Deer Track, June 17, 2013

Deer Track, June 17, 2013 (mp3) (pdf)

Last summer I was writing a new Deer Tracks piece nearly every day. Last weekend I took some time and collected all of the Deer Tracks pieces that either didn't make onto the the official Deer Tracks CD or haven't yet been featured in So Many Tunes. There are about fifteen of those.

This one was written on June 17, 2013, although I changed at least one note later in the summer.

For anyone keeping score I can say that today's recording, and pretty much everything since "Snow Crow Shadow" in mid-January, was recorded using my recently acquired Lafferty LA-5 mandolin. I'm really enjoying playing this fine mandolin. You can read more about this in a thread at the Mandolin Cafe started by Orrin Star after he had a chance to play my Lafferty a few weeks ago.

The weather is saying we might get a little spring snowfall tomorrow but it was plenty warm when I wrote today's tune. Spring will come eventually.

Rockville Blues

Rockville Blues (mp3) (pdf)

Contratopia was out East last weekend, the photo above is from the Saturday night dance in Shepherdstown, WV (courtesy Ted Hodapp, with Pat O'Loughlin's camera). The DC area received a modest snowfall on Monday, prompting the shutdown of the federal government and the DCA airport.

Amtrak, however, was running just fine and I was settled into my cozy roomette and heading west a little after 4:00 in the afternoon. Rolling out of Union Station I pulled out my mandolin and today's tune popped right out. It was pretty much finished by the time we stopped at Rockville.

I've learned recently that Amtrak is offering some free rides to writers on long haul trains. This is a great idea. I (and I'm sure many, many other folks) have been writing on trains for years. I love the peacefulness of the ride and the ever-fascinating display of people and places going by my window. I particularly enjoy the community seating at meals. For an introvert this is a great way to meet new and interesting people within a clearly defined set of expectations.

A number of tunes that have appeared in this blog were written while riding on an Amtrak train, usually on the Capitol Limited. Check the alphabetical list for "Cumberland Mission", "The Night Train Waltz", "Rollin' Through the Gap", and "Shenandoah Bound" for examples, but there are many more tunes in my notebooks from various train rides that haven't made it to this blog yet.

So, maybe I'll apply for a ride as part of the Residency program and see if the Amtrak folks consider the composition of tunes to be a valid form of writing. They would have to be careful though. There are many instruments that would tend to disrupt the peace and quiet of the train. The mandolin has the advantage of being nearly silent when played with the fingers.

In any event, I hope you enjoy this relaxing little number from room no. 2 of car 2901.

Under the Snow

Under the Snow (mp3) (pdf)

There's a lot of action under the snow from a canine perspective.

This photo is actually from last winter but our yard looks much the same right now. (Only this year's snow is a little deeper.)

The tune, however, is very fresh. Hope you enjoy it.

Bagatelle for Solo Mandolin, no. 3

Bagatelle for Solo Mandolin, no. 3 (mp3) (pdf)

I started this one a couple of weeks ago and I think it has settled into its final form. I suppose time will tell.

It's worth noting that last Sunday, February 9th, marked the 50th anniversary of the single most important event in my musical life; the first appearance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn't watched that show, it's best not to try.

The music that I present here, for better or worse, is all the result of a process that was put into motion that night. One bit of music leading to another, backwards and forward in time, "Ancient to the Future" (to borrow the motto of the Art Ensemble of Chicago).

Thanks for listening.

Family Valentine

Family Valentine (mp3) (pdf)

This tune comes from back in 2003 but the recording is from tonight. A simple waltz probably played at a family Valentine's Day event that year and rarely played since. The pdf is the version that appears in my 31 Waltzes tunebook. More info on the book is here: http://www.mandotopia.com/31waltzes.htm

Bagatelle for Solo Mandolin, no. 2

Bagatelle for Solo Mandolin, no. 2 (mp3) (pdf)

And yet another short piece for solo mandolin. This one recorded last weekend.

Last week's tune, "Snow Crow Shadow", had a world premier a week ago at a performance for a select group of special listeners. Erik Sessions and I played the tune on mando and fiddle. Just last night we played the tune as part of a medley during a contra dance with our full Contratopia band. It seemed to work well in both contexts.

Snow, wind, cold; this is our January.

