We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Castaway (Original cast album) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 21 days
    edition of 100 

      $20 USD or more 

     

1.
God Please Bless America Please God bless America With compassion and mercy May we not Live in Fear My baby went off to school today I don’t know if I’m going to see my baby again We’re not promised tomorrow Please God bless America With wisdom To do what’s right And the Strength To admit we’re wrong So we can move on And be strong In case there is tomorrow Shield the children From the madness Knelt down, hands up, Knelt down, hands up, Over your heart We’re not promised tomorrow God Bless America (With humanity Teach us humility May the healing start) © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
2.
Castaway 05:41
Castaway We are caught in the tide in between Where the old world dies and the new one begins Dying to be born Aware of the perils and dangers around This is no time to sleep We’re between the devil and the deep Don’t be caught up short Lower your mainsails keep the northstar to port Forget yourself leave your body behind Forget yourself lose your mind Forget yourself you are not alone Come on home Down the hatch boys and heave to the wind The Squall is blustered and twisting with sin So One last call for reason Then we’re Shutting down for the season Forget yourself leave your body behind Forget yourself lose your mind Forget yourself you are not alone Come on home Gone too long - castaway © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
3.
Cherokee Rose Beneath the willows where the wild river flows Thru brambles and briars and Cherokee rose To the bank on the Southside and the Golden shoals I rendezvous with Mon Chéri where nobody knows I only offered her diamonds or pearls Naked and hungry in a wild wild world On the Southside and the Golden shoals I rendezvous with Mon Chéri where nobody knows In a Place where nobody goes In the sands where no feet know Beneath the willows where the wild river flows Thru the brambles and briars and Cherokee rose She cried ‘I need to fly’ and she spread her wing She stopped I time I heard only the birdies sing I felt the grind wound the string She pulled the wind and let the bell ring Mama don’t approve, Papa don’t care They think I’m sinning, about this love affair It’s so hard to bear Beyond the outskirts farther than the railroad track Over the hillside we built our humble shack We made our peace, we aint never coming back j'adore mon doux bébé Elle est précieuse et libre Mi amore, Mon Cheri, Mon esprit To the bank on the Southside and the Golden shoals I rendezvous with Mon Chéri where nobody goes © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
4.
Country Life 02:02
18th Century English Ballad 1. In spring we sow at the harvest mow And that is how the seasons round they go but of all the times choose I may I'd be rambling through the new mowed hay. 2. In summer when the summer is hot We sing, and we dance, and we drink a lot We spend all night in sport and play And go rambling in the new mown hay 3. In autumn when the oak trees turn We gather all the wood that's fit to burn We cut and stash and stow away And go rambling in the new mown hay 4. In winter when the sky's gray we hedge and ditch our times away, but in summer when the sun shines gay, We go ramblin' through the new mowed hay. 5. Oh Nancy is my darling gay And she blooms like the flowers every day But I love her best in the month of May When we're rambling through the new mown hay
5.
How Long 02:47
How Long How Long, How Long How long, how long Good loving kills me, strike me dead This morning I Went Fishing I got swallowed by a whale I wonder how much farther To the varmints tail I was saved by the virgin maiden She picked up my lance Slayed that dirty dragon We had us a little dance After creation We did multiply And divided into nations This made the Lord cry ‘I’m going to give you one more chance Next time will be fire Love comes from the breast The mind creates desire’ © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles / ASCAP
6.
Lamps Are Lighting There are secrets born every night But they age unkindly in the morning light Every bar along the lane Forgotten romance forgotten names Was blind - Was underground Afraid to fly - You lifted me now I’m found Boundless blessings, this morning bright Instantly granted to childlike eyes Fear of dying, fear of flying alone When we’re lost and have no home Was blind - Was underground Afraid to fly - You lifted me now I’m found Night is brightened ten billion sparks Ten trillion light years through the icy dark Time is winding grooving us down Lamps are lighting feel the sound Feel the Sound Lamps are lighting can’t you feel the sound? © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
