Audio information
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guest artists, side folks
credits & lyrics

artist Info
biography
performances
other recordings by Denis
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Reviews
From the Label
This is the artist's and label's first release, a 7" 45 rpm single on the Baroque label - (FB 841). The vinyl is out of print but can be special ordered as a MP3 or whatever digital flavor is in fashion.

Guest Artists and side folks (band information)

Other Credits: Charlie Hancock n' friends for the birthday cake, Fuzzy for demonstrating a method of cutting and eating it; Joey P. of C.C. for the patience; Gary Groza n' folks n' Ed Bell for being there when I truly needed it.

Pony Express, Denis Farleyl - Pouring Rain Music, BMI
Recorded: July 1982 Polyfox - Nashville, Tennessee. Engineers: Frank Green, Rick Williams, Paul Cohen and John even turned some pots.
Remixed: Summer '84 Bayshore 1.5 - Miami, Florida Engineer: Buddy Thornton.
Denis - Vocal, tenor sax, flute and percussion
Paul Harris - Hammond B3
Mark Aguilar - Guitar synthesizer
Doc Bowery - Electric guitar, vocal arrangement
Frank Green - Bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocal arrangement
Judy Arnold & Debbie from Oklahoma - Doc's friend) - Vocals
John - Drum kit

Other Credits: TomReynolds for the jam session at Sandy Beach; Fred Neil and "Cowboy" for the night of inspiraton in Sleepy Coconut Grove; Glen Fox for the grass to cut and the forgiveness for the fruit tree catastrophy; Bill Szymczyk for the use of the "Box" 1.5 and Buddy Thornton for the exorcism; Louis Gilbert for the credit in Music City and Jug & Colleen Brown and Quirino 'Kent' Rojas for getting me there (where are you Ken?); Cousin Vinnie Chiappardi n' folks, Tom, Rose, Shawna n' Ray.

Both selections produced by Denis Farley with many helping hands for Pouring Rain Music.

Credits & lyrics

Pony Express

Over mountains, over rivers
dangerous deserts and lonely plains
go love and a horse and freedom
riding pony, pony express
Thunder and lightning, Crazy fighting
n' renegade Grays and Blues
after love and a horse and freedom
riding pony, pony express

Chorus:
and when that lonesome winter wind blows
icy rain and drifting snows
I'll remember holding you tight
to keep on riding on through the night
riding pony, pony express running pony, pony express

No mama's mourning, teenage orphans
only expert quick riding fools
after love and a horse and freedom
riding pony, pony express
Buffalo Bill, Hickock too
they didn't fool with old Jack Slade
they came for love and a horse and freedom
riding pony, pony express

- Chorus -

Coda: (stop time)
When the singing wire came
that old pony changed its name
freedom's right, can't be wrong
that pony lives on in a song
riding pony, pony express
running pony, pony express

The basic melody for this tune grew out of a jam session during the summer of 1980 on the banks of the Hudson River with a friend from Pete Seeger's sloop club. The town was Beacon, actually between Beacon and Cold Spring, New York, a place where I spent a good deal of my childhood. The setting of Sandy Beach was ample inspiration for the opening lines of "Over mountains, over rivers." Later, while visiting Fred Neil (Everybody's Talkin'), and his friend Cowboy, who talked of his family's involvement with Pony Express, I adapted my "Over mountains" melody to the theme of Pony Express. During this time I was working for Calvin 'Fuzzy' Samuel, bass player and songwriter for countless artists, then of Alvin Lee and Mick Taylor. Fuzz would take me over to Fred's house in Coconut Grove and when I followed Fuzz to England in '81, I chanced to sell a song and pick up a promoter, Ken Rojas. Ken was going back to Texas and invited me to come along. There Ken introduced me to Jug Brown (Dreams of a Dreamer - #28 on the country charts). Jug was moving back to Nashville in May of '82 and let me tag along. In Nashville during the summer of '82, I cut the first takes of Pony Express. Glen Fox of Polyfox Studio with his crew of Frank Green, Paul Cohen and Rick (drummer) were a great help. The crew also played many instruments on these first tracks. Then there was Jude who just happened to have a National Geographic with the cover story devoted to the Express; Scott Grissom, the keyboardist and former ("too lucky") Krishna guy, Doc Bowery, guitarist from Oklahoma and his friends the backup singers, (Nancy and . . . ??, who added much love to the chorus) and Louis Gilbert, a.k.a. Gil Veda, who offered his place when he was out of town and everything else possible when he came back. Without these folks, this session would not have happened. To them I offer my eternal friendship and gratitude.

