Mr. Pryor and connecting Herbert to Hager and Ring

A few nights ago as I was in a moment of full concentration playing Arthur Pryor's "Southern Hospitality", I realized something curious. Recently I heard a rag from 1916(quite late!) that was published in the state that Arthur Pryor came from, Missouri, and it seemed to get deeper than that. 

I played through all the Arthur Pryor rags I know, and realized that this one rag I had heard from 1916 was in exactly the same style as Pryor's rather unusual rags. 

I went back and checked the publishing location of the sheet, and lo and behold, the piece was published in the town that Pryor was born in! Pryor came from Saint Joseph Missouri, a very distinct location musically and in terms of stylistic regions. That very location is in the upper left corner of the state, right by Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. Missouri-Arkansas rag style is perhaps one of the most folksy and most recognizable of all the American regions. This is the style that Joplin grew up in, as were James Scott, Arthur Marshall, and many other of our "classic" Rag-Time composers. 

In this distinct style that Pryor had, there's a lot going on with the left hand, in fact there's almost equally as much going on with both hands in this style. Here's the "Alison Rag", the piece from 1916 that triggered my discovery regarding Pryor's style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U9O_VZV0pA
It made so much sense once I looked at the location of where this piece was published, as it just happened to be the very town in Missouri that Pryor came from. 

This photo came from a Conn catalog, c. mid-1890's. 

So why does this matter? Why would this be significant in terms of rag-time and recording history?

Well, as I have been digging more into the band leaders of the early recording days, their influence and impact on the material that was recorded was quite significant. It also just so happens that many of these band leaders were pianists featured on records before 1905, Arthur Pryor included. Save for Fred Hylands, most of these other studio pianists were band leaders of some kind inside and out of the studios where they worked. Starting with with the first studio pianist, Issler, these pianists had to know how to herd the cats that these studio band musicians were, it seemed as though it was part of the job. Of course this is only so because Issler set the precedent regarding this. 

Now back to the Pryor thing. 

To further illustrate this point regarding his regional characteristics, I place two standout pieces of his that have a lot of identical characteristics. The first piece is a Pryor rag from 1899 entitled "At An Arkansaw[sic] Huskin Bee", and it is played here by Gilmore's Band in 1901-02:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder17130

The ever running trombone lines in the second strain and trio are exactly what those quick octaves in the "Alison rag" translate to. Also, just a side note, the second strain of the Pryor piece is a quote of an old standard shout called "There's-a going to be a barbecue this mornin"(or something like that), I only noticed that after listening to a section of a 1902 Edison by the Invincible quartette( Arthur Collins, Byron Harlan, George Lennox, and Frank C. Stanley). 

And perhaps the most telling of Pryor's rags, is his 1899 masterpiece in rag-time "Southern Hospitality". 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba-YfYMdedA

The very odd and exaggerated syncopation paired with the constant running of the bass, whether it be octaves or entire chords in the treble, is exactly what went into Pryor's playing style and musical mindset. This mindset just happens to correspond with rags that were published near or in the very town he came from. Isn't it nice when these things line up? 

Remember! We still have yet to hear Pryor's 1900 piano solo of "A Cork Dance" recorded for Victor. That very solo, if it's ever found, will probably clear up a lot of confusion surrounding Berliner and Victor piano accompaniments. Also, who wouldn't want to hear a Pryor piano solo? With all those curious Missourian characteristics, any amount of piano playing from him would be fascinating to study for Rag-Time and early recording scholars alike. 

So this brings me to another pair of band leaders/studio pianists. 

Fred W. Hager and Justin Ring. 

These two handsome men have become much more significant in my recording studies in the last few months, as their employment at Zon-O-Phone remains a fascinating story. In the last few weeks I have spent a lot of time listening to many Zon-O-phone records to attempt to really get to the bottom of this mystery of these two pianists.

As far as we know, Hager and Ring were almost certainly accompanists for Zon-O-Phone. I am certain Ring was a Zon-O-Phone accompanist, thanks to that picture description that literally states thus when identifying Ring:

Accompanist of [Hager's] band, a clever writer and arranger

This bit was written in the long description to accompany(pun intended) that large panoramic photo of Hager's entire orchestra. 

