One from the past..Betty Elders - Daddy's Coal

Daddy's Coal ~ 1989

This gem was recorded in a South Austin garage with an old Peavey p.a. system, and originally relased on cassette!  Proof that true creative ability cannot be constrained by a lack of materials.  The essentials were in place----great songs, great musicians, great ears (engineering, production)

The title cut, "Daddy's Coal," is timeless and startling in its profundity.  Betty's and Hal's (Ketchum) vocals soar effortlessly and majestically above a lyrical but sparse acoustic bed (Betty's guitar, John Hagen's cello), in the same way the symbolic eagle of her song soars "upon the wind".  This song is as much a triumphant testimonial to a child's love for parent as it is a memorial to innocence lost by an entire Viet Nam War generation. The memory of such loss is simply and tenderly expressed in both the title cut and the traditional, "A Drifter's Prayer"  --- perfect portrait of a loss of faith.   A soul with its tether cut.

Everyman's song.

The prophetic "Jericho" expounds on the lack of virtue displayed by TV evangelism, and the anthemic "Pilgrim" close the too-short collection,  proving once again that one can indeed make much with little.

Note: the CD version contins a bonus gem: a raw living room recording of Betty and Gene's living room performance of "Two Hearts Together, Three-Quarter Time."

Very collectible. 

DADDY's COAL ~ 1989

Produced and arranged by Betty Elders 

1. Bed Of Roses/ Bed Of Thorns  3:31
2. Heartache  4:14
3. A Drifter's Prayer  3:05
4. Daddy's Coal  6:02
5. I  Never Think Of You At All  2:37
6. Jericho  3:14
7. Welcome Home Heart  3:22
8. Silver Wheels (#2)  3:22
9. Two Hearts Together, Three-Quarter Time  3:26
10. The Pilgrim  3:26

Players:

Betty: acoustic guitars, keyboards, harmony vocals
Gene Elders: 5-string violin
Scott Neubert: acoustic and electric lead guitars, dobro
Rick McRae: acoustic guitar on "Silver Wheels" and "Welcome Home Heart"
Gene Williams: acoustic guitar, electric bass on " A Drifter's Prayer"
Keith Carper: double bass
Roland Denney: string bass
John Hagen: cello on "Daddy's Coal"
Rene Garcia: trombone on "Welcome Home Heart"
Hal Michael Ketchum: harmony vocal on "Daddy's Coal"
Tommy Daniel, Bow Brannon, and Doug Floyd: harmony vocals on "A Drifter's Prayer"


Recorded at: MARS (Mid-Austin Recording Studio),   AWOL Studio (Manor TX), and Songwriter Studio
Engineers: Charlie Hollis, Rick Ward, and Jess DeMaine
Mastered by Jerry Tubb at Terra Nova Digital Audio, Austin, TX
Cover concept and jacket photographs: Betty and her dad, Charlie Pruett, Jr. 

Biography

She always knew she would be an artist. Her love of music, melody and words began longer ago than she can now remember. The relentless stirring of the mortal soul, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me..." left an indelible imprint on her music. That hymn, her first musical memory, would shape her future.
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, of Scottish descent, Betty began playing piano at the age of Four, and by age six had already begun to compose melodies. She loved hymns. She loved the rhythm of poetry, especially the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, Carl Sandburg and Robert Frost. By age ten, she had written several of her own. One, "Snow," would be honored by the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in 1961.
Betty studied ballet and taught herself to play guitar by listening to records. At fourteen she formed a folk trio with two girlfriends. Just Us, and they played at talent shows and cafes, displaying an eclectic musical repertoire and love of vocal harmonies. In the wake of the arrival of the Beatles and the sounds of the British invasion, Betty played drums for a year in an all-girl Beatles cover band. Soon more dynamic rhythms and melodies caught her ears, in the music of Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Jackie DeShannon, and James Brown.
Summers were spent at her aunt and uncle's farm in Woodlawn, Virginia. There Betty added to her influences the lilting harmonies loved by her uncle; the memorable refrains of Ralph Staniey, The Clinch Mountain Boys and, of course, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. Once again. her love of yearning melodies and harmonic voices was rekindled.
Later, the folk artists of the sixties and seventies expressed yearning with a social and political conscience, leading Betty in another direction. One of Betty's "favorite first songs I ever learned to fingerpick on guitar" was Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." It will still occasionally surface on her set list, when homage is being paid to those influences which artfully combine great poetry with great music.
From birth until she recorded her first album of original songs, After the Curtain, in 1981, Betty Elders' music had been shaped by all she beheld. In its diversity one may clearly see her love of that music which speaks to the soul's struggles, its yearnings, from the early influence of church hymns to popular music, to an education in the brilliant blues of Gershwin's melancholy, the vast expansive scores of Aaron Copeland and Ferde Grofe, and the exquisite marriage of rhythm and melody in the orchestrations of Maurice Jarre. Betty still claims Jarre's score for the movie. "Thee Comancheros." to be among her favorite film scores of all time.
Betty settled in Austin, Texas, in 1984. Her self-produced release Daddy’s Coal was issued on her own Whistling Pig Music label in 1989, and earned her several year-end awards from Austin's Music City Texas Insider: Best Independent Tape, Song of the Year (shared by two of Betty's songs), Best Female Vocalist and Best Female Songwriter. The release of Peaceful Existence, issued in 1993 on Whistling Pig, resulted in another round of awards from the Insider’s poll and the Austin Chronicle's Music Poll. It also attracted a degree of critical acclaim truly unusual for a release on an artist's own label. Reviews in Detroit's Metro Times, Detroit Free Press, Austin Chronicle, Performing Songwriter, Richmond Times Dispatch Dirty Linen, Folk Roots and many other publications range in tone from laudatory to reverential. Dave Goodrich of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette named Peaceful Existence one of the five best releases of the decade.
She's been a featured artist in six standing-room-only showcases in the internationally renowned South-by-Southwest Music and Media Conference 1989-1994. Meanwhile, she co-authored "He Never Got Enough Love" on Lucinda Williams' critically acclaimed 1992 release, Sweet Old World.
Highlights of the 1994 season include her performance on National Public Radio's "Mountain Stage program Jan. 9; a successful tour of the Northeastern U.S. in July; the release of Daddy's Coal on CD; and her enthusiastically received performance on the Main Stage at the 1994 Kerrville Folk Festival. 

What Betty Elders Peers Are Saying

Betty's songs and her sweet, haunting voice call forth the spirit of Appalachia combined with a keen vision and revealing honesty about what really matters. Betty is a favorite of mine and deserves to be heard!
---Lucinda Williams

It is and has been to me for some time a source of amazement that an artist of Betty's caliber has not been recognized yet on a national level. Maybe this will be the album that slaps some heads.
---Iain Matthews

Her music will touch your soul. From deep inside the genuine person she is, Betty Elders' songs speak through the pain and happiness of all the moments. Just simply being--and carrying on. I hope she always does.
--Jimmy LaFave