Forever Young: Vintage Fare's first CD

Liner Notes: We'll give you the play list first. Click the little speaker image next to a song to hear a sample. Where the track number is underlined, clicking it will take you to a page with lyrics and more extensive notes.

Below the play list are some general notes about the Forever Young CD, and credits to those that made it a success.

Track		Song	Writer / Publisher	Duration
1		To be a Kid Again	Alan Klein / Vintage Fare (1)	3:52.11
2		Ghandi/Buddha	Cheryl Wheeler/Amachrist Music	3:15.04
3		Early Morning Rain	Gordon Lightfoot/Moose Music	3:53.56
4		Will You Still Love Me	Carole King/Screen Gems-EMI	2:49.68
5		Tecumseh Valley	Townes Van Zandt/Bug Music	3:42.10
6		Four Strong Winds	Ian Tyson/Slick Fork Music	3:46.00
7		Mr. Bojangles	Jerry Jeff Walker/Warner-Tamerlane	4:39.08
8		Across the Great Divide	Kate Wolf/Bug Music	3:26.43
9		Speed of the Sound of Loneliness	John Prine/Bug Music	3:24.38
10		Gulf Coast Highway	Flowers/Griffith/Hooker/Colgems/Linchell/Irving	3:00.55
11		The Boxer	Paul Simon/WBMusic/Universal Music	4:23.42
12		Pancho and Lefty	Townes Van Zandt/Wixen Music/Bug Music	4:26.27
13		Crazy Love	Van Morrison/WB Music	3:50.03
14		Blue Moon	R. Rogers/L. Hart/EMI Robbins Catalog	2:24.62
15		Diamonds and Rust	Joan Baez/Chandos Music	3:43.67
16		Forever Young	Bob Dylan/Sony/ATV Tunes	3:38.23
			Total Play Time:	58:15.17
		(1) "To be a Kid Again" Copyright 2009 by Alan Klein

That's nearly an hour of play time, with great tunes by some of the finest songwriters ever. Unlike some other recording artists, Vintage Fare will never sell a CD with a mere eight tunes and 30 minutes of listening. We think that's a rip-off.

But the web does! Which is why we've chosen to keep our CD packaging simple, but provide extensive liner notes here.

The songs on Forever Young were chosen for a number of reasons. First, we all had to like them; believe in them, actually, as great songs. They didn't necessarily have to ever enjoy smash hit status, though many did. What was more important, to us, was that each song stand on its own as something above the ordinary. We also wanted to showcase some of the best work from some of the finest songwriters.

Of course, we're not all equally passionate about every song.  For each of us, one or more songs has a special significance, which is how they made it into our repertoire in the first place.  Wes, our webmaster, for example, is an admitted Dylan devotee.

For me, Forever Young is a Dylan masterpiece; one that's intensely personal. Written for his own son, Dylan's words speak to, and from, the heart of every parent that wants the best for their children. It doesn't wish for an easy or comfortable life; rather a life examined; a righteous life, a life surrounded by light and truth; and filled with dreams.  When I play my little harmonica solo in Forever Young, my eyes often water up thinking of my own sons, and I offer the notes as a prayer for them.

It's no accident that we chose Forever Young as the title for this recording. We close our live performances with Forever Young because it's not just about children. It's our wish and prayer for everybody in our audiences; for every member of humanity.

Alan's To be a Kid Again, the opening song, is the other "bookend" for the material in between. It's a song about a man reminiscing on the simplicity of childhood, and the difficult transition to adulthood.

The songs in between each come from younger times, or speak to the inner child in each of us; the part of us that feels love, joy, sorrow, yearning, disappointment and, most of all, hope.

In another song, It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Dylan wrote these profound words: "That he not busy being born is busy dying." I don't think truer words were ever spoken. 

By staying busy "being born," we're all staying forever young.

Credits: 

We'd like to thank Stu Boyer of StusArts for the superb recording and mastering work.  Stu's been doing fine audio rendering since the days of recording to tape and pressing vinyl LPs; all with vacuum tube, analog technology. He may be semi-retired, now, but his ear is as good as ever.

Stu isn't merely a great engineer; he's a fine musician, too.  He used his every skill to help us over rough patches, suggested small but vital changes in arrangements, and generally mentored all of us through the process.

I've no idea the number of unseen hours Stu invested in mixing and mastering, but I know there were plenty just cleaning up some of my rough harp parts. I have a pretty good hunch he spent much time on each vocal track, too.

Digital recording by Stu Boyer
Email: stusarts@sbcglobal.net
Phone: 916.366.8368

Stu delivered a master to die for - which you don't want to just hand over to any old body for reproduction.

We had the great fortune to find S & J CD Duplication to handle the "mundane" job of reproducing CDs in quantity. If you need recordings reproduced, we heartily recommend S&J. Stop shopping now and go straight to S & J. You won't regret it.

All the good people at S & J bent over backwards to help us see this project through. I can't remember ever experiencing this level of customer service. Emails and image files flew back and forth at an amazing pace.  No concern was overlooked, and they were gracious and thorough about answering our neophyte questions.

S & J CD Duplication
Web: http://www.snjcd.com/ 
Phone: 888.269.7088

Photography:
Back cover group photo by Judy Hull