Great Northern

(Composed and arranged by Reynold D. Philipsek copyright 2005 Zino-Rephi Music BMI)

Guitar-Reynold
Violin-Gary Schulte
Accordion-Patrick Harison
Acoustic Bass-Mike Zeleny
Recording engineer-John Hammond
Recorded spring of 2005

“The Great Northern” was an old hotel/beer joint (some called it a “flophouse”) not far from the neighborhood I grew up in. It was near the railway yard for the Great Northern railroad. This ramshackle three-story yellow-brick structure stood directly adjacent to the tracks. There were always several parked boxcars nearby with the “Rocky the Goat” Great Northern logo emblazoned on each one. My mom warned me to stay away from this dilapidated and somewhat sinister place at dusk when the jukebox could be heard blasting country songs and the bleary-eyed barflies sang along.

Even years later just thinking about this place brings back the smell of stale beer which wafted out a full block before you approached the building. I guess from that perspective the song gets close to the mark. Plus the “train” theme does come across as well. After not really listening to this one for more than 15 years it is a pleasure to hear.

My concept for this piece was to somehow fuse “Gypsy” jazz with “Americana.” To my way of thinking, there is an area where the two genres cross and this particular instrumentation works well for that.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Love,
Reyn

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