September 2010-2 (Palmer's House)

Palmer's House (mp3)(pdf)

I've been working on a new book, tentatively titled Mandolin Duos: 28 easy to intermediate pieces for two mandolins, with a goal of having it ready in time for the Classical Mandolin Society of America's annual convention that is being held Oct.13-17 in Seattle. "Palmer's House" is one of the pieces that I intend to include in the book.

The 2010 CMSA convention promises to be a great one. We'll have the amazing Mike Marshall as one of our featured performers and workshop presenters. He will be joined by young mando wizard Josh Pinkham during his two concert appearances. Classical and jazz virtuoso Chris Acquavella and his guitarist partner Nate Jarrell will be featured in concert as Duo LaRe. Chris and Nate will also be presenting workshops. The always amazing Evan Marshall will be a third featured performer and he and CMSA stalwart Marilynn Mair will present still more high quality workshops.

I am especially honored at being chosen this year's "composer in residence" and the convention en masse orchestra will rehearse and perform my new piece "Antonina" as well. It's going to be a great time. If you are in the neighborhood you should stop by and check it out. 

"Palmer's House" was written a few years ago while I was attending a conference in Chicago and staying at the modern Palmer House hotel. As presented here the music is AA,BB,CC in form. However, if you try to follow the music while the recording plays you will catch me reverting to the original form of the tune during the second time through. In keeping with my "demo concept" approach to the recordings on this site I decided not to spend this afternoon creating a more perfect version. You can play it in any form you want!

September 2010-1 (Jaunty Ted)

Jaunty Ted (mp3)(pdf)

September already? Where does the time go?

This jig was written on Friday, recorded Saturday morning and posted today. See what you think...

May 2010-1 (May Frost)

May Frost (mp3) (pdf)

A busy last few weeks, highlighted by a visit to Texas last weekend to hear my Louisville Suite performed by the Dutch mandolin orchestra ONI+. My new friends from the Netherlands did a wonderful job of playing my piece and even allowed me to sit in on mandola for one performance. I was also treated to an impromptu acappella rendition of the theme from the "Shakertown" movement of my Heavens On Earth suite as we were riding in the van late one night.

Another recent highlight is the award that my friend Tom Bourcier received on May 1 from the Iowa Motion Picture Association for "Best Original Music Score". Violinist Paul Docken, Tom and I, under Tom's direction, created some improvised source music that Tom then used to craft the score for this fine film. You can read about Tom's "Iowa Oscar" here.

"May Frost" was begun back in September but was only finished a couple of weeks ago, not long before our final hard freeze of the so-called Spring. We actually had a very mild April this year which made the recent cold, rainy weather all the more unpleasant. I've included the harmony part I made up today so you can play this with your friends!

April 2010-3 (Quack the Goose)

Quack the Goose (mp3) (pdf)

Suzy the dog has a toy goose that, when squeezed in just the right way, emits a friendly quack. Here she is proudly showing us all who's the boss.

In any event this is a fun tune to play. It's written out here as a 16 bar tune but it is perfectly OK to make it an AABB tune instead. The recording features the first use of my new bottom-of-the-line Taylor guitar. It sounds good to me and is a real pleasure to play.

April 2010-2 (Deer Track, December 26, 2008)

Deer Track, December 26, 2008 (mp3) (pdf)

On the day after Christmas in 2008 I found the time to follow this particular crooked musical path. It could be called a Gigue I suppose. "St. Stephen's Gigue" perhaps? I played the piece a long time before I got around to recording it and I've always enjoyed the playing. Give it a try yourself.

April 2010-1 (King's Landing)

King's Landing (mp3) (pdf)

King's Landing Historical Settlement in New Brunswick is one of my favorite places. Whenever we travel to Maine we try to work in a visit up to this beautiful spot on the St. John River. The photo below was taken in August 2009 in the garden of the large white house in the picture above.


If you find yourself anywhere near Fredericton, NB, especially during the summer, you really should pay a visit, maybe even have a bite to eat in the King's Head Inn.


This particular tune is at least 10 years old and I found the recording on a CD of demos and such from an old multi-track recorder that I no longer own. It's meant to go pretty slow.

March 2010-1 (Seed Savers Waltz)

(Contratopia at Glen Echo Park, photo by Margie O'Loughlin)

Seed Savers Waltz (mp3) (pdf)

Two weeks ago Contratopia was enjoying a short weekend tour out East. On Sunday March 7 we played the afternoon Waltz Time dance, always one of our favorite gigs. Near the end of the dance Patrice, Erik and I played a recent tune of mine that I've titled the "Seed Savers Waltz." (Pat was taking a brief dancing break.)

This is a simple tune but Patrice had never played it before, she is sight-reading on this recording. There is a moment in the first few seconds when I repeat the first A section without warning her in advance and she quickly moves from the B minor chord that is written at measure 17 back to the A major chord of measure 1. She proceeds to give a beautiful demonstration of how to accompany a barn dance waltz on the piano along with a nod to the playing of the legendary Floyd Cramer.

Erik plays an inspired solo during the fourth time through the tune after putting up with my sloppy tremelo chords earlier in the piece. The mandolin in question is my old Gibson A and the remarkable Jamie Platt gets it to sound just the way I like it. The recording itself is Jamie's soundboard recording and we thank him for generously sharing it with us. If you are looking for high quality sound reinforcement Jamie is the man.

Every summer Decorah's world famous Seed Saver's Exchange holds a mid-July Annual Conference and Campout. On Saturday night there is a barn dance and Erik and I have played for this dance the last several years. This waltz was mostly written while noodling around before the dance last year.