Biscayne Bay

I'm going down to Biscayne Bay
the wind and waves will sing and play
and I don't care if it rains or shines
your smiling face is my good time

Refrain:
And when I take you in my arms
there begins a magic charm
then I just want to hold you tight
night or day, wrong or right

It's just a melody that's all I say
in a thunder storm dolphins come out and play
and the stars and moon touch the waves and shine
a kiss from your lips is my good time

Refrain:

Vamp:
dom dom dada do wha
dom dom dada do wha
dom dom dada do wha
singing hey n' a ho n' a who-rad-dyay

The Evening News, Hudson Valley, NY -- 7/27/85, By Richard Shea
Beacon songwriter enjoys life as 'a wandering poet'
"I guess I'm what you might call a wandering poet that sometimes gets recorded," says Beacon songwriter, singer and jack of all trades Denis Farley, whose most recent record featuring "Pony Express" and "Biscayne Bay" is on sale in local record stores.
Farley, who was born in Brooklyn but did most of his growing up in Beacon had no real intentions of becoming involved in the music world when he was young, but has come a long way over the past few years and has performed with and alongside many notables.
A graduate of St. John's and Beacon High School and later Fordham College, where he received his BA in communications, Farley said at one point he thought seriously of a career in baseball. An outstanding performer in the Little and Babe Ruth Leagues and later at Beacon High, Farley said baseball, to him, is an even tougher business than music.
When he was 16, he received a letter from the Braves offering him a tryout, but didn't participate because his dad, tom, thought he was too young.
The following yer he received a similar letter from the Mets and in a tryout game had a single, double and triple in four times up. He stole second base and played every position except pitcher and first base.
When the Met scouts learned he planned to attend college, they said they would keep in touch with him. He later had a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds and once again banged out three hits in four trips to the plate, but was soon drafted into the Army.
He played some slow-pitch softball and somehow or other couldn't hit. "I figured if I couldn't make it with a .750 batting average I was in the wrong business," he said of his tryouts with the major league teams.
At any rate, he said he gave up baseball, "And that's what got me into entertainment."
There had been other earlier influences in the music world, however. His dad bought him country and western records when he was five. "By six or seven I was singing all those songs. I actually took singing lessons when I was six," Farley recalled.
Folk singer Pete Seeger at Dutchess Junction was also a major influence. "He came into my classroom at St. John's one day in 1958 and sang "Erie Canal" and the "Tarrytown Song." I never forgot it," Farley said.
Seeger was also very helpful in later years, Farley recalled. "He has given me the chance to sing my songs up and down the Hudson River Valley and was even kind enough to accompany me on guitar . . . which didn't hurt my reputation.
Farley said although Seeger is known internationally as a folk singer, "As an instrumentalist, he is underrated. He can really play the guitars. He's a sensitive and thoughtful accompanist," Farley said.
He and Seeger will be together Sunday at Sandy Beach near Cold Spring for a "sing around." Farley said the program will begin around noon and will feature mostly acoustic music. He plans to sing a few original songs and maybe play the saxophone. His accompanist will be Vic Schwarz of Cold Spring.
"Were trying to promote Sandy Beach to get state funding to administer the park and provide toilet facilities and safer parking."
Farley said hopes are a center for river education will be built near Sandy Beach sometime in the future. "We want it to be a safe public park anyone can use for a small fee."
He said he got his singing start in the Army at Ft. Benning, GA in 1967. He was writing songs then and performed at parties and other occasions. After leaving eh army and completing his education at Fordham, Farley worked on a river boat train, traveling from the Pittsburgh, PA area to New Orleans. "With the tide, it took us a week to get to New Orleans," he recalled. The same trip back, against the current, took three weeks.
