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Ragtime Annie Tab. Lesson.

September 4, 2008 admin Feature articles, Lessons, Music

Ragtime Annie| Tab & lesson| Yiannis

Yiannis Gougourelas

Yiannis says: “Because i’m a huge David Grier fan,i sometimes try to emulate David’s style, to get into his mind on how he would play a tune. I’m using here double stops, floaters, chromatic runs to make it more challenging. Another influence on that tune was the great player Scott Fore. But i always try to stick into the main melody of the tune. It’s my version,and hope that your readers enjoy it”

[Terence- From memory, Ragtime Annie is an American fiddle tune derived from a similarly named Irish reel . The earliest recording by a violinist called Eck Robertson in 1922.]

Here’s the Ragtime Annie: Tabedit File

Ragtime Annie. Traditional,
Arr. Yiannis Gougourelas
"Flatpicking Guitar Instrumentals" (2006)

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|2b--------------2b--------------|2b--------------2b-------------|
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Yiannis Gougourelas. Artist Interview. mp3.

September 3, 2008 admin Music

Yiannis Gougourelas | 2008 | Artist Interview | “Greek Bluegrass

Yiannis Gougourelas

Yiannis Gougourelas has been for several years, the only subscriber to Flatpicking Guitar in Greece. In fact, he was probably the only flatpicker in Greece to embrace the bluegrass style of playing.That is likely to change- Yiannis has won the Mask contest at Beppe Gambetta’s acoustic workshop twice and has recently released his own critically acclaimed CD. I’ve known Yiannis for a few years and am very honoured to catch with him fresh after his 2008 win!

Stay tuned for Yiannis’s guest post, a lesson on Ragtime Annie coming soon! Yiannis is such a great player and writer, I have invited him to post up an exclusive lesson complete with tab and mp3 for guitarbench!

TT – Yiannis, many congratulations on winning Beppe’s flatpicking contest! That must have been a great experience, would you like to share it with us?

YG- It has always been a great experience for me, a Greek guy who always wanted to find other people to play with. I’ve started out this flatpicking guitar thing all alone,by playing in my room mostly. I’m a ear trained type of guy.

I think it was somewhere in 2003 and i was already an Acoustic Guitar Magazine subscriber. It was there where i found out in it’s pages Beppe’s flatpicking workshop. I remember I was feeling so alone here because i had no other to share my music with and that I was searching for flatpicking seminars in Europe to be a participant..

So I found out Beppe Gambetta’s acoustic workshop in Slovenia. I knew Beppe that he was an innovator guitar player and that he was using alternative tunings too. But when i finally met me and jammed with him,he immediately became one of my guitar heros. He knows so much about flatpicking guitar, he’s a great guitar teacher and a great guy too. Btw,he even wrote a cook book! What a guy!

I’ve been there 4 times. Every year the seminar was more and more challenging.So many good guitar players from different countries, but this year was something special:

Master player Steve Kaufman was there as a teacher. Woa! During the weekly lessons at the seminar, the highlight is Friday’s Mask guitar contest, for the best guitarist. I won 2 times in 2004 and in 2008,3rd in 2003 and 2nd in 2006.It’s been a great experience for me.

CD: Yiannis Gougourelas Flatpicking Guitar Instrumentals is Yiannis’s debut CD. It features original as well arranged tunes- each lovingly and beautifully played. I cannot better the description at flatpicking merchatile: “solos are tasteful, yet creative & interesting ”

TT- So do you practise differently for something like the mask contest as opposed to the open contests?

YG- Well, actually what i do-and always did- on my playing and practicing too, is to try and play slow.
When I’m trying to play a tune, I always focus on it’s melody, and then I’m trying to build up my own thing around it.

I’ve never tried to play a tune note for note.Always wanted to have my own thing. Now,regarding the guitar contests…the only ones that i participated was Beppe’s European Mask contest.

As far as I know there aren’t any “official”guitar contests here in Europe like in the US where there are so many players and things are so competitive between them. One of my goals is to participate to Winfield some day!

Steve Kaufman has told me that in his Kamp the winner gets a $3500 guitar as a 1st prize! This year’s winner won a Ken Miller guitar. Now,THAT’S a big serious reason to go there and win.

TT - How about warmups and the usefulness of altered tunings, Yiannis?

