David Mansfield || discography

Heaven's Gate	EMI/Liberty, 1980 Still one of the best soundtracks I've ever done; engineered by Larry Hirsch (who recorded all the Alpha Band sessions)

Year Of The Dragon	Varése-Sarabande, 1985

The Sicilian	Virgin, 1987

Desperate Hours	Vareése- Sarabande, 1990

Tales From The Crypt	Big Screen, 1992 This is a compilation CD; I was very proud to be in such impressive company (Danny Elfman, Ry Cooder, James Horner, David Newman, etc.)

Ballad Of Little Jo	Intrada, 1994 Two highlights for me; Kate & Anna McGarrigle's performance ofthe end title song that I wrote with Nan O'Byrne (of "Sweet And Shiny Eyes" notoriety), and meeting Maggie Greenwald (we were married in1994)

Lonesome Dove Classic Western Scores 2	Silva America,1996 Another compilation CD. Two cues from "Heaven's Gate" are included, along with themes form classic western scores by Maurice Jarre, Jerry Fielding, Dimitri Tiomkin, Elmer Bernstein and others. Unfortunatelymy two cues are not the versions from the soundtrack (which I performed). "Sweet Breeze" (the Main Title) holds up pretty well. The arranger (who obviously had to transcribe it by ear) did very well, missing only a handful of notes. Aside from the fact that they didn't have a mandocello (a dominant flavor in the score), and that the music occasionally drifts slightly out of time, and that the mandolin player sounds a little more Greek than Ukranian, it's a very good recording. I can't really say the same for the "Mamou Two-Step" (the famous roller-skating sequence), which sounds more like a Lawrence Welk polka than a cajun two-step...

Quacky Duck and his Barnyard Friends "Media Push"	Warner Brothers, 1973 My first record; believe it or not, our single "The Barnyard Song" got a lot of airplay, and our cult following in northern NJ rivaled that of another local act, Bruce Springsteen, in the early seventies. Also we once opened for Gram Parsons at Max's Kansas City (his "GP" tour); it was a week that changed my life.

The Alpha Band "The Alpha Band"	Arista, 1976

The Alpha Band "Spark In The Dark"	Arista, 1977

The Alpha Band "The Statue Makers of Hollywood"	Arista, 1978 T-Bone was in the Jeremiah phase of his new-found Christian faith. We owed Arista another record and T-Bone essentially told Clive Davis, "we'll do this one but you probably won't like it; you can let us go if you want to." Clive didn't, and we released this wacky record. I especially like the end vamp on "Rich Man"; loud-inflected mandolin improvs over a highly dissonant horn chart by Darrell Leonard, wild gospel wailing arranged by Andrae Crouch and psuedo-Arabic vocal riffing by T-Bone and Soles. And Syndrums...

The Alpha Band "Interviews"	Edsel, 1988 A compilation CD released after T-Bone gained notoriety on his own.

Evercall Ready "Evercall Ready"	Maranatha! Music, 1985 A one-shot record deal; it was a gospel-bluegrass record with Bernie Leadon, Chris Hillman, Al Perkins and Jerry Scheff, recorded essentially live in the studio (1984 or 1985). It was only on vinyl; Chris had it remastered and released on CD by Sierra Records in 2007 (with a couple of bonus tracks added).

Bruce Hornsby and The Range "The Way It Is"	RCA, 1986

Bruce Hornsby and The Range "A Night On The Town"	RCA, 1990 I had left the band at this point, but was in L.A. when Bruce was cutting, so I played electric violin on "Stranded On The Mountain", and electric guitar on "Stranded On Easy Street" (trading licks with the harmonica-wielding "Boss Of Kings", Jimmie Wood). I also appeared on the long form video "A Night On The Town" (along with Jimmie, Bela Fleck, Jerry Garcia, Shawn Colvin and others).

Murray Attaway "In Thrall"	Geffen, 1993 Produced by my friend Tony Berg, who likes me to do wierd stuff on obscure acoustic instruments; I seem to remember doing overdubs on tenor guitar, and some real strange doublings on violin.

