About the album
This album is a tribute to the Records family. It started as a gift for Roger’s 69th birthday and grew into a telling of the Records history for the family reunion.
The songs pull on family stories both written down and passed on - the ones told around campfires and kitchen tables - drawing on the writings of Ken Records, ca. 1992, among others. They were written by Jeff Records to make sure our family history lives on for the generations to come.
This is just the beginning. I’m hoping to reach out to more family members to gather their stories and keep it growing.
Work in progress · 9 songs recorded
The songs
-
Cause Records is My Name
6:24
The title track and the front door of the record - a proud, warm anthem written as a birthday gift for Roger, introducing the name and the pride behind it.
Lyrics
When I came in early '57, baby Jean was already in heaven
My father Max and mother Grace helped me keep that smile on my face
Youngest of nine kids, with growing up I had many friends
Ron and Vern and Earl and Susie, Eddie, Lyle and Lynn
Out in old "U-mah-pine" where the wheat fields met the sky
A little farm boy learning how to work and how to tryI was born on a dusty dirt lane, but that don't cause me no shame
Cause Records is my name
From the fields to the classroom door, I gave it all and then some more
Through the joy and through the pain
I was raised on a dusty dirt lane - and Records is my nameMax came home from the big war, wounded but he never kept no score
He showed me what a man could be with a broken body but a spirit free
I learned to plow and mend a fence, raised my hogs for 4-H events
FFA jacket, muddy boots - "u-mah-pine" gave me all my roots
By the '85, I had boys of my own, a classroom, and a happy home
I cried like a baby the day they told me that we lost Lynn Ray
You can be a grown man with a family and still feel like a kid that dayI was born on a dusty dirt lane, but that don't cause me no shame
Cause Records is my name
From the fields to the classroom door, I gave it all and then some more
Through the joy and through the pain
I was raised on a dusty dirt lane - and Records is my nameI went off to Oregon State, thought the world was mine to take
Then Daddy passed in '77 - felt like thunder shook the heavens
But I found a girl named Joan Elaine, September '78 she took my name
Then Jimmy came, then Jeff, then Dan - three boys made me a richer man
Stood before a classroom full of kids who needed someone real
Taught 'em drafting, math, and metal shop - and how to bend, not break, like steelI was born on a dusty dirt lane, but that don't cause me no shame
Cause Records is my name
From the fields to the classroom door, I gave it all and then some more
Through the joy and through the pain
I was raised on a dusty dirt lane - and Records is my nameForty years I gave that school, with a wrench, a chalk stick, and the golden rule
Students stop me in the town and say "Mr. Records, you turned my life around"
They sold the farm while I was gone, but the legacy it carries on
If you drive down that old dirt road, you'll see a sign the county put up on a pole
It says "Records Lane" - and I smile every time
'Cause the dust I came from, Lord, it suits me fineI was born on a dusty dirt lane, but that don't cause me no shame
Cause Records is my name
From the fields to the classroom door, I gave it all and then some more
Through the joy and through the pain
I was raised on a dusty dirt lane - and Records is my nameNow Lulu and Evelyn climb up on my knee
And I see Jimmy's eyes and a little bit of me
Joan and I got a motorhome, we chase the yard sales down each road
Scratched a ticket, won a million - took my boys up north to wet a line
Lost Mama Grace in twenty-twelve, Ron and Vern not long after
Earl said goodbye in twenty-twenty - Lord, the silence after laughter
From baby Jean to Daddy Max, to Lynn and all the rest
Heaven's got a front porch full of Records - and they saved me the bestI was born on a dusty dirt lane, but that don't cause me no shame
Cause Records is my name
From Oo-mah-pine to Alaska's shore, I've been blessed with so much more
Through the sunshine and the rain
I was raised on a dusty dirt lane - and Records is my name(Outro - spoken)
Yeah… Records Lane.
That dirt's still in my boots.
And I wouldn't have it any other way. -
Westward
5:38
The migration ballad - two hundred years and a continent, from Philip Records in 1751 Maryland to Charles Winfred reaching Freewater, Oregon. A lone voice that grows into a full-band duet as the family moves west.