Snow Crow Shadow

Snow Crow Shadow (mp3) (pdf)

Believe it or not, I try not to write every tune in either D major or A minor/modal. This one wouldn't be denied so I let it come. Standing at the window I heard a crow outside and saw his/her shadow flit by on the snow as he/she passed overhead. (Thanks to the anonymous photographer, and crow, for the royalty free stock photo above.)

Bagatelle for Solo Mandolin, no. 1

Bagatelle for Solo Mandolin, no. 1 (mp3) (pdf)

2013 was, for me, the Year of the Deer Track. So much so that I have grown tired of that naming convention. On the first day of the new year I composed another Deer Track piece and it appears here today with a new kind of title. We'll see if a Bagatelle no. 2 comes along or if I revert to the old ways.

In any event I like this one. It's fun to play and pleasing to my ear. Hope you enjoy it also.

December Jigs 2013

December Jigs 2013 (mp3) (pdf-1) (pdf-2)

Here we are at the start of the 8th year of So Many Tunes. A couple of those years were pretty quiet, only 3 posts in 2009 for instance, but I've been fairly active starting in 2012. I haven't counted lately but I know that well over 100 tunes are now freely available here as mp3 recordings and in standard notation.

Occasionally I will hear from someone who has enjoyed playing some of these tunes and I think that's great. The main purpose for this blog, however, continues to be the same. This is primarily a way for me to document at least some of the music that I write in a simple, demo-style format. Audio sketches if you will.

If you've sampled more than a few of these tunes you can hear that they are mostly bare bones recordings. I want you to get an idea of how the tune might go in case you want to try it yourself. Today's recordings are as bare as it gets, one mandolin playing simple melody lines. The only slight difference here is that, instead of playing each tune twice in a row, I play each tune only once and then go back and play them each once again. Pretty fancy arrangement. None of these tunes have titles yet but I decided to not let that stop me.

On New Year's Eve I received an email from Lucy in Brittany letting me know about a very nice blog entry she had written for her box elder blog. The post is titled Smitten, as ever was and is a model for what a good blog entry can be. In the middle of the post Lucy says some lovely things about our Contratopia band and our recording of my tune "Smitten" (recently featured once again in So Many Tunes). I encourage everyone to check it out.

Special thanks also to Reed and Ardys for the beautiful photo of snow-covered Decorah taken last week from the overlook at Palisades Park! It reminds me a lot of Bruegel's "Hunters in the Snow," one of my favorite paintings. It's bitter cold today in Northeast Iowa but I hope you enjoy these tunes whatever the temperature, wherever you are.

Deer Track, December 26, 2013

Deer Track, December 26, 2013 (mp3) (pdf)

Since this has been the Year of the Deer Track for me I thought I would post one more here on New Year's Eve. I wrote most of this one during a quiet morning on the Feast of St. Stephen, while our house was full of family and friends. I tinkered with some on the following days and recorded it on the 29th. It may not be completely finished but, for now, I'm happy with it.

This will be the 46th entry in this blog in 2013, nearly double any other year since I began in January of 2007. I've already got something prepared for the first entry of 2014. We'll see what comes after that.

Thanks to everyone for listening, especially for all the encouragement and support with the Deer Tracks project, and have a Happy New Year!

Singing in a Dark Place (for recorder quartet)

Singing in a Dark Place (mp3, performed by Dames' Rocket) (score and parts on request)

I was honored to be asked by my friends in Decorah's premier recorder quartet, Dames' Rocket, to compose a piece for them to play at our annual community holiday/solstice/Christmas concert, Burning Bright (wonderfully organized and conducted by Otter Dreaming and Kathy Reed). The quartet's members are Ellen Macdonald, Suzanne Ernst, Beth Lynch, and Elyse Hawthorn and they were a pleasure to work with. 

The recording above is a rehearsal tape from the afternoon of the concert (Saturday, December 21, 2013) so you can hear a voice or two and some pages turning but I really like the sound of the group in this performance. Many thanks to Dames' Rocket for allowing me to share it here.

The title of the piece is from the last line of an early poem by Wendell Berry, simply titled "A Music", which features a blind mandolin player. The music came first, there is no intentional correlation between the poem and the notes, I just like the title. 

It was especially fun for me to write a piece for musicians that I know and admire, knowing exactly where it would be performed while knowing that many of my friends and local community members would hear it in the context of a larger concert of mostly choral music.