February 2010-4 (Deer Track February 2009)

(Palisades Park, Decorah, Feb. 26, 2010)

Deer Track, February, 2009 (mp3) (pdf)

This has got to be one of my favorite Deer Tracks ever. It's a little harder for me to play than most of them and I've recorded it several times trying to get a version that is good enough to share. Some have been slower, some faster. They all have little mistakes.

I even played this piece during a short lunch hour performance at the Classical Mandolin Society of America's annual convention in Dayton last October. I remember I stopped in the middle to back up and play one of the higher passages better. (You can do that kind of thing at the CMSA lunch performances, everyone is very forgiving there.) That performance will probably eventually appear on the "members only" section of the CMSA website someday. It's a great resource for many hours of live mandolin performance.

On a separate note, my friends in Louisville's Keltricity have recorded a studio version of their jig set that includes my tunes "Books and Ladders" and "Why Ted Flies". You can hear it on their MySpace site. Or you can go hear them live at several Kentucky and Indiana venues in the coming months.

Next weekend, weather permitting, I'll be playing several dances with my buddies in Contratopia out in the DC area (Glenside, PA on Thurs., Glen Echo Park, MD on Friday and Sunday, Shepherdstown, WV on Sat. night). I'll have the great pleasure of hearing, and playing, many of my tunes for large groups of excellent dancers. I'll also have some Contratopia Tunebooks and copies of my 31 Waltzes collection, if you are in the market.

Please stop and say hello if you are at one of the dances.

February 2010-3 (Deep Pockets)

Deep Pockets (mp3) (pdf)

I'm dipping pretty far back in the old tunebag for this week's entry. The copyright notice says 1999 but I'm thinking that this tune was around for a few years before that. It's a fresh recording though, from yesterday morning. Just two mandolin tracks, inspired partly by the beautiful playing on David Surrette's recent CD, The Green Mandolin.

Contratopia has played "Deep Pockets" a few times over the years but it really doesn't seem to work that well as a faster tune. For a while we included it as a third tune in our half-speed "Cement Donkey" set, but then it was too slow. You can play it at any speed you choose.

February 2010-2 (Something about a Queen)

Something about a Queen (mp3) (pdf)

I was back home in Clarksville, Ind. for a week last June visiting family and friends, including my old buddies in the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra. One night during the visit I watched a great documentary on Neil Young, titled "Don't Be Denied." Shortly after that I found myself playing this week's tune and I decided to use a Neil Young lyric reference for a title. (I also have a quirky Neil Young type waltz that Erik and I have played a few times that I call "Everybody Wins, Everybody Loses.")

I considered making a big multi-track production of this piece but opted instead for a simpler take. Kind of an "On the Beach" approach rather than a "Broken Arrow" version.

Speaking of Louisville, a couple of my old music friends, Joe Burch and Henry Austin, are in a fine band called Keltricity. Here's a live YouTube video of the group playing a set of tunes that begins with my jig "Books and Ladders", followed by my "Why Ted Flies" and the amazing Pete Sutherland's tune "Old Man Winter":



A little closer to home, here's a video from last Sunday's recital by the violin students of Erik Sessions. Every year I have the great pleasure of accompanying several of Erik's students while they play fiddle tunes in addition to their classical pieces. Sometimes a student will choose to work on one of my tunes. This year a group of Erik's high school students formed a band and performed a set of waltzes that begins with a version of my "Aubrey and Andrew's Wedding", followed by the "Ashokan Farewell" and "Goodnight Irene." I think this version of "Aubrey and Andrew's" sounds great with the cool fiddle parts.



Left to right the guys are Sam Beard, Parker Beard, Axel Snow, Lucas Blekeberg, Gabe Smith and Michael Eastwood.

February 2010-1 (Old Books in Motion)

Old Books in Motion (mp3) (pdf)

Here's a recent waltz that reminds me of another tune I can't quite put my finger on. If you recognize it as really being someone else's tune please let me know. I used a capo at the 2nd fret on the guitar.

January 2010-5 (Hold That Thought)

Hold That Thought (mp3) (pdf)

Here's a tune from March of 2008 that I recorded today as a slower reel. You can certainly play it faster if you want. I used a recently acquired old Gibson A Jr. mandolin, which has some intonation and tuning issues but sounds really good, to my ears, on this track.

The photo is of the restored Harmonist labyrinth at New Harmony, Indiana, taken in March of 2009.

January 2010-4 (Deer Track, Jan. 29, 2009)

Deer Track, January 29, 2009 (mp3)(pdf)

Back in 2005 I built a web page that contained links to recordings and music for a number of short solo mandolin pieces that I titled Deer Tracks. I have continued composing these short pieces from time to time and here is one that was written nearly a year ago on January 29, 2009.

I really enjoy working on these pieces, following their trails to see where they lead. Sometimes I have to double back and try a different path but usually they wind around to a familiar place for me.

If you approach these as a player my clue to you is that these pieces are usually easier than they appear. Often a simple fingering pattern will produce seemingly odd results. My goal is not to create something "different" or "original" (this is obvious to the serious composers out there), I'm just following certain pathways to see where they go.

If you are interested in some really cool, recently composed music for solo mandolin let me recommend the two books of Caprices that composer David Loeb has generously made freely available through the Mandolin Cafe website this past week. You can find them by following the links in this discussion thread. The great mandolinist Joe Brent deserves much thanks for sharing this new music.