YG- Warmups….We all seem to forget to warm up first.I do! Just some 2 minute hand-wrist stretching and it feels a lot better. But again,no fast tunes in the beginning!

As for alternate tunings I don’t use them as much as i would, but i usually like to detune the A string down to G when i play a bluesy tune in G,it gives me a lot of ringing notes. That’s what i used on my “Nine Pound Hammer Blues”on my cd.

There’s a tuning I like to try sometimes,and I have to confess that i stole it from Beppe Gambetta (he’s a master on that) a slight variation of the well known DADGAD. Instead of the A you have another G so it goes DGDGAD.It’s a great tuning! I don’t know how,but no matter what i play it sounds good with that tuning.

MP3 feature: Ragtime Annie

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Well arranged and executed with a definite focus on melody and tone. This is the song for Yiannis’s exclusive lesson- here.

TT - How was it, recording your first cd?

YG- As for my cd, at first i had in mind recording 2-3 tunes as samples of my work,but i ended up having 10 tunes together.I thought,why not making a good demo cd! I couldn’t find an upright bass player to help me out,so we used synth bass. There aren’t any mandolin players here either so I taught myself how to play the mandolin and I played a solo too on Bill Cheatum, trying to make the tune as “bluegrassy” as I could.

I would like to thank Bryan Kimsey, a great repairman, flatpicker and guy too. He was the one that brought my cd to Dan Miller of FGM to listen to it. Bryan like it, so he asked Dan if they could make a profile of me for the readers of FGM (Flatpicking Guitar Magazine).

TT- Speaking of handmade guitars- what are you playing at the moment? I heard you just bought a 1939 D18?

YG- The guitar that I’m currently play is a later 1939 D-18 model with rear shifted braces.It’s a great sounding example although it has been professionally refinished some years ago by a top noted guitar finisher.I like it because it has a very focused airy kind of sound,with great mids.

During the Gambetta’s seminar this year,i had the rare opportunity to test out a close friend’s original ’40 D-18 and ’37 D-18.Now those were just different guitars.The ’37 wasn’t any better,just different.It needed a different approach on picking,with a lighter touch,while the ’40 sounded pretty much like mine,but you had to “dig in” more to get a great sound.
UMGF has caused me that G.A.S. disease!

I bought,traded,sold so many guitar during the 2+ years I’ve been a subscriber.
What i currently mostly play for bluegrass is:
1993 Larrivee D-50 rosewood custom.My trusty Larrivee.I just love it.Bought it new,and has a unique sound to me.
Mike Vanden Alpine/Braz.Simply a great guitar.English luthier Mike Vanden custom made it back in 1987.The most resonant guitar Ive ever played.
1976 HD-28,
John Walker J-35 recreation.One of the best new guitars I’ve ever played.It sounds like a 40 year old guitar.Adirondack,hide glue construction.Gibson sound at it’s best.I love it.
The one I’m missing but had to let go is an Engelmann topped 1953 D-28 i used to have.
I also have some other fingerpicking smaller guitars here.

My “upcoming”pride and joy is a custom made Blazer&Henkes shaded top 1937 D-18 recreation.I’m patiently waiting 2 years now,and I’ll probably have to wait one more.I trust these guys 100%.I’m sure it’s going to be a great guitar!

TT- With your experience in D18s and D28s which do you prefer- or they work better in certain settings?

VG-Hmm, it depends on the band setting. I really consider myself a mahogany guy. A good sounding mahogany guitar gives me almost everything.It works great on a duo setting too.
I’ve had many good rosewood guitars that i finally sold to get mahogany guitars too.

Everything from scalloped braced,rear shifted,forward shifted or even straight braced seems to work for me. Btw, I *love*straight braced ’50s D-18s. They seem to “cut” very well in a band setting where some scalloped guitars tend to sound bassy.

One of my goals some day is to find a great sounding rosewood guitar someday. I know that Brazilian vintage Martins are skyrocketing…almost impossible to buy one now.

But there are many great luthiers out there who can reproduce that legendary sound.
I have something in mind, we’ll see. Speaking of mahogany guitar sounds, my two favorites are Tim Stafford’s pre war D-18 and David Grier’s sound with his ’55 D-18.Very opposite mahogany guitar sounds,but great.

MP3 feature: Appalachian Barn

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Another impressive tune from Yiannis. Speed and accuracy with again, a strong emphasis on melody.

TT- And do have a guitar for home use and one for the road?