It's been a busy holiday season but I wanted to get this recording posted before the end of the year. I haven't included the score and parts but, if you are interested, you can contact me through the comments. I hope you enjoy the music!

Deer Track, May 30, 2013

Deer Track, May 30, 2013 (mp3) (pdf)

Light snow is falling here in Decorah today and we may have our first measurable snowfall by tonight. The temperature has fallen below zero (Fahrenheit) the last couple of nights.

Somehow this bit of winter brought me back into the world of Deer Tracks this morning and I decided to record one of the many pieces that I wrote last spring that didn't make it onto the official Deer Tracks CD.

I began this piece on Thursday, May 30, 2013 and I recall that most of it was finished that day. I remember doing a little touch up work later and it was definitely in the running to be on the CD but, in the end, it didn't make the cut.

I should point out, in the commercial spirit of the season (not to be confused with the real spirit), that there are still a few physical copies of the Deer Tracks CD available from CD Baby. You can also purchase mp3 downloads of all the tracks from CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes, etc.

However, this May 30, 2013 Deer Track is not for sale anywhere. You can only find this recording right here, no charge. Hope you enjoy it.

The Sock Thief

The Sock Thief (mp3) (pdf)

I usually find some time over the Thanksgiving weekend to work on music. This year I came up with (among other things) a waltz that I'm calling "The Sock Thief."

This tune is at least partially inspired by the great new book Timeless: the music of John Abercrombie (with commentary by the composer), a collection of original tunes by one of my favorite musicians. I've been a big fan of Abercrombie ever since I bought the first Gateway album (his trio with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette) back in the Seventies. I have dozens of recordings of him, either as a leader or a co-conspirator. I especially love the two duo records he made with Ralph Towner (another of my favorite musicians and composers)  and I have a great memory of seeing/hearing the two of them in concert long ago in Louisville. His playing is awesome and his tunes are always interesting. So I love this book.

Time after time in his commentary Abercrombie talks about one of his tunes as being "simple." I have no doubt that he sees these tunes that way but, for me, they are beautifully complex. On Thursday morning I sat down on the bed with my mandolin and, after playing bits of some of the tunes in the Timeless book, I set out to write a simple, but interesting, tune.

Simple is not usually a problem for me and this one started out nicely. I turned off my inner editor ("Oh please, not another A minor arpeggio!") and had a lot of fun. Trouble was that I pretty quickly veered off into multiple sections and lots of notes. Over the course of the next couple of days I whittled most of that away until "The Sock Thief" is now about where I like it. Hope you enjoy it too.

On the technical side, if you sometimes suffer from the "other" MAS (in this case "microphone acquisition syndrome", rather than the more common "mandolin acquisition syndrome") you might be interested to know that I used a brand new MXL 991 mic to record my old Gibson (still with the same Thomastik strings I put on back in September). I purchased it this week as part of holiday special sale, together with the larger MXL 990, from Musician's Friend for only $70 for the pair. They aren't Neumanns but the 991 seems to be a fine mic for only $35. (No commercial interest on my part.) I haven't even plugged the 990 in yet, so I can't vouch for it.

Anyway, give "The Sock Thief" a spin and see what you think.

Cake On Fire - Waiting (On a Train) - Walk On Dry Leaves

Cake On Fire - Waiting (On a Train) - Walk On Dry Leaves (mp3) (pdf1) (pdf2)

Preparing for a rehearsal day with my friends in Contratopia on Monday I have been looking at recent and older tunes. I put this set of three together this morning as a demo for Patrice, Pat and Erik and then figured I might as well use it here as well.

"Waiting" has a long story behind it, ask me about it sometime. It also has me making a few mistakes in the repeat of the first A section. You can think of them as variations if you want.

"Walk On Dry Leaves" has appeared in this blog before, in October of 2012. It's played faster here and I've changed the melody to make that easier to do.

Brush Pile Birds

Brush Pile Birds (mp3) (pdf)

A tune from a month or so ago. I've already forgotten how I chose the title but I can easily picture the brush pile in our backyard a couple of years ago with a gaggle of little birds waiting their turn at the feeder.

If you are in the Decorah vicinity I will be playing the mandolin as the guest of pianist Tom Bourcier this coming Tuesday (the 19th) from around 6:00-8:00 in the lobby of the Hotel Winneshiek. We actually rehearsed some the other night and we may play a couple of my waltzes as part of our set on Tuesday.

