Used To Ain’t Here No More

Description

KEN TILLERY, who offers this guitar instrumental collection, Used To Ain’t Here No More, is a bare-finger guitar instrumentalist with a preternaturally fine touch from Hot Springs, Arkansas. It doesn’t much matter if they’re simple ‘parlor’ pieces where there’s nothing to hide behind, or if they’re so layered that it normally takes two men and a boy to play them. Some relative­ly simple pieces – Lena Hughes’ versions of “Spanish Fandan­go” and “Pearly Dew,” Etta Baker’s “Carolina Breakdown” – stand up alongside medium hard pieces like Sam McGee’s “Buckdancer’s Choice” and some massive rags – “The Hink” and “Sheridan Square Rag” by Dakota Dave Hull.

Tillery learned to play from a Roy Book Binder video as a teenager and then reached out to learn in person from Roy, Hull, and Andy Cohen who produced this album. He has the wit to manage a hotel as his day job, so he can leave his job at the office and practice seriously at home. His touch and technique are so exquisite that he recorded this entire album, thirteen complex guitar instrumentals, in fourteen takes. And there wasn’t anything seriously wrong with number thirteen. Andy is just picky.

Ken makes it a point to aim high. This album includes com­positions by Sam McGee, Dakota Dave Hull, Andy Cohen, Estil Ball, Hacksaw Harney, J. Bodewalte Lampe, Etta Baker and Lena Hughes. These are hardly his outer limits. At the moment, he is apprenticing on five string classic banjo with maestro Clarke Buehling.

Release Date: March 15, 2024

Musicians

Ken Tillery, vocals and guitars

Track List

1. Grandfather’s Clock 3:28 Henry C. Work, EMI Music Pub. Group OBO EMI Robbins Catalog Inc.
2. Spanish Fandango 3:26 Henry Worrall, Arrangement by Ken Tillery, Riverlark Publishing
3. The Evergreen Glide 4:06 Ken Tillery, Riverlark Publishing
4. The Hink 5:02 Dakota Dave Hull, Arabica Music
5. Carolina Breakdown 3:02 Etta Baker, Lucky Guitar Music
6. Buck Dancer’s Choice 2:53 Sam McGee, BMG Gold Songs OBO Uncle Fuller Music
7. Pearly Dew 2:47 Traditional, Arrangement by Ken Tillery, Riverlark Publishing
8. Knoxville Blues 4:03 Sam McGee, BMG Gold Songs OBO Uncle Fuller Music
9. Chow Time 2:46 Estil Cortez Ball, Copyright Estil Cortez Ball
10. 1Sheridan Square Rag 5:59 Dakota Dave Hull, Arabica Music
11. Sweet Man 3:43 Richard Hacksaw Harney, Blind Basement Music c/o Adelphi Records
12. Creole Belles 3:47 J. Bodewalde Lampe, Warner Chappell Music Inc. OBO Warner Bros. Music, a Division of Warner Bros. Inc.
13. Planxty: Miss Joanna Swan 2:41 Andrew M. Cohen, Earwig Music Company Inc.

Credits

• Executive Producer: Andy Cohen
• Producer: Ken Tillery
• Recording and Mixing Engineer: Matt Isbell, Memphis, Tennessee
• Recorded December 15 and 16, 2022 at Andy Cohen’s house, Memphis, Tennessee
• Mastering Engineer: Jim Godsey, JBG Audio, Palatine, Illinois
• Cover Artist: Jenna Tillery
• Graphic Designer: Al Brandtner, Brandtner Design, Chicago, Illinois