Matt Brehm ... mtbrehm@clipper.net (left channel ... '99 Bourgeois Slope-D ... D'Addario EJ-17's ... Clayton Gold .72's and .80's)

Joe Carioti ... joeycario@hotmail.com (right channel ... '99 Larivee D-02 ... John Pearse mediums ... Clayton White 1.00's)

Bill Cheatham ... one of the first fiddle tunes we learned, with help from Flatpick-L and Steve Kaufman's "Collection of American Fiddle Tunes." This is one tune we do virtually every time we play out.

Logger's Advance ... Matt wrote this tune as part of an album we're working on. Thus far, it's our only original "fiddle tune" ... it still needs a more definite melody for the B-part, and it has yet to be played on a fiddle.

We recorded these tunes live, with no overdubs ... so of course there are several moments each of us would like to have back, but we're generally happy with the results. The setup -- one Shure SM-57 about 6 inches away from each guitar, pointed at the fingerboard roughly between the soundhole and the neck/body joint. These mics were run through a BiAmp Mixpak Plus (mixer/amp/eq) and then into a Yamaha MT120 4-track tape deck. The tunes were copied to hard drive and mixed using CoolEdit 2000. The eq was kept fairly flat, and the post-recording mix was simply to adjust levels ... no effects were added.

We've been playing together, off & on, since about 1995 ... usually just jamming, occasionally playing in taverns around Eugene. Early on, our repertoire was a broad mix of folk and rock, but we shared a long-time interest in bluegrass. In early 1999, we finally started learning some fiddle tunes and got more serious about crafting a sound of our own -- a mix of original, traditional and contemporary folk, peppered with fiddle tunes. For a time, we were known as "The Jake Brakes" but in the summer of 2000 - long story short - a threatening letter from a big law firm forced us to come up with something new, and we've settled on "Broken Homestead." So we began the year 2001 with some renewed energy, and hopefully this music reflects that. The tunes are from our current demo, recorded in early February at Matt's house. We're currently pursuing new gigs and starting work on a concept album.

A big thank you to everyone on Flatpick-L! The information, support, and general good humor have been invaluable to us as we explore the world of flatpicking.