Stop in if you are downtown that night. The music is free and promises to be fun.

Smitten, once again

Smitten (pdf lead sheet)

Above is a video of Mark Davis and myself playing my waltz "Smitten" at the end of the Saturday afternoon open mic session during the 2013 Classical Mandolin Society of America convention in Regina, Saskatchewan. Michael Tognetti has done a great job of making a whole series of videos from the convention available. You can find them (along with dozens of excellent photos by Kelly Paul) here: http://www.classicalmandolinsociety.org/content/conventions/2013-photo-selector.asp

This particular performance came about because Col Bernau & Lea O'Brien came all the way from Australia to the Regina convention. When I met them Lea reminded me that, years ago, they had contacted me about using "Smitten" and my "Wedding March Set" as part of their wedding festivities in Oz.

Late on Thursday of the convention I was playing some music in a group that included Mark Davis and it occurred to me that Mark would make an ideal guitar partner for a duo performance of "Smitten", and that we could possibly surprise Col and Lea at some point during the convention.

So, I asked Mark and I pulled up the lead sheet of the tune from the Contratopia Tunebook on my tablet for him to look at. We ran through the tune once that night and it was fun. I then signed us up to perform at the Saturday open mic.

Things don't always go smoothly and a larger than usual number of groups wanted to perform on Saturday. Time was short and I told Mark and Jonathan Rudie (who was managing the lineup and keeping time) that we could skip our piece and play it for Col and Lea in a less public forum later.

At the last minute Mark (who was playing in the final group of the concert) suggested we quickly do "Smitten" as the very last piece. So what you see on video begins as a fairly hurried performance (remember Mark had only seen the music once before a couple of days earlier) but settles into something pretty nice.

"Smitten" is a tune I've played hundreds of times with Contratopia but always on guitar. I almost never get to play the melody on mandolin. So this version is fun for me to hear too. I'm usually pretty critical of recordings of myself, especially video, but I quite like this one. I hope you do also. (btw, Lea and Col were in the front row and I think they were pleasantly surprised as well.)

Historical note: Long time readers of this blog (all five of you) might recall that "Smitten" appeared back in June, 2007 in a different youtube video. That one featured a performance of my mandolin orchestra arrangement of the piece by my English friends the Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra. The original link to that video seems to have been disabled but I believe you can still view it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWmnV8QLZs4&feature=share&list=PL898BECB5CE06F983

The Belle from the Bridge

The Belle from the Bridge (mp3) (pdf)

Here's a jig from a few weeks ago, recorded this morning. The title comes from a brief trip last week back home to Clarksville, Indiana. We took a walk on Sunday afternoon across the former Big Four railroad bridge, recently converted to a pedestrian and bicycle path across the Ohio River between Louisville, KY and Jeffersonville.

While walking we had the pleasure of watching the Belle of Louisville paddle under us on her Sunday afternoon cruise. Following the nostalgic theme of my previous post, seeing the Belle reminded me that it was the site of my first public performance in a band, sometime in late 1964 or early 1965, as a member of the awesome Sir James and the Squires. We were allowed to play a 3 or 4 song set during a sockhop on board while the real band took a break. Pretty exciting stuff for a humble Squire!

I'm pretty sure that this was the night when I learned that the same song could be played in any key. I had learned the Kingsmen's classic version of Barret Strong's "Money" (as opposed to the Beatles' copy of the original) in the key of E. Our guitar player (the amazing Tommy Campbell), singer ("Sir James" himself, Jimmy Parks) and drummer (now Dr. Joe Jacobi) played the song, I believe, in G. I think a member of the other band kindly explained to me that we had played the song simultaneously in two different keys, without mentioning bi-tonality or Ornette Coleman. Being a minor third apart the two keys actually made a pretty cool sound but I was amazed at the concept and, ever after, I have endeavored, when playing with other musicians, to play in the same key as everyone else, whenever possible. (Ed. note: I should have mentioned above that I'm playing electric bass in this story. This allows the bi-tonality to "work" a little better than if Tom and I had both been playing full chords a minor third apart.)

Today's jig is squarely in the key of C, with nary a hint of Deer Tracks influence.

