1. Living and Loving You

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2015 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

I have never felt so tempted to trade what’s sensible for what’s senseless
And leave love for uncertainty
But the thrill of the unknown overtakes my mind
Isn’t this our time to feel free?

I guess I’m asking for a way to have the best of both worlds
‘Cause I know I’ve got so much to lose
If risking it all is what I’ve got to do to keep from standing still, then I will
Don’t make me choose between living and loving you

Well I can’t blame you if you’re unwilling to wait
But I always thought I’d come back to you and me
If we let each other go, then we might return to what we know
Isn’t this the way it’s supposed to be?

I guess I’m asking for a way to have the best of both worlds
‘Cause I know I’ve got so much to lose
If risking it all is what I’ve got to do to keep from standing still, then I will
Don’t make me choose between living and loving you

Well this might be a mistake, but that’s the chance I’ll have to take
Leave it up to luck, or leave it up to fate

I guess I’m asking for a way to have the best of both worlds
‘Cause I know I’ve got so much to lose
If risking it all is what I’ve got to do to keep from standing still, then I will
Don’t make me choose between living and loving you
Between living and loving you, loving you

 

2. Left Me Again

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2015 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

Waiting by the phone has never done me any good
She called me once again, like I knew she would
And through her tears and desperation clearly heard from the other end
She said, “He left me again.”

She knows it’s not the first time and I know it won’t be the last
I admit I’m guilty of living in the past
When he leaves for someone new without a care or second thought
Then I pick up where he left off

I don’t know why I keep standing by this burned out love affair
Wandering in circles never gets me anywhere
I’m the first runner up in this race of love and heartbreak
It’s a chase that only leads me to despair

I wake up to her goodbyes as she slips out my back door
I can’t say I’m surprised, I’ve heard these same old lines before
He’s gonna prove he’s changed this time, and now he’s a different man
So she left me again

Every night she’s with me I live the life I’ve held out for
And every night she’s gone I swear I won’t come back for more

I don’t know why I keep standing by this burned out love affair
Wandering in circles never gets me anywhere
I’m the first runner up in this race of love and heartbreak
It’s a chase that only leads me to despair

I sit down with my self-defeating thoughts of what could be
Wondering how long I’ll go on living in agony
When she calls back in a week or two, crying from all that he’s put her through
I’ll be waiting patiently

 

3. Wild Roses

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2016 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

I’ll never forget how we met as the music played
When the summer of love surrounded us and swept us away
Singing along to our favorite songs of freedom, love, and peace
Fulfilling all our senses in the season of release

Her words were true and the times felt new, changing with the breeze
When she took my hand she opened up my mind so I could see
So many are led to follow and they cannot understand,
They’ve been swallowed by the whirlwind of society’s demands

She would strum her guitar so easily with her hypnotizing flair
The sound of her voice made me believe in the stories she would share
There were endless ways that she kept my gaze on all the colors she would wear
With white daisies and wild roses in her hair

She was longing to see more of the world, I knew she would keep moving on
But before I could even say goodbye she was already gone
I still search for her around every corner, turn, and bend
From the valleys filled with sunshine to the glowing rainbow’s end

She would strum her guitar so easily with her hypnotizing flair
The sound of her voice made me believe in the stories she would share
There were endless ways that she kept my gaze on all the colors she would wear
With white daisies and wild roses in her hair

The times are always changing for better and for worse
They continue to depend on us to write the next verse
I never could have imagined the amount of love and power
That would grow from my memory of a girl wearing flowers

She would strum her guitar so easily with her hypnotizing flair
The sound of her voice made me believe in the stories she would share
There were endless ways that she kept my gaze on all the colors she would wear
With white daisies and wild roses in her hair

 

4. Lead Me Back to You

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2017 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

Here we are, we’ve been running from these feelings for so long
But all roads lead to one
And through it all, we’ve both had times when we knew we were wrong
But we kept hanging on

Sometimes the ride gets rocky and the distance seems so far
But we are strong together when we believe in who we are

We’ve found the way to where we are supposed to be
Through every moment, every dream, and memory
After all that we have been through, no matter what I do
Every path will always lead me back to you

I believe, somehow you and I have always known
All along
But all the while, we were searching for the answers on our own
All alone

Sometimes the ride gets rocky and the distance seems so far
But we are strong together when we believe in who we are

