I heard a blow-away great concert by one of the greatest fiddler-innovators ever, Darol Anger. His violin playing was a huge inspiration to me in high school (okay… so it was a long time ago…), so much so that my wife when she hears him play, says, “he sounds like you.” I always correct her and say that no, I sound like him, after years of imitating him.

Anyway, his ability to make a violin groove, with chops and rhythmic parts is still great all this time later. I came home and had to finish working up a song, a happy-go-lucky tune I’m calling Rollin’ for lack of a better name.

[Edit: Download removed… see more recent version]

7 tracks A section, 4 tracks B section, all live, single pass. I’m switching back and forth between microphone and pickup, and throw a chorus on the melody. It gets me closer to a distortion guitar sound without going all the way there. The ‘feedback’ sound at the end of along note is produced by playing very close to the bridge. Classical violinists call it ponticello, but I use the effect as though I was a screaming guitar. And the bass, as in many of my pieces, is played first at normal range, and then dropped down 2 octaves when the loop repeats.

The performance isn’t quite where I want it, so I’ll post another version before long.

[Edit: remixed the piece on April 4]
[Edit: re-recorded the piece on June 11 and posted]