This week's winner (by one vote) was Blind Mary, which is an O'Carolan tune. Here is a link to the notation, on an O'Carolan site. Here's a link to the tune on thesession.org Here are some You Tube videos: Our own David Hansen from earlier this year:
I recorded my version of Blind Mary exactly a year ago, based on a three-part harmony arrangement by David James which can be found here. I think these harmonies are really nice, as they give the accompanists something to get their teeth into -- this is a very slow air, so the lead is quite leisurely, while the two harmony voices have about three times as many notes as the melody. Since then I've also come across much simpler harmonies by hatao here, but I haven't tried these yet. Martin
Blind Mary
So this is my version , play the guitar on these tracks also , I love waking up drinking coffee and playing mando , I've never heard this song before , but it's beautiful and happy to learn it. Nice job Martin , looking forward to listening to every one else's version thanks OB
Another polished performance David which got me started on this. Martin a very complex arrangement which must have taken some putting together. Thanks for the link to the simpler version which is what I used. I had planned to do the two part harmony but I'm short of time so I used the chords for guitar accompaniment on my £10 bargain basement car boot sale classical guitar. Beautiful tone as ever dusty amps. Obiwan - like the tremolo early on and was hoping for more of it later on. So here is my guitar and mandolin version.
Wow, James, the way the guitar and mandolin fit together in your arrangement is really stunning. If I could play guitar with this one, that's how I'd want to do it. I learned this one a while ago because of the beautiful rendition on David's You Tube channel. There are so many inspiring versions this week. I enjoyed them all.
When I first heard this tune I was not too enamoured with it but after listening to the versions above it started to grow on me so I gave it a try using the simpler version by Hatao that Martin found. David's version is very lush with the concertina and organ filling in around the mandolin. Martin's has all the intricacies of the 3 part harmony with the different string voices that make it sound old and baroquey. Dusty has that clear tone and pure rendition of the melody. OB, your tremolo, as James indicated, is very good and set your piece off nicely. James, your mandolin playing and your guitar work fit together very nicely as Marcy also noted. Marcy, very nice playing, I particularly liked the slides you used. So after listening to all those great versions here's my go at it. Guitar and mandolin. I'm still not happy with my guitar backing techniques in general so will set my goals of reaching a higher level, a la James in the future, ie some decade...
This is the Hatao version with some added rythmn.
Maudlin, that was a nice arrangement, and a nice lion picture never hurts. Bob, I think your guitar backing sounded just fine, but James really did come up with something special this week with his classical guitar backing. His version made me want to learn this tune. Marcy, great job as usual. I love all the double stops. They made for a great solo arrangement. Nice job Obiwan, I had one of those lovely mornings where I was able to wake up slowly with my coffee while recording this tune. Dustyamps, you had excellent clarity and tone on your solo version. Martin, you are always finding neat, often complex, arrangements of these tunes. And of course, David's version was an excellent example to get us all started.
I wanted more time to make this a better rendition but I ran out of time and I am going to post something every week from now on... but I spent more time trying to learn how to use my new laptop and protools.. I ran out of time. I have no idea how to do videos with multiple tracks... hopefully I will figure that out in my next videos. -Melvin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzza7ZgLSbI
Laura, your tremolo makes that arrangement so beautiful. Melvin, that version has a very pretty harmony part. It also seems to have a slightly darker or sadder mood to it than the others. I like it a lot.
I recorded this beautiful O'Carolan tune in two versions: -first a beginner's play-along in slow motion -then I tried to speed it up a tiny little bit
Very good, Christian. Mandolin and guitar sound beautiful. The beginner's play-along is certainly very useful.
I like both of these Christian. The second one is more enjoyable to listen to but the first one is useful for ppl learning it. Good stuff.
Thanks Frithjof and Ginny!