IL- I always take 2 of my guitars with me.My trusty ’76 HD-28 and(now ex ’63 D-18). The ’39 D-18 mostly stays at home and i occasionally take it with on rehearsals. If there would be short distance gig i would take it.The Brazilian M.Vanden is great and loud for playing with a band. The J.Walker J-35 is great for playing it with another guitar player,as a duo.This guitar has tons of “character”.It’s my strummer when i’m home.

TT - What advice would you have for someone looking to take up flatpicking?

YG- For someone who wants to take up bluegrass guitar, I would suggest at first to get the “proper” guitar and i mean a good dreadnought guitar strung up with medium gauge strings and a heavy pick.

You have to be serious with your sound and the music you’re about to play. You just can’t have something in between. Imagine exactly the opposite,trying to play gypsy jazz guitar with a dreadnought strung with a set of mediums! No way!

Then you have to listen to a lot of that music! Steve Kaufman told me at the kamp that he forces his students to learn as many of flatpicking tunes they can learn. NEVER try to learn scales at first. The tunes themselves can teach you a lot,like scales,runs,etc.

One crucial detail: Try to pick slow.I think that everybody says that. By playing one tune slowly you’ll be able to play “clearer” and with more confidence in higher speeds.A metronome surely helps.

In the beginning speed is not the thing. You have to have a solid rhythm(it’s the most important for me),clean sound,timing.etc. Tim Stafford describes that as the most important 5 Ts for that music:

Timing,Tuning,Taste,Tone,Technique.

I think that says it all. Now,that’s a dvd i would recommend to every player out there.Very usefull.I’m Tim’s fan.

Links:

Beppe Dambetta http://www.beppegambetta.com/

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Jason Moss. Interview. Review.

August 28, 2008 admin Music

Jason Moss | 2008 | Interview |

Jason Moss

Jason Moss is a talented young singer/songwriter who’s looking to break out with heartfelt lyrics and a grasp of rhythm and melody. Jason was kind enough to chat to us and share some of his writing processes and how age is just a number.

TT- Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Jason. When I heard your music, especially Lost for some reason I thought ‘here’s someone who writes lyrics separately from his music’…. is that how you approach your songwriting?

MP3 feature: Come Back Home

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A poigiant picking structure keyed into the melody with seamless turnarounds.

JM- Actually, I tend to write most of my lyrics while creating the music. It’s tough to come up with lyrics when I don’t have a basic musical structure to follow – like trying to build a house without a blueprint. Once I come up with an idea of how I want the music to sound, writing lyrics is essentially just “filling in the blanks” – finding words that fit within the structure I’ve created, and communicate what I want to say.

“Lost” was written way back in eighth grade – before I even had an approach to songwriting! I was simply following my instincts; I remember sitting down, writing, and recording the first draft of that song all in one night. Some of my best songs have come from that method of writing – just pouring out whatever it is I’m feeling onto paper.

TT- Well, there goes my theory! I know when I try to write, it’s much easier to play and write because things tend to fit together better, so with you there’s a basic melody before the words make themselves known?

JM- Pretty much, yes. Sometimes I’ll write lyrics without any musical backing or melody in mind. These lyrics usually end up getting reused, sometimes months later, when I sit down with with a guitar or piano and write. Anything that isn’t put into a song right away eventually gets recycled, and pieced together with new material to create a finished song.

TT- How about your guitar playing? Do you see it as accompaniment for your lyrics?

MP3 feature: Face my fears

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Strum along anyone? Simple and understated, highlighting that breathy, angel like lyrical texture which is popular amongst male singer-songwriters.

JM- At this point, yes. Things didn’t start like that – I was a guitarist before I ever wrote my first set of lyrics. However, I’ve always tried to establish my vocals, and furthermore what I’m trying to say as the “lead” – like a guitar solo in a rock ballad. Everything else in the song surrounds and supports the lead, but never takes the listener’s main focus.

TT- So when you play out, what setup do you prefer? An onboard pickup or mics?

JM- Definitely an onboard pickup – I use a Fishman Rare Earth humbucker that I installed in my Taylor 210. I like to move around on stage – and the pickup gives me more freedom with less feedback.

TT- Jason, I’ve heard some comments that you’re a little young especially for the genre of music you’re creating. How would you respond to that?

