''Cackalack'' is a 2010 studio album by Americana singer-songwriter Jonathan Byrd. The title is a variation of the word "

Cackalacky The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the ...

", a popular (though at times derogatory) nickname for the Carolinas and the songs all connect to the culture and music of Byrd's home state of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The album was recorded in a single day with a group of musicians, including members of

Creaking Tree String Quartet The Creaking Tree String Quartet is a Canadian progressive all-instrumental bluegrass and acoustic roots band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2004 the Creaking Trees produced their debut album, ''The Creaking Trees'', Quill, Greg, "Beyond the ...

Reception

The recording was well received by DJs playing folk and Americana music formats. It reached No. 22 on the

Americana Music Association The Americana Music Association is a not-for-profit trade organization advocating for American Roots Music around the world. It is a network for Americana artists, radio stations, record labels, publishers, and others with the goal of developi ...

radio chart during the week of February 7, 2011.Radio chart
at americanaradio.org for the

. (accessed February 21, 2011; chart shows Cackalack at No. 24 w/ 138 spins for the week of February 14, 2011, No. 22 w/ 141 spins for previous week, No. 23 w/ 135 spins for two weeks prior) The album was also ranked No. 3 for the month of January 2011 on the Folk DJ-L radio chart. The most played tracks included "Cakalack!" and "I Was An Oak Tree".Richard Gillmann
Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of January 2011 (with DJ list)
, at folkradio.org. See als

The album also reached No. 1 on the Roots Music Report "Top 50 Folk" chart.Top 50 Folk
at rootsmusicreport.com, this chart is als

by Cashbox Magazine. (accessed February 4, 2011—showing rank at No. 2 for current & previous week; was ranked No. 1 as of January 14, 2011) In a review, Folk Alley's Jim Blum described the album as "much more rootsy than his previous releases, and sometimes quite bluegrassy.

Track listing

All songs written by Jonathan Byrd unless indicated otherwise # "Chicken Wire" (Jonathan Byrd & Tom Gould) – 3:39 # "Wild Ponies" – 4:41 # "I Was an Oak Tree" – 2:44 # "Reckon I Did" – 3:48 # "New Moon Rise" – 3:53 # "Dungarees Overalls" – 2:10 # "Father's Day" – 4:01 # "White Oak Wood" – 3:24 # "Scuppernong" – 3:11 # "Cackalack!" (Jonathan Byrd &

Leonard Podolak The Duhks are a Canadian folk fusion band, formed in 2002 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Featuring banjo, fiddle, guitar, percussion, and vocals, The Duhks blend folk music together with various Canadian and American traditional styles, includin ...

) – 2:18 "Livers & Gizzards" (Hidden tracks/outtakes available as

WAV Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave") is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Microsoft Win ...

files on the CD release) # "38 Baby" – 2:49 # "Amelia My Dream" – 5:15 # "Arkansas Traveler's Check" (traditional) – 3:01 # "Blackberry Blossom" (traditional) – 2:21 # "Dream Life" – 3:20 # "Maureen" – 3:01

Credits

Musicians: * Jonathan Byrd –

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 ...

& vocals * John Showman –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

& vocals * Brian Kobayakawa –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

& vocals * Andrew Collins –

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

& vocals * Chris Quinn –

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 ...

& vocals * Treasa Levasseur – piano,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

& vocals * Ken Whitely – National Steel & vocals Production: * Produced – Jonathan Byrd * Executive producers – Ed & Jand Grant, Jim & Brenda Prescott * Recorded – Ken Whitely & Nik Tjelios at Casa Wroxton,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario, November 23, 2009 * Mixed – Jonathan Byrd & Jerry Brown at The Bonus Room, Hillsborough, North Carolina, & The Rubber Room,

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

* Baby photo – Darling Art, (darling-art.com) * Design – John Dixon (haledixon.com)

Notes and sources

{{Authority control Jonathan Byrd (musician) albums 2010 albums