Credits:

Produced by Chris Gage
Engineered and mixed by Chris Gage at MoonHouse Studio, Austin Texas
Production and engineering assistance by Christine Albert
Additional recording by Boyd Bristow at Maxine Audio, Spearfish South Dakota
Mastered by Jim Wilson at Airshow Mastering
Artwork and Design by Dick Reeves
Photo of Chris and Christine by Terry Smith
South Dakota photos by Chris Gage

Featuring:

Christine Albert - vocals
Chris Gage - vocals, electric, acoustic and baritone guitars, piano, organ, dobro and tambourine
Kenny Putnam - fiddle
Mike Stevens - harmonica
Lloyd Maines - pedal steel
John Mills - saxophone
Michael Austin - clarinet
David Carroll - upright bass
Glenn Fukunaga - electric bass
Paul Pearcy - drums, percussion and wind

MH 2908 cp2009 MoonHouse Records
PO Box 41021 Austin, Texas 78704
All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws

SkySea

The prairie isn’t really endless
Lives neither, just sometimes seems so
(buffaloes know both)
but songs are, TomPete’s go
like prairie seeds and tall grasses does
played over and over and again, different
played blizzardhard, sharptendered sprung,
stormpounded cathowled whole
rejuvenate, recreate, reincarnate,
these songs grow bloomsnblossoms,
‘n lifescents you haven’t met yet,
some bedrock solid,
some heaving stones forced up by heartfrosts
some shrugging shaggy sods off
like your notions you know all about,
songselves their own lifeforms,
some endangered, end-angered, stormed,
soaring feathered, fleet furred,
slithering coiled (is Truth poison?)

Original isn’t a sin
Missing this music might
Missing herds and schools and sees and nows and what-almost-did-never-be
Prairie came from the Bottom
of the bluesblack ocean
as far as the heart can sea

© jack kreitzer 08

Reviews:

Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange posted by Frank Gutch, Jr. 2009

A labor of love, that is what this is. Pure, unadulterated labor of love. Prairie and plains might have something to do with the music, but Dakota Lullaby is all about the love: Tom Peterson's love of the Dakotas as well as Christine Albert and Chris Gage's love of song. Remember the phrase "love conquers all?" Well, if it didn't, Dakota Lullaby wouldn't exist. Does the fact that it does give credence to the phrase? For those who would like to think so, here is the story, Cliff's Notes-style.

Thirty years ago, Tom Peterson, denizen of Pierre, South Dakota, wrote songs. Lots of them, in fact. Chris Gage, young and idealistic musician, began incorporating said songs into his act. Fast forward 30 years. (I said it was Cliff's Notes, didn't I?) Gage discovers a Peterson demo tape in his stash and Jack Kreitzer transfers Tom Peterson demos onto a CD, sending it to Albert and Gage. "It didn't take us long to realize that we had an entire album's worth of material that was perfect for Albert and Gage," Albert writes in the liner notes. A project is born.

Music Road posted by kerry dexter Sunday, June 14, 2009

The joyous side of love and the blue side, the thoughtful side, and the funny one, the crazy bits of friendship and the thought provoking ones, the quiet of a northern prairie night and the voices of those who made history there --- you meet all these ideas in Dakota Lullaby, the latest album from Christine Albert and Chris Gage. There are a dozen songs on the disc, varying in melody from swing to folk to country to blues, in tone from raucous to funny to reflective. Though they are outstanding songwriters themselves, Albert and Gage didn’t write the music on this collection. In fact, the songs were written some thirty years ago.