Andrew Lardner

Peter Lang

Here's a teaser as to what's coming March 1st. Peter Lang stands among the 3 majorly influential fingerstyle artists of the late 60s/early 70s, Kottke/Fahey/Lang. This is of course, just my opinion.

Many years ago I found some rare pressings of "The Thing at the Nursery Room Window" as part of an estate auction. Two copies were sent by Kerry Fahey of Takoma records (no relation to John!) ...

Maple Leaf Rag

Dave Van Ronk's arrangement of "Maple Leaf Rag" was first released on the album Sunday Street in 1976. I thought it was about time there was a proper note-for-note transcription of this iconic arrangement.

View the video of my performance on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKGdBBOEWqs...

Lion

Hello Patrons. This months post will cover John Fahey's recording of "Lion" as played on the Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick record. Here is a link if you don't have it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZKg2EFfxHA

Fahey once referred to "Lion" as the great Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins medley, or something along...

Thank you

Hello Patrons. I wanted to say thanks to everyone for their support so far. When I started the Patreon account I had it in mind that I would just use it as an experiment for one or two songs. The growing support over the first few months was enough for me to commit to doing this through January 1. At that point I was going to reflect and see if it was something I had the time and energy to cont...

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

Joseph Spence’s arrangement of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” was recorded during a live performance at the Boston Blues Society in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November of 1972. It was first released in 1980 on the record Living On the Hallelujah Side.

I wanted to record something holiday inspired this year and thought Spence’s unique take on “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town�...

Cincinnati Flow Rag

This one has been a long time favorite of mine. I've heard a lot of people play Gary Davis and it never sounds quite right. I believe a big part of his sound is his unique use of fingerings in the left hand. Most, if not all chords with a note on the 6th string will be fretted using the thumb. He moves around a lot and uses some very unique voicings, check out the D7 in measure 47!

He oft...

Lonnie Johnson, additional thoughts...

It's hard to believe almost two weeks have passed since the last update and Rev. Gary Davis November is right around the corner. I hope most of you have gotten the chance to look through "Got the Blues for the West End." I had a realization this morning that although Lonnie's 12 string and its special stringing is very critical to his tone, the piece is still VERY enjoyable to play on a six-str...

Lonnie Johnson

Uploaded to this post for our Oct 1 issue is an essay that covers a brief history of Lonnie Johnson's career, and an in depth discussion regarding his tunings and the way he strung his guitar. The pdf also includes my sheet music for "Got the Blues for the West End," and a spreadsheet showing the chronology of his recordings and tunings. I'll have more to say on this later, as there have been d...

Got the Blues for the West End

Hello Patrons,

Coming October 1st I will be uploading my score for Lonnie Johnson's "Got the Blues for the West End" along with an essay theorizing his use of an alternate tuning for most of his early career. Part of his trademark sound comes from his low string, which uses a low D paired with a high octave string tuned to F#! Amazingly, none of the previous books or any commentary  ...

Small Gift

Hi everyone. I've been reflecting on the idea of keeping this regular through the end of the year, with something new posted the first week of every month. This will be challenging, but we're going to give it a shot. I like what we've started here, it gives those of you out there who may not want weekly lessons access to some of my private work, and also helps build an alternate community where...

West Coast Blues

I've spent years thinking about this one, it wouldn't be a stretch to say it's been well over a decade. The key to his sound is the use of the thumb on adjacent eighth notes, usually preceding to, and directly on the beat. To add to the complexity of this move, he is usually pinching an additional upper melody or harmony note to accompany the bass notes. When looking back at all of the transcri...