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    Okey-Dokey Records MSCB001
                                          Originally released as Major Records BMW2002
                                         

Produced for the Middle Spunk Creek Boys and George Hanson
Recording: Daron Applequist for Hot Tea and Cold Wine, Inc.
Album Design:Tom Ellison
Liner Photographs: Paul Shambroom and Tom Ellison
Liner Notes: Susan Thartrel
Reissue Recording and Album Design: Bruce Jaeger

For this album, the Middle Spunk Creek Boys have culled twelve of their best numbers recorded live at the Walker Art Center Auditorium on January 23rd, 1976, all prime examples of the drive, excitement, and warmth that they strive for on their live performances. On the evening of the concert, the atmosphere was so electric that at least two people fainted, but fortunately they revived before they had to play.

The selection of songs demonstrates the MSCB's original approach to bluegrass. Two songs, “Hattie Hale” and “Unending Songs,” were written by fiddler Rudy Darling, whose songs keep the rhythms, harmonies and melodic structure of bluegrass, but avoid the cliches.

Many of the songs on this album have been taken from other types of music and rearranged to suit the group’s style. Echoes of classical and rock music can be heard in the MSCB’s arrange-ment of “Weave and Way,”originally a Scottish fiddle tune. The influence of rock music can also be heard in “Midnight Moonlight” and “Henry”—but two other songs from the rock idiom, “Fox on the Run” and “Glendale Train,” fit so smoothly into the Boys’ bluegrass repertoire that they could almost pass for old standards. The rhythms of swing music underlie both “Faded Love” and “Sweet Georgia Brown,” a bouncy arrangement in two keys that left the audience dribbling.
Even when they play straightforward bluegrass, like “Goin’ Up,” the MSCB’s careful choice of material and skillful, energetic performance make every song thoroughly original—and thoroughly enjoyable.

Alan Jesperson, chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer, helped found the Middle Spunk Creek Boys in 1968 and has survived many stockholder battles to rise to his current position. He steered the group through the stormy period of the early 1970's when the Boys were fighting charges of monopolizing bluegrass in the region. His corporate strategy--which resulted in dismissal of all charges--was to form a competing but incompetent group staffed by members of his own band: The Split Level Ramblers As Chairman of the Board, Mr. Jesperson has encouraged the group to diversify into T-shirts, record sales, soup forks, and the line of mental hygiene products that has made the MSCB synonymous with sanity throughout most of the world. He plays guitar.

Although he was born just a baby and spent the better part of his youth as a mere child, fiddler Rudy Darling, after many hours of practice, has grown to be 29 years old and the father of one child .He spends his time repairing stringed instruments, writing songs, and practicing the fiddle, and week by week, month by month, he continues to grow older and somewhat balder. When the Boys tease him about balding, though, he is quick to retort "I don't have thin hair; I have a thick head." In the last two years, Rudy has won prizes for his fiddling in Iowa. South Dakota, and Minnesota. If he keeps on working as hard as he has been and encounters no unforeseen difficulties, he is almost certain, someday, to become a senior citizen.

Al "Lightning Fingers" Struthers is the strong silent type, although some argue that he is merely dead. That he is not dead is amply demonstrated by his fast imaginative banjo picking, his crisp tenor singing, and his remarkable resistance to decomposition. Offstage, "Lightning" pursues diverse interests: teaching Freshman English, collecting freshness date stamps from milk cartons, doing volunteer work for the National Elbows Off the Table Foundation, and modeling cadaver fashions. His favorite song is "Happy Birthday.”

Jerry Jim Flynn, though he moonlights as a photographer, admits that his first love is the string bass. He got his start when Chairman Jesperson discovered him in the mailroom whistling bass runs and decided to give him a chance on stage. That night, after Jerry Jim was jeered off stage, a sympathetic fan came to the dressing room to tell him that there existed an instrument that could play the parts he had tried to whistle. The next night, he proudly stepped on stage with a sparkle in his eye and a new sousaphone around his shoulders. After he was jeered off stage, Mr. Jesperson offered to buy him a doghouse bass and young J. J. was started on the golden path to bluegrass stardom.

1   down yonder 3:12 (l. gilbert)
2   glendale train 3:25 (j. dawson)
3   unending songs 2:33 (r. darling)
4   faded love 3:28 (b. and j. wills)
5   midnight moonlight 4:01 (p. rowan)
6   sweet georgia brown 2:44 (b. bernie, m. pinkard, k. casey)
7   hattie hale 2:35 (r. darling) 
8   henry 2:44 (j. dawson)
9   train whistle blues 4:44 (j. rodgers)
10  goin' up 2:14 (v. and r. gosdin)
11  fox on the run 2:29 (hazard)
12  weave and way 4:11 (trad., arr. mscb)