Bygones

Bygones (mp3) (pdf)

Last tune for 2015, written sometime around Easter. This marks the end of nine years for So Many Tunes. We'll see what comes in 2016. There are certainly plenty of tunes waiting for their turn.

Green to Brown, All Over Town

Green to Brown, All Over Town (mp3) (pdf)

Back in September, thanks to our friends at the Vesterheim museum, Decorah hosted the great band Baltic Crossing for a workshop and a concert. It was a great day, culminating in an outdoor, acoustic, concert encore outside the Bethania Church beneath a lunar eclipse.

I was able to take part in the afternoon workshop and one of the tunes that the group taught to us was a traditional march with a title that translate into English as "The Green Skirt." (You can hear it yourself on their excellent Firetour CD.) We workshop participants were then privileged to perform the tune with the group during the evening show. As often happens after an encounter with great Scandinavian musicians I was inspired to write something vaguely in the same style. Today's tune is one of those.

I'm posting this tune today partly because I will be playing "The Green Skirt" as part of the Wall of Fiddles portion of this year's Burning Bright holiday concert this Saturday (Dec. 19) in Decorah. I won't be playing fiddle but I will be part of the rhythm section, playing octave mandolin along with my Foot-Notes band-mate, guitarist Jon Rotto. Tickets are going fast but it's not too late to get yours at the Oneota Community Co-op.

The photo is from an overlook in the Clark State Forest, near Henryville, Indiana, during a trip back home in September 2013.

Ingraham Gardens (King's Landing, NB)

Ingraham Gardens (mp3) (pdf)

Here's a pretty tune, an air titled after the lovely gardens you will find in front of the Ingraham House at the King's Landing historical settlement near Fredericton, New Brunswick. The photo is from August of 2009, my last chance to visit the site. Hopefully we'll get there again next summer.

It took me a while to settle on the G (add 9) chord in the B section. I'm playing it G-B-D-A(2nd fret G string)-D-G. You're welcome to improve on that. Let me know if you find a different chord you like as an alternate.