I still think Hager's looking over at Ring. 

So attempting to distinguish these two sweethearts has become very difficult(I'm pretty sure I've already said that same line in previous posts), as the more music I hear by them, the more similar they sound. It makes sense why they were featured somewhat interchangeably on many sheets of music, as it's so difficult to find distinct differences in their written pieces. Despite that, I can assure you now that their touches to the piano were very different, though they had similar tendencies. This last week I listened to many Zon-O-Phone records back to back with pieces they composed, to directly compare the accompaniments to which of the two I think it might be. This proved to be a great way to finally gain some ground in this perplexing matter. It also helps that recently I have taken to learning Ring's early rags(the ones he wrote while at Zon-O-phone), which has also jump started this investigation. 

I was going though a lot of the Zon-O-Phone's I have access to this last week, and two particular pieces I kept going back to were proving themselves well. 

the two pieces I used for solid reference in this comparison were Ring's "Sweet Potatoes", and Hager's "Handsome Harry". 

These two pieces provide a good groundwork for what their piano accompaniments would sound like. So after a lot of studying of Ring's pieces, "Sweet Potatoes" and "Jovial Joe" particularly, I realized something significant. Ring's pieces follow a folk rag format. They have a lot of the same chord progressions and chord inversions of folk rags from Kansas or New Orleans, and that's quite strange. There's no reason that Ring should have those characteristics in his playing, as he was just a regular old New York city boy who just happened to grow up with a musician father. He must have heard a lot of music growing up, and not just the kind of music heard in polite white society. In fact, I would wager that, based on his rags and accompaniments, he heard a lot more of the rough and ragged music that was in its early years when he was growing up. So with this all in mind, which pianist is Ring?

Well, of the about 30 Zon-O-Phone records I studied, I can now definitively say that Ring was the pianist with the very pushy and bluesy feel on many later Zono records. A good example is this Zono here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEI6K0esFj4

(transferred a bit too fast unfortunately, but you get the point)

And yes, if you listened close enough to the last chorus, the accompanist plays a very quick 32nd note chromatic thing, and that characteristic I have now come to associate with Ring, and not Hager. Another record with that same accompanist is this Collins and Harlan Zono from around the same time: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVP33Ix8sp0

Wow. The more I listen to that accompanist(who is probably Ring), the more I am astounded by the bluesy and folksy characteristics. Very quick and seemingly erratic, almost more forceful than Hylands' accompaniments could get with Len Spencer. So if that's Ring, which is Hager?

Well, a few posts ago I went on a whole spiel about how Hager's playing would, according to his associations, most closely resemble Victor Herbert's playing. In that post I used Herbert's 1901 rag "Panamericana" and compared it to a few Zono records with that very similar attack that is somewhat notated in the piece itself. Perhaps one of the best examples I've heard, even compared to all the outside sources I have access to, is this 1903 Zono with Arthur Collins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X59v3OASjVg

This particular record has been used often and spoken of for decades by rag-time and record scholars(I believe it was featured in a few LPs a few decades ago), and when you listen, it surely lives up to its reputation. The breakdown the pianist plays in the final chorus is outstanding, so much is going on, yet the steady and rocking rhythm remains the same. The very light and airy attack on those rollicking octaves is definitely reminiscent of Victor Herbert's piano pieces, "Panamericana" included. The rhythm is particularly astounding to me, as it remains almost the same throughout the record(much like Issler's accompaniments), even with all the difficult risks being taken with the improvisations. This accompaniment is on quite a majority of etched label Zon-O-phone's, which leads me to think that with these Zono's it's important to really listen to the accompaniment, as it could be either Ring or Hager. This isn't like 1898-1900 Columbia's where the pianist is almost always Hylands. Even when thinking that Hager is on most of the etched Zono's, I have heard a few of those that have that Ring style accompaniment on them(see what I mean with them seeming to be interchangeable?).