Vince Bell "Phoenix"	Watermelon, 1994 Vince is one incredible songwriter. Produced by Bob Neuwirth in a bravely stripped-down fashion.

Luka Bloom "Riverside"	Reprise, 1990

Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians "Ghost Of A Dog"	Geffen,??

Cindy Bullens "Cindy Bullens"	MCA, 1989 I've known Cindy since 1975 (I played the lead on her 70s quasi-hit "Survivor", and she sang BG vocals on a number of Alpha sessions). Around the time of this album we became very close, and I really threw myself into it. I co-wrote a number of the songs, co-produced the sessions (with Cindy and Bob Clearmountain), played guitar, appeared in the video (with Clearmountain on bass!) and toured to support the album. We were all shocked when it sunk without a trace...

T-Bone Burnett "Truth Decay"	Takoma, 1980 A great garage record (literally); recorded in Reggie Fisher's converted garage. He put a mike outside the room, with the door half open. It worked real well. A number of these songs were written on location on "Heaven'sGate"; I have a cassette of hotel-room (the Outlaw Inn, in Kalispell Montana) acoustic demos that rival the album. "Boomerang" was an Alpha Band tune that we never got to; "Driving Wheel" features phenominal ex-Ventures, ex-Kris & Rita guitarist Jerry McGee (who also played cajun accordion onscreen in "Heaven's Gate").

T-Bone Burnett "Trap Door"	Warner Brothers, 1981

T-Bone Burnett "Proof Through The Night"	Warner Brothers, 1984

Johnny Cash "Johnny 99"	Columbia, 1983 Produced by Brian Ahern, with a legendary group of backup musicians including James Burton, Jerry Scheff, Hal Blaine, Glen D. Hardin and Marty Stuart. I was walking a foot off the ground. The highlight -- in between takes we played a rockabilly tune with John. About half way through he started rubberlegging and I totally got it that this man was more of a peer with Jerry Lee than Porter Wagoner.

Bob Dylan "Hard Rain"	Columbia, 1976 Fort Collins, Colorado. It was freezing, we were miserable. Too bad this wasn't done during the Rolling Thunder Revue's first tour, althoughone could probably cull a great live record from material recorded for "Renaldo And Clara".

Bob Dylan "Street Legal"	Columbia, 1978 A great album, despite some poor sound quality due to the fact that, during recording, Bob decided that all the go-bos were interfering with the music and had all of us draw our instruments around in a tight little circle. The engineer and assistants scrambled madly to re-place mikes and deal with the dramatically increased leakage without missing too many of the songs (Bob wasn't into doing things twice at that time).

Bob Dylan "Live At Budokan"	Columbia, 1978 This Tokyo gig was our opening-out-of-town, work-out-the-kinks tour. I understand Bob only allowed CBS to record it if they agreed not to release it domestically. Oops.

Bob Dylan "Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Bootleg Series Volume 5)"	Sony, 2002 The Rolling Thunder Review -- finally. I was only about 18 when I played on this, but I still remember what a thrill it was to play "It Ain't Me Babe" every night. When I first got a copy of this, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that, all raggedness aside, it really held up alongside of Bob's best work. Listen to it, then put on "Desire"-- the music was much more inspired live than in the studio.

Allen Ginsberg "First Blues"	John Hammond Records, 1982 I got to know Allen (and Peter Orlovsky) on the Rolling Thunder Revue. To this day he remains the sweetest revolutionary-queer-Buddhist-maniac I've ever met. Also, it was a thrill to meet John Hammond; a real produce rof the old school, it seemed his biggest job in the studio was to encourage all of us.

Nanci Griffith "Flyer"	Elektra, 1994 I did a lot of playing on this one; one of the few records I've ever done in Nashville, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Chris Harford & First Rays Of "Be Headed"	Elektra,1992

Joe Henry "Shuffletown"	A & M, 1990 This was the first time T-Bone and I worked together after a long, horrible falling out. It was a wonderful project; everything was live to two-track (including the board fades by master engineer Rik Pekkonnen). We just set up in a big circle in NY's Clinton Studios and played music. I love this record; also, it didn't hurt that Joe Henry is on of the nicest guys I've ever met.

