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Ocracoke Sessions
7-11-06
Eric Bruton's 1st CD was produced at Ocracoke
Island in the recording studio of Gary Mitchel.
Island in the recording studio of Gary Mitchel.
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$10 + sh
| CD Tracks (Click Track for lowres mono sample) |
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Ocracoke Sessions Liner Notes:
1. Water always Brings Me Home, is based upon a true event that happened years ago on the Island of Ocracoke,
North Carolina. The language used in this song is what one will hear anywhere fishermen gather. It is a song that
makes the point that even though it is dangerous work they have to go off shore again and again. “Hattie Ann,”
used in this song is the name of my great grand mother.
2. Mother Nature Loves A Whale was written for Earth Day 1990. It was inspired by a baby hump back whale that
came ashore the previous winter. The whale was alive when it came ashore and many people flocked to gaulk at
the dieing baby. It was a sad day for us all.
3. We Rode Hard is a composite song. This song attempts to give a glimpse of the life of a sea going tug
crewman. Most trips off shore with a large tow go very well. About half the time there is some sort of problem that
makes the trip memorable. The crews one sails with are also memorable. I've been going to sea now for about 35
years, off and on. I think I can still see the face of every man I've ever sailed with. You rely on them and they on you.
4. There is a Whittler’s Bench in South Port, NC and Ocracoke, NC but this song is really a celebration of some of
the ol’ fellows I’ve known. They are all dead now but their life is worth remembering. People like these can still be
found at Sailors Snug Harbor and docks around the world.
5. Red Ball Boots is a song that remembers the few hours before my grandfather, Warren Scarborough, passed
away. He had an old dog that was his shadow and even after he was gone faithful ol’ Blacky waited by the back
steps for his friend to pat his head. It was a different time then of course. One of my fondest memories is how the
island smelled in the summer when the sap in the junipers was warm and thin. It is one of the many sensory inputs
that make all us bankers, children of sea oats. The method of floundering described in this song is very simple. You
wade along in knee deep water holding a Coleman double mantle lantern looking for the eyes of the fish bedded on
the bottom. When one is found you gig it between the eyes and hold it to the bottom. Then you have to reach
down and grab the fish. If the fish is big and not dead yet, he can thrash around and potentially overpower the
mighty hunter. That is when it can get comical!
6. Tow’r Down Billy Boy is a song about the tug Alfred A. This was a single screw boat I worked up on the
Chesapeake Bay back in the early 80s. It seemed to me that the old barges always needed pumping and I was
always needing sleep but the work had to go on. We hauled grain from turn of the century villages on the shore of
the Chesapeake down to the Cargill Grain Company in Norfolk.
7. Tug Boat Man was inspired one morning just before I got relieved on the helm while heading up from the Pungo
River into the Alligator Canal, in North Carolina. In this song I use the words “morning benediction.” This is what I
heard coming from the cabin that I shared with the captain. As he stretched I heard him say, “Oh God.” I'm sure
that was as close as he ever came to prayer.
8. Off Shore They Go is a celebration of all those who go out into the weather, no matter how good or bad, to bring
home the catch and a living. Sometimes it is hard.
9. The next song, Eagle Island Memories, is about a place across the Cape Fear River from Wilmington, NC, where
boats and ships have been abandoned for hundreds of years. Today there are many rotting old vessels but once
there was a thriving economy on this low marshy land. In the library there is a long panoramic photo taken about
1900. The song is really inspired by that photo. The rotting old tug on the CD is the tug Isco abandoned in the
Eagle Island marsh about 1979. There is an Eagles Island in every port in the world.
10. Sail Away is Black Beard revisited. The boy was just misunderstood.
11. Child Of Sea Oats - I had a job working in Charlotte, NC and one day I just needed to move back to the coast.
When I went to the boss to quit he said. “Eric, why can’t I keep someone from the coast or mountains in this job?” I
said, “well John, if you have to ask the question you probably couldn’t understand the answer.” But, after that I
decided to write a song to try.
1. Water always Brings Me Home, is based upon a true event that happened years ago on the Island of Ocracoke,
North Carolina. The language used in this song is what one will hear anywhere fishermen gather. It is a song that
makes the point that even though it is dangerous work they have to go off shore again and again. “Hattie Ann,”
used in this song is the name of my great grand mother.
2. Mother Nature Loves A Whale was written for Earth Day 1990. It was inspired by a baby hump back whale that
came ashore the previous winter. The whale was alive when it came ashore and many people flocked to gaulk at
the dieing baby. It was a sad day for us all.
3. We Rode Hard is a composite song. This song attempts to give a glimpse of the life of a sea going tug
crewman. Most trips off shore with a large tow go very well. About half the time there is some sort of problem that
makes the trip memorable. The crews one sails with are also memorable. I've been going to sea now for about 35
years, off and on. I think I can still see the face of every man I've ever sailed with. You rely on them and they on you.
4. There is a Whittler’s Bench in South Port, NC and Ocracoke, NC but this song is really a celebration of some of
the ol’ fellows I’ve known. They are all dead now but their life is worth remembering. People like these can still be
found at Sailors Snug Harbor and docks around the world.
5. Red Ball Boots is a song that remembers the few hours before my grandfather, Warren Scarborough, passed
away. He had an old dog that was his shadow and even after he was gone faithful ol’ Blacky waited by the back
steps for his friend to pat his head. It was a different time then of course. One of my fondest memories is how the
island smelled in the summer when the sap in the junipers was warm and thin. It is one of the many sensory inputs
that make all us bankers, children of sea oats. The method of floundering described in this song is very simple. You
wade along in knee deep water holding a Coleman double mantle lantern looking for the eyes of the fish bedded on
the bottom. When one is found you gig it between the eyes and hold it to the bottom. Then you have to reach
down and grab the fish. If the fish is big and not dead yet, he can thrash around and potentially overpower the
mighty hunter. That is when it can get comical!
6. Tow’r Down Billy Boy is a song about the tug Alfred A. This was a single screw boat I worked up on the
Chesapeake Bay back in the early 80s. It seemed to me that the old barges always needed pumping and I was
always needing sleep but the work had to go on. We hauled grain from turn of the century villages on the shore of
the Chesapeake down to the Cargill Grain Company in Norfolk.
7. Tug Boat Man was inspired one morning just before I got relieved on the helm while heading up from the Pungo
River into the Alligator Canal, in North Carolina. In this song I use the words “morning benediction.” This is what I
heard coming from the cabin that I shared with the captain. As he stretched I heard him say, “Oh God.” I'm sure
that was as close as he ever came to prayer.
8. Off Shore They Go is a celebration of all those who go out into the weather, no matter how good or bad, to bring
home the catch and a living. Sometimes it is hard.
9. The next song, Eagle Island Memories, is about a place across the Cape Fear River from Wilmington, NC, where
boats and ships have been abandoned for hundreds of years. Today there are many rotting old vessels but once
there was a thriving economy on this low marshy land. In the library there is a long panoramic photo taken about
1900. The song is really inspired by that photo. The rotting old tug on the CD is the tug Isco abandoned in the
Eagle Island marsh about 1979. There is an Eagles Island in every port in the world.
10. Sail Away is Black Beard revisited. The boy was just misunderstood.
11. Child Of Sea Oats - I had a job working in Charlotte, NC and one day I just needed to move back to the coast.
When I went to the boss to quit he said. “Eric, why can’t I keep someone from the coast or mountains in this job?” I
said, “well John, if you have to ask the question you probably couldn’t understand the answer.” But, after that I
decided to write a song to try.
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