JM- Age is only a number, and in fact – I’ve been able to use it to my advantage in the way that I market myself. People find it incredible that a sixteen year-old kid can create acoustic music with feeling and depth, rather than scream into a microphone, or turn up the distortion on an electric guitar (which is cool too!). I don’t think I’m too young to be creating this genre of music, as a lot of what I’m writing about is based on personal experience. If kids my age can find comfort and support in hearing about someone who’s going through similar experiences, then I must be doing something right.

Jason Moss

Links:
Jason Moss http://www.jasonmossmusic.com/images/myspace/website.png

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Ida Landsberg. Interview. Review.

August 23, 2008 admin Music

Ida Landsberg | 2008 | Artist Interview

Ida Landsberg possesses a uniquely unforgettable voice and vocal talent. With a classical training in singing, piano, flute, music theory, Ida always seems to find her own particular way to portray the vocal element of a song. I first heard her on Beautiful love, I was struck by how light and bouncy her vocals were yet retained an intense level of expressiveness. Then I realised many of the songs consistent of just a guitar and Ida’s vocals. Yet they remained harmonically rich despite the use of space between musical motifs and phrases. Ida kindly took some time to speak to us about how a vocalist would like to workin the framework of a solo guitar accompaniment.

TT -I know it’s strange to interview a vocalist like yourself for a guitar blog, but I really feel that a strong vocal segment can enhance a guitar line- have you worked with any guitarists before and what was that experience like?

IL- Actually my musical activity in the last years was pretty much based on a collaboration with a guitarist, Simone Salvatore. We met 8 years ago and put together a jazz quartet, but first for budget reasons and after for free choice, we reduced the group to a trio (voice, sax, guitar) and then to a duo (voice and guitar).

Before we tried to play in duo, my guitarist always feared that something could miss in the ear of the audience, a bass, the drums or the completeness of a piano – which, I think, is the biggest enemy of any guitar player. And so our work on the songs that we were playing was mainly concentrated on compensating other instruments that could be missing in our musical ensemble.

It took several years to Simone developing the walking bass, so that nobody would tell that a bass was missing and now he is working on imitating the big band brass section and some rhythmical percussion elements.

But all these years, because of our “fear of the silence” – the fear that there couldn’t be “enough sound” to satisfy an audience – we tried to imitate a big group of musicians that accompanies a singer.

In these last months, something changed in our philosophy. We didn’t want to be anymore “a singer accompanied by another instrument”, we wanted to become two soloists that communicate together. We finally stopped fearing the silence and even started to use that silence as a musical element, the silence that is able to enhance vocal lines or the vocal lines that underline the expression of guitar sounds.

Simone Salvatore Simone is an italian guitarist currently playing in several jazz, funk and R&B bands. However. his “special project” started in 2000 with Ida Landsberg in an effort to play in smaller ensembles either with Marco Guidolotti on sax or as a vocal and guitarist. Simone also writes for AXE, a strictly guitar oriented magazine and is an IBANEZ guitars and LINE6 amp endorser.

And I must say that it is a big, but very interesting challenge that finally brings a real dialogue into our music. Because it allows us to transform the voice more into an instrument and let the guitar feel much more like vocals.

When people hear about “silence” in music they’re tempted to think that the music gets simpler or easier, but I mean exactly the contrary: the silence gives us the possibility to make our music more complex. It allows us to invent rhythmical patterns, to create tensions and to express our full virtuosity because it leaves space to both instruments.

And all this is possible with a guitar because with its warm strings it mixes very well with the voice. A piano / voice duo sounds much more banal. So I can say that my experience with guitarists is very good because it stimulates a lot my musical development.

TT- Do you think the reason a piano/ vocal combination sounds flat is the lack of ‘space’? I ask because that’s what I love about your recordings… the lovely space in the music.

MP3 feature: Beautiful love With a quick, bouncy, airy, vocal delivery Ida has pushed this song into an upbeat, contempory Jazz piece.

IL- Well, I think it is a combination of “lack of space” and a simple question of timbre. Piano players are used to be autonomous and this is what you hear when they’re playing with other instruments.

They’re even too complete in playing all together, bass, chords, melody and rhythm, so that a voice easily can become superfluous, but if you find a good piano player, he will be able to reduce and to give a chance to the vocals to express themselves.

