Queen City Passenger

(photo by Ellen Macdonald)

Queen City Passenger (mp3) (pdf)

This week's tune is not entirely new. In fact the first draft was written back in 2013, probably sometime after passing through Cincinnati on our ill-fated ride aboard the Amtrak Cardinal. I found the tune this week while looking for something else and decided to take it up again.

The annual Nordic Fest has once again passed and I was privileged to be part of some fine music-making with my duo partner Erik Sessions and my Foot-Notes bandmates Jon & Beth Rotto and Bill Musser. Erik and I had a great audience of serious listeners and Foot-Notes played two dances for tremendous crowds.

A most special treat was the totally surprise appearance on Friday night of Foot-Notes' original mandolinist Jim Skurdall, along with his wonderful wife Anne-Guri Fritsvold. Everyone was caught completely off guard. We knew that Jim and Anne-Guri were vacationing in California (they live near Oslo, Norway) but they apparently decided on the spur of the moment to fly from Palm Springs to Decorah to attend Nordic Fest. We were more than happy to see them and we especially enjoyed having Jim join us to sing "The Highlandville Waltz" at the end of both the Friday and Saturday nights dances. The photo above was taken last night during the final dance by our friend Ellen Macdonald. You can find another picture or two over at the Foot-Notes fans FB site.

Last Wednesday I played another solo mandolin gig at Java John's and I will post the setlist below:

Java John’s solo mandolin, July 26, 2017

Set 1

1. Goodin: Board Eddy / O’Neill’s Favorite (trad.) / Flowers of Edinburgh (James Oswald, 1710-1769)

2. Oswald: Airs for the Seasons / The Sweet William

3. Goodin: Deer Track, July 8, 2013 / Bear on the Beach / Jaunty Ted / Books and Ladders

4. Telemann: Adagio II and Allegro from Sonata for Oboe in Gm (in D minor): TWV 41:g10 (G.P. Telemann, 1681-1767)

5. Goodin: May Day Green / Playford: Ormond House / Parson’s Farewell

6. Stephenson: Return From Helsinki / Marin: Hundlaten

7. Goodin: No Questions Asked

8. Purcell, Clarke, Handel, J.S. Bach: Menuets in Dm

9 Goodin: Locust Grove

10. Bach: Minuets I & II (J.S. Bach, 1685-1750)

11. Goodin: Old Annapolis / Pine Bluffs / Sessions: Annapolis Friends / Goodin: The Old White House

                                                           Set 2

1. Trad: Old French / Morpeth Rant / Oswald: East Neuk O Fife

2. Goodin: Deer Track, July 2, 2013 / July 23, 2004 / Return to Dream Acres

3. Oswald: Airs for the Seasons / The Heliotrope

4. Goodin: Old 403

5. Sauli: Partita II for Mandolin (Filippo Sauli, early 18^th century)

6. Goodin: Red Hawk / Trad: Klemmet Ola

7 Valentine: Adagio Amorosa & Allegro from Sonata no. 2 for Mandolin  (Robert Valentine 1671-1747)

8. Goodin: March in January / May: Fred Picknell’s March

9. Playford: Daphne / Drive the Cold Winter Away

10. Goodin: Postcards From the Crater: Dug Road

11. Goodin: Whistling Britches / French Sneakers / Just Four Guys