I made sure to go back and forth between Hager and Ring accompaniments, to see if I could get them both straight at the same time, so as to create less confusion with the styles. The light and airy accompaniments I associate now with Hager, as according to the notation of a few Victor Herbert piano pieces, as I would assume the pianist here to be Hager:

https://ia800609.us.archive.org/34/items/CollectedWorksOfJohnTerrell/TaintAGoinToWeepNoMore1902_64kb.mp3

That record sounds to be an etched Zono from early 1902 or late 1901, with that distinct very clear and sharp but somewhat distant piano sound. The more precise and light touch is Hager's, and the aggressive bluesy touch is Ring's. 

But even with knowing all of this an sorting it out pretty well, I still have questions regarding their early written music. Their pieces are so damn similar, with even a lot of the same end tags and similar rhythms. I know they spent so much time together in the studio, but in reality they simply couldn't sound so similar. Take Hager's "Handsome Harry"(or Handsome Hager as I call it). You an hear it in the raw here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJCF92RwIUQ

(There's that comical silhouette!)

That end tag at 2:18, it's a familiar rag-time tag, but it's also something that runs rampant in Hager-Ring pieces. Ring's piece "The Virginia Two-step" uses exactly the same tag, you can hear a crisp piano roll of it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e9heZOWaqQQlv6s_fKjA7hutaY_aoOlz/view?usp=sharing

That same tag, there it is. 

That same end tag is also in Ring's "Sweet Potatoes". But don't be fooled, I have heard a few really nice Zon-O-Phone records with that same tag in the solos where the pianist has those Hager characteristics, not the Ring ones. So this is starting to get confusing isn't it? I have gotten to the point where I think that Hager himself wasn't too great at writing his own music, so Ring took hold of it and arranged it in his very slightly varied way. The reason this may be true is because on the inside of the cover of Hager's "laughing water", there's this curious little thing:

(from my collection)

Ring even notated a lot of the expression that is characteristic to Hager's accompaniments on those earlier Zon-O-Phone's. So this is where it gets most puzzling to me, how interchangeable were they? And why was Ring arranging Hager's pieces? Why would he need to do this when they already sounded so similar?

Who knows.

I've been trying to find answers to these questions, but the answers are not clear in any way. Certainly Ring was the more eccentric and erratic accompanist, and Hager the light and airy but precise accompanist, but I am still trying to understand why these two were so close and why their music was so damn similar. I'm sure hearing more of Ring and Hager's music would help to get somewhere with these questions. I'll keep listening to Zon-O-Phone's. 

Anyhow!

I'll be taking a trip to UCSB during the first week of February, so I will definitely be writing a long post about that trip. Let's see if a few new things get transferred!

Hope you enjoyed this! 

Banta's and other family digging

In the last few days, I have been doing a lot of family digging on ancestry. I not only sent messages off to the Ring and Hager families, but I also found a lot of interesting information regarding Banta's extended family. 

In the past, Banta's family has been oddly difficult to track, but luckily, several members of his extended family completely sketched out their very large family tree from three different perspectives. Those who are descended from Banta descend from his mother's family, the Darrow's. What made the Banta digging more interesting is that they have many photos of the family(not including the Banta's unfortunately). The most exciting part of this Banta digging is that many of his cousins looked so much like Frank! Even though there weren't any pictures of Banta's mother Fannie, there were pictures of all her siblings, so I can now piece together what traits were prominent in their diverse gene pool. 

This woman here is Banta's first cousin Cornelia. She was a few years older than Frank(b. 1862). I specifically took an instant interest in her because she looked the most like cousin Frank. See below:

Something curious that I noticed while digging through the Banta-Darrow family tree is that the Banta line basically led to a dead end(not surprisingly I may add). Despite that, the Darrow extended family was quite interesting. As I kept sifting through all the photos of the Darrow family, all those kids looked very well dressed and well-off. I had been under the belief that Banta's family was somewhat poor, as little Frank worked tuning pianos as a child, but now that I've done some digging, it seems that all that wasn't entirely true. The Darrow family almost definitely was well off, as there are so many photos of the family, and they're all so well dressed in every one of them. 

Here are a few examples:

Those are three of Banta's aunts. 

I would hope that you're starting to see the resemblance here. 

Clearly Banta's father John married up, into a family of rich New York carpenters, to one of the many heiresses of the Darrow trust. Any of the money that Banta had was because of his mother's family. It seems like from the way Frank was living during his recording days, he had some money other than that from making records all day and night. 

