Recordings

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• The Family Album by the Wright Family along with Bill Thurman and Ken Ryan.    A collection of some old tunes on a CD produced in 2000.

• East Texas Jam produced by Margaret Wright.  This CD was produce in July 2001.  Some friends got together and jammed.  It a great CD for listening or jamming along with.

• One Hot Week was recorded by Steve Seifert in 1998 in the Wright's log house in Kennard, Texas.  It features Lloyd Wright, James Butcher, Hollis Wright, Christina Ryan and Benjamin Hester.  They were all teenagers at the time.  Margaret joins in on one song.

• Masters of the Wooden Nickel is a tribute to a place where folks gathered and played music.  During the years it was in operation many fine musicians passed through and shared their music.  Not only does the CD feature the local folks but it also features Debbie Porter, Neal and Coleen Walters and Don Pedi.  

• Northfield by Lloyd Frank Wright.  

• From Mountain View to Mountain Dew by Bill Thurman and Lloyd Wright.

• Sentimental Journey  by Debbie Porter.  Lloyd Wright plays mountain dulcimer on a couple of the songs and does harmony vocal. 

Northfield  Just wanted to let you know from way up here in central New York that I was at the 25th annual Great American Dulcimer Convention at Pine Mountain State Resort Park in Pineville, KY this past weekend and I was privileged to see and hear Lloyd on stage. He is amazing! I bought his new CD and listened to it several times through on the trip home. It is a wonderful album and I highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest at all in this kind of music. Best of luck to you, Lloyd. I know that you will go far in the music world.  John Piston
E. Syracuse, NY

From Mountain View to Mountain Dew   A great list of known an unknown tunes.  Bill wrote a couple of the tunes.  They range from Forked Deer/Fisher's Hornpipe to Tennessee Waltz and Gotta Travel On.  Bill plays the fiddle, small harp, bass and does vocals.  Lloyd plays mountain dulcimer, clawhammer banjo, guitar, mandolin and does vocals.  Hollis Wright plays chorded zither on Ook Pik Waltz.  Margaret Wright plays bass on Ook Pik Waltz.   http://www.fiddlebill.com/

Sentimental Journey is by Debbie Porter but includes musicians like Adie Grey, Dave MacKenzie, Andrew Hardin, Stephen Bennett, Clive Gregson, Sandy Conatser, Lee Rowe, Lloyd Wright, Ron Clinton, David Schnaufer and Richard Porter.  It includes tunes like White Cliffs of Dover, Down Yonder and Cry Me a River.  If you are from the WWII era you will absolutely love this CD.  Believe me - it is powerful.  http://www.accessgrants.com/lyricsmamamusic/index.htm

The Family Album  is available.   The CD was recorded in a  studio in Houston in August 2000.  Karl Caillouet, the engineer/owner did a fine job.  Jerry, Margaret, Hollis and Lloyd were joined by Bill Thurman on fiddle and Ken Ryan on bass.  We all had a great time in the recording studio. 

LIST OF SONGS

Cost: $15 plus $2 for shipping.

For an order, contact   pickin@aol.com  

Mail check or money order to:

Jerry Wright   4328 Effie    Bellaire, TX   77401

The Family Album  is now on sale at Borders located at 3025 Kirby in Houston, Texas. 

This is what folks are saying about The Family Album..

What a blessing it is to hear you dear ones pickin' and singin' and hollerin' right here in our living room!!  The quality is great.  We were both touched as we listened and, after we got done passing the liner notes back and forth for reading, would just glance at each other and smile from time to time with joy and love. Joy that our paths cross with such lovely folks as you all, and love for you and for the passion you have for old time music, and for honoring God with His gifts of music.    Aileen Thomas

Love the CD. It's like visiting with our old friends.        Karen and Gary Fleming

Richard and I listened to the CD all the way home that night and just loved it. It will be great to play along with...20 of your favorite songs, mostly from Tune Books that Margaret has written.  SO IT'S ALL SONGS YOU KNOW AND CAN PLAY ALONG WITH.  Rich played his harmonica with the CD as we cruised up 59 and I was imagining you all having a great Jammin CD.     About half of tunes have vocals... great old timey vocals, but even on those tracks lots of time for instrumental work is presented. Gum Tree Canoe captures Jerry and Margaret's live performances of this great tune.  A highlight to me was Cluck Old Hen.  I never realized what a beautiful haunting tune this was. Margaret sings this in an almost bluesy but truly haunting voice with Lloyd playing GREAT Banjo.     Ken Ryan holds it all together on bass and Bill Thurman provides beautiful fiddle work.  The whole Wright Family Shines Throughout! Good recording quality, great selection of songs, good set arrangement...we just let it play over and over as we headed home.     The recording is consistently good all the way through, but there are a couple of BIG winners.  1st, the humble Pickin Stick.  This may be the premiere recording for Pickin Sticks and Jerry burns it up.  His solo in Mississippi Sawyer is MEMORABLE.  Next, but not least...Mr. Hollis Wright is wonderful.  When we have 30 dulcimers in a jam and Hollis playing, it's hard to hear sometimes the wonderful work that he does.  This CD really showcases his talent. Happy Land is angelic.  There are several other great spots showcasing Hollis, so I know you will enjoy that.  This is a CD I would definitely recommend for Autoharp lovers and players.           Debbie Porter
 

  I received your CD today and I want to tell you we think it is simply awesome. The old string band sound is really my type of music. It brings me back to my childhood days in the hills of Kentucky. We are so blessed to have you folks as our friends and have watched you grow musically over the past few years.     Al Parsons

I am sitting in the nice warmth of my house in Pittsburg listening to the Wright family CD.  It is absolutely wonderful and it also warms my heart.   The songs are great and I can hardly wait to tune up my dulcimer and play along with it.   Jerry & Margaret, it is truly a work of art and each instrument and voice on there adds so very much to my pleasure.  Can you tell that I highly recommend it????  Love it!     Janice Marsh

I bought your CD today, it is WONDERFUL!!!!!   Y'all did a FANTASTIC  job.    Judy Catlin

  I can't begin to express how very much I have enjoyed listening to your new CD.  I truly hope that it is just the first of many more to come.  I have played it almost continuously since I got it the night of the CD release party.  Since I don't have a stereo at home (one of the kids got it), I have to listen to it at work.  I must say it makes working a whole lot more enjoyable. And the people at work get to enjoy it too.    I've looked a lot at why this music touches me so deeply.  I can't say I understand the whys.  What I do know is that I experience a light heart and true joy when I hear it.                     Judi Richards

I just got my copy of the new CD and I must tell you how I've already enjoyed it. I especially like the way you recorded Mississippi Sawyer. With all the voices in the background, you managed to capture the fun, the camaraderie, and the joy that is the heart of folk music. As I listened to this cut I had the biggest smile on my face. I closed my eyes and it was almost as good as being there with all of you. Thanks for sharing a special musical experience.      Johnny Ray

Just wanted to tell you I have listened to your CD and what a pleasure it was!!!!  I know there are many other CD's out there but yours has put in a flat 5x5 box containing a CD the music we really hear at a good old "Jam Session".
You have gone a long way in helping the rest of us explain to our family and friends who just don't know "what" the sound is that we love and the fun we have making it!!!  Congratulations it's a hit!!     Clyde & Teri Siddens

Thank you for a lot of fun entertainment.  I am enjoying my CD that the Shells gave to us.  What a talented family!   Milly Mackan                **** NOTE FROM JERRY  This note has special meaning to me since I have known Joe and Milly as long as I can remember.  You see, I sat about five rows back from the pulpit at the Rosedale Baptist Church as a child, listening to Milly, Mary and Flora Jean sing those great gospel songs.  I grew up in that church in Beaumont, Texas where the Shells also attended.  I was reacquainted with Lloyd and Georgia Shell in 1995 in Glen Rose, Texas sitting in a late night jam session.  Life is a precious and interesting thing and it is the folks along the way that make it so.  And it is the truths learned at that church that makes it all meaningful.  