Above all, I think it is a fact of tone colour, the voice and the guitar have a timbre that sounds very alive. I cannot say that it is because both instruments are “string” instruments but probably because both singer and guitar player have a very direct contact with the string while producing a sound, the singer uses its own body part and a guitar player can influence the sound by touching a cord in a certain way, by hitting, pinching, sliding or muting it, by changing the position of the string contact. A piano always creates the same sound, unless a piano player – like in the contemporary classical music – enters into the piano and starts hitting and scratching the chords by his own.

TT- I see, do you have advice for guitarists who accompany vocalists?

IL- Accompanying a vocalist for a guitar player is a very interesting but hard exercise too, because the guitar player should be able to play in all the tonalities that the singer chooses and the singer will always choose the most difficult ones for every instrumentalist, because he needs to find the tonality that best stresses the characteristics of a song.

An intimate song will be sung in a comfortable tone range for the vocalist, a dramatic song will be sung in a higher tone range. Vocalists need to make a precise research on the best tonality to choose and often a minor second will change the sound of voice and let it become smoother or sharper. Other instrumentalists will choose the “easiest” tonalities while they’re playing, singers won’t, they only choose the most beautiful ones.

When you accompany vocalists in small ensembles in a “jazzy” or acoustic non conventional way (I mean in a way that isn’t the classical folk songs beach guitar accompaniment), there are several things to respect.

My experience is that songs become much more interesting when the guitar avoids playing chord voicings that repeat the vocal lines. And this isn’t that easy because (jazz) singers usually use to modify the melody, so that the guitar player always needs to think “in the future” in order to avoid exactly the notes that will be sung by the vocalist.

In fact, in our album with original songs that we are recording in this moment, the guitar will play a lot of “colours” that are far away from the vocal lines. Other important things are the volume of the guitar or the choice of the guitar sound, that should be similar to the timbre of the voice.

And an advice that works for all instruments and which, at my opinion, is the most important element of all music playing: interaction. Play with your vocalist as if you were talking with him/her. The secret of any really touching music is telling a (musical) story – also if there aren’t any words to say.

TT- So what have you got planned for the future?

IL- We have a very concrete plan for the future: we’re just working on my first album with original songs – some say they sound like Bacharach, which for me would be an indescribable complement, where the guitar will appear, but without being the main instrument.

In this album will appear a lot of other instruments like the piano, a brass section, a sax, a trumpet, bass, drums, percussions, solo guitar with the collaboration of great musicians like Frank Gambale (guitar), Ferruccio Spinetti (db), Andy Gravish (trumpet), Marco Caudai (bass) and others.

While writing the songs I noticed that it is astonishing how much the song style is influenced by the instrument on which you compose it. My songs are pretty much piano based and use typical and comfortable piano voicings and patterns, while the songs of my guitar player use the typical guitar way of writing and accompanying.

The piano voicings I used are almost impossible to play for a guitar because of the extensions or rhythmical patterns, but we can obtain the most interesting result by trying to play my songs in the voice-guitar duo.

The guitar needs to find a way to imitate the piano voicings and will use different tone colours, clapping techniques, harmonics and unusual positions on the guitar to have the same result. I can only recommend guitar players to do the same, they will get a new musical richness.

TT- Any plans to add other instruments into the mix?

MP3 feature: You Don’t Know what Love is In this slower tempo, Ida has adopted a more dense vocal delivery. The interplay between her voice and the archtop is much like a swing from counterpoint to accompaniment.

IL- Actually, while playing our standard jazz repertoire, we already play with many other instruments, it always depends on the club’s or theatre’s requests and (obviously) of their budget. Our most frequent ensemble is the trio. And there are different aspects to respect for the guitar while playing with different instruments.

In our Sax-Voice-Guitar trio, the guitar can play fully and use all the common accompanying styles with walking bass and full chord extensions, because it plays with two soloists. The thing changes when the “baritone sax” starts to imitate the bass lines or when we play with a double bass.

The guitar needs to reduce its own bass lines, to play chords in the medium tone range and try to create a rhythmical section together with the bass. While playing with a piano, the guitar needs to reduce to a maximum, the piano will take over the complete accompanying and the guitar will become exclusively a solo guitar.

I think the most difficult is playing with a drum without a bass. The guitar player needs to split himself and create a rhythmical section with the drums by imitating the bass – but without forgetting the chords that fill the song.

Links: Ida Landsberg www.idalandsberg.net Simone Salvatore http://www.myspace.com/simonesalvatore

4 comments Ida Landsberg, jazz, mp3, vocals

Ken Bonfield. Interview. Review.