Port William Hornpipe / Cracks in the Sidewalk (1984)

Port William Hornpipe / Cracks in the Sidewalk (mp3)(pdf)

It's been a busy few weeks -- weddings, mandolin conventions, the release of Deer Tracks (for solo mandolin) -- and So Many Tunes has had a well-earned vacation. Today's re-entry is a blast from the past.

Mark Davis (who I had a chance to play some music with two weeks ago in Regina, Saskatchewan) mentioned the great author Wendell Berry on Facebook yesterday and that set me off looking for this old recording.

Back in 1984 I put together a cassette recording of some of my original music, both songs and instrumental tunes. I recorded everything on a then state-of-the-art Fostex four track cassette recorder. A few years ago I made a digital copy of the master cassette of those multi-track recordings. This is all pretty low-fi by today's standards but it was what I had at the time. Once you get past the initial shock of "different" sound there is still some fun music in there.

"Port William Hornpipe" was always titled "Wendell Berry's Hornpipe" in my head but I figured that was too grand a title to use officially (although now I've blabbed it on the internet) so I used Berry's fictional Port William, Kentucky as a title instead. If you know Berry's work you know that most of his fiction revolves around characters connected to Port William (located not far from where the Kentucky River flows into the Ohio, roughly 50 miles or so from where I was raised). If you haven't read much by Wendell Berry you owe it to yourself to spend some time with his poetry, essays, novels and short stories.

The actual recording from 1984 has me playing all the parts. It sounds to me like guitar (probably my old Harmony Sovereign from the mid-60s), mandolin (the same Gibson that I just used this summer for my Deer Tracks CD), octave mandolin (my old Flatiron, in 1984 it was only two or three years old, it's sitting six feet away from me today as I write) and an inexpensive electric bass (long gone). Lord only knows what kind of microphone I used but it would have needed a 1/4 in. plug, not an XLR. The bass I would have run directly into the deck, very carefully.

I know that I used the Fostex X-15 (pretty new at the time) to record and I suppose that I mixed the 4 tracks down to stereo using a second cassette deck. The actual recording would probably have taken place in the kitchen of my small apartment in the 700 block of E. 2nd St. in Bloomington, Indiana.

For weeks that summer I had the pleasure of hearing (whether I wanted to or not) an amazing band rehearse in the house across the street.  Kilo was fronted by the amazing Crystal Taliefero (still a college student then, just before she joined John Mellencamp's band) and featured a number of now well-known musicians like bassist Robert Hurst, trumpeter Chris Botti and drummer Shawn Pelton. The now legendary Kenny Aronoff (Mellencamp's drummer at the time) would often sit in as well. A great band.

I didn't know about the Chris Botti connection until this morning as I was writing this. But I have a vivid memory of crossing the street one night after midnight, after band rehearsal was over, to get a closer listen to an unknown trumpeter playing a beautiful version of "Someday, My Prince Will Come". I realize now that it was probably a very young Mr. Botti working through his Miles Davis influence. I think I'll take another look at his body of work, now that I see we are old buddies.

So, from E. 2nd St. in Bloomington, 1984 to So Many Tunes, 2013 here's "Wendell Berry's Hornpipe."

Deer Tracks (for solo mandolin) has arrived!

Deer Track, July 8, 2013 (mp3) (pdf)

I'm very pleased to say that I now have a box of Deer Tracks CDs in my possession and tonight I'll celebrate a little by sharing the final track from the new CD. Unlike almost everything I post on this blog this track was recorded in a real studio (Wild Sound in Minneapolis) with high end mics and mastered through some very fancy processors.

The recording sessions are a little bit blurry but I think this is one of the tracks where I actually played the piece straight through, without punching in a bit here or there to help things along.

Those of you who enjoy the sheet music will note that I have rendered this piece in both standard notation and mandolin tablature. The tab should serve to simplify the performance of the piece by revealing the patterns that I use when fingering the notes. I will be publishing the music to all 21 of the Deer Tracks on this CD in both standard notation and tab for this reason.

I have lots to do tonight but I wanted to get this track onto the blog first. I will write more about the CD and its availability later. I hope you enjoy this short piece.

Walnut Dog

Walnut Dog (mp3) (pdf)

Taking a short break from all things Deer Tracks to record and post a fun tune from a little over a week ago. More Deer Tracks to come.

Music tip of the week: check this excellent interview (and performance video) with Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge from the folks at Fretboard Journal. I highly recommend the great EP from this duo, available here.