Lyrics
Verse 1 - Solo Male Vocal, Sparse
Philip Records, Maryland born
Seventeen fifty-one, before the storm
When the colonies were still the Crown's to hold
He carved a name in the eastern mud
Passed it down through sweat and blood
A word that's followed us through the coldVerse 2 - Male Vocal, Acoustic Guitar Enters
Benjamin carried it to Allegheny
Married a McCandless girl - that name runs heavy
Alexander came up strong on Pennsylvania ground
They cleared the timber, worked the stone
Built a life they could call their own
But something whispered, there's more to be foundChorus - Male Vocal, Guitar Steady
Westward, always westward
Past the ridge where the last light falls
Something in the blood says keep on going
Something in the name says answer when it callsVerse 3 - Male Vocal, Female Vocal Enters Softly, Fiddle Joins
John Chambers Records took a bride
Emily Roberts, Christmas-tide
December twenty-seventh, eighteen fifty-five
Had nine children, worked the plow
Crawford County wasn't big enough somehow
He loaded up the wagon and they droveOut to Indiana, out to Minnesota snow
Some of them settled, some were buried, some let go
But there's always one who can't stop looking at the sun
Going down behind the hills where he ain't goneChorus - Duet, Fuller Arrangement
Westward, always westward
Past the ridge where the last light falls
Something in the blood says keep on going
Something in the name says answer when it callsVerse 4 - Full Duet, Full Band
Charles Winfred was the one who went
When his brothers stayed, he pitched his tent
Toward the place where the Blue Mountains meet the plain
Left Dakota County, eighteen ninety-seven
Married Susie Pool - Lord, it must've been heaven
December twenty-seventh come againEight children born on Umatilla ground
Freewater, Oregon - the land they finally found
Where the wheat rows run like sentences in a letter sent back home
Saying, we made it - you can stop your roamingFinal Chorus - Full Voices, Full Band, Light Percussion
Westward, always westward
Past the ridge where the last light falls
Something in the blood said keep on going
Something in the name said answer when it callsOutro - Softening, Both Voices Gentle
Philip to Benjamin, Alexander's son
John Chambers' children - Lord, there were so many of 'em
Charles Winfred found the valley, put the shovel in the dirt
And the name that started in Maryland
Took root in Oregon earth -
Twenty-Four Came West
4:21
Old Chame Records and his four married sons riding the rail west out of Kirkhoven, Minnesota in 1901 - twenty-four Records bound for the Walla Walla Valley, six-week-old Gladys the youngest on the ride.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Old Chame Records rode the train out in nineteen-oh-one
Four married sons beside him, searching for the sun
Left Kirkhoven (KIRK-hoh-ven), Minnesota, left the fields of snow
Came to Walla Walla (WAH-luh WAH-luh) Valley where the blue mountains growVerse 2
They liked the smell of sage and soil, the orchards and the wheat
The water running cold and clear, the summer's gentle heat
Rode back home to pack the wagons, told the family "We'll go"
Said goodbye to Vermillion County and the only life they'd knownChorus
Twenty-four came west by the iron horse and rail
Men rode with the cattle through the dust and mountain trail
Gladys was six weeks old, the youngest on that ride
From Pennsylvania Dutch blood to the Oregon countrysideVerse 3
Chame was sixty-eight, he'd floated down the Ohio as a child
Built a raft in Crawford County when the frontier still was wild
Fought the war between the states, buried one wife in the ground
Still he said, "Look westward, boys," and west is what they foundVerse 4
Eck could build a house from nothing, finest carpenter around
William took the Grabner Road farm, one mile east of town
Charlie's place on Hodgen Road, the Pool folks right next door
Roy and Edna raised their six where no one'd farmed beforeChorus
Twenty-four came west by the iron horse and rail
Men rode with the cattle through the dust and mountain trail
Gladys was six weeks old, the youngest on that ride
From Pennsylvania Dutch blood to the Oregon countrysideVerse 5
No well upon the homestead, just a spring branch running low
Eleven years of hauling water 'fore they dug down deep below
Edna churned and baked the bread, cut aprons out for Gladys
Roy shot rabbits for the pot pie, fixed the chair, and mended saddlesBridge - slightly slower, harmonica lead
They were not the covered-wagon kind, no Oregon Trail for them
But pioneers don't need a certain road to start again
They came to see the Elephant, whatever that might be
A valley full of promise and a family running freeFinal Chorus - full arrangement, fiddle and all
Twenty-four came west by the iron horse and rail
Their names are in the valley like the fence posts and the trail
Gladys was six weeks old, the youngest on that ride
From Pennsylvania Dutch blood to the Oregon countrysideOutro - spoken softly or half-sung, just guitar
Freewater... Vincent... Umapine (OO-mah-pine)...
