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While You Were Slumbering

by Joseph Decosimo

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - 12" Standard Weight Vinyl nestled in a poly-lined inner sleeve
    - Single pocket matte finish jacket cradled in a polybag
    - Gatefold insert with extensive liner notes
    - Sleepy Cat sticker

    Includes unlimited streaming of While You Were Slumbering via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    First run
    Replicated CD
    Wallet cases - 16 pt recycled board stock printed using green friendly ink
    8 panel insert
    Sleepy Cat sticker

    Includes unlimited streaming of While You Were Slumbering via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    includes a pdf of extensive liner notes written by Joseph
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD  or more

     

1.
Nero, Tiro, Tiptoe, and Sounder Of all the dogs that I possess, Old Rock and Rule they are the best, But Charlie is my good old dog forever more, I know. Come Uncle Joe, and let’s go home. We’ll leave that old red fox alone. For our pop he’s going to hunt him in the morning. He’ll put his hounds up on that track. They’ll run it off. They’ll bring it back. They’ll run him from old England to old Kentucky, I know. Now, put your ear upon the ground, And good Lord just listen at my lead hound. He’ll run him from old England to old Kentucky, I know. Then I put my horn up to my mouth, And I blew my horn North, East, and south, But it seemed like my old hound couldn’t hear me. And then I blew my horn so loud, you could have heard it thunder in the clouds. But I could still hear my old hound running Yew-cue, yew-cue, yew-cue…
2.
3.
4.
Trouble 03:03
It’s trouble, trouble. There’s trouble everywhere. Trouble, trouble. There’s trouble everywhere. Trouble, trouble, there’s trouble all around. But Lord, Lord, trouble can’t last always. I am so glad that trouble can’t last always. I am so glad that trouble won’t last always. Aren’t you so glad that trouble can’t last always? Lord, Lord, this trouble can’t last always. Old Daniel, he prayed in the morning, noon, and night. Old Daniel, he prayed both morning, noon, and night. Daniel prayed both morning, noon, and night. Oh Lord, Lord, trouble can’t last always. Daniel’s saved from the lion’s den, The good book do declare. Old Daniel was saved from the lion’s den, the good book do declare. Daniel was saved from the lion’s den, the good book do declare. Oh Lord, Lord, trouble can’t last always. I am so glad that trouble can’t last always. I am so glad that trouble can’t last always. Yes, I am so glad that trouble can’t last always? Lord, Lord, trouble can’t last always. Aren’t you so glad that troubles can’t last always? Yes, I’m so glad these troubles can’t last always. I am so glad these troubles can’t last always. Lord, Lord, troubles can’t last always.
5.
6.
Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove, I say. Shady Grove, my little love, I’m bound to go away. Farewell love, a long farewell. Farewell for a while. For if I go, I’ll come again If I go ten thousand miles. Ten thousand miles or more, my love, To England, France, or Spain This poor heart will never be at ease Til I see your face again. The crow that is so black, my love, Would surely turn to white. If ever I prove false to thee, Bright day may turn to night. Bright day may turn to night, my love. The elements would mourn. If ever I prove false to thee, The sea may rage and burn.
7.
I have been a man of constant sorrows. Lord, it’s been trouble all my days. I’ll bid farewell to Fentress County To the place I was born and raised. Farewell dear girl. I’m bound to leave you. You may think I’m doing you wrong. But nature binds on me to ramble And leave this home, where I’ve been so long. Kind miss, kind miss go and ask your mother If you can be a bride of mine. If she says yes, then come and tell me. If she says no, I’ll go away. But I’m bound to ride that Southern railroad. I aim to go one thousand miles. Oh while you were sleeping, while you were slumbering I am sleeping in the clay.
8.
9.
Coon Dog 02:59
10.
Think of me, little darling Think of me when I’m far away Think of me, little darling For we’ll meet again some day Bring me a glass of apple brandy, And a glass of cherry wine. Come and drink with me, little darling. It could be your last old time. Should you ever change, darling, What would this world mean to me? Nothing but a stream of sorrow That a poor boy ever seen. You can meet with brighter faces. Some may tell you I’m not true. Darling, don’t you believe them. There’s no one loves you like I do. You can meet with pretty faces, floating down a river stream. Yet I wonder, little darling, Why you’re always in my dreams.
11.
From the singing of Dee Hicks. Up stepped Young Rapoleon and he took his mother by the hand, Saying “Mother, don’t be angry for I am able to command. I’ll take five hundred thousand, and across the mountains I will go. And I will conquer Moscow and return with a bonny bunch of roses o.” But when he got to Moscow, him a being overpowered by the ice and snow And Moscow was a-blazing, so he lost his bonny bunch of roses o. Then up spoke Young Rapoleon, as he lie upon his dying bed, Saying “If I could’ve lived, I would’ve been glad, but oh I’ll drop my youthful head.”
12.
Clear Fork 03:05
13.
Come thou Fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms. In the arms of my dear savior, Oh there are ten thousand charms Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it Mount of thy redeeming love I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms. In the arms of my dear savior, Oh there are ten thousand charms.
14.