However! 

This begs the question, why were Frank and his wife Lizzie(as she's called in the family tree, I used to call her Liz to evoke Len Spencer's wife) both working in the Edison studio?

Lizzie did work for Edison it turns out, she was a secretary to the old man himself, while her husband wilted over day to day in the studio making hundreds of records. 

When that came to mind it seemed a bit strange. Obviously if they had money Lizzie wouldn't need to be working, though they did even have a servant at home to tend to little Frank Edgar and Prudy. That I do not understand, it seems rather contradictory. Another contradiction is that little Frank worked tuning pianos as a child(when I say child, I mean it, not teen aged), but clearly his mother's family had money, so why was little Frank working so young?

I cannot answer these questions just yet, but I will continue looking to see if they could be sometime. 

So I guess Frank wasn't like the Mike Bernard story of little tenement rat to rag-time stardom. I was really kinda hoping that that was what Banta's story was, as it seems almost like it was that glorious tale just by examining his misfortune in employment and health. I guess he drew the short straw when it came to the gene pool. He lived quite a miserable short life for a fellow who came from some kind of money. 

Frank's cousins were also quite an interesting bunch, of most of them there were photos, which is great for me!

This boy was exactly the same age as Frank, born in early 1870. 

There's good old Cornelia again!

In this picture she really does look like her cousin Frank. That long pointy nose, high forehead, big fawn eyes, and that slim face. So I guess that the verdict here is that Frank really looked like his mother's family. Somehow I had guessed that wildly while doing previous research on Banta before all of this. 

I am so glad there were so many pictures of Banta's extended family! This makes me have hope that there's a picture of little Frank Banta floating around out there somewhere. It would certainly be awfully nice to see that. 

Though, as I have observed from his cousin's portraits , I wasn't too far off in my depictions of little Frank in my artwork. Once again I am relieved at the accuracy!

And to think that I drew that last week before all this digging. 

Before I did all that Banta-Darrow digging, I went in search for the Ringleben and Hager families. As far as I know now, there are no direct descendants of either of them(though I'm convinced there must be according to the records). Though I did find it interesting that Justin Ring's youngest daughter died in 2010!

Knowing that Ring's youngest daughter was born in 1919, I had this crazy idea that it was entirely possible that she was still living(it's possible!), but of course that wasn't true. It is comforting to know that she died only a few years ago, in the 21st century! A daughter of Justin Ring died in the 2010's!

What a concept. 

The descendants of the Ringleben family are just barely related to Justin, branching off from his half-sister Rose(the whole half-sister thing is probably also an interesting story I bet). I do not know how extended Justin's immediate family was, nor that of his younger brother Frank. Justin's brother Frank lived until 1969! Whew! Those Ringleben boys lived quite long lives. 

Well, now we await the word from the Hager's and Ringleben's. I sent off long messages to both families. Hopefully I'll hear back soon. 

I have decided to wait out sending a message to the Banta-Darrow descendants, as I'd rather not over-commit myself to three recording star families at once. 

Anyway... 

That's all I got folks! There aren't any new fancy records to exhibit this week. It's been rather quiet with record listening recently. 

I hope you enjoyed this! 

More Studio pianist Digging and Hager's

In the last post I talked about the style crossover between a few of the early studio pianists, but in the short time since that last post I have found a few new things regarding studio pianists. When we get right down to listing the names of all the known studio pianists, it can get confusing when attempting to match the sound with the name. In case you're wondering, here's a list of all the pianists I have kept in mind in this process(in chronological order in which they started):

Theodore Wangemann(1888)

Henry Giesemann(1888)

Fred Gaisberg(1889)

Edward Issler(1889)

George Schweinfest(1889)

Frank P. Banta(1892)

 Noble McDonald(post 1894)

Christopher Booth(1897)

Fred Hylands(1897)

Fred Bachmann(c.1898)

Albert Benzler(c.1898)

Fred Hager(1898)

Justin Ring(1899)

Arthur Pryor(c.1900)

So that's about it for now, but there are very likely to be more names found in the near future. Some of these names should be familiar to the readers of this blog, Banta and Hylands included, but there are a few that are still very mysterious to me and other studio pianist scholars. Recently a copy of one of Mr. Noble McDonald's solos sold on ebay, who was one of the three Berliner pianists of pre-1898. I know nothing of Mr. McDonald, but he is likely the other pianist than Banta on many of those 1898 Berliners with rag-time piano accompaniment. I would place his name on many Berliners from 1897-98 that don't necessarily sound like Banta, but are still interesting to dissect. His style was likely the very mild one that we can hear on many Berliners around 1897, when Gaisberg was getting phased out as their main pianist. 

Soon we may be able to hear that piano solo by Noble McDonald, how that would definitely solve a lot of our issues with the Berliner accompaniments. Just like the succeeding company, Victor, Berliner's are a great source of frustration with me, as it's rather complicated with them after Gaisberg left in 1898. With Berliner, we keep seeing names pop up at accompanists, so at a certain point it becomes very odd and much more confusing than it should be. 

With Berliner between 1897-1899, about 6 different pianists' names have shown up, but only four of them have been confirmed as regular studio workers. 

Above I mentioned George Schweinfest, and I actually have come to realize something in the last few days regarding him. 

Schweinfest in 1898

For awhile now I have assumed Schweinfest to be one of the Columbia pianists other than Hylands. In 1889, Schweinfest and Issler made a handful of piano duets for North American, none of which are known to survive. Despite this tragedy, we can piece together a few things in terms of what Schweinfest did in the studio after Issler. While working with Issler, Schweinfest played piccolo, flute, and violin, but did not often take over Issler's chair. But after the orchestra broke up in 1898 or so(I know there are later ones from around 1899 of Issler's orchestra, but for the sake of keeping things in order, let's keep the idea that they broke up in 1898 or so at Columbia), Schweinfest remained at Columbia, even though Issler didn't. Schweinfest continued to make solo records for Columbia(as did the other Issler musicians, Tuson and Dana) until around 1903, but where did he go from there?

Actually, I don't think he went anywhere. Recently I saw a record listed that genuinely surprised me. 

There's a piano solo by Schweinfest floating around out here, and it's not one of the handful he made in 1889. Around 1905, Schweinfest made a piano solo of "Yankiana Two Step" for Columbia(it was issued on a 6 inch Columbia "twentieth century" cylinder). 

Wait what?

You heard me right. 

So I guess that Schweinfest didn't leave Columbia in 1903. So let's say that he hung around that changing Columbia crowd for a few more years, playing the latest piano accompaniments that we hear on Columbia. I don't think that Schweinfest is on those strange 1905 Columbia's of the 3000 series, but some of the others I would wager his presence. When you look up Schweinfest on findagrave, in his little bio there is an obituary from 1949 that states that he was a long time musical director for Columbia, beginning around the time that he stopped making solo records(c.1905). But what about those "20th century" records? Clearly he still worked for Columbia by then, doing more than just accompaniments and solos. With all that in mind, Schweinfest was also likely in the Columbia orchestra. 

I do not know how long Schweinfest was at Columbia, though his obituary stated that he was there into the early 1920's, which is quite late for an old-timer as him. 
So here's something curious, I was recently flipping through an 1898 Columbia catalog that was reprinted by a friend, I found myself looking whether Hylands' "Darkey Volunteer" was recorded that early. Turns out it was, but I found it rather curious who recorded it first(according to the catalog listings that is). Well it seems that Schweinfest was the first to record it. 
That was rather odd to see, as I always thought Ossman's take of it was the first one, a the piece was dedicated so highly to Ossman:

So with this in mind, and considering the amount of exceptional records Schweinfest made with Hylands, it would make sense that Schweinfest be one of the first musicians that Hylands befriended when he joined Columbia in 1897. Schweinfest may have been Hylands' studio mentor, as Issler was for Banta back in 1892-93. Even though we know Issler was still present at Columbia in 1897, Schweinfest is proving to have been more present toward the end of the 1890's after Issler left Columbia. 
Going through all of this begs the question, which pianist is Schweinfest?

