June 4, 2021

This week a few things happened that sent me back to my formative years as a guitar player. It started with Student Upload For Review where SFlier played through an instrumental arrangement of Today (while The Blossoms Still Cling To The Vine), written by Randy Sparks, who started The New Christy Minstrels in the early 1960s. The song took me back to my days at Echo Mountain Ranch playing some early folk songs with a couple older musicians. Another song we played was Dona, Dona, which jumped into my head as I started the video. Not sure I remembered it correctly but it set the stage for some improvising.

I have still not gotten to SFlier’s review, and I offer up a couple excuses along the way, the main one being that I think I need to do a more comprehensive lesson on Today in the near future. This dereliction of duty also extends to another missing Review, specifically of Clap by Steve Howe. Another member uploaded his take on that last summer and I didn’t feel confident commenting on it until now, since I recently finished my lesson on Steve Howe’s classic ragtime/pyrotechnic tune.

So those Reviews will come along soon, as well as some new lessons next week, if all goes well.

See you next week,

Neil