January 2010-3

Wintergreen Waltz (mp3) (pdf) (photo by Pat O'Loughlin)

It's nearly time for Wintergreen 2010, a dance weekend in Bozeman, Montana that is near and dear to our hearts in the Contratopia band. We've been honored to play three times at this great January event and, while we won't be there this year, it looks like it will be a great time again. It appears that there may be a few spots left so Bozeman is the place to be if you are looking for a great dance event next weekend. Music by Crowfoot and our friends Weatherwood, calling by Asheville's Adina Gordon and sound by Mitchell Frey.

Last year on the Sunday afternoon following the last dance our long-suffering hosts, Rab and Mitch, took Erik, Patrice and Pat to a local hot spring for a good soak. I was too beat even for that so I stayed at the house by the fire with the dog. Before I fell asleep I started writing a waltz using Rab's fine guitar but I painted myself into a musical corner and let it go.

Sometime later I took a fresh look at the tune and turned it into what you see here as the Wintergreen Waltz. I'll see if I can get the Western Home String Band to play it next Saturday at our dance here in Decorah in honor of our friends out west.

January 2010-2

Shepherd's Purse (mp3) (pdf)






A tune from March 2009, vaguely Scottish. In my mind related to the wonderful tunes that James Oswald collected and composed in the first half of the 18th century. The title, as far as I can tell, is not one that he used for any of his 96 Airs for the Seasons sonatas which I have spent many hours enjoying.

January 2010-1

Lawn Chair Night (mp3) (pdf)

OK, so 2009 was really So Few Tunes. But it's a New Year and we'll see how Many Tunes make it to this blog in 2010. There certainly are plenty of tunes laying about, it's just the Process that takes time.

Here in lovely Decorah there is a summertime tradition of free concerts every Thursday evening at the courthouse square. These Lawn Chair Night shows are always entertaining and I've often had the privilege of performing there as a member of one band or another.

The first group I became a member of after moving to Iowa went by the somewhat ill-considered name of Just Four Guys. There were in fact (at least at the start) just four of us, and we were all guys. By the end of our short career we often had five or even six members and we sometimes included non-guys as well.

Our first Lawn Chair Night performance was particularly memorable because of a typo on the poster advertising the summer roster of performers. Rather than Four Guys we became, unfortunately, Just For Guys. Lord only knows what the faithful Lawn Chair Night audience expected that evening but I remember that there were plenty of females in the audience despite our forbidding name.

Rumor has it that Just Four Guys may reunite in 2010 for a few select gigs and, if so, I hope to convince the now older and wiser gentlemen in the band to include this tune in our set. Chord-playing musicians will note that the parenthetical chords in the B section of the tune are meant to be played on the repeat of the B section only.

The photo is a reminder of warmer days. In fact an afternoon in the 90s (farenheit) spent last August at beautiful King's Landing in New Brunswick. It was well below zero here last night in Decorah but the sun is out this morning.

The Waltz Lesson (for mandolin orchestra)

The Waltz Lesson (pdf score)

I received the link to this live video of the Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra performing my mandolin orchestra arrangement of "The Waltz Lesson" at St. George's Church, Kemptown as part of the Brighton Festival recently. You can read a little more about the piece here:
http://www.mandotopia.com/mtopia/WaltzLesson.htm.

The Fretfuls have been very kind in performing some of my pieces and they always play them beautifully. I strongly encourage you to check out more of their videos on YouTube. Or, if you are in the neighborhood of Brighton, you might want to check their website and go and hear them in person.

Jefferson Lives/Leadfoot/Go Figure

Jefferson Lives/Leadfoot/Go Figure (mp3)(pdf1)(pdf2)

Three reels that I recorded a couple of years ago as a demo for my Contratopia bandmates. We actually played a couple of these tunes for a while but they're no longer in the setlist. I mixed the recording in mono because, at the time, I was enjoying listening to the mono versions of the early Capitol Beatles albums. I still like the feel of this recording, plus I like the tunes. So here they are.

31 Waltzes

Easter Waltz (mp3)(pdf)

In some parts of North America flowers are blooming and Spring has sprung. Here in northeast Iowa things are looking up, but we had some snow yesterday. Friday, however, we were in southern Indiana at New Harmony. The photo above is of a plaque that stands outside the door of the Chapel of the Little Portion. Even though the feast of St. Francis is celebrated in October his words are especially appropriate at the beginning of the growing season.

Our first tune for 2009 (after a nearly 3 month layoff) comes from a recording that Erik Sessions and I made at Patrice Pakiz's house back in February. Easter Waltz is a few years old now and Erik and I have played it a few times, both with Contratopia and without, in different keys and arrangements.

The version we play here is how the tune appears in the new 31 Waltzes tunebook that I recently finished putting together. You can click on the link above to learn a little more about the book. If you would like a copy you can follow the Paypal links from the book's webpage to order either a PDF version or a printed copy from me. A number of the waltzes in the book have appeared in this blog but the majority have not. If you enjoy playing waltzes I think you might find several of these tunes to be interesting and fun. With luck you might even discover some "spiritual gladness" hidden within.

December 2008

Snow Drifter (mp3)(pdf)
Pocket Change (mp3)(pdf)
Waitin' On the Julia Belle (mp3)(pdf)

This entry marks the end of the second year of So Many Tunes. I've chosen three tunes from my 2005 backlog to round off the year and a quick count of the entries at the alphabetical listing page tells me that I've managed to record 60 tunes in that time.

