Credits
In Drinking with the Moon, the singer shares a glass of “home-brewed dandelion wine” with his imaginary companions. In these recordings, I share my home-brewed music with you. I recorded this project at my house when Covid closed the local studios. So the production lacks some professional smoothness, but I hope that you will find it tasty.
I would like to re-record some songs with an engineer and studio musicians. And I encourage other artists to perform or record them.
Instrumental credits
I sing my songs and I play acoustic guitars, electric guitar, mandolin, and fiddle/violin.
I wrote bass parts and simple piano parts using notation software (Presonus Notion), and recorded them through midi. I fashioned more complex piano parts using Toontrack EZKeys midi programs. Another Toontrack program, EZDrummer 2, helped me create percussion tracks.
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Tommy Detamore provided pedal steel tracks for songs 1, 2, 5, 8, and 13. It was a pleasure to work with Tommy through Steel Guitar Tracks Online.
Steve Corrao mastered my recordings at Sage Audio, Nashville, Tennessee.
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Art credits
“Twang Dynasty” artwork and logo: Selena Robleto. Website design: Joe Parker. Photography: William McFadden, Athens Ohio (bio page); Pexels (most song tracks).
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Translation credits
I asked publishers for permission to quote the poetry translations that I cite in my LYRICS & POEMS section. One quickly replied that this is "fair use." I am nonetheless grateful to those who responded with explicit permission: New Directions, Wesleyan University Press, Brandeis University Press, Shantana Augusto Sabbadini, Copper Canyon Press, and New York Review of Books.
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Two publishers requested specific credit lines:
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"The Peerless Lady" by William Carlos Williams, translated from the original by Wang Wei, from THE COLLECTED POEMS: VOLUME II, 1939-1962, copyright c 1966 by Florence H. Williams and David Rafael Wang. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
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"To-Em-Mie's 'The Unmoving Cloud" by Ezra Pound, from PERSONAE, copyright c 1926 by Ezra Pound. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
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"'On a Visit to Ch-ung Chen Taoist Temple...' by Yu Hsuan-Chi," translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung, from WOMEN POETS OF CHINA, copyright c 1973 by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
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"Visiting the South Pavillion at Chongzhen Temple Where the Civil Service Exam Results are posted" by Yu Xuanji, Translated by David Young and Jiann I. Lin copyright 1998. Reprinted online by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
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Thanks to
Deborah Jones Merritt, emerita, for abundant love and support, a critical ear, and such helpful suggestions. We met while sharing a desk on the Columbia Law Review. How much we have shared since then, through all life’s seasons, in moonlight and in rain.
Shawna Corder for vocal coaching and belief. Sound engineer Brandon Bankes and Earthwork Recording Studio, for suggestions and assistance. Steve Roberts and Caroline Doctorow for encouragement. Nancy Johnson Barker for thanking me on her first album. Bill Staines for humming my song "Roadside Flowers," which I now dedicate to his memory. Andy May for hiring me to play in his band in my college years. Wang Wei and Tao Qian for cosmic inspiration.
And huge thanks to anyone, anywhere, who listens to this project! Whether you are in Xenia, Ohio, or Xi’an, China, I so appreciate you! A special welcome to Chinese friends who meet me on this bridge between our cultures.
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