Old Growth

Old Growth (mp3) (pdf)

When I see the words "old growth" I immediately think of forests. I like this phrase as a tune title, partly because it can have multiple meanings. What is old? What is growth? Today's tune is recently composed but I mean for it to have a connection to old tunes. Hopefully it demonstrates evidence of growth in my writing, although it's very similar to many other tunes, old and recent. Really I just like the way it sounds, both the title and the music.

If you pay careful attention to this blog you may notice that I have added a Gig Calendar over on the right hand side. People sometimes ask me where and when I'm playing next and this might make it easier for me to answer. You can see that I happen to have several things coming up in August, in various settings and with various music friends.

This past weekend was Decorah's annual Nordic Fest festival and I was fortunate to play twice with my Foot-Notes friends and also a nice afternoon tent gig with Erik Sessions. The weather was excellent and the sound was good. There's nothing quite like watching hundreds of people hop around dancing the schottische on a warm summer's night.

Postcards From the Crater at Bandcamp

If you look back at some blogposts in the Fall of 2016 you will find me sharing pieces of what became my Postcards From the Crater sheet music book. Along with the sheet music I included some hastily recorded, low quality mp3 recordings. I have long intended to do proper, CD quality, recordings of the Postcards and, this past spring, I finally got around to it.

In fact, I recorded them all twice. After I did the first round I decided I didn't like the new recordings well enough so I did them all a second time. This last time I used a recent Collings MTO mandolin equipped with Thomastik strings and I'm quite pleased with the results.

If you are interested you can click on the Bandcamp player embedded above and stream the whole thing for free. There's also a page on my Mandotopia site with more info about the project and links to ordering the sheet music.

I resisted the urge to write long, flowery descriptions and post photos of all of the beautiful places referenced in these pieces. If you are familiar with Decorah no introductions are necessary. If you have never visited Dunning's Spring or the Dug Road you can probably find photos of most of these spots by searching online for those terms; or Ice Cave Road or the Decorah Prairie, etc.

It's a lovely place where we live and well worth a visit sometime.

I hope you check out these new recordings of the Postcards and enjoy them.