Back in January 2007 when I started this project I imagined that I would add a tune or two every week or so. That quickly became more work than I expected and the pace has slowed since those first few months. What began as a fun idea has sometimes become a chore as I try and find the time to record and edit tunes and printed music according to a self-imposed timetable.

So, beginning in 2009 I declare myself (to myself) free of any obligation to add tunes to this blog with any regularity. When I feel like adding something (and I find the time) I will do so. It might be next week, it might be next summer. We'll see what develops.

"Snow Drifter" is a waltz that languished in the key of Am for years before finding new life in a new key. I know a lot of fine guitar players who are a little intimidated by the half-diminished or m7b5 chord but it's really a very useful chord once you get to know it. Nothing else quite like it.

"Pocket Change" is a fun slip jig and feels good to play once you get it under your fingers (at least on the mandolin).

"Waitin' On the Julia Belle" is another of those tunes inspired by the brilliant compositions of Norman and Nancy Blake. I was delighted when we moved to Iowa to discover that the Julia Belle Swain makes its home in nearby La Crosse, Wisconsin. I always looked forward to seeing it during the Great Steamboat Race every year in Louisville, just before Kentucky Derby weekend, but I only thought of it as a boat somewhere on the Mississippi. Now I see it several times a year and can take a short cruise during the season if I want. It's easy to picture John Hartford in his prime just by seeing her on the water.

Happy New Year, more tunes to come.

November 2008

Canny Crow (mp3)(pdf)
Why Not Here, Why Not Now / Share the Road (mp3)
(Why Not pdf)(Share the Road pdf)

Maybe these are old-time tunes, maybe not. We have lots of crows here in Decorah and they have lots of personality. I don't remember what clever act inspired this tune's title but it was only one of many I have seen.

The road above and below, in Palisades Park, is one that I have "shared" many times with walkers, runners, dogs, bicyclists and the inhabitants of large, sometimes speeding, motorized vehicles. The June 2008 flood and torrential rains caused a stretch of this road to collapse and rendered it impassable for automobiles.



The city road crews had higher priorities for repair work which kept the road closed all summer and fall. This was great for pedestrians but a disappointment to those who were unable to drive up the steep road to enjoy the view. I expect that next spring (the road is always closed in the winter to motorized traffic) the road will be repaired and I'll once again be on the lookout for my four-wheeled friends as I walk along.

The Beautiful Days

The Beautiful Days (mp3)(pdf)
1837 Turnpike Road (mp3)(pdf)
A Fresh Start (mp3)(pdf)

A season has passed since the last post to this blog. In northeast Iowa the beautiful days of autumn are gone. The photo above was taken during a stroll on October 8th in Decorah's lovely Palisades Park. The Beautiful Days waltz was written on September 17th and recorded (along with the other tunes in this post) a couple of weeks ago.

Back in August we were lucky to spend a day and a night at Shakertown, Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. In the afternoon I had the chance take a short hike that included a stretch along the 1837 Turnpike Road on the village grounds. I was listening to Norman and Nancy Blake on my mp3 player and wrote this four part tune not long after.

A Fresh Start was written early in the morning (well, early for me at least) on the first day of the fall term at Luther College. I should have been getting ready for work but this friendly schottische insisted that summer wasn't yet over.

Winter won't be long in coming now. Winter tunes will follow.

July 2008

St. Anthony and the Fishes (mp3)(pdf)
Woodhaven (mp3)(pdf)

I came across a reference to St. Anthony and his sermon to the fishes in Alberto Manguel's wonderful book The Library at Night (p.216) during the time that this four part tune was looking for a title. The mention of Anthony reminded me of my "St. Francis and the Birds" tune which has a similar form. This is another of those tunes that I almost didn't write down because much of it is so clearly derivative of other, better, tunes. In spite of that, I did pick up the pen and then I enjoyed playing it over and over. So here it is.

I think of Woodhaven as a medieval tune, a ductia maybe? In any event I've had it around a long time. I think it would also work nicely as an S/A recorder duet if the alto player transposes the bottom line.

June 2008

Quarry Hill Road (mp3) (pdf)
Our Own Way (mp3) (pdf)
Off to Minnesota (mp3) (pdf)

It's been quite a month. The above photo (taken by Paul Scott of decorahnews.com) is a view from the levee less than a hundred yards from our house, probably on the day (June 9) that we were ordered to evacuate our neighborhood. All ended well for us but many of our neighbors suffered substantial basement flooding during this unprecedented event. Many more photos of the swollen Upper Iowa River can be found at the decorahnews site and some of the best shots are to be found at the Inspire(d) Media blog.

I've been assured that my One Hundred Year Flood tune had nothing to do with this 500 year flood but I don't think I'll be using that kind of title anytime soon.

This month's first tune is titled for the road that leads up to the local quarry if you cross the bridge in the distance in the photo above. For a couple of days it was the only way for regular folks (non-emergency personnel) to get from the east side of Decorah to the west side. It's not a very good road, made of gravel and steep, but it was the only way to head North from our side of town.

The second tune is a simple waltz that I finally got around to recording and the third is a relative (pale imitation, etc.) of the venerable "Off to California." I think of it as a hornpipe but Erik and I have used it successfully as a schottische more than once.

Hope you enjoy them.

May 2008

Friday Night Tailgate (mp3) (pdf)
Goslings Afloat (mp3) (pdf)
Fifty-Three (mp3) (pdf)



Sometimes after the Glen Echo Friday night contra dance a small tailgate party can be found at the edge of the park. Snacks, beverages and good conversation are shared and this tune came into being shortly after Contratopia enjoyed the party on a cool November night in 2006.

