- Silver Colored Trees (Rich/Mark/Rick)
- This is my favorite Rich composition.
- Over and Out (Mark/Rick/Scott/Rich)
- This song always reminded me of the group A Certain Ratio.
Mark on bass, Rick on keyboard, Rich on guitar, and me on the
Octopad MIDI drum triggers. When Rich started playing with
us (and started learning to play guitar), he would
practice a few new chords, and play them well. He never tried
to play too much. As a result, the parts he did play
contribute greatly to each song and don't try to overwhelm the
song.
- Helter NM/Slimey Weeds (Mark/Rick/Scott/Nancy/Rich)
- This song has another example of Rich's elegant approach to
guitar playing. At the end of each of the Gentle SNM riffs,
you can hear Rich's three-note upward guitar riff filling the
space that needed filling and no more. It's nothing fancy or
terribly difficult, but it's just what was needed.
- Lone Volkswagen (Scott/Nancy/Mark)
- Nancy brought this song by Thurin Studios on January 11,
1985. At the time, I had a black VW Bug and had done a couple
of trips up to Humboldt with my friend Charlie. Charlie and I
picked up a few T-shirts from Humboldt State and gave them to
Mark and Rick, and from then on, we were the Humboldt
Brothers. This is one of three or four of Nancy's songs Mark
and I recorded with her at Thurin. Some of her other songs
are available on the Green Winter/Early Years CD.
- Da Dum Dum Dum (Rich/Mark/Rick/Scott)
- Rich has a knack for humorous lyrics. Like most of the
Humboldt Family songs, this is a one-off recording on Mark's
4-track. After the basic tracks including Rich's main vocal,
all four of us added noises and shouts to the chorus.
- Gentle SNM 1 (Scott/Nancy/Mark)
- This was recorded in early June 1988. I had picked up a
Yamaha RX-50 (Mr. Rex) and was playing around with some of
the effects. I combined two pitch-shift effects with two
delay effects. At the first delay, the pitch is shifted up a
third. On the second delay, the pitch is shifted down a
fifth. I believe the delays are set apart at about 118 on the
metronome scale. Mark was on guitar, and Nancy was on
keyboard. We just started playing around with this, and this
is the first-ever recording using that patch on the RX-50. I
thought the song sounded like something the band Gentle Giant
would play. And, as the people playing are Scott, Nancy, and
Mark, I named the song Gentle SNM. A few weeks later, Rick
pick up RX-50s (at a much cheaper cost than I paid!) as well.
Rick created the same patch, and we would both play guitars
through that patch on some of the later versions of this
song.
- Gumby And The Robots (Mark/Scott)
- In June 1988, Mark came up with the keyboard riff for this
one. I did the guitar part. This is another "first-ever"
recording on this CD. There's another version of this song
somewhere that's much more wild. If I ever find it, I'll put
it out on CD.
- Scratch Dance (Scott/Nancy/Mark)
- This is another song that Nancy brought in. This was
recorded in June 1988 as a jam session. I believe we recorded
this song again a few years later.
- Lucy Gets High On Diamonds (Scott/Mark/Rick/Nancy/Rich)
- Rich shows off his mandolin and mouth harp skills on this
cut. And I'm showing off my RX-50 skills (or lack of). It's
really hard to sing a melody when you can't hear your real
voice.
- Come And Get It (Scott/Nancy/Mark/Rich)
- This is a jam on Slimey Weeds/Come Together recorded in June
1988. A lot of SNM material was recorded this month. Listen
to Rich's background lead guitar. Another great one for
him.
- I've Got A Feeling (Scott/Nancy/Mark)
- Again, recorded in June 1988. Sounds like it was done late
at night. None of us is really taking it seriously (do we
ever?). Rick hates this song, so I don't think he was
there.
- Gentle SNM 2 (Scott/Nancy/Mark)
- This is the second recording of this song, later in June
1988. It has more structure this time.
- Strawberry Fields Forever Again (Scott/Rich/Rick/Mark)
- Rich and I were playing with the echo box and started
singing Strawberry Fields. Rick then started playing some
eerie keyboards. This was meant to be a "demo" of the song,
and we would record a better version later. Like most of the
Humboldt demos, though, we never recorded it this way
again.
- Night Bird (Rick/Mark/Scott/Nancy)
- The requisite ambient piece for the CD.
- Lucy's Dead (Scott/Mark/Rick/Nancy/Rich)
- Just before recording Lucy Gets High On Diamonds, we did a
quick check to make sure everyone had the chord sequence down
for the chorus. It turned into something else.
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