MUSIC
I Rode The Ti - Songs From The Heart of Vermont
Rick Norcross • Vocals & Rhythm Guitar
Recorded at Charles Eller Studios in Charlotte, VT |
Song List - click the title for a 30-second sample
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Rambler Rick Norcross celebrated his 45th year in the music business with the 2009 release of a new Rick & The Ramblers Western Swing Band CD titled, “I Rode The Ti.” The CD was recorded in March and April at Charles Eller Studios in Charlotte, engineered and mastered by Lane Gibson. Rick & The Ramblers embarked on a summer long 10 concert “I Rode The Ti” Tour of Vermont performing the songs on the CD to judge audience reaction before final preparation and release of the new album. “I Rode The Ti” contains 12 songs, six written by Rick, each song holding special significance celebrating the people and places he experienced playing music over the past 45 years, early on as a folk singer during the 60s, touring extensively in England, Holland, Ireland and the East Coast out of Tampa, Florida all the way into northern Canada. And for the past 25 years, as front man/band leader of Vermont’s premier western swing band, Rick & The Ramblers. “I Rode The Ti” relates the history of the last of the opulent Lake Champlain steamboats, the Ticonderoga, a 220 foot sidewheel steamer built in 1906 and moved two miles overland in 1955 to the Shelburne Museum. The Shelburne Museum is one of the nation’s finest, most diverse, and unconventional museums of art and Americana (www.shelburnemuseum.org). Rick’s mother was secretary to the director from 1951 to 1960 and Rick lived inside the museum from the age of six to nearly 16. He rode the Ti both under steam and on the ceremonial “Last Voyage” on November 6th, 1954. Rick was contracted to produce the 50th Birthday Party of the Shelburne Museum in 1997 and the unveiling of the five year McClure restoration of the Ticonderoga a year later, events that brought a combined audience of 21,000 people to the museum. Both days still hold the top two attendance records. The Ti was Rick’s favorite boyhood playground and you can catch sight of him at ten years old in the film about the 1955 moving of the Ti that plays on board daily at the museum. “I Rode The Ti” delivers two songs, “Bonnie” and “You Got What I Want,” from Rick’s musical heroes, the Light Crust Doughboys, one of the genre’s most influential groups from Fort Worth, Texas. Rick worked with two of the Light Crust Doughboys from their golden years (1939 -1941), Knocky Parker and Smokey Montgomery, during Easter Week of 1965 and 1966 on Daytona Beach as part of the All-American All-Star Caravan. Rambler Taryn Noelle, accompanied by The Blue Gardenias, sings her show-stopper, “Swing of the Range,” a song from the Gene Autry movie “Rancho Grande” originally sung by Mary Lee, Rick’s next door neighbor at Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester in 1948. Mary Lee starred in nine Gene Autry movies, three Roy Rogers and several of her own Republic Pictures between 1939 and 1944 before moving to Vermont as the wife of Harry Banan, an Army sergeant like Rick’s father. |
“What Goes Around” tells the story of leaving a small Northeast Kingdom Vermont town to “see the world” only to find that the values and quality of life back home hold the most meaning. “You’re in Heaven” is a parody of the 1946 Nat King Cole hit “Route 66” with a Vermont twist and “A Grill, A Bumper Four Headlights and a $50 Bill” is Rick’s way of scolding the dreaded tailgater. “A Grill, A Bumper Four Headlights and a $50 Bill” received national airplay on NPR’s “Car Talk” on the October 11th broadcast. Both tunes involve “Rambling” up and down Vermont Route 7. “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!” talks about surprises we hate and “You’re Gonna Get Hurt” is just another country love song delivered with tongue in cheek. “Hot Sauce” is a sizzling swing tune from the pen of gifted Vermont songwriter Ben Patton and Taryn’s reading of “Right or Wrong” is a fitting tribute to Bob Wills, a founding member of the Light Crust Doughboys. Rambler songbird Taryn Noelle also performs with Amber deLaurentis and Juliet McVicker as a member of the Blue Gardenia’s, Vermont’s coolest jazz vocal trio ever. They join the Ramblers as special guests on six tunes on “I Rode The Ti.” The Blue Gardenias also perform with Rick & The Ramblers on many concert appearances around Vermont. “I Rode The Ti” is Rick’s sixth album on the Airflyte Records label and his fourth project at Charles Eller Studios. The “I Rode The Ti” CD project was made possible by generous grants from Bobby & Holly Miller, Lois McClure and the Vermont Council on the Arts. “I Rode The Ti” is available in Vermont record stores, Burlington’s Apple Mountain and Vermont Folk Instruments on the Church Street Marketplace, Barnes & Noble in South Burlington, The Gallaxy Bookshop, The Flower Basket and The Hardwick Historical Society in Hardwick, Sam Mazza’s Farm Market in Colchester, on line at CDBaby, DigStation, ITunes and will soon be available through the Rick & The Ramblers, and Vermont State Parks web sites.
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I Heard the Highway...and other swing tunes from western vermont |
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Rick Norcross • vocals
Recorded at Charles Eller Studios in Charlotte, VT |
Song List - click the title for a 30-second sample
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Can't Catch a Rambler |
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Rick Norcross • vocals Recorded at White Crow Audio, Pine St., Burlington, VT |
Song List
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You Can't Get There From Here: the Vermont Bicentennial Album |
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Banjo Dan & The Mid-Nite Plowboys
LeRoy Preston
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Concept: Rick Norcross |
Song List
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