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...

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 perfo...

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 ...

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 enoug...

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 Ha...

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 ...

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 m...

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 Blue...

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 come...

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...

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...