''A Harvest of Gentle Clang'' is the second album by

Patrick Sky Patrick Sky (born Patrick Linch; October 2, 1940May 26, 2021) was an American musician, folk singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was noted for his album ''Songs That Made America Famous'' (1973). He was of Irish and Native American anc ...

, dedicated to

Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie, (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is an Indigenous Canadian-American ( Piapot Cree Nation) singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. While working in these ...

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 Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

and a punning cameo by

Mississippi John Hurt John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), better known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar around the age of nine. He w ...

.) The

reference was perhaps an allusion to the similarity between

Vanguard Records Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a n ...

' knight-on-horse logo and

'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 David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of Ma ...

'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 The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...

Digital Vault album available for download through

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

(with seven bonus tracks) but is currently unavailable.

Track listing

Side One

#"Jay Gould's Daughter" (Traditional) #"A Girl I Once Did Own" (Patrick Sky) #"Are You From Dixie, 'Cause I'm From Dixie Too"* (George Cobb,

Jack Yellen Jack Selig Yellen (Jacek Jeleń; July 6, 1892 – April 17, 1991) was an American lyricist and screenwriter. He is best remembered for writing the lyrics to the songs "Happy Days Are Here Again", which was used by Franklin Roosevelt as the theme ...

) #"Cape Cod Girls" (Traditional) #"Good Old Man" (Traditional) #"Keep On Walkin'"* (Patrick Sky)

Side Two

#"Mahogany Row" (Ernie Marrs) #"St. Louis Tickle" (Traditional; arranged by Patrick Sky) #" Farmer's Cursed Wife" (Traditional) #" John Riley" (Traditional; with additional verses by Patrick Sky) #"Give to the Cause"* (Patrick Sky) #" Need Somebody On Your Bond" (Traditional; with additional words and music by Patrick Sky)

Bonus Tracks on iTunes download

#"Mahogany Row" (Alternative take) #"She Moved through the Fair" #"One Grain of Sand" #"One Sunday Eve" #"Candyman" #"Words without Music" (Alternative take from Sky's self-titled debut) #"Nectar of God" (Alternative take from Sky's self-titled debut)

Personnel

*Patrick Sky – vocals, guitar, harmonica; 12-string guitar on "Keep On Walkin'"; banjo on "Give to the Cause" *Barry Kornfeld –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Sean O'Brien – bass *Elmer Jared Gordon –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, musical director *

Bob Yellin Anton Robert "Bob" Yellin (born June 10, 1936) is an American banjo player and founding member of The Greenbriar Boys bluegrass music group. Biography Yellin was born and raised in New York City. His father was an NBC studio pianist, his mother ...

–

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

on "Are You from Dixie, 'Cause I'm from Dixie Too" and "Keep On Walkin'" *Lucy Brown – Jew's harp on "Are You from Dixie, 'Cause I'm from Dixie Too" and "Give to the Cause" *Norman Grossman –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Lowell Levinger – banjo * Maynard Solomon –

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

on "Keep On Walkin'" ;Technical *Jules Halfant - design *Bob Carrington - front cover photography {{DEFAULTSORT:Harvest of Gentle Clang 1966 albums Patrick Sky albums Vanguard Records albums