The Records are still here -
Government Mountain
4:51
Three o’clock in the morning, hitch the wagon and drive twenty miles of rutted road to cut Tamarack on Government Mountain - an upbeat, stompy song of hard work, goose hunts, and the cabin past Big Meadows.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Three o'clock in the morning, hitch the wagon to the team
Load the kids and chickens up before the rooster's dream
Twenty miles of rutted road from Hodgen (HODGE-en) to the top
Government Mountain's calling and a Records boy don't stopChorus
Cut it, split it, stack it high
Tamarack logs against the sky
Haul it down by horse and wagon
Keep the home fires never laggin'
Two-fifty an acre for the timber and the view
Hundred-sixty acres and a world of work to doVerse 2
Little Leavett's (LEV-it's) up there riding with the men at half-past three
Wouldn't make it there 'til lunchtime if the Lord would let it be
But a busted wheel or thrown shoe and you're sleeping on the trail
At the old Jepson (JEP-sun) farmstead with its dark and spooky taleVerse 3
Jepson ran afoul of bootleggers, or so the neighbors say
Found him in the well one morning, boots were thrown away
Coyotes howling in the timber, wind against the door
Young Lev pulled the blanket tight and prayed for morning moreChorus
Cut it, split it, stack it high
Tamarack logs against the sky
Haul it down by horse and wagon
Keep the home fires never laggin'
Two-fifty an acre for the timber and the view
Hundred-sixty acres and a world of work to doFiddle Break
Verse 4
Edna's thirty-four, she bakes a chocolate birthday cake
Roy pays off the mortgage, a thousand dollars' sake
Dean's new shoes a dollar-seventy-five at the Walla Walla (WAH-luh WAH-luh) Fair Store
Amy's learning how to creep and Milly wants to know what forVerse 5
Roy and Wisenor (WHY-zen-or) and Wynans (WHY-nans) and old Messenger make a plan
Going goose hunting on the river like a band of merry men
Four days later they come straggling, not a feather to be shown
Edna writes it in the diary: "Return of the goose hunters - Gooseless"Chorus - with feeling
Cut it, split it, stack it high
Tamarack logs against the sky
Haul it down by horse and wagon
Keep the home fires never laggin'
Two-fifty an acre for the timber and the view
Hundred-sixty acres and a world of work to doBridge - half-time, slower, reflective
They built a cabin past Big Meadows in the nineteen-thirties
But the tent platforms came first, canvas walls and dirty
Four-foot lengths of Tamarack stacked along the wall
Every cord they ever burned was earned before the fallFinal Verse - tempo kicks back in
Ninety years since Chame (CHAYM) said, "Head west and stake your claim"
The Umapine (OO-mah-pine) Hall is gone now but the bloodline stays the same
From the Ohio to the Blue Mountains, from the plow blade to the pen
A Records wrote it down for us so we'd remember themTag - repeat and fade, crowd singalong
Cut it, split it, stack it high
Tamarack logs against the sky
Cut it, split it, stack it high
Tamarack logs against the sky... -
Umapine
3:52
An easygoing ode to the land itself - named for a Cayuse chief whose word meant “friend” - as the crops change from wheat to orchard to vine and the Circle 6 brand travels on. The land keeps becoming something new, but it’s still Umapine.
Lyrics
Verse 1 - Female voice, spare acoustic guitar and pedal steel
They named it for a Cayuse chief
Whose word for it was "friend"
A railroad stop, a lumber yard
A creamery 'round the bend
Charles Winfred brought his bride out here
In nineteen-oh-two they came
Susie Pool from the Gilkey line
And they staked the Records nameVerse 2 - Male voice, fiddle enters, upright bass joins
The dairy barns gave way to wheat
Gold stubble to the hills
The Ransom boys were next door down
Their fence line touched our own
Our mamas'd holler suppertime
But we were already homeChorus - Both voices, fuller arrangement
U-ma-pine, U-ma-pine
The land keeps changing shape
Wheat to orchard, orchard to vine
But the sky don't know the date
The Blue Mountains hold the west
The dust still knows your name
Everything becomes something else
But U-ma-pine stays the sameVerse 3 - Female voice, warmer tone
The schoolhouse held a hundred kids
Three stories made of brick
Chiefs in blue and gold on Friday nights
The hallways tall and thick
But the town got small, they closed the high school down
Sent the kids to Mac-Hi in the valley
That's where Roger met a girl named Joan
And U-ma-pine kept on shrinking quietlyVerse 4 - Both voices, trading lines
(Him:) The Waterhole still pours 'em cold
(Her:) The creamery sells the cheese
(Him:) The vineyards climb where hay was stacked
(Her:) The wind still shakes the trees
(Him:) The tracks pulled up and turned to road
(Her:) But the highway passed us by
(Him:) Past the lane they named for us
(Both:) When all our farming's throughBridge - Male voice, stripped back to guitar and vocal
The Circle 6 - Great-granddad's brand
He pressed it in the hide
Max and his brothers swung it too
Then Vern kept it alive
Now Jeffrey carries it with pride
The ranch is gone, the cattle too
But the iron's in the family still
And the brand keeps traveling onFinal Chorus - Both voices, full arrangement, pedal steel soaring
U-ma-pine, U-ma-pine
The name is on the lane out there
But the family's scattered wide
The Blue Mountains hold the west
The dust still knows your name
Everything becomes something new
But U-ma-pine stays the sameOutro - Spoken, male voice over harmonica and pedal steel fading
No Records left in Umapine.