Lonesome Val "NYC"	Bar None Records, ??

Osamu Kitajima "Source"	Columbia, ??

Cormac McCarthy "Picture Gallery Blues"	Green Linnet,1995

Roger McGuinn "Cardiff Rose"	Columbia, 1976 After the Rolling Thunder Review, McGuinn, Stoner, Wyeth, Ronson and I planned to form a band. It never quite came together, so instead we went to L.A. and made this record. We were all very proud of it, but after some great reviews it vanished without a trace.

Katy Moffatt "Evangeline Hotel"	Philo, ??

Katy Moffatt "Midnight Radio"	Watermelon, ??

Jenni Muldaur "Jenni Muldaur"	Warner Brothers, 1993

Bob Neuwirth "Back To The Front"	Gold Castle, 1988 Someday someone will write a book about this renaissance artist. Meanwhile, whenever he wants to make a record, I'm there. I'm just one of the scores of musicians that Bobby has selflessly encouraged and supported over the years; I owe a lot of my career to him.

Bob Neuwirth "99 Monkeys"	Gold Castle, 1990

Sam Phillips "Martinis and Bikinis"	Virgin, 1994 I played a lot of harpsichord on this one (!). One of my favorite live gigs was when I toured with Sam, opening for Bruce Cockburn (around "Cruel Inventions"). Sam stood up and sang; I played guitar. In a few towns T-Bone joined us on a couple of numbers to make a trio. Without a band to make things structured and rigid, the music was magical, and Sam was an exquisitely charming chatterbox with the audience.

Rig Rock Deluxe (Son Volt / Bottle Rockets / Walse Owens / Willis /Baird / Lowe / Earle) "Rig Rock Deluxe"	Upstart Records,?? I played on "Six Days On The Road" on this compilation.

The Roches "Can We Go Home Now?"	Rykodisc, 1995

Suzzy Roche "Holy Smokes"	Red House, 1997 Suz's first solo effort, and in my opinion the most honest, personaland best work she's ever done.

Tom Russell "Box Of Visions"	Philo, ??

Loudon Wainwright "History"	Virgin, 1992 I met Loudon at the 1988 Edmonton Folk Festival (I was there with Neuwirth). It was the start of a long friendship. This amazing collection of songs was the first time I recorded with him.

Loudon Wainwright "Career Moves"	Virgin, 1993 The "band" set is LW, me and that multi-talented uniquely irrascible curmudgeon, Chaim Tannenbaum. Whenever Loudon plays in NYC, I needle him about bringing Chaim down from Montreal, for reasons both musical and personal.

Loudon Wainwright "Grown Man"	Virgin, 1996

Jennifer Warnes "The Hunter"	Private Music, 1992

The Williams Brothers "The Williams Brothers"	WarnerBrothers, 1991 I met David and Andrew through T-Bone; their Phil & Don-style harmonies were astounding. I love playing with them, whether live or in the studio. I was the cellist in the video of "Can't Cry Hard Enough", regardlessof the fact that I don't play cello. I hope some of you out there have heard them perform Lennon's "Free As A Bird"; it puts The Beatles to shame.

VictoriaWilliams "Live In Toronto"	Mammoth, 1995 Every once in a blue moon, I go out on the road with someone. This was one of the occasions, and I hope you can hear how much fun it was. Also -- the notorious Phil Kaufman (The Mangler) was out with us for a while. It was the first time I'd seen him since Quacky Duck, when he was Gram Parsons' road manager and full-time wet nurse (and part-time wacky uncle to QD when we spent that summer in North Hollywood). He hadn't changed a bit.

Dwight Yoakum "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc Etc"	Oak Records,1984 I used to play around L.A. (from pizza joints to gay country bars) with Dwight. He always had a beautiful voice, but I never would have guessed he'd become such a mainstream country star; he seemed so much more the alternative-Lucinda Williams-variety.