Soldier's Last Request
© Rich Schleckser/Rick Lang

Here is a new tune I co-wrote with Rich Schleckser. In the last year or so Rich had paid a trip to Gettysburg, PA to visit the old Civil War battlefields there. He came back with this song idea, which we worked on together. It is surely a very emotional story. Rich sings on this one, and our friend Ellen Carlson added some great old time fiddle. Hope you like it.

Listen to a demo of Soldier's Last Request
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Lost Town
© Rick Lang

A couple years ago my friend Bob Dick and his wife Krissy took me on a hike to the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Mass. We went to visit the site of one of the four towns that had to be torn down and moved before the valley was flooded to create the reservoir - the town of Dana, MA. It was all very interesting, and I eventually read a couple of books about what the people of the towns went through to accommodate the building of the reservoir. The song "Lost Town" resulted, and I just finished recording this demo with the help of Ellen Carlson on fiddle.

Listen to a demo of Lost Town
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One Big Hammer, One Big Rock
© Rich Schleckser/Rick Lang

Another recent collaborative effort with Rich Schleckser. Rich came up with the idea for this prison song - a great story line. We wanted the song to be dramatic and have an edge to it. I tried using a double dropped tuning on my guitar, which helped create a somewhat dark mood. The goal, as always, is to make the story sound believable. This demo really does fulfill the vision we both had for the tune... and we just love the title!

Listen to a demo of One Big Hammer,
One Big Rock
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Lost Out On The Mountain Top
© Rick Lang

I wrote this tune back in the late 1980's based on a mountain rescue that happened in the White Mountains of NH. In this particular case, some hikers got lost climbing Mt. Washington in the middle of the winter. The hikers were found and survived the ordeal. Exactly a week later, I saw a dramatic TV movie about a group that attempted to climb Mt. Everest. The climbers were caught in a storm near the crest of the mountain and froze to death. They were never found. The story really grabbed me emotionally and I decided to write a song about it. The song was included on my first recording "Out Where The Wildflowers Grow" released in 1991. This is a new arrangement I came up with played in a double-dropped D guitar tuning.

Listen to a demo of Homemade Christmas
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Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me
© Rick Lang/Sharon Lang

Some years back, my sister Sharon asked me to stop by for a visit where she worked. There she showed me a book she had been reading, written by famed author Eudora Welty. The book was about the plight of the South in the early 1900's, in the midst of the depression where life was incredibly hard and poor folks were struggling to survive. It was a very powerful book, filled with emotion and intensity. There was a line on one of the pages that summed it all up: "I've been down so long it looks like up to me". I then decided to try and write a song based on this sentiment as a tribute to Eudora (who passed away in 2001). Here is the tune. I hope you enjoy it!

Listen to a demo of Been Down So Long...
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Eye Of The Hurricane
© Rick Lang

Back in the early 1990's Hurricane Andrew ripped through Florida causing widespread destruction and death. It was one of the worst natural disasters they'd had in a long long time. One evening, several months later I was watching a TV documentary of the hurricane, that included live footage filmed by a man trapped in his mobile home. I remember hearing his wife in the other room crying and screaming with fear as the wind tore off their roof. The video was so frightening I couldn't breath, and eventually became the inspiration for this song.

To listen to a demo of Eye Of The Hurricane
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Gospel News
© Ted DeMille/Rick Lang

For the last several years I have collaborated on occasion with my good friend Ted DeMille. Ted is a wonderful singer and member of the Maine Bluegrass group North Star. He also is a very talented songwriter, and several of his songs have been featured on North Star recordings. This is a tune Ted started, and I joined in on, called "Gospel News." I loved the story line but heard it as a darker/bluesier number. The resulting version was one we were both pretty happy with.

Listen to a demo of Gospel News
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Randall Hayes
© Rick Lang

Back in the 1970's there was a gruesome murder in the town of Exeter NH where I grew up - the very first anyone could remember. The man who was killed lived in the woods near the town dump in a tarpaper shack. He worked part time at the town cemetery, but mostly survived off the fish and game he caught. I was cross-country skiing with my wife on a very cold January day a few years ago when the whole story came back to me. I tried to write down a few notes but the pen I had with me kept freezing up. So I rushed right home and began working on this song.

To listen to a demo of Randall Hayes
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Johnstown Flood
© Rick Lang

My good friend David Saxe first told me about the Johnstown Flood after hearing me sing one of my many story songs at a gathering at his house, and asked if I'd be interested in learning more about it. About a year later, I remembered David's words and tracked down a terrific book about the Johnstown Flood with lots of graphic photos. The Johnstown Flood took place in the late 1800's in Johnstown PA, when the mighty South Fork dam broke, releasing the water from lake Conemaugh on the helpless towns below, destroying everything in its path and killing thousands. It was the worst recorded American national disaster up to then, calling on the newly formed American Red Cross for help and relief. The more I read, the more interested I became, and started working on this song, which was based on the recollection of the event by one of the survivors. It took me two years to finish.

To listen to a demo of Johnstown Flood
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