But every summer we come back to the valley.
And the road still carries the name. -
Records Lane
5:09
A green road sign on the old Umapine road, named for the family once the leaving was done - what’s left when a name outlasts a family’s presence on the land, and the spring they buried one of their own.
Lyrics
Verse 1 - male
I came down the Umapine road where the railroad used to run,
gravel under the tires and the last of the setting sun.
They named it when we left it - that's the way these things get done -
a green sign for the family, once the leaving was all done.Verse 2 - female
The wheat's all gone to grapevine, the dairy's gone to seed,
orchards came between them, now it's someone else's need.
Row on row of another man's crop where our wheat used to stand -
that's just the way it goes out here. That's what becomes of land.Chorus - both
Now the sign says Records, but there's no Records home,
just a name on a corner where the family used to roam.
You can drive the whole valley, every acre, every grain,
and never meet the people on the sign at Records Lane.Verse 3 - male
The school shut down in eighty-four, the post office long before -
it burned back in the sixties and they never built it more.
Three hundred left and falling, town's a little quieter each year,
but that blue water tower's still standing - pilots find their way from here.Verse 4 - female
Tate's still holds the corner in the same old hundred-year brick,
the Waterhole's still pouring when the summer evening's thick.
Government Mountain's watching like it watched them break the ground -
some things become other things, and some things stick around.Bridge - both
We lose the ones we love the way the land forgets the plow -
here one season, gone the next, and no one tells us how.
This spring we buried one of ours, and April's when he went,
and the sign still says Records - Lord, we know now what it meant.Final Chorus - both
So the sign says Records, out on that quiet road,
long after the plow, long after the load.
We don't live there anymore - but drive it once again,
and something of us waits for you at Records Lane.Outro - softer
Records Lane...
something of us waits for you at Records Lane. -
High Cotton
3:02
The reunion song - the Records rolling into Harris Park with coolers and lawn chairs, rich as the summer and long as the day, with a place set for the one who couldn’t be there.
Lyrics
Verse 1 - ensemble, building
Up at Harris Park where the river runs cold,
the Records come rollin' like they've done since of old -
coolers and casseroles, lawn chairs and kin,
somebody hollers, "Well, look who the wind blew in!"Chorus - everybody
Oh we're in high cotton, high cotton today,
never had a dollar we could talk into stay,
but we're rich as the summer and long as the day -
when the Records come home, we're in high cotton.Verse 2 - trade lines, male / female
Same potato salad that we've had for fifty years,
the men down at the horseshoe pit, the kids out in the weirs,
and Uncle tells the story that we all could tell by heart,
but the tellin's half the reason that we come from miles apart.Chorus - everybody
Oh we're in high cotton, high cotton today,
never had a dollar we could talk into stay,
but we're rich as the summer and long as the day -
when the Records come home, we're in high cotton.Verse 3 - ensemble
The Blue Mountains go golden when the burgers are all gone,
guitars come out at sundown and the cousins carry on -
the ones who couldn't hold a note still holler every word,
and it's the finest, poorest, sweetest sound this valley ever heard.Bridge - dips down, softer, harmony
We set a place we don't fill, raise a glass we don't clink,
for the ones who oughta be here - closer than we think.
There's a chair that sits empty now that was full a spring ago -
so we sing a little louder, 'cause we know he'd want it so.Final Chorus - biggest, hands and stomps
Oh we're in high cotton, high cotton today,
we lost a few, we love a few, and none of 'em far away,
we're rich as the summer and long as the day -
when the Records come home, we're in high cotton!Tag - call and response, fade
High cotton! (High cotton!)