We’ve found the way to where we are supposed to be
Through every moment, every dream, and memory
After all that we have been through, no matter what I do
Every path will always lead me back to you
Every path will always lead me back to you

 

5. Grandpa’s Beer

Words & Music by Jeffrey Shore and Jonathan Quintero
© 2013 Wingding String Music, Song Shore / Mighty Quinn Music (SESAC)

I was knee-high to my Grandpa
When he started teaching me about life
We’d go catchin’ catfish out on Big Bear Creek
Danglin’ twenty toes, he’d turn and say to me,

“Don’t worry about those tough days, son,
Ride ’em out until they’re done
Let the Sunday sermons catch your ear
If you’re into takin’ more than givin’,
You’re the only one you’re kiddin’
Ain’t no use in livin’ life in fear
Now, be a good boy, fetch Grandpa’s beer.”

He started talkin’ about his days in service
And how much it cost us to live this free
He had a light in his eyes, a love of life that never dies
Through all the good and bad that he’d seen

He said, “Someday, son, you’re gonna catch the big one
Somedays, son, the big one slips away.

“Don’t worry about those tough days, son,
Ride ’em out until they’re done
Let the Sunday sermons catch your ear
If you’re into takin’ more than givin’,
You’re the only one you’re kiddin’
Ain’t no use in livin’ life in fear
Now, be a good boy, fetch Grandpa’s beer.”

Well years passed by and I grew wild
Hadn’t seen my Grandpa in a while
But one day I got the call
Boy, come see your Grandpa off

And he said, “Don’t worry about this tough day, son,
It comes around for everyone
Just find the narrow path and you’ll get home.
I’ve given back more than I took
I know I’m written in the book
So don’t worry, son, you’ll never be alone.

“Don’t worry about those tough days, son,
Ride ’em out until they’re done
Let the Sunday sermons catch your ear
And I’ll see you out at Big Bear Creek
Your grandson sittin’ at your feet
Soaking up everything you hold dear
I’ll smile when he fetches Grandpa’s beer.”

 

6. Mirror to My Soul

Words & Music by Jeffrey Shore, Brittany Lynn Jones, Mitchell Lane
© 2016 Wingding String Music, Song Shore (SESAC) / Wild Raven Music (ASCAP) / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

The last day of harvest came
When I asked him his first name
He tipped his hat, said in that Georgia twang, “Call me Jim.”
The earth stuck to his boots
Like he was putting down roots
He stood there like the future grew strong and true in him

At first I thought I must be dreaming
About this man in front of me, this man I didn’t know
A stranger on my family’s land
Who held me in his eyes like a mirror to my soul

He went north with the season
Sure I had a good reason
To forget him but I couldn’t shake him from my sight
Rocking in my grandma’s chair
I’d just picture him out there
Climbing on that pickup in the red evening light

At first I thought I must be dreaming
About this man in front of me, this man I didn’t know
A stranger on my family’s land
Who held me in his eyes like a mirror to my soul

Now he leads the harvest crew
Sits beside me in the pew
When he lifts his hat to kiss me our lips start to yield
Like our golden wedding bands
We’ve come full circle on this land
Falling in love like rain on a thirsty field

At first I thought I must be dreaming
About this man in front of me, this man I didn’t know
A stranger on my family’s land
Who held me in his eyes like a mirror to my soul

 

7. Another Empty Bottle

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2017 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

Another empty bottle on the shelf
Another game with this hand I’ve been dealt
They ask for reasons why, and I come up with more lies
Another day and I just can’t help myself

Another empty bottle to collect
Another toast to my untold regrets
There’s nothing they can say to make this feeling go away
Another night of drinking to forget

Another empty bottle in my hand
Another way to handle life’s demands
Every bottle in the trash is a waste of my hard-earned cash
Another dollar spent I didn’t plan

Another empty bottle hits the ground
Another shot glass up that must come down
It’s all that I can do to lose my thoughts of you
Another empty bottle, another round

I try and I try, but it’s the only way I can get by
Another empty bottle, another round

 

8. It Could Have Been You

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2016 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

I remember it like yesterday, some feelings never fade
You’re still burning in my memory like a bright, persisting flame
But I gave up on waiting forever, because I couldn’t make you stay
I never thought the time would come when I needed to explain

How can you ask if there’s still hope for us to start all over again?
How can I trust that you’d love me now when you didn’t love me then?
I’ve found someone who loves me the way I always wanted you to
So I want you to remember, it could have been you

When I received your message, it caught me by surprise
I can’t believe that you still think of me after the years that have gone by
But I gave up on wishing the last time we had spoken
When I begged and I pleaded ‘til my pride was all but broken

How can you ask if there’s still hope for us to start all over again?
How can I trust that you’d love me now when you didn’t love me then?
I’ve found someone who loves me the way I always wanted you to
So I want you to remember, it could have been you

It was you who I thought I would be coming home to
And I tried so hard to convince you to stay and see it through
Believe me when I tell you I did the best that I could do
I’ve been living my life wondering if I’m supposed to be with you

How can you ask if there’s still hope for us to start all over again?
How can I trust that you’d love me now when you didn’t love me then?
I’ve found someone who loves me the way I always wanted you to
So I want you to remember, it could have been you

Don’t you remember? It could have been you

 

9. Today

Words & Music by Randy Sparks
© 1964 Miller Music Corp. / Primary Wave Songs (ASCAP)

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I’ll taste your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine today

I’ll be a dandy and I’ll be a rover
You’ll know who I am by the song that I sing
I’ll feast at your table, I’ll sleep in your clover
Who cares what the morrow shall bring?

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I’ll taste your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine today

I can’t be contented with yesterday’s glory
I can’t live on promises, Winter to Spring
Today is my moment and now is my story
I’ll laugh and I’ll cry and I’ll sing

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I’ll taste your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine today

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I’ll taste your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine today

 

10. Moonshine and Makeup (One More Mistake)

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2016 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

She heads out after spending hours in front of the mirror
Wondering who she’ll run into today
Her many failed attempts don’t seem to make things clearer
They only leave her mind in disarray

She hides her pain behind a mask of moonshine and makeup
And lives for smooth remarks and stares from guys
But beggars can’t be choosers, even when it comes to losers
Who can charm her with their dope and foolish lies

She knows a night with him won’t take away her loneliness
Black mascara can’t hide the sadness in her eyes
There’s a growing hole that can’t be filled, while she loses herself in drinks and pills
It’s her temporary escape, so tonight she’ll make one more mistake

No one can tell her she won’t find love in a hurry
‘Cause she’s just having fun, and it’s not how it seems
She’s only ever focused on her outer beauty that will be gone
And leave her stranded in a sea of abandoned dreams

She knows a night with him won’t take away her loneliness
Black mascara can’t hide the sadness in her eyes
There’s a growing hole that can’t be filled, while she loses herself in drinks and pills
It’s her temporary escape, so tonight she’ll make one more mistake

She knows a night with him won’t take away her loneliness
Black mascara can’t hide the sadness in her eyes
There’s a growing hole that can’t be filled, while she loses herself in drinks and pills
It’s her temporary escape, so tonight she’ll make one more mistake

She keeps making one more mistake

 

11. Wild Roses Reprise: Winter Raven / World Traveler

Composed by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2017 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

 

12. We Rise Up

Words & Music by Brittany Lynn Jones and Mitchell Lane
© 2017 Wild Raven Music / Kissed By Fire Music (ASCAP)

Time won’t let us in on its secrets
We often ask, but it refuses to say
Ready or not it takes us with it
It keeps going without a stop along the way

How can we know where this road is gonna lead
When every step we take feels like another unknown leap?
We must swim against the current, and walk among the flames
Because our purpose is endurance and perseverance is our name

We rise up, we fall down
We get lost, and we get found
We hit dead ends, and we turn around
Keep pushing through to higher ground

No one knows where these twists and turns will take us
And who can say which way the wind will blow
Or how many miles until we make it
And reach what lies beyond the fork in the road

You can’t see the light without the darkness
And you can’t feel the highs without the lows
This is the road we all must travel
And only time can reveal where we’ll go

We’re gonna keep on climbing mountains
We’ll keep on running through all of the pain
There will be times that feel uncertain
But we know that our journey’s not in vain

We all wander together even when we walk alone
Crawling through the desert afraid and far from home
Riding in the same boat, and weeping the same tears
Believing in the same hopes and sharing the same fears

We rise up, we fall down
We get lost, and we get found
We hit dead ends, and we turn around
Keep pushing through to higher ground

No one knows where these twists and turns will take us
And who can say which way the wind will blow
Or how many miles until we make it
And reach what lies beyond the fork in the road

You can’t see the light without the darkness
And you can’t feel the highs without the lows
This is the road we all must travel
And only time can reveal where we’ll go

We rise up, we fall down
We get lost, and we get found
We hit dead ends, and we turn around
Keep pushing through to higher ground

This is the road we all must travel
And only time can reveal where we’ll go

 

Performance Clips

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barry Dudley is a violin maker in Georgia who specializes in building five-string fiddles.