7.
You Are the Sun When my heart beats you are the sound When the water rises you are my higher ground Out of no place - into you I run When I’m lost in darkness you are the sun When there is no sky you are my breath When there is no color you pull the blues my head You are the very next chapter when everything is done When I’m Lost in the darkness you are the sun You are the Sun I orbit about you daylight has come You are the sun Your brilliance is leading me home When there are no stars you light up my sky Pulling heavenly bodies in your gravitational tide You are melody in the Universe’ love song When I’m lost in the darkness you are the sun You are the Sun I orbit about you leading me home You are the sun Your brilliance is leading me home You are the burning turning deep down My Earthly Rises as the Storms roll on My fiery dream when sleep won’t come Your internal / convective motion Causes a dynamic magneto pull, upon my emotion You’re rhizomic hypha devotions Cause a mycelic explosion you are the sun You are the Sun I orbit about you leading me home You are the sun Your brilliance is leading me on Seas of sadness, leaves of madness Are gone © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
8.
Mysterium Tremendum 1 Mysterious tremendum, religion denies We are monkeys, convinced we’re running the show You give me thrills, Psycho spiritual ills I received missives as kisses From sisters beneath the stairs If I could I would… Purge this jealousness If could remember why we changed our plan, what went wrong… In the filth and the stream of murder we drown our song I pray to understand … And I’m learning how to love Hurricanes of fate, Oceans of free will Flooding daydreams, In the swollen tide of the present tense Man prays for many things … Forgiveness from blame Man will prey on most anything ….. Here and now is all we can claim © 2018 D. Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
9.
Spiral 05:08
Spiral Spires and toils, falling in the rain Tomorrow they’ll rise up again Desires and souls, losses we have gained Thumb on the scale of the dead Wind blow us on, spiraling to our new home Died and reborn, spiraling to our new home I cry in the night, for everyman The tears never land Stones from heaven, spaced out in riddles Feel the pressure from below Laughing as we carry on Wind blow us on, spiraling to our new home Died and reborn, spiraling to our new home We lived before, our ashes strew High and wide Pyres and gyres, delivered new Rising on the tide Wind blow us on, spiraling to our new home Died and reborn, spiraling to our new home Blow us home © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
10.
Rise 04:44
Rise 5 Dreaming stardust I rose from ashen clay Reaping conquest And gold along the way We left the harvest Our fields in decay I woke up so late The forest had tuned to ash Villains are at the gate And our kingdom will soon crash Throwing pitchforks at the state And this swing may be our last Rising from the ground / enough to feed us all All around / even climbing walls Free the sound / Sound the call Taking root On the devil’s estate Underfoot Our great plans escape Free the vine Praise God ‘Elderberry Wine’ Rising from the ground / enough to feed us all All around / even climbing walls Free the sound / Sound the call © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP
11.
Simple Life 03:43
A Simple Life Electric living not good for woman or man Babylon alters towering from the sand Let’s reconnect – come take my hand We made big plans for some future feast But God is the boss of man and beast Let’s skip town let’s find our peace Let’s go to the country deep in the eastern wood Water sweet and the air tastes good Let’s pull the plug I really think we should Pull the plug from the socket, Put away our toys We won’t miss a thing but that lonely noise It takes flesh and blood to make love No man can destroy Gears are grinding - we won’t last forever I’m at ease whenever we are together I’m at my ease when we’re together Present in the matter of your pleasure We’ll be eating real fine when the corn tops ripe Rise in the morning sleep easy at night Make love in the morning sleep easy at night Let’s disconnect and live a simple life Pull the plug from the socket, Put away our toys We won’t miss a thing but that lonely noise It takes flesh and blood to make love No man can destroy © 2018 D.Dudeck 30 Miles Up / ASCAP

about

Mudcat – Castaway
JEFF CLARK on February 4, 2019 at 1:49 pm
Capping a year marked by noteworthy ambition and dispiriting, if necessary, transitions, the day after their full-cast release performance of this album at the since-shuttered Avondale Towne Cinema on December 1st Danny Dudeck announced that “thus ends the Mudcat band,” further clarifying in a comment that he’s “going acoustic.” If that surprise disclosure holds true, it’s a cryin’ shame, because they’ve always been one of Atlanta’s most reliably invigorating and entertaining bands – but Lordy, what a run! Like, what, 30 years, give or take? That’s just amazing.

Listening to Castaway, it’s clear they’ve gone out at their peak, and then some. It’s an ambitious, conceptional work inspired at least in part by Dudeck’s own genealogy. “The Dudeck family immigrated to the United States in 1870 from Silesia Poland,” reads a brief passage on the inside cover, “boarding the BERLIN in Bremen Germany and arriving in the port of Baltimore Maryland.” Caught in the tide between where the old world dies and the new one begins.

The 11 songs flow as if interconnected, expressing common themes throughout the journey. Faith and perils. Love and temptation. Redemption, death and rebirth. What lives on from our ancestors, buried long ago but not forgotten, is the growing family, the descendants. Now, I can’t necessarily pick up on a linear narrative on Castaway that tells a story from song to song. What is more apparent, however, is that these songs give glimpses into scenes that more fully complete the picture. The album is, after all, presented as a soundtrack, an original cast recording.

So when “God Please Bless America” marches in right off the bat with a battalion of brass, drums (Eskil Wetterquist in the pocket), guitars and the Luna Strings (violin, viola and cello), as Dudeck laments that “My baby went off to school today/ I don’t know if I’m going to see my baby again/ We’re not promised tomorrow,” it places it right in midst of the madness of today’s broken culture more so than an echo of late 19th century concerns.

As he’s done periodically throughout the many lineups of Mudcat, Dudeck enlists a striking female vocal counterpoint to his raggedy dirt road delivery that vacillates between a preacher’s fervor and an undertaker’s solemnity. Here that role is filled fabulously by Mandi Strachota, who duets with Dudeck on many of the songs, and sings lead on the title track, which launches a three-pronged brass midsection (The Atlanta Horns, bless them) in the midst of a repeating riff, for a hypnotic vibe that could’ve landed it on Moondance.

The styles cover a wide range of musical Americana – not in the alt-country/singer-songwriter sense for which the term has been appropriated, but in the cross-section of American music forms that gleefully intersect: blues, jazz, gospel, country… The Southeastern Woodlands meet the Bayou in “Cherokee Rose,” a dash of rollicking early Rock ‘n’ Roll USA, fitting since it’s presented in memory of Chuck Berry. “Country Life,” an 18th century English ballad, comes to life here as a stripped-down backporch spiritual, with harmonica courtesy of Joey Hoegger. Dudeck, Strachota and Wetterquist all take turns on lead vocals on “How Long,” a hopeful folk song with a Southern gospel-inflected chorus that sounds like something that could’ve been captured on an old field recording by a traveling folklorist.

The sentiments of “Lamps are Lighting” lead perfectly into – and parallel – the six-minute centerpiece “You Are the Sun.” With its reference to “heavenly bodies” and organ passage (via keyboardist Chad Mason, who shines throughout the album) that one could imagine swelling through pipes in a magnificent cathedral, “Sun” is one of those declarations of awe, salvation and unwavering love that could just as readily be a devotional to the Lord above as much as an expression of gratitude to a significant other. Sung as a duet between Dudeck and Strachota – the latter of whom brings a drop-to-your-knees gospel power to lines about being “lost in the darkness” while “your brilliance is leading me home” – it’s sort of half soulful hymn, half New Orleans street band.

Late night urban saxophone coaxes “Mysterium Tremendum” into the headlights, its electric piano sunglass-cool and shifty, the slide guitar woozy and wobbly, as Dudeck and Strachota pace around each other’s shadows for what might be the underside of the previous song, where jealousy and regrets cloud the luster and the gospel-blues delivery is steamed up by some liquor-fueled grinding on the streetcorner…but with whom?