When the Records come home...
we're in high cotton! -
Philip to Olivia
4:14
Two hundred years of the name in one song - from Philip Records in 1751 Maryland down to the little girls who carry it now. Every hand that held it, opening.
Lyrics
Verse 1 - solo female voice
Philip Records, seventeen and fifty-one,
Maryland morning, and the name had just begun.
He couldn't know the road it'd walk, the ground that it would gain -
he just handed down a heartbeat and he handed down a name.Verse 2 - female
Benjamin to Alexander, Pennsylvania clay,
John Chambers built a river-raft and floated west away.
Charles Winfred crossed to Oregon, put a brand upon the herd -
Circle Six burned into hide, and not a single word.Verse 3 - male voice joins
Max came home from the war he fought and worked the Umapine ground,
Roger raised his three good sons in the valley he'd been found.
James and Jeffrey, Daniel - and their cousin Mark the same,
four Records men of one bright age, all carrying the name.Verse 4 - both, gently
And of those four, just one had children - two little girls, no more -
so the whole long line came down to them, like a river to a shore.
Two hundred years of fathers, all that leaving, all that rain,
came to rest as soft as morning on two girls who'd bear the name.Chorus - both, building
From Philip down to Olivia - two hundred years and more,
every hand that held it opened, every heart it traveled for.
Little Lulu in the yard, and Evelyn just the same -
they don't know yet what they're holding. They're holding all the name.Verse 5 - male, quieter
The old iron's in the shed still, Circle Six upon the end,
a mark you burn in cattle and a mark that time can't mend.
A name on paper fading, a brand that holds its ground -
one of them may outlast the other, and either way it's found.Final Chorus - full family ensemble
From Philip down to Olivia - the line runs clear and true,
not a door that's closing on us, but a door that's opening through.
Let the girls decide the rest of it, let 'em carry it or lay it down -
the name did all its traveling just to land right here in town.Outro - solo female again, then voices gather
Philip... to Olivia...
the name did all its traveling...
just to land right here. -
Still Calling You, Dan
5:24
Jeff’s eulogy for his little brother Daniel - the shared bedroom, the Cub Scouts, the golf team he stepped aside from, the business they almost built, and still reaching for the phone. Also featured on Daniel’s memorial.
Lyrics
Verse 1
You came fifteen months behind me, little brother,
there was never once a day I knew without you there.
We shared one room till you were twelve, two beds beneath one window,
first friend I ever had, and the best one anywhere.Verse 2
When I signed up for the Cub Scouts, well, you signed up for 'em too,
Boy Scouts, 4-H, Young Marines, you followed where I'd been.
I'd get hired on at Whitney's, you'd be working there by Friday,
a step ahead at Thriftway with my kid brother stepping in.Verse 3
My freshman year I made the golf team, played the season through,
next fall when you tried out for it, I just quietly walked away.
'Cause I wasn't gonna let 'em watch me lose to my own brother,
some races you don't run, son. I let you have the day.Chorus
And I still reach for the phone,
still half-hear you on the line.
We'd call to say the world's gone mad, that we weren't losing our minds,
now I'm talking to the quiet, Dan, and I reach for it every time.Verse 4
I lit out west for Pullman, thought our running days were through,
then you transferred in beside me like you'd planned it all along.
And you graduated first, of course, you could always make the case,
talked 'em into every credit they'd been telling you was wrong.Verse 5
You stood in the corner of the ones who had nobody's corner,
made the cold machine of things a little kinder, a little warm.
You were the funcle, the soft touch, the one who'd never back down,
spent your whole life leaning straight into somebody else's storm.Bridge
For years we drew it up, a thing we'd build, just me and you,
your law and my machines, and we'd be free of all the rest.
This last year we got close, down to one last piece to solve,
we never got to start it. But brother, we were close. I'll attest.Verse 6
Now there was one race we took dead serious, who'd hold his hair the longest,
same barber kept the tally, and I'll say it with the proof:
I won, Dan. That one's mine, and the witnesses were standing.
You can argue when I see you, I'll be saving up the truth.Chorus
And I still reach for the phone,
still half-hear you on the line.
We'd call to say the world's gone mad, that we weren't losing our minds,
now I'm talking to the quiet, Dan, and I reach for it every time.Outro
I got to know you all my life, I won't call that unlucky.
I'm still sending you the messages, still calling out your name.
And out at the end of the dock, in the starlight and the still,
I'll keep on reaching, brother. It'll never be the same.
“They came to see the Elephant.”