DBT #240 Trempealeau

 

After David Nash released his "Trempealeau Hotel" song (featured on Monday Morning song) I started a little playlist that included Eddie Allen's classic song "Trempealeau Hotel"  and Johnsmith's ode to his backyard, "Trempealeau"  That was nice but I thought, what if I just searched in Bandcamp for all the songs with Trempealeau; and oh my what an eclectic mix that I would like to share with you.

1) Trempealeau Hotel - David Nash

Let's get it going with David's song that inspired the playlist.  For those who like YouTube playlists; David has a channel and I'll watch to see if he posts it someday and add it to this post.

2) Trempealeau - Johnsmith

Walk with John around Trempealeau where he calls home. Right, if only he was a singer. ha.

And If I were a singer clear
I’d raise a melody for all to hear
The swans and swallows would all come round
To Trempealeau our little town

Trempealeau, Trempealeau
My jewel along this winding river road
From the banks of the mighty Mississip
Up to the limestone blufftop ridge
I’m proud to call you home
My home sweet Trempealeau

3) Trempealeau Hotel by Eddie Allen

You will find the storytelling legend riding up or down the Mississippi on the Viking cruise line singing about the river.  Eddie is on Bandcamp, thanks to his son.

I inspired my buddy Tory K to make this great video of the song with drone footage of the river, hotel and of course the shell of the brewery.  Such a great job of editing pictures hanging in the hotel too.

4) The Story behind The Trempealeau Hotel - Eddie Allen

We had fun hosting Eddie Allen at the Bluff View Concerts and I couldn't be the only one enjoying this story in my playlist; so I added it to my Around Town playlist.

5) Trempealeau Hotel live - Eddie and Daun Allen

Eddie with his wife at the time were recorded live at the Great River Folk Fest by Wisconsin Public Radio back when they used to travel around Wisconsin recording a lot of music.  The fest released a beautiful CD collection of songs that were remixed from tapes that sometimes needed to be baked in a oven to play again by Brett Huus of Soundstrations.  Recently I put it up in Bandcamp since we're running out of hard copies; sorry not on YouTube (yet) so I added a live cut of Eddie at Leo & Leona's.

6) The Rolling Hills of Trempealeau - Chris Richards

This starts the Bandcamp search part of the list; wow this country ballad of trucking fracking sand from the hills of Trempealeau is a great song.  I don't know him too well yet but he grew up 30 minutes away from my hometown in Sheboygan WI.  Now resides in LA.

7) Trempealeau - David Nash

In the immortal words of Greg Brown, "Who woulda thunk it" David has written and released two songs about Trempealeau and he sets it up with someone hiding in town.

8) Trempealeau - Jen Zimberg

I've reached out to this folk singer out of Hudson NY what inspired this traditional sounding story.

i have a song to sing of the boy who met the fairy king it was in the woods of trempealeau when the river was dark beneath the starry glow the boy snuck from his bed one night put on his hat and brought no light his legs they moved with restless itch so he climbed and crept in the quiet over the train-track bridge

Oh my she has a timid Joan Baez feel.

9) Trempealeau - Peter Mulvey

Of course the master songwriter Peter has a song using Trempealeau, he loves to play the hotel and he always does it without amplification inside.  It gives it such an intimate feeling and everyone gets quiet to listen.  The song is about longing to love and Trempealeau seems more an after thought but I can picture it's Peter longing for a trip back; and why not it's part of God's country.

Here he is live doing this 2014 released song:

10) Catfished in Trempealeau - Zoot

I almost didn't buy this because I normally don't buy instrumental electronic music, but this one is nice a short a great pause between songs when I have the playlist on shuffle.  Ha... he's from Madison and doesn't seem like he was impressed with Catfish Days

Trempealeau has some good catfish. I went to their catfish festival and felt like it was falsely advertised.

credits

from In a Post​-​Dairy Economy, Wisconsin is Powerless, released March 12, 2022

Here's the one click YouTube playlist, sorry it's only 7 songs deep.

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