Norman Blake Tunes

[Joe Dodson]

Mark, I'd really enjoy dropping in on you during one of my trips between Houston and Dallas. Love your taste in music and I know I'd enjoy picking a few with you sometime.

[Jim Roberts]

Mike,

A number of years ago, I think I saw you play “Bright Days” at the Kansas State Fiddling Championship in Lawrence. If I’m not mistaken, you won the mandolin championship contest that year with this tune. I play this tune from time to time and think about how lovely your picking sounded that day in the park just south of downtown Lawrence.

Super nice pickin’ in the video, too! Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Black]

Thanks Jim, you are correct I did win that year playing Bright Days. I've always liked how that tune uses the full spectrum of low end as well as the high end. Which makes it a perfect tune for hearing how a mandolin sounds.

[Mark Gunter]

Wow Mike, awesome picking and great sounding mandolin! Thanks for sharing with us.

Mark, I'd really enjoy dropping in on you during one of my trips between Houston and Dallas. Love your taste in music and I know I'd enjoy picking a few with you sometime.

Joe, that would be awesome. Palmer is just a quick stop off 45 about 15 minutes south of the metroplex. Send me a PM a day or two ahead of time and we'll make it happen, but I'll probably move out of Palmer to parts unknown around the end of September.

[lowtone2]

I was recording a couple of tunes for a customer so they could hear their mandolin in the white before I put finish on it, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and record a couple of Norman Blake's tunes for this thread too.

Here's Norman's Bright Days


And here's my attempt to do Norman's Third Street Gypsy Rag.

Hey! Quit screwing around and finish my mandolin! Wow, puts it down in the chair and it's still ringing.

Nice playing, mandolin sounds great, and I need to learn 3rd Street Gypsy Rag.

[MarkusSpiel]

I learned another Blake tune. This time one of nancy‘s.

[Mike Buesseler]

Nicely played! And what a pretty F-2!

[MarkusSpiel]

Nicely played! And what a pretty F-2!

Thank you, Mike!

[tmsweeney]

Here's Dry Grass on the High Fields on a Ratliff Mandocello over Octave and Mandola chops.

[Don Grieser]

tmsweeney: I really like your playing and arrangement of Dry Grass in the High Fields. Cool blend of instruments and creative video too. Great tune that I need to learn.

[tmsweeney]

There are 3 version of "Dry Grass on the High Fields" that I know of

on "The Fields of November" probably the most well know version with the fiddle taking the melody
on "Old and New" this version has more of traditional Bluegrass sound with mandolin
and "Live at McCabes" - this is Norman on guitar with Nancy taking the melody on Cello and what I based my version on.