New archive album idea 6/13/20
Recorded 1992 through 1993
Master Finished 6/30/20

Tales From The Vermont Years
Featuring Burrie Jenkins and
The Green Album Collective
(BE20021A)

Reissue of 2002 Free City Authorized Bootleg Collector's CD-R #2 - psychedelic jams with Burrie Jenkins, a reverse sound collage with Heidi Reischuck and Dave Stevens, plus a couple of live acoustic tracks from the Mole's Eye in Brattleboro, VT - my first ever song written when I was 10, and a Husker Du-ish twist on a line from the Joni Mitchell song "Coyote."

Yeah, yeah, I know - two Tales Of/From place-themed albums in my catalog now. When I did Tales Of The North Coast, it hadn't even occurred to me to remaster and reissue these bootlegs which were run in homemade, hand decorated editions of 200 just for friends nearly 20 years ago.

They are kind of fun, and bring back many happy memories. I loved just even taking the back road out of Northfield over the mountain to Erving on the way to the A-Frame, four-track experimenting in the tiny living room with Heidi and Dave, or walking down the hill from my apartment to the subterranean, smoke-filled Mole's Eye with so many Brattleboro friends and characters.

But now I have to do a third Tales album to make it seem intentional. Look out, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Utah; you may be called upon next. Or I could kill six birds with one Ohio River album stone featuring Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. That's quite a bargain. The Rax roast beef sandwich would get a song or two, and something like "Echoes of Maysville," "Portsmouth Past," "All Ones On The Odometer," etc. Yeah, check - that's it. Promising all around. But maybe not with Tales again. Who wants to become the Tales guy, unless it's Of Topographic Oceans II (The Wrath Of Squire)? Now, there's an idea ... hmm.

1. Pine Tree 5:37
2. Farm House 4:20
3. Temenos 7:13
4. Whaaat? 14:44
5. Talking Rainstick Blues 10:30
6. Astral Flight 6:19
7. Unfinished Blues 6:03
8. Dredging The River In Reverse/Trouble At The Sawmill 13:16
= 68:12

"Pine Tree" and "Farm House" written by Nick Bensen. All other tracks were improvised by the players during recording (though we have to admit that some popular themes cropped up in the stream of consciousness here and there)

Please note that the Free City website on the original CD-R art is no longer a thing.

Track 1 (c) 1975, 1993, 2002, 2020 Nick Bensen (BMI), track 2 (c) 1987, 1993, 2002, 2020 Nick Bensen (BMI), all others (c) 2002, 2020 everyone involved; (p) 1992, 1993, 1994