Nick's Front Porch Mandolin

**nick delmore** · Nov-26-2022, 3:58pm

Here's a couple of bluegrassy type tunes I wrote a a music camp a few years back:

MB_Ducks On A String.mp3

MB_Trouble At The Border.mp3

**nick delmore** · Nov-29-2022, 6:42pm

Here's a live rendition of a pair of tunes. The first one was inspired after visiting the Lewis & Clark interpretive center & the second is my attempt at a Maritime-type feel.

The Overlander's Trek-Down East Reel.mp3

**nick delmore** · Dec-02-2022, 10:03pm

Here's a new-ish tune. I haven't quite got my fingers around this one yet, but it's getting close.

Big Mod.mp3

**nick delmore** · Dec-05-2022, 8:28pm

Unfortunately the bass player had something come up & couldn't make the rehearsal. We went ahead and recorded it anyway. The guitar player did his best but this tune really misses the bass line. Sometimes I don't know what to think about my original stuff but I've always liked this tune. It would be a favourite even if I didn't write it. Composed on the night the guitarist's wife gave birth, to young Milo, of course.

Young Milo.mp3

**nick delmore** · Dec-09-2022, 12:56am

Here's another pretty straight ahead bluegrassy type tune.

Around The Bend.mp3

**nick delmore** · Dec-13-2022, 7:43pm

Most of the stuff I've come up with happened when I did not necessarily sit down to write a tune. A lot of them came when I was actually intending to do something else, like learn or practice another tune. I'd come up with some variation or even make a mistake & an idea suddenly appears. Anyway, a couple of times I did try to write something and something specific at that. The first tune, Breaktime was written as a little ditty to play as the band was announcing an intermission. The second one was meant to be a short piece to open a show, kind of like how Monroe used "Watermelon Hanging On The Vine". I reworked that title for my tune. It's meant to be played as fast as possible but this is a demo version for the band to learn, so it's at a pretty moderate tempo. You'll just have to imagine it lightning fast.

Break Time.mp3

Pine Cone Hanging On The Tree.mp3

**nick delmore** · Dec-16-2022, 3:23pm

Obviously I did not write these tunes but the arrangement is fairly original, I think. On the set lists we used to write this one as "Delilah's Pink Godfather". I will say one other thing about this medley which is that digging into "The Pink Panther" was a ton of fun. It gave me a whole new appreciation for Henry Mancini.

Delilah-Godfather-Pink Panther.mp3

**nick delmore** · Dec-22-2022, 2:11am

Here's another one of my old time tunes. I was thinking about what makes some tunes old time & others bluegrass. I'm not really sure. One type of tune seems to lend itself to having the melody played over & over while the other seems to want different lead instruments & improvisation. That's about all I can come up with for now. Anyway, hope you enjoy this one.

Clear Sailing.mp3

**nick delmore** · Dec-29-2022, 3:19pm

This one happened when I started playing around with a minor version of "Devil's Dream".

MB_Devil's Nightmare.mp3

**nick delmore** · Jan-05-2023, 2:07am

When I first started playing it was in a period where I had bought a camper, a very cool handmade one by a retired carpenter/electrician. He took the box off of a 1962 Ford pickup & built the camper right onto the frame. Very professional job. Anyway, we loved to explore the backroads & I loved playing in the passenger seat while my girlfriend drove. We went all over western Canada & the U.S. Somewhere on the road I wrote this tune after we came across a sign warning "Crooked Bridge Ahead". For the life of me, I can't remember where that was but at least I got this tune out of it.

MB_Crossing The Crooked Bridge.mp3

**nick delmore** · Jan-12-2023, 7:10pm

Here's something some of you may find interesting. This is a tune fragment. I have to go back & finish this one day. This recording is just me improvising on an idea that found it's way under my fingers. You can hear me trying different things, composing in real time. I hadn't heard this in a few years. I think the idea is worth reviving & making a finished tune out of it.

(1).mp3

**Dave Hicks** · Jan-12-2023, 7:36pm

Originally Posted by nick delmore

When I first started playing it was in a period where I had bought a camper, a very cool handmade one by a retired carpenter/electrician. He took the box off of a 1962 Ford pickup & built the camper right onto the frame. Very professional job. Anyway, we loved to explore the backroads & I loved playing in the passenger seat while my girlfriend drove. We went all over western Canada & the U.S. Somewhere on the road I wrote this tune after we came across a sign warning "Crooked Bridge Ahead". For the life of me, I can't remember where that was but at least I got this tune out of it.