"I got some time in New Orleans and it was inspirational," Farley said. He watched Al Hirt perform on the trumpet and saw many other stars.
In the mid-1970s he wandered to Florida and worked for radio station WAXY-FM in Ft. Lauderdale. He also enrolled in music school on a full time basis. By October, 1976, he was a percussionist with Ia Sullivan and Friends, a jazz band.
"He was kind of the jazz guru of South Florida," Farley said of Sullivan. He stuck with the group until about 1978, when he became associated with Fuzzy Samuel, who was forming a band in the Coconut Grove area. "I hadn't written anything since I graduated from Florida, but he got me back into writing, and taught me how to record." Farley accompanied Samuel to England where he sold his first song "Winter Woman," for $120. This may not sound like much by today's standards, but to a struggling musician and song writer, "It sure was nice to get money for something," Farley said.
A short time later Farley returned to this country and went to Texas, where he met Ken Rojas, a record retailer from England, "who got me hooked up with Jug Brown," a Nashville songwriter living in Texas.
"He took me to Nashville with him and that's how I got "Pony Express" recorded. It was the first time I was ever in a big studio," Farley said, adding the recording session lasted from midnight until 6a.m.
How did he manage to pay the fees for use of the recording studio? "I had to mow the owner's lawn. That paid for everything, "Farley said. He said he was "pretty much into folk music," until the time he was drafted. At the moment, he considers himself a "country eastern" singer and is working a number of projects, including a video "Back From Mexico," and another about "Sandy Beach." The latter is being produced locally by Lee Cabe and should be completed by late summer.
Farley is now 38 and considering the future, but wants to stay involved in the music world. "I wrote songs when traveling all around the country. Now I'm going to put them down.
"I'm not really concerned with the normal things in life as I am with this, " Farley sasid philosophically. He said maybe when he finishes with the videos, "I'll mellow out and settle down in the country somewhere, possibly the Catskills in the Woodstock area.
Farley said he hasn't made much money thus far but has had a number of thrills and lots of satisfaction. "One of my big thrills was playing in Carnegie Hall with Pete Seeger. It was before a packed house and he introduced me to the crowd," Farley said.
"It's kind of a fun business," he said of the music world. "It's tough, but it's fun. I just kind of hit the road an lived on a shoestring, not knowing where I was going or how to get to the next town. I do whatever is necessary to keep going. This has given me a lot of inspiration for writing."
His recordings of Pony Express and Biscayne Bay are on juke boxes in Florida and the northeast and being played on radio stations locally and in Nashville, Miami, Ft Lauderdale and New York City. He says he's pretty much his own record company, covering all aspects of the business.
To survive, he has worked at hundreds of odd jobs. "I've worked on farms and for sound companies. I worked in a jazz club in Florida on sound and lights and played in one of the bands." He worked in the Orange Bowl in Miami last year and was employed at the Civic Center in Poughkeepsie for a while.
He still performs, but prefers writing.
"I still get an occasional gig, but I haven't put too much emphasis on playing live since 1979," Farley said. "Most of my songs tend to be autobiographical and personal," he said.
What's he really looking for? "Basically I'm looking for my own small record company. A small independent distribution system. I consider myself more of a writer than a performer," Farley said. I'm hoping my tapes will generate management and some agents.
"I'm hoping a major artist will like one of my songs. That would give me more leverage to run a small business." Farley said what he really wants is a place in the country where he could live, record his own songs and others to raise the money he needs to continue on.
He said he wants to "wear all the different hats one needs to wear to survive in the music business."

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