Mark Twain CD

Mark Twain: Words & Music

The Mark Twain legacy CD, titled Mark Twain: Words & Music, combines spoken word and Americana music to tell the life story of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. It was created to commemorate 2010 – The Year of Mark Twain– and was produced by Grammy award-winning producer/musician/singer/songwriter Carl Jackson who also wrote some original music for the project and recorded one of his compositions ("Safe Water"). It was hoped that the CD would have been ready by Nov. 30, 2010 (the 175th birthday of Sam Clemens), but to accommodate the busy schedules of the generous artists who stepped forward to help with this project, production ran a little longer than anticipated (as did the paperwork). The double-CD, which is carried on Jimmy Buffett's label, Mailboat Records, became available for purchase on September 21, 2011. Order yours today, and enjoy a tale well told... and sung!

The star-studded cast and play-list are as follows:

Huck Finn: Jimmy Buffett
Narrator: Garrison Keillor
Mark Twain: Clint Eastwood
Susy Clemens: Angela Lovell
DISC ONE:
1. “Hello yourself, and see how you like it…”
2. When Halley Came to Jackson ~ Emmylou Harris
3. “Hannibal, Missouri, where my boyhood was spent…”
4. Better Times a’ Comin’ ~ Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
5. “He agreed to teach me the Mississippi River…”
6. Run Mississippi ~ Rhonda Vincent
7. “Several years of variegated vagabondizing…”
8. A Cowboy in His Soul ~ Bradley Walker
9. “It liberates the vandal to travel…”
10. Safe Water ~ Carl Jackson
11. “You ain’t ever to love anybody but me…”
12. I Wandered by a Brookside ~ The Church Sisters
13. “It was a mighty nice family…”
14. Beautiful Dreamer ~ Sheryl Crow

DISC TWO:
15. “Don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry…”
16. Huck Finn Blues ~ Brad Paisley
17. “The crows would gather on the railing and talk about me…”
18. Indian Crow ~ Marty Raybon
19. “So wounded, so broken-hearted…”
20. Love is On Our Side ~ Val Storey
21. “Wheresoevershe was, there was Eden…”
22. I Know You By Heart ~ Vince Gill
23. “My conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever…”
24. Ink ~ Joe Diffie
25. “The report of my death was an exaggeration…”
26. Comet Ride ~ Ricky Skaggs
27. "The truth, mainly..."

Producer: Carl Jackson

Executive Producers: Carl Jackson and Cindy Lovell

Read the L.A. Times Review

Radio Stations - Download the tracks at AirPlayDirect.com

YouTube Video (with excerpts)

Digital Downloads

Digital downloads are available on Amazon. A digital booklet with lyrics and narrative is available here.

The story behind the CD

Cindy Lovell, executive director of the Museum, met Carl Jackson when the two were kids. Cindy lived in Pennsylvania, and Carl lived in Mississippi. Carl was playing banjo with Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys, a top bluegrass band that toured the country. Cindy and Carl became friends and pen-pals. In a few years, Carl found himself playing with Glen Campbell. They lost touch, but Carl's career in music continued to soar. In 2003 he produced Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers as a tribute to Charlie and Ira Louvin. The CD won two Grammy awards in 2004 and became Cindy's favorite CD. She was still living in Florida at that time and trying to think of an innovative way to commemorate The Year of Mark Twain in 2010 when she came up with the idea for this project. Although she hadn't seen or spoken with Carl in more than 30 years, she phoned him in 2007 and pitched the idea for the project. Carl loved it, and they began planning, meeting in person again for the first time in December 2009. Carl's vast musical experiences resulted in an all-star cast of musicians, singers, and songwriters. Cindy contacted friends who donated funds to pay for studio time, engineering, etc. After hundreds of hours of phone conversations, traveling, brainstorming, listening to songs, and considering every possible idea, the result of this enduring friendship and "Twain-spiration" is a double-CD (that includes a 40-page booklet containing all of the narrative and song lyrics) of Mark Twain's life - from birth to death - in a completely unique format.

Mark Twain: Words & Music CD Cover