July 24, 2008 admin Music

KEN BONFIELD| 2008 | Interview & review|

Ken Bonfield

Ken Bonfield has always been on list of top guitar players from his 1999 inclusion on Lights out and his work on PBS and NPR, his artistry and mastery of various styles is evident in his work. I was really priveledged to be able to interview Ken and post up some MP3s of his excellent playing!

Do stay tuned as Ken gives us an exclusive lesson complete with Tab!

| Black Dog | – I was immediately reminded of Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn at their best with this bluesy-folk tune. If you like Bermuda Triangle Exit, you’ll apprecite this tune!
| Getaway | – A slow aire in the Celtic vein, this slowly evolves into a melancholic masterpiece.

More sound clips at the end of the Interview.

TT- Ken, whenever I’ve heard your pieces, you always sound like you were born with a guitar in your hands… but really how did you start out with the guitar?

Ken: The short answer is that I didn’t start playing guitar until I got one for my 19th birthday, 34 years ago. I dove right in, started playing about 3-4 hours a day, mostly Gordon Lightfoot, Jackson Browne, and John Prine.

TT- So it’s practise practise practise?

Ken: More like play play play. I don’t like to call it practice much, I think it makes it sound like work, and I’ve always played the guitar because I enjoyed it. The fact that others seem to dig what I do is cool, but I’d be playing regardless That said I do manage to get my fingers on a guitar 2-3 hours all the time and quite often 4-5 hours a day

TT: So do you have a fixed practise routine?

Ken bonfield Ken: The short answer is no. There’s no daily routine, per se, but I always play some scales and do some excercises, work on whatever new tune might be appearing on my guitar and experimenting. It’s funny, but since I don’t tour like I used to 35-40 weeks a year, and I’m selective about gigs, I spend most of my time ‘noodling’ trying to find new pieces or find new twists in old material.

I don’t really put together a show until about a week out from the show; my fingers are always in good shape, and it seems that the shows stay fresh. I can pretty much dust off anything and perform it inside a week. If there’s anything fixed about my practice it’s that I really always try to find something new every day.

TT: And you have anything to inspire that new found music?

Ken: Guitars inspire me. New guitars, old guitars, guitars strung with different strings or tuned to a new interval, all that jazzes me up about the guitar. A new tuning, anything can really trip the creative piece.

TT: So different flavours of guitars for different music?

Ken: That really hasn’t been true until lately. At one point I had 3 acoustics, not really a lot for someone who does what I do, and they were all really good guitars, but I realized that they all did the same thing pretty much; they were different versions of the same thing.

guitar cases So, I got rid of one, a Santa Cruz, and then modified a Carruth OM to be a High string, then tuned a Carruth OM down a whole step in standard and put heavier gauge strings on it, then I got a Carruth Baritone that I tune C-C in standard, then up for alternate tunings. So my three main guitars now are all very different, the each have their own palette of colors.

I’m taking this a step further. To celebrate my birthday I got a nice little Breedlove 12-string and a Regal Roundneck Wood Bodied Dobro. If things go well with the 12 I’ll probably ask Al Carruth to build a Baritone 12 for me.

TT: wow, that’ll be some guitar! You seem to have a close relationship and an affinity for Al’s guitars…

Ken: Al is my guy. There are many wonderful luthiers out there, but Al just seems to build Ken Bonfield guitars; they all have balance, but sound big, and the trebles on Al’s steel strings just sound fat. I can’t tell you how many times people think I’m playing nylon strings, but I’m not.

His guitars are also really comfortable for me; I’ve had problems with carpal tunnel and tendinitis in the past, but I can play for hours on Al’s guitars and feel fresh and pain free; part of it is the set-up I’m sure, but his guitars are very ergonomic.

It’s very cool to be able to work with someone who really understands how I hear guitar, and what I need the guitar to do. He’s very patient, he’s come to visit me and talk to me about what I want; it’s really an incredible relationship. I’m very lucky.

| Opal’s Delight | – Jaunty fingerstyle with melodies you wouldn’t necessarily expect in such a piece. A great composition altogether.
| Stealin’ | – Blues-ragtime piece with those great ascending bass tones.

Links:
Ken Bonfield http://www.kenbonfield.com/
Al Carruth Guitars http://www.alcarruthluthier.com/