Long Live Album

The fourth album from Valerie & Walter Crockett and the Oxymorons

We think our new Long Live Album is our best yet. But don't take our word for it, we said that about our previous album, Emily's Angel, and we hope to say it about our next. This baby features 17 songs, of which we wrote 13, Jerry Jeff Walker wrote one ("My Old Man"), Norman Schell wrote two ("Small Town Heart" and "Far North Again", and Trad wrote one ("Long Time Travelin'"). It also has three jokes and several song introductions, most of them broken out into separate tracks so you can program your CD player to ignore them in the future (or to ignore the songs, for that matter).

We recorded the long livester at Steeple Coffeehouse in Southboro, Massachusetts, a fine room we've been privileged to play for seven years straight. Then we fixed up a few of the squeaks and squawks over the summer at Bob Dick's legendary Appleland Music Studios.

We've got a few more bluegrassy songs on this one, because Mark Manuel has been playing a lot of banjo lately. But you can't really call us a bluegrass band. Well, you could call us that, but Bill Monroe would roll over in his grave. We're just an American music band that likes bluegrass, country, folk, blues, pop and rock (both of the latter within the limits of good taste), and jazz. We play the songs we write and they come out sounding like us. So this collection has a bunch of colors: A touch of Latin in "Orlando," a bit of blues in "Peace of Change," a little Dave Van Ronk-style finger-picking in "My Little House," some bluegrass gospel in "Peaceful Waters." If you're looking for political or social commentary, you can find it in "Go West, Young Man," "Peace of Change," "Orlando," and "Highway 99."

You can order the Long Live Album online right now and listen to a bunch of songs from it too.

You can also buy it at our gigs, which are listed right here.

Or you can order it from us by mail for $15 CD, plus $1.50 each for mailing:

Valerie & Walter Crockett
32 Maple Tree Lane,
Worcester, MA 01602.

Valerie & Walter Crockett and the Oxymorons' Long Live Album (that's its full name) again features playing of our awful good band, the Oxymorons (motto: "Cook it till it's raw!"): the sensuous sinuousity of the immortal Francis McConville on mandolin, the dervishlike drive of Bob Dick on acoustic bass, and the florid fluidity of Mark Manuel on keyboard and banjo. This time we don't have no stinkin' special guests.

Fran, who leads a double life as a geek, did all the design for this one, and an excellent job he did. Betty Jenewin of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette took the photos at a gig in Whitinsville, and we also used a couple by Pat O'Connor from our annual concert at Elm Park in Worcester.