MB_Crossing The Crooked Bridge.mp3

Very mysterious sounding - a full arrangement would suit it well.

D.H.

**nick delmore** · Jan-18-2023, 2:55am

I posted a version of Maple Road earlier but it wasn't the one I was looking for. I thought it was a bit too fast, felt a bit frantic. This version doesn't have any fiddle but I think it has the right pacing. It just feels better.

1 (3).mp3

**nick delmore** · Jan-26-2023, 3:02am

I wrote these two tunes as a medley. I'm not sure how I wound up with two pieces that just seemed to belong together. I'm a bit "misty" on all that but they both came out in the same session. Writing tunes, at least for me, can be almost like a drug trip sometimes. I get lost in the process & can't really remember how these tunes came into being. There's a kind of zone, a headspace that I get into, almost always when I sit down to do something else, practice or learn a new piece or whatever. Writing tunes has always been somewhat of a mysterious process for me. Where do they come from? How is they just suddenly show up?

MistyMtn-TheGatheringStorm.mp3

**nick delmore** · Feb-03-2023, 12:56am

There is a long-ass story that goes with this one, which I'll spare you but I will say if you heard it, the weird timing in this tune might make more sense.

Too Much Tequila (Can Keel Ya).mp3

**nick delmore** · Feb-09-2023, 12:47am

I called this one Spy Hop bcs it has a kind of spy movie music vibe. The term Spy Hop also describes that thing whales do when they go perfectly vertical with their heads out of the water. It's thought they do that bcs they want to see what's going on above the water line.

MB_Spy Hop.mp3

**nick delmore** · Feb-15-2023, 7:15pm

Here's a little blues I wrote for a student to play. It's probably the simplest tune I've ever written but I'm told that, sometimes, simple is good. Hopefully this is one of those occasions.

MB_Becky's Blues.mp3

**nick delmore** · Feb-20-2023, 5:41pm

I've written some tunes to a pre-existing set of chords. In fact, I've still got a few of those chord progressions waiting for a melody but mostly the melody comes first, then I go back & hunt down the chords. I come from a blues/bluegrass background mostly with some klezmer/eastern Europe instincts I attribute to my mother's Ukrainian side of the family.

So most of the time the chords to my stuff are fairly obvious but this one took me a while to sort out. The tune's in three parts, with the "C" part being a variation of the "A" section. Anyway, just in case anyone is inclined to learn this melody, here are the weird chords that go with it:

A Part:

Em/// F#/// Em/G/ B7///
Em/// F#m/// G/// A7/// (repeat)

B Part:

C/// Am/// B7/// Em///

C Part:

Em/// F/// Em/// Dm///
C/// G/// Am/// B7///

MB_Waiting For Zev.mp3

**nick delmore** · Feb-21-2023, 2:25am

Sorry, lost the second half of the "B" part while editing. Should be: C/// Am/// B7/// Em/// C/// Am/// B7/// B7///

**nick delmore** · Mar-02-2023, 2:14am

This is kind of an oldtime tune, I guess. It's unusual in that it only has two chords, F#m & C#m. I think it modulates in the "B" part, I'm not really sure.

MB_Galloping Willy .mp3

**Dave Hicks** · Mar-06-2023, 11:45am

Rather Monroe-ish! Monrovian? Monroesque?

D.H.

**nick delmore** · Mar-06-2023, 7:16pm

Originally Posted by Dave Hicks

Rather Monroe-ish! Monrovian? Monroesque?

D.H.

Truth be told, the greater influence on that was probably the player that's affected me the most, Nolan Faulkner. His Old Homestead album "The Legendary Kentucky Mandolin of Nolan Faulkner" has been kind of my mandolin bible.

**nick delmore** · Mar-17-2023, 6:32pm

This is untitled, one of the last tunes I wrote before the hand injury I'm still recovering from. It should be played faster, I just didn't have time to get my fingers around it so this is basically a first take right after I got all the notes straight.

1 (69).mp3