I wanted to tell you (and Margaret and Hollis and Lloyd) how very much I'm enjoying your CD. It's wonderful, down-home, refreshing music--played well and sung well. It was interesting to hear the effect of you and Margaret singing the melody on some songs, an octave apart. (It works very well.)
And of course, your blend of family harmony and instruments is nice also. I will be listening often to this CD. Thanks!             Betty Odum 

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One Hot Week

This is another CD that you may be interested in.  It is called One Hot Week because it was.  It was recorded in August of 1998 by Stephen Seifert.  The recording was made in the log house in Kennard, Texas.  The players are Lloyd Wright, James Butcher, Hollis Wright, Christina Ryan, Benjamin Hester and Margaret joins them on one song.

They would get up early in the morning while it was still cool and turn off the air conditioner, refrigerator and everything that made noise.  It is great to hear these great musicians playing at an early age. 

The CD sells for $10 plus $2 postage

East Texas Jam.  It features Gary Hamilton, June McAdams, Georgia Shell, Lloyd Shell, Ken Ryan, Kathy Davis, Bill Thurman,  Lloyd Wright, Hollis Wright, Jerry Wright and Margaret Wright.

It was recorded in July 2001 by Karl Caillouet in Houston.  Karl turned on the recording equipment and the players did what they do best - JAM!

The CD was created for the folks who don't have the opportunity to jam on a regular basis.  It will get you familiar with the tunes and the feeling of a jam session. 

Green Corn, Liza Jane She Died on the Train, Handsome Molly, Leaning On the Everlasting Arms, Shove That Pig's Foot a Little Farther In The Fire, Flop Eared Mule, Squirrel Heads in Gravy, Soldier's Joy, Whiskey Before Breakfast, Shon Stinson's #2, June Apple, Old Joe Clark, Sandy Boys, Bill Cheatham, Rosin The Bow, Camptown Races, Arkansas Traveler, Boneparte Crossing the Alps, Black Mountain Rag, Wildwood Flower and Seneca Square Dance.                 

They are played in the key of D, G and A.  The instruments: mountain dulcimer, pickin stick, mandolin, guitar, banjo, Autoharp and fiddle.

The CD can be purchased from Margaret Wright for $10 plus $2.00 shipping.    pickin@aol.com

Here is the review of "FROM MOUNTAIN VIEW TO MOUNTAIN DEW" by Michael Simmons of Fiddler's Magazine
"Bill Thurman describes himself as a "Drop in from out of nowhere/ Do your own thing" fiddler, and on his new CD, FROM MOUNTAIN VIEW TO MOUNTAIN DEW, his thing seems to be playing traditional American and British Isles fiddle tunes, and a few original compositions with grace and charm. The CD gets its title from the first song, a tribute to the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas, and the last song, a lively version of the old Grandpa Jones classic. Thurman is joined on most of the tracks by Lloyd Wright, a young mountain dulcimer/ clawhammer banjo player of considerable skill. Their fiddle/dulcimer duets on standards like "Billy in the Lowground" and the medley of "Forked Deer"/"Fisher's Hornpipe" have a freshness and spontaneity that is rare to hear on such familiar tunes. Thurman is also a skilled harper, and one of the highlights of this CD is his set of variations on the old Welsh tune, "The Ash Grove", which features a lovely double-tracked harp and fiddle duet. Along with the old fiddle tunes Thurman and Wright play a couple of more modern songs, including an instrumental version of Pee Wee King's "Tennessee Waltz" and a nice take on the Flatt and Scruggs song "Gotta Travel On". FROM MOUNTAIN VIEW TO MOUNTAIN DEW is a fine collection of duets, played by two musicians who really know their way around a good old fiddle tune."

Last Update:  Wednesday, January 08, 2003