Dave Bourne
(Tumbling Tumbleweeds - Cool Water medley with Dave Bourne at piano)
Bob Nolan single-handedly started an entire genre of music. Not many composers can claim that, except for J. S. Bach. Even with Be-bop in the early ‘40s, it took Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker to establish the medium. With Nolan, I would argue that no one is even in second place. While Tim Spencer had a few truly great tunes, the sheer volume of Nolan’s (high-quality) outpouring of material makes a large shadow over all the “also rans.”
Nolan called his material “song poems,” and it is truly an apt appellation. His lyrics stand alone as great poetry. His melodies are distinctive. For example, the structure of “Vagabond Whirlwinds” is a revolving progression which never seems to end…it continues to flow, like the wind. His harmonic sense was like no other. In “Vagabond Whirlwinds” the second chord of the bridge (a III chord) leaps out and yells “It’s a Nolan chord!”
As a full time musician, he sought to grow and not just perform “Cool Water” endlessly, so the wealth of Nolan material offers excellent opportunities in that regard. I consider the quality and variety in his work to be right up there with Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.
Western Music will always have a limited market, much like any style of music which is historical. The Internet, the poetry gatherings, and superb groups like Riders in the Sky have all helped to further the music, but in no way will it ever become mainstream. Even in the heyday of the Sons of the Pioneers, the music was not a big seller.
Nolan stands alone as a great songwriter and poet. His images of both the desert where he moved as a teen and the North Country where he was born shine through as brilliantly today as when he penned them so many years ago. (Dave Bourne)
DAVE BOURNE'S TRIBUTE TO BOB NOLAN
When Elizabeth McDonald and Calin Coburn prepared to archive all of Bob's songs in the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina, they decided to add an audio example of each song. Dave Bourne generously volunteered to make clean, new demos for each of the unrecorded songs directly from extant lead sheets, exactly as written. These demos were archived with the printed material. A number of these demos are found on the Lyrics page but you will be able to hear them, too, by clicking on each title in the following list:
Don't Expect Me Home in the Morning
Vagabond Whirlwinds (with the Lobo Rangers)
Dave is a full-time piano player living in Southern California with his wife, Patty. A trained teacher and the son of a band instructor, Dave's affinity for the music of Bob Nolan began when he joined the Wagonmasters, the singing cowboy group that entertained at Knott's Berry Farm from 1955 – 1968. In 1988 he formed The Lobo Rangers with three of the original Wagonmasters and he continues to perform western music with an emphasis on Nolan compositions.
Recently, his part in the TV series, Deadwood, has made his Saloon piano playing CDs popular.
(saloonpiano.com)
(saloonpiano.com)
Dave has written a beautiful book recording the history of Knott's Berry Farm in pictures and is collecting material for a biography of George "Gabby" Hayes whom he resembles.
In Dave's words ~
After graduation from AUHS, I attended USC for five years. I’ve spent most of my life playing piano in clubs in the Hollywood/L.A. area. We have lived in Agoura Hills, California since 1977. My wife Patty is a singer, potter, and painter
We have one married daughter who lives and teaches piano
in Agoura Hills. You can see her amazing paintings on the web at
My specialty in the past several years has been saloon piano of the 19th Century. It has led me to many amazing old west venues all over California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona. I’ve even played a couple of folk festivals in Lowell, Massachusetts and Bangor, Maine. I worked on the first season of HBO’s “Deadwood” as a featured background player, and was pleased to have them use my saloon piano recordings on the soundtrack for all three seasons that the show ran. I’ve done several episodes of “Wild West Tech” on the History Channel, where I can be seen as a fiddler, and a doctor. The most recent thing I’ve done is “The Hunt For John Wilkes Booth” that just aired In December on the History Channel, featuring myself as a banjo picker in the barn dance scene. I’m still working the clubs regularly four nights a week. About once a month we go to a fun western festival and set up the old piano.
It’s a wonderful thing to get paid for what you enjoy doing. It’s been a great run.
TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS
When I hear this great old song I always tense up when the bridge arrives. There’s apparently a lot of individual interpretations of what the chords are supposed to be in the first two bars. It seems that most folks play it this way.
G7 C
I know when night has gone
D7 G7
that a new world’s born at dawn
I thought I took my version from the early Pioneer’s recording of it. My version…
G7 C
I know when night has gone
B7 Em
that a new world’s born at dawn
I came across an original copy of the sheet music from 1934. Nolan (or his publisher) has it this way.
Fm6 G7 C
I know when night has gone
Am6# B7 Em B7 G7
that a new world’s born at dawn
(Note The # on the Am6 chord would appear to be a misprint.)
I kind of dig the sheet music chords but I’m still satisfied with a straight B7 to Em, probably because I first heard it that way and have been doing it for over 50 years now.
