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The Pump Organ and The Hymn

A few months ago I had the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton record a hymn (Sweet Hour of Prayer) for inclusion in the project's 3rd section. As this song was popular at the time of this story, it has always been my intent to include it in the finished musical suite. The recording was done at the choir's practice location (one of Binghamton's oldest churches). The choir director was wonderful as we did several takes in both full and small ensemble both A cappella and with upright piano. After living with the recording for a while I felt it would be nice if there was a pump organ (circa late 1800's) to give it a more authentic feel. After researching my options and putting out the word to anyone who would listen, I finally established a solid lead on a working pump organ. The organ is located in a little white church (built in 1816) in Silver Lake PA. One sunny afternoon last week I loaded up my portable recording gear, kidnapped Bobby Twining (long time keyboardist I've worked with) and headed south to Silver Lake. As you can see from the photos, this church was a step back in time. The organ was in fine working order as they use it most Sundays so things went smoothly. Aside from having Bobby record a nice intro, I also had him accompany the choir (thanks to my iPod). I recorded both the pump organ and the playback of the choir from the rear of this shrine which gave it a real feeling of the congregation's choir as it might have been in 1865.

Welcome and Why

Thanks for visiting "The Sultana Project" blog. In the spirit of this format, I will try to document the creative process employed in support of my musical vision as well as share info surrounding this somewhat forgotten event. For those not familiar with the saga, I suggest a quick trip here before venturing much further. The single most common question I am asked when telling folks about this project is, why - why this topic, how did you come up with that? Here's how I started down this trail....
It was fall 2008 and I was fiddling around late one evening in my recording/music studio as I often do. The previous day I had a recording a session with a client who used my '71 Martin D-18 and tuned the darn thing way down. I picked it up and started exploring this alternate tuning and found myself riffing on what sounded somewhat like a sea shanty. The mics were still in place, so I decided to capture the riff as a possible seed for a song. As I recorded it, I also did a some lyrical free association in staying with this feel. The mostly nonsensical babble yielded one phrase that stuck out and fit the riff rather well. "Burn down the wheel, burn down the riverboat" was the phrase. Now where did that come from? Who knows. Anyway,
a few weeks later I went back to the session files (the recording) and gave it a listen. This riff and lyric sparked my interest enough to explore this a bit further. My initial idea was to elaborate on the topic of a riverboat that met an early demise. Since the riff was a bit dark (minor key) I especially wanted this boat to have a history of ill-gotten gains - something with an edge. Upon researching the topic, I stumbled across Riverboat Dave's site. Aah I thought.... the jackpot. I started reading through all the info, looking for something to build on (damned if near every steamboat didn't catch fire at some point). I spent several days looking through the site and searching for something that felt right. Riverboat Dave has them listed alphabetically and it wasn't until I got to 'S' where I stumbled across one called "Sultana" (actually there was more than one). This is where I got my initial introduction to the saga. It's about half way down the page. The more I read, the more I became hooked on this event.