Traditionally, the violin or fiddle has four strings that are tuned to G, D, A, and E, but a five-string fiddle also includes a lower C string.  This combination gives the fiddle a tonal range of both a violin and viola.  Although the five-string fiddle is allowing musicians to have a new approach to their playing, historically, bowed instruments with five strings are not a new invention.   Jerald Franklin Archer compares five-string violins to similar instruments used in the past in his article 5 String Violins: The Black Sheep of the Family?  “The instrument a violinist is familiar with evolved from the viols and some other instruments like the Pardessus de viola, or Quinton, a five-string hybrid instrument, in use during the 18th century, that combines characteristics of the viol and the violin.  Its body resembles a violin’s, save for the sloping shoulders; but its neck is fretted like a viol’s.  It was tuned g-d’-a’-d”-g”.  A fifth string was also included on cellos.  “J.S. Bach wrote his last solo ‘cello Partita for an instrument known as the piccolo cello, which was smaller than the normal size of a ‘cello and possessed an added high E string.”  The pardessus de viole is the smallest size of viola da gamba, which is the ancestor of the modern double-bass, and it was created around 1690.  It started out as an instrument with six strings and then was modified to have five and four strings.  The quinton is a variation that has a body similar to a violin.

Barry Dudley began building five-string fiddles sometime between 2004 and 2005.  He became inspired to build instruments as a guitar player in the early 1970s when he visited Diapason Guitar Shop in Decatur, Georgia, and saw Wade Lowe, a guitar maker and the owner of the shop, carving the headstock of a classical guitar.  Wade Lowe became Dudley’s mentor and muse.  He did not start building instruments until about twenty years later when he bought a book and taught himself how to build guitars.  He took his first guitar over to Wade Lowe, who had been making violins at this point.  Lowe told Dudley, “You need to make violins!”  Dudley responded, “I can’t play a violin.  I don’t know anything about them.  I don’t wanna do that.”  Wade Lowe was persistent and convinced Barry Dudley to try building violins.  After he finished his first violin, he admitted that he was hooked.  By 2004-2005, David Blackmon, a fiddle player from Athens, Georgia, visited Dudley’s shop and convinced him to make a five-string violin.  He decided to try it and was very satisfied with the results, so he built a few more.  He took one of his five-string violins to a venue in Athens, Georgia, where The Duhks were playing.  Their violinist, Tania Elizabeth, played his fiddle and ended up buying it from him.  Tania Elizabeth was recently seen on the David Letterman Show playing the same violin she bought from Dudley.

Barry Dudley acquires his materials for building fiddles from a few suppliers that he has developed over the years.  He buys woods from a supplier in Oregon.  His tops come from a company in Missouri that supplies tops for Collings mandolins and guitars.  He buys maple in lots of thirty or forty sets at one time directly from Bosnia.  Then, he brings it into the shop, measure the moisture content, and puts it up on a shelf to acclimate and age.  On average, it takes about 130 to 150 man hours to build one fiddle, and he spends about eight to ten hours a day building.  Barry Dudley prefers the sound of Guarneri violins over Stradivari violins, so he has always used Guarneri patterns for building.  The first pattern he ever used was Guarneri’s King Joseph.  After making a few violins from that pattern, he changed to a pattern from the violin that Niccoló Paganini made famous, The Canon.  He bought a set of prints and expanded them about 110%, and that became the pattern he uses for five-string fiddles.

Dudley uses a variety of woods for building violins.  He explains that traditionally, violins have always been made out of maple.  The backs, sides, and neck are usually maple, and the top is always some type of spruce.  Since he began building instruments as a guitar maker, he became curious about using popular guitar woods for building violins.  He tried building some with traditional guitar woods such as rosewood, mahogany, black walnut, bubinga, which is an African wood, and ebony.  He has also built fiddles from cocobolo, ziricote, imbuia, and shedua.  Dudley noticed that many professional or proficient fiddle players became interested in the different types of woods for fiddles.  Since these players usually already have good instruments built from maple, many are open to trying a unique fiddle made out of a different type of wood.  The main difference between the types of wood he uses is the density, because certain woods are denser and heavier, but he said, “the harmonics and the overtones that are produced from those denser woods are a little more refined, and you get a little more separation between the fundamental, and the secondary, and tertiary harmonics.”  Dudley said that he gets the most requests for fiddles made out of bubinga, but it is also the most difficult to work with because the wood is really hard.  His favorite wood to work with is ebony because it is more fine and easy to carve.  Dudley mentions that he has an idea of how a fiddle is going to sound based on details in the wood while he is building it.  During different stages of building he holds up the wood and taps on it to listen to the tone that it produces.  He listens for resonance, sustain, and a lively sound.  Even early in the building process, these factors determine if the fiddle is going to be outstanding or just good.

Here are pictures of a violin made from East Indian Rosewood:

Here are pictures of a violin made from Cocobolo:

These are pictures of violins made from Bubinga:

This is a Rosewood fiddle that Barry Dudley made for Bobby Hicks:

These violins are made from Ebony:

These violins are made from Black Walnut:

 

This violin is made from Ziricote:

This is the Barry Dudley’s signature design for the f-holes:

These are some of his patterns for building:

Here are pictures in the shop and one from IBMA with Bobby Hicks playing one of his fiddles:

Most of Dudley’s sales come from Europe and Canada, but he has also done business in Australia, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Holland, and in the United States.  He decides how much to charge for his fiddles by basing the price around what is affordable for working musicians.  Dudley explains some of his values, “Believe it or not, I really do — part of the joy of making the instruments is not just the money.  I need the money to pay my bills just like everybody else, but it’s the music that people make with the instruments.  And so, being able to put the instruments in people’s hands that are — that are actually gonna play them, make music, and make people happy — that’s important to me.  You know, that’s a valuable thing to me.”

Barry Dudley states that there is a growing demand for five-string fiddles, and about ninety-five percent of the instruments he builds are five-strings.  He states that five-string fiddles have more playing options and the lower C string offers fiddle players a different tonal range that is great for improvising and backing up singers.  “I’ve had a lot of fiddle players tell me that they can play licks kind of like a saxophone player, you know — that it allows them to do a lot more things that — that they just never really thought they could do before.”  Dudley thinks the five-string fiddle is unlimited in what it can do in contemporary music.  He has even had customers that are strongly rooted in classical music use their five-strings to play chamber music.

Barry Dudley believes that there is a growing demand for five-string fiddles, and about ninety-five percent of the instruments he builds are five-strings.  Five-string fiddles have more playing options and the lower C string offers fiddle players a different tonal range that works great for improvising and backing up singers.  He has even had customers that are strongly rooted in classical music use their five-strings to play chamber music.  Dudley thinks the five-string fiddle is unlimited in what it can do in contemporary music.

When asked what style of music most of his customers play, he explains “Most of them play — I hate to say bluegrass — because the term bluegrass is – has changed so much.  Contemporary bluegrass and country has melded together.  It has a lot of jazz in it, and it has — I think because there’s so many young players now that have come out of classical training — you know, they’ve had school where they’ve been trained as classical players.  They bring a lot of that — a lot of that technique and discipline and, the ear for classical music — they bring that to the world of bluegrass or country or Americana, Celtic, all of these genres.  Those are the ones that everybody seems to love.”

Dudley compares his fiddles to other popular five-string builders today by stating “I believe that I make quality fiddles and that’s — I think that’s brought out by the fact that I have a good clientele of professional players that could play other people’s instruments, but that’s not to say that my violins are the only good ones out there.  Instruments are like our significant others in our lives, you know, you — you find one that you love, and — and you — others that you really like, but they’re not quite that one that you really love, you know, and so — there are other makers that make outstanding instruments that other people may like better than mine.  I just hope that I can find more people that like mine the best.”

Barry Dudley currently shows his instruments at two events per year.  He travels to IBMA and to Barcelona, Spain.  He has been invited to come to Merlefest and is considering traveling there next year.

This video shows two jazz violinists playing on Barry Dudley’s five-string fiddles.  Oriol Saña is a jazz professor in Barcelona.

Here is a video of Darol Anger playing a five-string made by Barry Dudley: