Bruce
Coming to practice one night, I discovered that Ron had purchased a piano accordion. I mentioned that I played one in my youth and still owned mine. Next thing I know, I'm recording an accordion part for this song. Next time I tell Ron that I play the spoons. Actually it was great relearning the instrument and we've
since used it on stage.
Seth
I wasn’t so sure about this song at first. However, in the end, I think it is the song we got the most right on the recording. The vocals are right. The ambience that Chris created with the mandolins and that Bruce added to with the accordion. It’s just a beautiful love song about a guy who wants to have sex with a whole town and can’t so he kills the president. What could be better?
Chris
Another fun song to record, if only for Ron's use of the banjo. There are times when musicians stumble on additional parts by just playing around on an instrument, and this song is no exception to that. I stumbled on a mandolin part that became a part of the bedding, followed by a couple of drawn-out violin parts and lastly by a sweet accordion. This is the other song where I had all of us sing "Glory." Ron had felt that, after all the instruments and vocals had been recorded, that something was still missing in the choruses, something that needed to be more constant throughout. I came up with a nice low-toned and mellow keyboard part that nearly did the trick, but the final inclusion of Seth's viola is what really made it all work.
Ron
This was the last song I wrote for the EP, and the only one to have been written on banjo. The graphic novel “The Fatal Bullet” by Rick Geary tells the story succinctly and it’s images stays in my head whenever I think of the song. Charles Guiteau shot James A. Garfield despite having supported him in the election. Guiteau spent a significant amount of time in the Oneida Community, a religious group that had bizarre sexual practices that Guiteau would have loved to have been a part of. However, he was kind of a creep and no one wanted to have sex with him. After killing Garfield he was executed by hanging and his final words were a hymn of his own composition. This hymn went on long enough that they lost patience and killed him before he finished. “Glory, glory, glory” were his last words.
lyrics
To all the women of Oneida
You’re gonna love me soon
To all the men in high places
Judging all the races
From your smoke filled rooms
You’ll know me too
To all the women of Oneida
Keep me in your prayers
Carve my name into silver
Lord, Lord I’ll be delivered
From all the devil’s snares
I’ll be repaired
Glory, glory, glory
To all the women of Oneida
I always loved you most
When I’m swinging from the gallows
Don’t feel any sorrow
When they cut me from that post
I’ll be your ghost
Glory, glory, glory
credits
from Assassins EP,
track released November 16, 2010
Ron Freeman: lead vocals, banjo, acoustic guitar
Chris Vogt: mandolin, synth, vocals
Seth Ellsworth: violas, violin, vocals
Bruce Kline: bass, accordion, vocals
Savannah Kocher: harmony vocal
Sharon Udoh: keyboard, vocals
Bill Pratt: pedal steel guitar
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