Dudeck’s mournful slide guitar, Jacob Holiday’s careful bass and Mason’s piano guide “Spiral” both downward and upward. The ominous “Rise” contrasts “fields in decay” on the one hand with a bounty “rising from the ground/ Enough to feed us all…even climbing walls” on the other. “Villains are at the gate,” Strachota sings at another juncture, “and our kingdom soon will crash.” Is this the same America that the opening song pleaded with God to have mercy upon?

With Hoegger returning with his harmonica, “Simple Life” brings the album to an acoustic country-blues close with sentiments that foreshadow Dudeck’s decision to draw the curtains on the band: “This electric living’s not good for woman or man,” he proclaims. “Pull the plug from the socket, put away our toys/ We won’t miss a thing but that lonely noise.”

These recordings surpass anything Mudcat’s previously recorded, while Dudeck’s poetic words are drawn from a deep realm he’d not tapped prior. It encapsulates all that has gone into Mudcat, into Dudeck’s music, over these past several decades, and presents it in a way that’s at once confident, mature, reverent and fresh. Who, dancing into the wee, wee hours at the Northside or some other crosstown dive to the infectious scrappy magic conjured by this band 20, 25 years ago would’ve imagined they’d craft a recording as nuanced and sublime as this? Yet everything has been leading to this.

After successfully completing such a work, it’s understandable that a man would choose to step back or take a hard turn into the opposite direction. It’s also clear that Danny Dudeck has far too broad a vision to limit to just acoustic solo shows. It’s worth noting that dozens upon dozens of fine musicians have passed through the group’s ranks over a long period of time, while Dudeck, as always, is Mudcat. While I always look forward to seeing him perform, whatever the incarnation, I think it’s highly unlikely we’ve seen the very last of Mudcat in a band or ensemble setting.

Mudcat
Castaway
[30 Miles Up]

"Danny Dudeck aka Mudcat, a respected figure in Atlanta blues circles for decades, remains a vital part of the scene. He won this year’s CL Best of Atlanta award for Best Blues Music Champion, but never rests on his laurels. His band’s latest release, Castaway (Original Cast Album), pushes outside his folk, Delta, and Piedmont sweet spot into a particularly jazz-inflected direction. Fans of his more raucous material will need to come to terms with this more measured approach that shifts towards torchy pop with strings."

- Hal Horowitz, Creative Loafing, Nov 1, 2018

credits

released August 21, 2018

Mudcat:
Daniel Dudeck: Guitar, Vocal
Chad Mason: Piano, Organ, Electric Piano
Eskil Wetterquist: Drums, Bones, Washboard, Vocal
Jacob Holiday: Bass

Featuring:
Mandi Strachotta: Vocal
Joey Hoegger: Harmonica

The Atlanta Horns:
Joseph Burton: Trombone
Daryl Dunn: Saxophone
Mico Bowles: Trumpet

Luna Strings:
Dr. Emily Laminack Wetzel: Violin
Katerina Lewis: Viola
Daniel Holloway: Cello

Recorded and mixed Summer 2018 by Jeff Bakos @ Bakos Amp Works L5p, Atlanta, GA
Mastered by Jason Reichert

Horns Arranged by Joseph Burton
Vocal arrangements by Eskil Wetterquist
Strings arranged by Joel Morris with J. Burton

Lyrics D.Dudeck (c) 2108 ASCAP 30 Miles Up
Music By D.Dudeck and J. Burton

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Mudcat Atlanta, Georgia

“internationally known gospel and bluesman. Mudcat continues the traditions of the early blues pioneers while adding his own Mudcat edge, resulting in one of Atlanta’s greatest treasures. He regularly performs his Bayou-baked chicken-party revues at Atlanta’s premier blues club, Northside Tavern.”
– Atlanta History Center
... more

contact / help

Contact Mudcat

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Mudcat recommends:

If you like Castaway (Original cast album), you may also like: