Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and gave thanks.
The title song from my “solo” cd “Law of One” is once again a featured song on the westsidewill artist showcase this week. Check it out and vote for it, and, I don’t know, maybe something cool will happen.
http://www.westsidewill.com/artistshowcase/index.php
If you really dig it, you can find the whole cd at ITunes, Amazon, and many of your favorite download sites.
Two years ago yesterday, 11/16/07, we played out first “official” gig at McCleary’s in Marietta, PA. There’s been alot of gigs in alot of places since then, and it’s all been alot of fun. Thanks to all of you that have supported us. We look forward to many more years of good jammin’.
Check back for upcoming gig dates in 2010.
Been away for awhile, doing some more research and writing some stuff for a local publication. More about that at a later date.
The band is taking a little brake, wih the holidays coming. We’re planning on recording a new demo, getting a fill in bass player (The trek from NJ for Tommy is getting rough), and coming out fresh in the new year.
Here’s the last track from “Ghostly Tales of Annapolis and Beyond”. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read about it, listen to it, and buy it. It’s available at CD Baby, ITunes, Amazon, and whole bunch of other places.
The fundraising effort for the Goshen Farm Preservation Society has taken in over $2700. Very cool.
Track 14
NO MORE SAILIN’
Two famous seafaring ghosts are said to haunt the area. Captain William Kidd (1645-1701) was hired as a privateer by the English. He sailed the east coast of America, the Indian Ocean, and the “Pirate round”, hunting pirates and enemy ships.
Unfortunately, he was saddled with a crew of miscreants and eventually committed at least one act of piracy, and even that event is questionable. Along the way, he threw an ironbound bucket at William Moore, a gunner on the ship. It was a good throw, hitting Moore in the head and fracturing his skull. He died the next day.
During the return voyage, Kidd learned that he was wanted by the crown. Feeling confident in his political connections, he returned home anyway. He was promptly arrested, and eventually sent to London for trial. His political cronies had no further use for him, and left him to his fate.
Found guilty of murder and piracy, he was taken from Newgate Prison to the “execution dock”. They hung him, but the rope broke. So they hung him again. It took that time. He was gibbeted and hung over the Thames river, where his rotting corpse would serve as a warning to anyone else thinking about crossing the empire.
He reportedly hid treasure everywhere from Nova Scotia to Japan. Some of his loot was actually recovered on Gardiners Island in New York, by the colonial Governor Bellemont, and sent to England as evidence against him.
The tale associated with this area is the appearance of his ghost on Gibson Island. Legend has it that Kidd hid some of his treasure here. One story has it that a man had a dream about the loot, buried under an old oak tree on the island. When he and his friend went to search for it, Kidd appeared, and scared the bejeesus out of them. They of course ran, and never returned.
I haven’t found any proof of Kidd ever coming this far up the bay, but it is not out of the question.
John Paul Jones (1747-1792) was the “father” of the American navy. His most famous exploit, of course, was his fight against the British ship “Serapis”, and his statement “I have not yet begun to fight”.
Finding himself unemployed, in 1788 he became a rear admiral in the Russian navy, fighting against the Turks in the Black Sea. He was very successful and was even awarded The order of St. Anne, but politics and jealousy caused him to quit and return to France in 1790.
He was found dead in his apartment on July 18, 1792. The cause of death was reported to be a severe brain tumor.
He was buried in Paris at the Saint Louis Cemetery, which belonged to the French royal family. Four years later, France’s revolutionary government sold the property and the cemetery was forgotten. The area was later used as a garden, a place to dispose of dead animals, and a place where gamblers bet on animal fights.
To some back in the States, this was not a fitting situation for our first naval hero to spend eternity in. In 1905, Jones’ remains were identified by US Ambassador to France Gen. Horace Porter, who had searched for six years to track down the body using faulty copies of Jones’ burial record.
On January 26, 1913, the Captain’s remains were re-interred in a lovely bronze and marble sarcophagus at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis.
His ghost reportedly wanders the Academy grounds from time to time. He was allegedly pickled in alcohol for preservative purposes upon his burial in France. I wonder if it’s his intoxicated ghost, simply trying to find his way back to the chapel.
Now imagine these two old seafaring Scotsmen, stuck here on the brown water of the Chesapeake for eternity. One, a proud and decorated naval hero, ultimately buried in grand fashion on sacred ground. The other, a luckless privateer, who seemed to end up in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people. The noose didn’t even work correctly. In the final indignity, his corpse was left in a cage to rot, under the constant glare of the local Londoners.
Kind of a ghostly odd couple.
It used to be, where I grew up, that “mischief night”, the night before Halloween, was something to be dreaded, or celebrated, depending on your age and property ownership status. Over the years, I saw everything from the old toilet paper the house routine to downright criminal activity like arson and property destruction.
That was a different time and a different place. Since moving into my quiet suburban enclave ten years back, I haven’t seen so much as a piece of toilet paper dropped on the ground after mischief night. I know that elsewhere, the night is celebrated with gusto (too much, as you see on the news).
I don’t mind a bit, since I have joined the ranks of property owners who would rather not spend October 31 cleaning toilet paper and egg off of my house and cars, replacing broken windows, and resecuring my mailbox to it’s post.
Just to be on the safe side, some of us spent mischief night at the Goshen farmhouse. Apparently, although the night does not seem to be currently observed by the local ghouls and goblins, the area is still aware of it’s existence, and you never know when some traditionalist will pick up the toilet paper, matches, eggs, and whatever tools of destruction they can find. An unoccupied house in the middle of the woods seems like a good place for rookie mischief makers to practice their craft.
Well, this year, like years past, the place was as quiet as a cemetery. While hanging out, I shot a bunch of pictures, just to see if some ghostly apparitions showed up. It works on Ghost Hunters sometimes. I didn’t expect much, though. The windows are all boarded up, and I suppose that any otherworldly beings inside would be perfectly happy to stay in there. Why come out just to give me a thrill? I don’t think ghosts are really into that kind of thing.
For next year, I’m going to get myself one of those emf meters that go off at random times for god knows what reason. Is it a ghost? I don’t know, but it’s good theater. Hopefully by then we’ll have the house open and we can spend some time inside, trying to scare the hell out of one another.
Anyway, another mischief night has passed, and our old farmhouse is still a preservation project, and not an archeological ruin.
Here’s a few of the pictures. I don’t see anything weird, let me know if you do.
The addition
the milk shed
Front
Old phone line
Track 13
BLUES ON THE BAY
OK, not a ghost story…but the horror….the horror!
This song is for anyone who ever spent more time getting to the beach than actually being at the beach, and any resident of the Broadneck Peninsula or Kent Island that is a hostage in their own homes on, well, just about every weekend these days.
It sounded cool, so we put it on the album.
By the way, the song snippet at the beginning is “Ocean City, Maryland”, one of Jeff’s tunes from the Jeff Archer Group, and voted one of the best Ocean City songs a few years back.
Preview and purchase the cd here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/freaknfuzz1 or on Itunes
Track 12
THE ANCIENT CITY
This was the title of a book by Elihu Riley, published in 1887. It’s in the public domain and readily available on the internet. Mr. Riley also put out several other books dealing with the history of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.
I grew up in New York City, a place that constantly reinvents itself. Throughout its history, streets, even entire neighborhoods have been built, removed, altered, and rebuilt.
One is hard pressed to find the history mixed in with the constant change, although it is there in snippets if you look hard enough.
Annapolis, on the other hand, is one of the best preserved cities in America. You can walk down its streets, relatively unchanged for hundreds of years, and soak it all in. On a quiet day, you can almost feel the long gone inhabitants walking with you.
Because of its state of preservation, you can not only read about all of the significant and insignificant events that took place here, you can see it, almost touch it.
Walk its ancient streets on some quiet evening, and you too may come to believe that sometimes they do indeed stay.
Preview and purchase the cd here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/freaknfuzz1 or on Itunes
Hope you come to next years party, or these guys might show up at your house and annoy you.
Or possibly eat you
But probably just annoy you
The brain was delicious!
What can I say? Another fun gig, we played too loud(according to some), we played longer than planned, we outloaded our gear in a driving rain (as usual). We helped raise some money for a good cause.
The first set started off with Hal “Hal the Piper” Cummings leading us into “A Knight Called Templar”, from the “Ghostly Tales” CD. Nothing says weird like a bagpipe and a billowing smoke machine.
As it goes with most events like this, the crowd got livlier as the night went on. We ended up playing a bunch of extra tunes while the dancing went on. We’d play all night, but because of the residential nature of the area, we opted for prudence over a visit from the local constabulary.
Alot of folks put in alot of work to make the ball a success, and the community support was enormous. We’re proud to have been a part of it, and hope to do it again next year.
Alot of really cool things were donated as door prizes and silent auction items. This Weber grill was donated by Cape True Value. A friend of Freaks won a weekend trip. He’s hoping to be invited along.
Our 63 year old percussion guy, Sean, came as a 4th grader
Professional wrestler or bass player?
He smells like he looks
Death stalked in and played a bit
Colorful enough, without a costume
Robert Palmer, lucky bastard
Now I remember why I cut my hair off 25 years ago!
Death revealed-it was Stu all along!
Dats all folks!
Track 11
THE CROOKED TREE
In Truxton Park, near the head of Spa Creek, there is tree hanging over the bank. I came across a story about this area, of which there are two versions. One story has it that three witches were buried here in the 1800’s, after being executed. Two were hung, one was burned. It is said that it is their ghosts that haunt the woods here.
The second version says that the victims of a witch haunt the place, and that you can see their ghosts hanging from the trees. This witch was reportedly killed and buried here, but rose from the dead and escaped the grave, never to be seen again.
Scary stuff, but I could find no documented or even anecdotal evidence that these events ever occurred here. No murder reports, no empty graves, no witch executions. In fact, Maryland’s last recorded witchcraft trial was in Annapolis in 1712. A jury acquitted Virtue Violl of Talbot County of using witchcraft to harm the health of an invalid neighbor.
Between 1654 and 1712, there were ten witch trials in Maryland’s recorded history, most of which were formally conducted in county courts of law. Only one execution took place as the result of official sentencing. On October 9, 1685, in Calvert County, Rebecca Fowler was charged, convicted, and executed by hanging, on counts of “certain diabolical arts called witchcraft, enchantments, charms, and sorceries.”
I did discover that this area was part of “Primrose Hill”, an estate owned by painter John Hesselius and his wife, Mary Young Woodward Hesselius during the early part of the 19th century. John Hesselius died at “Bellefield” on the Broadneck Peninsula and is buried there in an unmarked grave.
Streets in the area bear names related to the estate, such as Young’s Farm Road , Primsose Rd. and Woodward ct.
Mary passed away in 1820 at Primrose Hill. She was an ardent Methodist when it wasn’t cool, and the Methodists used Primrose Hill as a meeting place.
The place then passed to Captain Louis Neth, an Annapolis businessman, who died in 1824 and is buried there. His epitaph read “Louis Neth-the last of his name”. While he owned the estate, Captain Neth saw fit to place an ad in a local paper warning people not to hunt on his property.
A book by Tina Simmons entitled “Anne Arundel County Cemetery Sites” places the Primrose Hill cemetery inside the boundaries of Truxton park, about 50 feet from Hilltop Lane. The book says that there are believed to be several graves there, but only a crypt is still visible.
Perhaps the whole witch scenario is misunderstood. Maybe it’s just Capt. Neth trying to scare off trespassers, or Mary Young Hesselius, trying to convert you to Methodism.
One musical note on this song. The “boing boing boing” sound you hear during the song is a “Devil Chaser”, a Southeast Asian percussion instrument made of bamboo. I wanted to work it into a song for awhile, and this seemed to be the one.
The “Devil Chaser” can be heard throughout one of my favorite all time movies, Apocalypse Now.
Whats left of the Primrose Hill Cemetery, Truxton Park, Annapolis. You’d be po’d too if this was your eternal resting place.
Track 10
HANGIN’ MARY
One of our favorite little joints to play is the Judges Bench, 8385 Main st. in Ellicott City, Maryland. It’s a friendly place, and we always have a good time. As I was researching local ghost stories, I came across the story of “Mary”, the Judges Bench Ghost.
Ellicott City is another one of those well preserved historic towns that hosts an encyclopedia of ghost stories. The town was reportedly planned and built on 7 hills, to emulate Rome. Along Seven Hills rd. (College Ave.) resides a ghost or demon that likes to chase you when you’re driving on it late at night. Unfortunately, a lot of folks have been killed and injured racing up and down those hills.
As for Mary, she was a young lady who allegedly committed suicide by hanging on the third floor of the building that now houses the bar. It is said that her ghost likes to fiddle around with the bathrooms and do other mischievous things.
I checked coroner records for the county for about a 150 year period, and did not find anything related to this event, but that’s not to say it didn’t happen. Record keeping, especially back then, was spotty at best. I have read a version that states she was the daughter of a couple that ran a grocery store out of the building in the 1880’s. She hung herself after being jilted by her fiancee.
Somebody, after hearing about this song, contacted me and claimed that they had “spoken with” Mary, and she says that she did not committ suicide and that the story is untrue. I’d like a second opinion.
The song itself is rather irreverent, and we’ve been warned by the bartenders not to upset Mary. We play the tune every time we’re there, basically daring her to appear and mess with us. I know, not very cool, but it’s all in fun.
Jeff took some photos one night outside the place, and he swears that the “fog” in the photo is Mary. I still think it was cigarette smoke, but he says that he was alone and not smoking at the time.
Well, you never know….