about

Joseph Decosimo reminds us that the old stuff can still do work in our world: It can still sustain us and fill us. Over the last decade, Joseph Decosimo has emerged as one of the most compelling interpreters of the older banjo, fiddle, and song traditions from the Appalachian South, especially from his native Cumberland Plateau. A national old-time banjo champion and blue-ribbon winner at the South’s most prestigious fiddlers’ conventions, he’s one of the last to have studied under the region’s older artists. But that’s only part of the story: Living in the bustling indie hub of Durham, Decosimo has become a go-to collaborator for ethereal fiddle and banjo sounds, collaborating with Hiss Golden Messenger, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Wye Oak, and Elephant Micah. On While You Were Slumbering, Joseph reconciles the disparate creative worlds of his musical life, conjuring panoramic sounds from rare old ballads and snaking instrumentals.
www.josephdecosimo.com
www.instagram.com/josephdecosimo/
“I feel the beauty of the little gestures in the old music: the microtonal shadings, the miniscule shifts in bow pressure, the funky tug between downbeat and backbeat in these regional banjo styles,” Joseph reflects on a lifetime of deep listening to field recordings from his native Southern Appalachia. “That’s where I’m exploring the power and experimental possibilities of an older, weirder America—a site of profound, less regulated creativity and expression.” Joseph’s engagement with the archive, decades spent befriending the region’s older players, and his embrace of the small gestures and gritty angularity of the music translates into captivating performances. In his hands, the old pieces hit hard, striking a delicious balance between lonesomeness and hopefulness—dissonance and consonance. His new album While You Were Slumbering seamlessly melds the regional and universal, yielding a shining, inventive blend of the familiar and new—a kind of Cosmic Appalachia.

With expertly executed regional fiddle and banjo styles, resonant hardanger d’amore, synth pad-like pump organ, incisive fingerstyle guitar, subtle percussion informed by vernacular dance traditions, and pulsing bass clarinet, Decosimo fashions the older regional music into the transcendent—a subtly experimental soundscape that resonates beyond its point of origin as it embraces the bittersweet tension and release inherent in the music. Fiddle and banjo tunes become pointillistic explorations in sound—pizzicato, harmonics, and clacking pump organ offer perfectly ambiguous accompaniment for these lonesome studies in circularity. Old ballads and a shape note hymn serve as studies in minimalism—Joseph and Alice Gerrard’s voices float atop clouds of droning pump organ and grainy fiddle textures.

Joseph explains the vision shaping the arrangements: “When the old ballad singers sang, they believed in the worlds that they sang about. You can feel it. When I hear a field recording of the great Tennessee ballad singer Dee Hicks calling up the foxhounds on The Fox Chase or recounting Napoleon’s son’s demise on Young Rapoleon, I feel like he’s inviting me into a new world—one filled with a different set of possibilities. I want this project to replicate those feelings of possibility and wonder for people who don’t listen to field recordings.” Indeed, rather than distant interpretations of exotic repertoire or some kind of historical hillbilly cosplay exercise, each piece is a mediation on intimately known material—a reflection of Joseph’s relationships with both contemporary collaborators and the older folks, like mentor and NEA Heritage Fellow Clyde Davenport, who passed away in early 2020 and whose pieces “Will Davenport’s Tune” and “The Wild Goose Chase” honor his artistry and memory. The sense of responsibility and care that accompanies friendship not only guides the repertoire, but it also inspires the performances.

Well-chosen collaborations sustain the rare, powerful magic of deep tradition revisited, realized with able help fiddler and singer Stephanie Coleman and composer/fiddler/pump organist Cleek Schrey as well as from new collaborations with local Durham artists Alice Gerrard (Hazel and Alice) and Elephant Micah visionaries Joe and Matt O’Connell. Alec Spiegelman (Cuddle Magic), co-producer of Anna & Elizabeth’s enchanting 2017 EP, lends his bass clarinet and mixing skills, constructing warm, enveloping spaces. A recording process, slowed in part by the pandemic, forced patience on the project. Remote collaborations and home recording sessions in Durham and Brooklyn, a surreptitious session in a Princeton University studio, and another in bluegrass icon Alice Gerrard’s backyard encouraged Decosimo and crew to follow the music’s lead and allow arrangements to swirl into place.

Drawing its title from the final verse of a hard-hitting regional version of the ballad “Man of Constant Sorrow,” While You Were Slumbering meditates on what happens in the lost time of our lives. This veteran trad musician and PhD holding folklorist fills the lost time with sonic dream worlds, ripe for exploration. Taken together the pieces serve as stations in an observance of loss—a lost foxhound, a lost coon dog, a lost gander, a lost home, a lost love, a lost life.

www.sleepycatrec.com

credits

released November 11, 2022

Performance
Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar, Pump Organ, Vocals - Joseph Decosimo
Pump Organ, Hardanger d’Amore - Cleek Schrey
Vocals, fiddle - Stephanie Coleman
Percussion - Matthew O’Connell
Vocals, Pump Organ - Joe O’Connell
Vocals, Banjo - Alice Gerrard
Bass Clarinet - Alec Spiegelman

Production
Produced by Joseph Decosimo
Recorded at homes in Durham, Raleigh, and Brooklyn, Alice’s backyard and kitchen in Durham, and in a studio at Princeton University
Engineered by Joseph Decosimo
Mixed by Alec Spiegelman
Mastered by Mike Monseur

Art
Art direction and design by Gabe Anderson
Cover photo by Libby Rodenbough
Watercolors by Larissa Wood

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about

Joseph Decosimo Durham, North Carolina

plays rare fiddle/banjo tunes and sings old songs, especially fiddle/banjo music from the Appalachian South. Joseph has made a deep study of the the music of the Cumberland Plateau/East TN/Western NC regions and has performed and taught it around the world with the Bucking Mules. Beyond trad music, his fiddle/banjo can be heard on projects by Hiss Golden Messenger and others. ... more

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