Well, I do not really know yet. But I have a sneaking suspicion that this pianist may be him here:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder5349
The only reason I think it may be Schweinfest is because of the obvious quoting of the piccolo part at the end of the record. The year that this was recorded also helps, as it was most certainly recording 1897, with the loud and clear announcement by Len Spencer as they were. On any of those 1897 Columbia's where the piano playing is very good but generic sounding(not too much going on to distract from the main performer), I would bet that that's Schweinfest. Of course hearing one of his c.1905 Columbia piano solos or one of the 1889 piano duets would really solve this mystery, and until we have one of those to hear, we just won't know. 


Just before Christmas, I got a copy of Noble McDonald's 1897 piano solo "Little Nell", and luckily I made a crappy transfer of it very soon afterward. McDonald's playing is very similar to how Banta played a swung schottische, with bits of syncopation and more, here you go:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iKbEjOLtfsHpWxA9sIXKRrNMWrtM8nZE/view?usp=sharing
It's quite a step up from the musicianship of Gaisberg's "Honeymoon March" and "Little Kicker" solos, also recorded on Berliner. 
For comparison, here's the record from c.1895:
https://archive.org/details/TheHoneymoonMarchByUnknownPianist1890s
Here you can also hear Gaisberg's "Little Kicker":
https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fapp.box.com%2Fs%2F6c4x0tenjw1xc7ssw6fvwty0eb5d1vdl
It's quite fitting that I speak of Mr. Gaisberg on this particular day, which just happens to be his birthday! 
Before I move on, here's my favorite picture of professor Gaisberg:

Happy birthday Mr. Gaisberg!








So now to move on to Hager's. 
Since digging up all that information on Fred Hager's brother James, I have come to wonder what his role was exactly with his brother's orchestras and such. 

Fred and James Hager. 
Obviously we can assume from that big portrait of Hager's entire orchestra that brother James was working for Fred in the orchestra around 1902(the approximate year of the picture above). But at some point Eddie King got into the orchestra and took brother James' place. When that happened I don't entirely know. From what I have gathered regarding this matter, and from lots of listening to records, Eddie King became the accompanist for Hager's orchestra around 1904. The later years of his orchestra on Zon-O-Phone had King's percussion, and the earliest years went to brother James. 
So if this is true, where did James go from c.1904-1913(he returned to work for his brother again for Rex)? 
Recently I went digging again for James on ancestry, but wasn't able to find anything between 1900 and 1913, just as the last time I did that. So unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything on him in that essential period, though we know he was working for Zon-O-phone as late as 1904. 
When I searched for him on the DAHR website, there were a handful of records that included his name, most of them were from 1918-1926, far removed from his young days at Zono with his brother. He was playing traps, drums, chimes, and xylophone, just as he was listed playing in the c.1902 picture of Hager's orchestra. James made his way to Okeh in the earliest days of their existence. That's funny to note because on his draft card around the same time it says that he's an independent music contractor. Rather than having the Okeh name sprawled in the employer section, his draft card has a generic employer's name. Later than same year he was working for Okeh, as the ledgers indicate. 
So with all this in mind, we can safely assume that James Hager is that funky percussionist on the earliest Hager's orchestra and Zon-O-phone orchestra( and concert band) records. 
So here we should be able to hear James Hager playing the percussion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdrCRA6XVug
This record is from 1901, which fits perfectly into the period that James would be in the orchestra. 
So this record would have Eddie King's percussion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHSm1YTCzxo

After listening to a few records from the 1910's with Eddie King's percussion, I can really hear his playing and understand it better, here are two good examples of him with the Van Eps trio:
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/200014888/B-14589-Chinese_picnic
(Van Eps quotes the old Ossman piece "Sounds from Africa at the beginning of this medley!)
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/700000083/C-15093-Old_folks_rag

King's percussion was a little bit out of whack sometimes, but it's definitely good. From what I've heard of James Hager, he was quite talented as well, considering he was basically forced into musicianship by his brilliant brother. Keep in mind that Fred would have been teaching brother James to be prepared for the orchestra job when he was around 14(c.1896). 


Well, I have more things to share, but I don't want this post to get too hectic and complicated. So with that I will end it here. 

Hope you enjoyed this! Happy new year everyone!