Just this afternoon, while walking along the mighty Upper Iowa River, I spied two geese and a gaggle of goslings floating by. The tune itself is from last summer but waited until today for a title.

I celebrated a birthday a few days ago which reminded me of this four part tune that I wrote on my 53rd birthday a while back. I think of this one as another in a long line of attempts to emulate the great mandolin tunes of Norman and Nancy Blake. "Attempt" is the key word in that sentence.

As usual these were all recorded using my now trusty Zoom H4 recorder.

April 2008

(Photo by Pat O'Loughlin, Shepherdstown, WV, with one of my favorite authors.)

All Fall Down (mp3) (pdf)
Bob's Angels (mp3) (pdf)
Sand Island (mp3) (pdf)

This posting has more of a Contratopia theme than most. Partly because we've had a pretty active month of playing and touring.

Bob's Angels is a waltz titled for our friend and Tapestry
board member Bob Anholt and all of his "angels" who helped make it possible for us to play a Mostly Waltz afternoon at Tapestry back in March. The band played the tune that day but this recording is the home demo that I recorded and sent to Erik, Pat and Patrice a few days before the gig. It probably should go a little faster.

The other two tunes were recorded by Erik, Pat and myself at Patrice's house on a Saturday afternoon while she was off earning a living.

Sand Island is possibly the first fiddle tune I ever wrote. I remember my old friend and excellent guitarist Henry Austin complimenting me on the tune back in Louisville sometime in the 80s. That bit of encouragement really meant a lot to me at the time. I see, thanks to Google, that he's currently playing with an Irish band called My Darling Asleep.

Contratopia has been playing this tune for a number of years and I almost never play guitar on it, but the guitar was in my hands that afternoon. If we ever officially record Sand Island it will certainly be more polished than this version (especially with Patrice adding her talents) but this is a good example of how the basic tune might go.

This version of All Fall Down is really Erik and I playing through the tune so Pat can work out an approach on the banjo. Pat would say he didn't really know the piece at this point but I think he sounds just fine. The band has just recently added this tune into a new medley and we played it a couple of times on the tour out east.

I wrote the music the day after travelling a fair distance to hear the brilliant Liz Carroll and John Doyle play at Wisconsin's Folklore Village. If only I could write a tune half as good as anything they played that night....

Up River Road on YouTube

My old friend Joe Burch in Louisville has recently uploaded this video to YouTube. It's taken from a concert titled "Mando Magnificat" that we were involved in as members of the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra back in the summer of 1989. The concert was part of the Lonesome Pine Special series and was a sequel to a similar concert that we had been a part of in 1988.

That earlier concert had been the public debut of the LMO and led to us being invited to perform, along with many of the finest mandolinists in the country, in a second "Magnificat", this time to be filmed for public television.

Shortly after the LMO began rehearsing in 1988 I brought in a short piece that I had attempted to arrange for mandolin orchestra instruments. Conductor Jim Bates looked it over and offered a couple of suggestions. I returned with an improved version that I called "Up River Road". The members of the LMO enthusiastically made the piece something special for all of us.

I have a videotape of the original TV broadcast which I haven't seen in a long time. This YouTube clip reveals that the group really had the piece ready to perform. Everybody in the group, especially Mike Schroeder in the first chair, is playing like a pro.

With the encouragement of the LMO and, especially, Jim Bates and Keith Harris "Up River Road" became the first part of my "Louisville Suite". The suite was published by Trekel Musik Verlag in Hamburg and has been performed by many mandolin orchestras around the world.

Since moving to Iowa in 1994 I've greatly missed playing in the LMO but they are still going strong. Along with their original website, linked above, you can also find them on MySpace and, now, on YouTube as well.

I've made a couple of small changes to this blog this week. One that might be of use to you is the addition of the Feedblitz email subscription widget in the Links sidebar. If you don't use a feed reader but you'd like to know when I add new entries, you can sign up to receive an email notification this way. It seems to work well but let me know if you have any problems.

March 2008

One Hundred Year Flood (mp3) (pdf)
Alice's Garden (mp3) (pdf)
Last Call at Hawley-Cooke (mp3) (pdf)
Spring Forward (mp3) (pdf)

Three waltzes and a reel.

The snow is finally melting around here and thoughts turn to flooding. Above is a photo from Louisville, Kentucky during the 1937 flood. My folks both remembered that flood well.

Alice's Garden was a roadside produce stand that was located up Highway 52 near the Minnesota state line when we first moved to northeast Iowa. The stand is still there but hasn't been open for many years.

The Hawley-Cooke bookstores were the best bookstores in the Louisville area for over 25 years. I was frequently there at closing time still trying to decide which bargain to buy.

Spring Forward refers to last week's time change. It's a really simple tune but it works for me.

All three waltzes are fairly recent and "Flood" only dates back to last May. Contratopia tried out "Alice's" and "Last Call" at Tapestry a couple of weeks ago. I imagine we'll play them again at our mostly waltz afternoon this weekend along with a couple more new ones. Try them yourself and see what you think.

February 2008

March 12, 2005 (slow reel) (mp3)(pdf)
January 22, 2005 (duo in 3/4) (mp3) (pdf) (retitled "Halfway Home" in Midwestern Mandolin Duos)
May 30, 2007 (slow duo) (mp3)(pdf)

Well a few weeks turned into a couple of months. Busy, cold, snowy months. Walking with the dog up on the trails that overlook Decorah I have thought of this painting many times.

Three pieces of music with dates for titles. Titles are often the hardest part for me. If you have suggestions let me know.

Contratopia has played the first tune once or twice as part of our half-speed set that is built around Pat O'Loughlin's great tune "Cement Donkey". It was even slower in that context but we've since dropped it from the set.

"January 22" is a waltz of sorts but I thought it would be fun to add a moving second part. Inspired partly, I guess, by long hours that I've spent recently transcribing some minuets by Telemann.

"May 30, 2007" was actually performed by myself and Luther College's extraordinary flautist Carol Hester in June of 2007 at a kind of faculty variety show for students attending one of the Dorian Music Camps sponsored by the College. It sounds especially nice when the top line is played by someone as good as Carol.

These three pieces were all recorded this morning with cold winds blowing outside. The sun was shining but the wind chills were in the -30 Farenheit range. The temperature should rise above zero tomorrow but there's some more snow on the way.

My thinking at this point is to aim for posting at least one entry per month in 2008. We'll see how that goes. Hope you enjoy the music.

G for Gordy

G for Gordy (mp3) (pdf)

The annual Burning Bright holiday concert occurred last Saturday at the Decorah United Methodist Church. Two performances of lovely and unusual seasonal music were presented by a wonderfully talented cast of local musicians under the direction of Kathy Reed-Maxfield and Otter Dreaming. Erik Sessions and I are usually invited to perform a set of tunes and this year we played a medley of two tunes that have appeared in this blog, Harvest Stomp and Raccoon in the Bird Feeder.

During the 2006 Burning Bright concert Erik and I, along with our friend Beth Rotto on piano, played a new waltz of mine that I titled "G for Gordy." The recording here is from that concert. Both the tune and the performance are dedicated to the memory of our friend Gordy MacMasters who passed away in 2006. I won't pretend to give Gordy his due here but there wasn't a nicer guy in the world and I suspect that no one has ever played the saw with more emotion than he did. The tune's title comes from Gordy's habit of calling out the key of a tune. "C for Charlie" he'd say with that big smile.

This entry will be the last one for 2007 and I plan on taking a few weeks off before starting to post in 2008. More tunes to come...

Jigs, pt. 1

Donaldson's Woods (mp3)
The Least Resistance (mp3)
Donaldson/Least (pdf)
Knee High in December (mp3) (pdf)


I've had some trouble trying to decide how to present jigs in this blog. I have a bunch that I like but I never seem to choose them for recording. This week, however, I purchased a copy of Paul Kelly's excellent collection 110 Irish Mandolin Tunes, vol. 1 and found a solution. Mr. Kelly presents recordings of all 110 tunes on two CDs that come with the book and each tune is played once through. Duh, what a concept! This simple idea got me over the hump with jigs and I recorded several today. Here are the first three.

Donaldson Woods Nature Preserve in Indiana's Spring Mill State Park contains a beautiful stand of virgin timber. This particular jig was written while staying at the park lodge in the summer of 2005.

"The Least Resistance" title is a mystery to me now. I probably had something in mind when I named the tune but no longer. "Knee High in December" is presented in pdf form along with its friend "Puddle Jumper" from the Contratopia Tunebook. The latter tune appears on our Smitten CD but "Knee High" has yet to be recorded, even though we've played it now for a number of years. We usually play it first as a jig and then as a reel and, if we have time, we'll sometimes go back and forth playing the A section in 4/4 and the B section in 6/8. The title, of course, refers to snowfall in northeast Iowa.

Harvest Stomp

Harvest Stomp (mp3) (pdf)

On Saturday, Sept. 29 Erik, Jim, Bill and I (as Bear Creek Bluegrass) played at our local food coop's harvest festival and barn dance. The dance was held in the Beard Barn, a beautiful old structure with a great dance floor. Next morning this tune popped up.

Two nights ago (that'd be Friday Oct. 26) Erik and I rejoined our Contratopia partners, Pat and Patrice, for our first dance in nearly six months. Held in the Armory at Northfield, MN it was aptly titled the Harvest Stomp!

Being a new tune for everyone but me we didn't play it for an official dance, but we did give it a good run down during what passed for a sound check. Recorded this morning on the now trusty Zoom H4.

St. Francis and the Birds

St. Francis and the Birds (mp3) (pdf)

October 4 is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, one of my favorite people. This year I had the honor of being invited to play some music at a morning chapel service on the Luther College campus that included a "blessing of the animals" ceremony.

I was given the opportunity to play this tune of mine as part of the service with the excellent assistance of two of my mates in the Western Home String Band, pastor Mike Blair on guitar and Ehler Orngard on pennywhistle. The weather was perfect, the music was clear and the pets (several dogs and one fish) were very attentive.

The chapel talk that day was given by Robert Belá Wilhelm, a gifted storyteller with a real feeling for St. Francis. The actual story of Francis and the birds is nicely told here in this excerpt from Jorgensen's biography of the saint, freely available for download courtesy of Google Book Search.

My little tune was written down over 20 years ago and is rarely played, partly because of its AABCC format. The print version that I present here is taken from the Contratopia Tunebook, a collection of over 50 tunes written by myself and Erik Sessions, which is available from me for $11 postpaid. I recorded it last night using an old Gibson mandolin that was built around 1917, not long after Jorgensen's biography of Francis was written.

Old Clarksville

Old Clarksville (mp3) (pdf)

I grew up in Clarksville, Indiana long after Meriwether Lewis & William Clark met at the Clarksville cabin of George Rogers Clark to begin their expedition. In my youth "old" Clarksville was that part of town that had existed before World War II. The part where my father had lived in his youth and my parents had lived when they were newlyweds. The town swimming pool and Andy and John's grocery store were there.

Much later I learned of the even older Clarksville that had been founded in 1783 near the Falls of the Ohio and settled by George Rogers Clark and his former comrades in arms. In recent years much has been done to uncover some of that history and visitors can now visit the Falls of the Ohio State Park and the Old Clarksville Site for a glimpse of the past.

This tune was written in March of 2003 as a solo mandolin piece and that's how it is presented, warts and all, here. I could pretend that the missed bass note near the end of the piece was an artistic choice but, really, I just missed it. Contratopia has also played this piece, without a title, a couple of times as a waltz at dances.

The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep (mp3) (pdf)

Here's a waltz I wrote in 2002 and recorded in 2003 on a Korg D1600 machine. Both the electric guitar (my old Hagstrom) and my Rigel mandolin were recorded direct. You might have noticed I'm a big fan of wooden instruments recorded by microphones but, as time goes by, this particular electric recording continues to sound better to me. I hope you enjoy it.

Graveyard Owl

Graveyard Owl (mp3) (pdf)

Early in August we visited Ocracoke Island for the first time. I hope there will be many more visits to come. There are a number of small family cemeteries on the island and we heard more than one owl hooting as we walked from one end of the village to the other.

The tune itself was mostly written on a fine old Gibson oval hole mandolin in Carrboro, NC the night before we drove to Swan Quarter to catch the ferry to Ocracoke. Recorded here in Decorah on a very warm night last week.

I lifted this graveyard photo from Philip Howard's excellent Ocracoke Island Journal blog. We stopped at his Village Craftsmen shop during our visit and came away with a first rate CD by the island's house band, Molasses Creek.

Open Church / Dunn Meadow

Open Church (mp3) (pdf)
Dunn Meadow (mp3) (pdf)

A busy summer so far. Here are a couple of older tunes titled for places real and imaginary.

On a recent trip back from a visit to the old homestead we stopped for a couple of hours at one of my favorite places, New Harmony, Indiana. A place full of history and spirit, I always find it inspiring.

I rarely wake from a dream with a tune in my head but Open Church was an exception. It even had its title in the dream. Later I remembered the Roofless Church in New Harmony. It's a slightly quirky waltz because the first strain has only six measures.



Dunn Meadow on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington is where I spent many happy hours in the 1970s. I heard a lot of great music there in the meadow and even more in the IU Memorial Union that sits next to it. Amazing local musicians like Mark Bingham, Caroline Peyton, Bill Schwartz and Bob Lucas played frequently. I heard the original New Grass Revival in 1972 in the Union and I'm pretty sure I heard Ali Akbar Khan in the same room a few years later. Woody Shaw played a great concert there sometime in the 80s as well.

I hesitated to call this tune Dunn Meadow because I was sure someone must have already written a really great tune with this title. I confess I didn't write the tune while actually sitting near the tiny creek known as the Jordan River. Instead I was in a motel room out on the bypass but this title came immediately to mind. To me it seems like a very English tune.

Wedding March Set

Wedding March Set (mp3) (pdf scores and parts)

I heard on the radio a week or so ago that July 7, 2007 is supposed to be an especially auspicious day for a wedding. Something to do with 07-07-07 I think. That report led me to dust off this piece for mandolin quartet (or mandolin orchestra) that I put together in 2002 by combining two short wedding marches that I had written long ago. See the score and parts webpage for a little more background.

It's a potentially fun piece for mandolin ensemble and I encourage you to give it a try. It can be played by full mandolin orchestra or mandolin quartet. The first mandolin part can even be played solo or with simple guitar chord accompaniment.

The recording leaves much room for improvement but I settled for getting most of the notes correct. I just tried to give a reasonable idea of how the piece might sound. I played guitar for the bass line and octave mandolin for the mandola part. I tried capoing the octave at the 7th fret but the mental gymnastics presented by the capo were more difficult than the physical gymnastics of playing the part without it.

I don't recommend this arrangement for use as an actual wedding march because it would be too long for all but the larger cathedrals. It would work fine as pre or post ceremony music and could certainly fit into a program of background music at a reception. Let me know if you find an interesting use for the piece.

Raccoon in the Bird Feeder

Raccoon in the Bird Feeder (mp3) (pdf)

Had a fun time playing for "John's Send-off Shindig" at the River Bend Nature Center in Faribault, MN a couple of weeks ago. Near the end of the event some of the kids pointed out to us that there was an apparently ravenous raccoon happily sitting in the large bird feeder behind us. Knowing that I'm always on the lookout for tune titles, several of my band-mates suggested I could do something with this. I've failed to come up with anything clever or poetic and have settled on this literal title.

The tune itself appeared a day or two later. Clearly, at least to me, a relative of the "Red-Haired Boy" I almost didn't write it down. I recorded it while still fresh using my old black Gibson A model, melody first and then the backup.

I've always loved the sound of two mandolin family instruments playing together. One of my absolute favorite examples is found on the Norman Blake/Peter Ostroushko CD Meeting On Southern Soil where they play "Muddy Creek" on mando and mandola. I only wish they had repeated the tune four or five more times.

Smitten (for mandolin orchestra)

Smitten (YouTube performance) (pdf score and parts)

I was delighted today to receive a link to a video of The Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra performing my mandolin orchestra arrangement of Smitten a few days ago at the Shoreham Airport as part of the Adur Festival 2007.

Granted that the recorded sound is fairly lo-fi it still sounds great to me. The performance is excellent and the audience (except for the ones who seem to be nodding off) seem to be enjoying it. This mando orchestra version was premiered at the 2006 Classical Mandolin Society of America convention by the Atlanta Mandolin Orchestra and I was able to join them in that performance. The AMO did a great job as well, despite my presence on stage.

The tune has been played as a waltz many, many times by Contratopia and is the title track of our third CD. We attempted to record it on our first CD as part of an overly complicated medley and gave up. We intended for it to be an important number on our second CD, the all-waltz collection Ballroom Echoes and succeeded in recording a now-legendary "perfect first take". Unfortunately, at the end of a long day, one of us (no need to name names) made the fatal mistake of unplugging our digital audio workstation before the track was saved.

We finally captured a lovely version of the tune at the sessions for our third CD although I nearly ruined that one by bringing the tune to an end a little earlier than everyone expected. Thanks to Matthew Zimmerman (owner/operator of Wild Sound in Minneapolis) and the magic of digital editing the track survived that small train wreck and finally made it onto disc.

Let me offer my heartfelt thanks to Jacky, Ian and all the gang from the Fretful Federation for producing such a beautiful performance of my piece and for sharing their performance via YouTube.

Clifty Falls, Stonehead

Clifty Falls (mp3) (pdf)
Stonehead (mp3) (pdf)

Here are two simple duets for two mandolins (or any other instruments with similar ranges) that I wrote down sometime around 1980. Clifty Falls is a lovely Indiana state park not far from my hometown. Stonehead gets its title from the memorable stone marker that you will encounter at the juncture of Ind. 135 and Bellesville Pike if you turn south off of Ind. highway 46 between Nashville and Columbus.

Both of these pieces were written during one of the two summers that I spent living in southeastern Brown County, IN, allegedly helping out at a Catholic summer camp. One of those summers I was a part time dishwasher at Rudi's Country Kitchen in Nashville and my route back to camp involved a left turn at the Stonehead intersection.



The recordings were done a few years ago for the second volume of the CoMando Sessions project of the CoMando listserv and this version of Clifty Falls appears on the second disc of that set.

The challenge in playing these short tunes is to keep them from sounding mechanical and to allow them to breathe a little. Both pieces are also suitable for recorder with soprano playing the top line and alto (transposed up an octave) playing the bottom.

Highlandville, May 14, 2004

Highlandville, May 14, 2004 (mp3) (pdf)

The photograph above was taken by Pat O'Loughlin in early May 2006 but May 14, 2004 was a night very much like it. I had driven out to the Highlandville schoolhouse to sit in with my friends in the wonderful Norwegian-American old-time band Foot-Notes at one of their regular dances.

The dance was well underway and I parked just where the cars are in the right hand side of the photo. I thought I would tune my old Flatiron octave mandolin in the car before I went into the noisy hall but a little snatch of melody fell out in the process. I decided to see where it led and I closed the car up so that I could see the dancers inside but couldn't hear the music from the band.

After a minute I thought (as you might when you hear the tune) "oh, it's just another pale imitation of Soldier's Joy" but I put that devil behind me. Before the band took their break I packed up the octave and went in and spent the rest of the night playing the wonderful polkas, schottisches, waltzes and two steps that are the soundtrack to the Highlandville Dance.

A day or two later I went back to this tune and decided I liked it, pale imitation that it is. It's been played off and on by Contratopia and I've arranged it for mandolin orchestra also as part of my piece Another Late Spring in Iowa, which has been performed by both the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra.

The recording here was hastily done last Saturday morning while preparing to play a contra dance at the schoolhouse with Contratopia. I used the Flatiron octave (early 80's, pre-Gibson) and my Pomeroy.

If you haven't been to Highlandville it's well worth a visit. Especially if you can make it when Foot-Notes is holding court at a Saturday night dance.

July 23, 2004

July 23, 2004 (mp3) (pdf)

It was probably warm and muggy that morning, the Friday of the 2004 Nordic Fest celebration. Our band, Bear Creek Bluegrass (myself, Erik, Jim & Jody) would have played in the Sabor Latino courtyard until 11 or 12 the night before, what has become a traditional Nordic Fest Thursday gig.

We would be looking forward to two one hour performances that afternoon in one of the several entertainment tents on Water Street followed by an additional two slots on Saturday the 24th. Jim and Jody both had additional festival gigs, Jody with his father and brothers and Jim with Foot-Notes.

I imagine I had a free hour or two before lunch and I must have written this tune down sometime before the first afternoon show. I remember that the guys did a fine job of sight-reading the music there on Water St. and the ever tolerant Nordic Fest audience enjoyed our antics. I wrote the harmony part sometime later and I don't think it has ever been played live. Maybe this summer we'll take another shot at the tune and we can add the second part.

This is one of those tunes that thwart all my efforts to come up with a reasonable title. If you have any suggestions just let me know.

Hamlet to High Point

Hamlet to High Point (mp3) (pdf)

John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23, 1926 and grew up in High Point. This tune is an attempt to write a fun contra dance number that incorporates some elements of Coltrane's approach to harmony during his "Giant Steps" period.

(Hamlet, photo by John Myers)

Contratopia has played through this piece a few times during sound checks and rehearsals but, I don't believe, we've ever played it for a group of dancers. The recording here is at a comfortable tempo but still contains no attempt to improvise over the chord changes.

(High Point)

Many players record tunes using some form of these "Coltrane changes". One of my favorites is titled "Passos" by Fritz Pauer. It appears on Will Patton's superb 2002 CD Peripherique and features an excellent mandolin solo by Will.