What’s the Matter with the Mill

I made this simple arrangement of What’s the Matter with the Mill years ago for <a href=”https://kennethrainey.com/writing/my-wildly-unsuccessful-book/”>my tunebook</a>, based on a Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys recording from a September 29, 1936, session in Chicago. Coincidentally, that same session produced Wills’ first recording of the Western Swing standard Steel Guitar Rag. The tune is a…

Wish I’d Stayed in the Wagon Yard

I made this simple arrangement of Wish I’d Stayed in the Wagon Yard years ago for my tunebook, based on Lowe Stokes’ recording from a November 1st, 1929, session in Atlanta, released as Columbia 15557-D. Stokes’ recording is the only version listed under the title ‘Wish I’d Stayed in the Wagon Yard’ in Tony Russell’s comprehensive…

Liberty for two mandolins, with tablature

Here’s a simple two-mandolin arrangement of the warhorse fiddle tune Liberty. With the exception of the pickup to the ‘A’ strain, both the melody and harmony parts can be played entirely in first position. You can hear the arrangement via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post.    

President Garfield’s Hornpipe for two mandolins

Don Stiernberg encouraged me to put this two-mandolin arrangement of President Garfield’s Hornpipe together, and offered some helpful tips on how it could be improved. It’s a fairly straightforward arrangement — one instrument takes the fiddle tune melody, the other plays a high harmony line above the melody. There are two versions of the score here:…