The co-producer of the chart-topping new folk compilation helped assemble an all-star cast, including Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Kathy Mattea and some Michigan faves.
With his trademark grin, West Michigan singer and producer Mick Lane gleefully recounts asking folk legends Judy Collins and Pete Seeger whether they’d be willing to contribute a track to an album paying tribute to the “mother of folk” Jean Ritchie.
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Without hesitation, they enthusiastically jumped aboard.
Even younger artists such as singer-songwriter Rachael Davis, a Michigan native who now lives in Nashville, consented immediately, with Davis boasting that she grew up listening to her mother singing Ritchie’s rich catalog of beautiful folk classics.
“It was just like falling off a log, every single person we talked to,” Lane recalls of the impressive two-album project that features contributions from Seeger, Collins, Davis, Kathy Mattea, Janis Ian, Suzy Bogguss, Robin & Linda Williams and many more renowned folk artists, along with contributions from Lane and Michigan favorites Ralston Bowles and May Erlewine.
But nothing made Lane happier or gave him more satisfaction than seeing the 91-year-old Ritchie herself sing along to the completed two-album project – officially released this week by Compass Records – when producers brought her an early copy of “Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie” during a special Kentucky concert with a host of friends and musicians on hand.
“The place was full – the balconies all around and the floor and all full. When we wheeled her in about three minutes before curtain, the place just stood up. I’m not exaggerating, it was a 5- to 7-minute standing ovation. They sat her down in the center row and she sat and sang and loved every song. She’s so happy.”
As well she should be: With radio stations provided early copies of the album, it immediately shot straight to No. 1 on the worldwide Top 70 Folk Airplay chart (aka FOLKDJ-L) for August and it’s already earned high marks in reviews by the likes of the Boston Globe and No Depression magazine.
It’s a satisfying outcome for Lane, who co-produced the 37-track tribute with Dan Schatz and Charlie Pilzer, and who assembled the all-star contributions recorded in a host of studios around the country. All in all, it took more than two years to complete the project.
Lane, a Gun Lake solo artist, labor organizer and popular frontman for West Michigan’s Conklin Ceili Band, has been performing for more than 30 years and he called on his impressive network of who’s who contacts in the folk scene to help him in the cause.
ANOTHER PASSIONATE TRIBUTE TO A BELOVED FOLK ICON
Lane also was one of the artists on 2009’s Grammy-nominated “Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips.” Phillips, an American folk singer, story-teller and poet, died in 2008.
Indeed, that project may have sparked the idea of a tribute to Ritchie, a much-beloved and influential singer, songwriter and dulcimer player who was part of the legendary singing “Ritchies of Perry County.”
Ritchie had sent a note to Schatz about the tribute to the late Phillips, which he shared with Lane.
“She said, ‘I hope when I die, someone will do this for me,’ ” Lane recalls. “So I looked at Dan, ‘What the hell are we waiting for?’ He said, ‘Let’s get to work.’ We called Charlie (Pilzer), who’s a Grammy-winning engineer, and off we went.
It really was a labor of love.”
As Lane puts it, “Jean Ritchie deserves this,” and even more so, audiences deserve to experience music that’s influenced generations of folk artists.
“She’s an amazing lady. I used to sit on her porch and sing with her in Port Washington when she lived in New York,” said Lane, a walking encyclopedia of knowledge of Irish-American music and the folk genre.
“It always blew my mind. Here’s this kid from Grand Rapids and the mother of folk music said, ‘Mick, would you come up and sing with me on the porch?’ … The CD that we produced, it’s purpose was to show how she impacted across genres, across age groups. It crosses ethnic groups. It’s a wonderful compilation.”
Special CD-release concerts are planned to further promote the album, with shows likely in Chicago, Ann Arbor, New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles.
Check out John Sinkevics’ full interview with Mick Lane in a podcast from this week’s edition of Local Spins Live on News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW), including the lead track, “Black Waters,” from the new album:
Listen to samples from every track on the album at the Compass Records website: compassrecords.com/album.php?id=1065
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music