tree runner extraordinaire, mechanic, and the guy who made everyone on the crew feel connected.  He was the last one to bed after night-off shenanigans, and the first one up in the morning, cleaning up the party mess.  We received news of Rooster’s passing in a tragic falling accident while we were planting on the north Island in the Fall of 2011.  This song came from a riff that we sat jamming over and over with Rooster, one hazy hangover day-off afternoon, while sipping white wine and basking in the sun with carefree smiles.

Websitehttp://www.newredriverrebellion.com

About Eric Rousseauhttp://www.replant.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=65741




 
SongPlanto Ranto
ArtistSydney Sandia

From the Artist:  I began writing this song in my first season, knee deep in Alberta sludge and my first heartbreak. The following year, I returned to the bush lighter and happier and decided it was only fair that the song, which had become my personal planting earworm, deserved an equally upbeat final touch. As planting goes, the song has its up and downs; deceptive revelations of joy followed quickly with epiphanies of deep loneliness. Now a couple of seasons later, I wonder if my song will ever truly be finished. Planting has transformed my outlook on the world completely... each time I play this song around a raging box fire I am reminded of the heartbroken little girl I was when I stepped off the greyhound at a motel in Williams Lake that first season, and I stand a little taller as the person I have become.





SongCigs & Scotch
ArtistTommy Pelletier

About the Song:  Written in 2019.  Copyright 2019, Tommy Pelletier.

From the Artist:  I planted my first year in ontario in 2014, did BC interior and alberta the three years after, became a foreman on the last year. Did picking work around the seasons and went to australia in 2017. Had the broken travel guitar the whole time. Fucked my wrist long-term on the 3rd season but when I ended up in Australia after the cherries my long-time lover and travel partner and I split. I didn't know what the hell to do. So when someone shouted "tree-planting!" I just went for it. I left tasmania and crossed the country south to north (3K drive, in the desert and bush roads, alone). When I managed to get to Kyogle the drought made it so the season lasted two days, but the company I was with (Outland Australia) paid my gas to cross the country again and go back south (another 3K kilometres, alone in the desert, with the friends gone back home, and dead sheeps and sand out the window. That's when cigs and scotch came to be, 'cause at that moment that was all life was. Just driving , not even coming across a car for hours, no phone signal and parking wherever to sleep in the driver seat. After another year there I was offered a job back home (quebec) and my now totally wrecked wrist / shoulder/elbow urged me to take it. I came back the same week the inscriptions to our local amateur music competition was on (Trois-Pistole en chanson). I went to the auditions just for laughs, and they somehow made me sing 'till I was in the 2019 finals even tough I didn't know how to sing, use a microphone and could only do minimal strumming 'cause wrist mobility and stuff. I am currently working on a facebook page ( Tom Malaavy, and can be found on youtube under "Tommy Pelletier with the songs "violon" and " la pire maison du monde connu". I've got around 40 songs written and played trough the years, and right now the main objective is to record it all in the little home studio. It should all come together eventually. Thanks all for reading, watching, encouraging fuckers like me who don't know what they're doing but try their best, 'cause campfires aren't the same if no one does it.  P.S. on the text -The Scotch was Grantz and the cigs were waaay to expensive (like 2$ each). And the car was a 1996 pathfinder.

Artist LinksFacebook and Youtube





SongTreeplanting Song
ArtistNigel Eberding




 
SongThe Happy Planter
ArtistJennifer Noble

From the Artist:  I wrote this song to entertain myself as I trudged between plots as a checker, first for the BC Forest Service and later for a local sawmill.  Silviculture surveys and cone-picking contracts sent me all around the magnificent  Cariboo-Chilcotin of BC.   I’m 74 now, long retired from my circuitous job history, but springtime still gives me an itchy feeling that I should be greasing my boots and finding my hipchain.  Most of all I miss interacting with the planters, their dreams, their stories and the adventurous ruggedness that kept bringing them back.




 
SongShoulder
ArtistStephane Levesque

About the Song:  Written in November 2019, Copyright 2019 Stephane Levesque.

About the Artist:  Stephane is originally from Sainte-Flavie, Quebec.  He now lives in Masset, Haida Gwaii, BC.  Stephane has been feeding treeplanters since 1998.




 
SongTree Zombie Monkey
ArtistShnarby Mess





SongGravediggerz
ArtistLars Zergun

Artist PageKing Kong Reforestation



 

Videos

A few of these tracks have videos associated with them.  If anyone knows about other videos for these songs, let me know so I can include them here.


















Other Tree Planting Albums

Hi & Ho, We Plant Trees:  www.replant.ca/hiandho

Planters' Punch:  www.replant.ca/planterspunch

I should also point out that I'd like to do this again in the winter of 2023-2024, with a whole new set of songs.  Musicians, please feel to contact me at jonathan.scooter.clark@gmail.com if you'd like to get involved.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Planters' Punch - Tree Planting Album

I just realized that although I shared the music from Planters' Punch several years ago (on Replant.ca), I didn't really give any background history about the album.

This music was recorded by various planters, and the CD was released at some point in the 1990's (possibly 1997).  I can't remember which year since I left my copy of the CD out in Prince George.  Anyway, Michael Mloszewski gave it to me years ago and suggested that it should be shared with a wider audience of planters and friends.  Michael has passed away since then, but you can Click Here for more information about him.

I've uploaded each of the tracks individually and put them into separate threads in the Music section of the Replant forums.  An even easier way to download them would be this:
1.  Go to my public Dropbox folder:  www.replant.ca/dropbox
2.  Go into the "Canadian Reforestation" folder.
3.  Go into the "Planting Music" sub-folder.
4.  Go into the "Planters' Punch" sub-folder.
5.  You can either pick MP3's to download (good quality 320 kbps, smaller file size) or FLAC files (uncompressed audio, larger files).

If you're able to uncompress RAR archives, either of these downloads would be a slightly faster way to grab the entire compilation:

Finally, here are the links to all the tracks on Soundcloud.  These are the MP3 versions, and you can download the songs individually from these Soundcloud links (as an alternative to going to my public Dropbox folder).









































To discover other free tree-planting themed music, visit: