Ashoken Farewell (by Jay Unger, ©1984 Flying Fish Records, Inc.)
For JL (by Russ Barenberg, ©1983 Sea Cow Music)
Old Joe Clark (Traditional)

GENERAL INFO:
I recorded these tunes with the Roland VS880 digital recorder that I borrowed from my picking pals Mike Stangeland and Kim Davis. It was all I could do to get the dang thing turned on, so there are no effects used, not even reverb. I arranged each of the tunes for two guitars (I play both parts), and I used my Collings D1-A. The mic really brought out the pick noise from my regular pick (Clayton Gold .94mm), so I switched to a big fat Golden Gate mandolin pick. I mixed the tunes on the fly into Cakewalk with a lot of help from my friends (thanks Kim).

Ashoken Farewell (by Jay Unger, ©1984 Flying Fish Records, Inc.)
I first learned this tune several years ago when I played mandolin in a group called The Mandolin Band. We never really worked it out, but when I began to study flatpicking guitar, I came up with this arrangement.

Lest I be accused of fingerpicking (can I use that word here?), there are a few places in this tune (and in For JL) where I use my second or third finger to pick a note on a non-adjacent flatpicked string. Chicken pickin' is still flatpicking, right?

For JL (by Russ Barenberg, ©1983 Sea Cow Music)
This is such a beautifully simple melody. I first heard it in Russ Barenberg's class at the 1999 Steve Kaufman Guitar Camp. He played it again by himself that night in concert. I immediately learned it and began to work out an arrangement. The first version came to me right away and the third came about a year later. The slightly Spanish sounding second version was the last touch. It's pretty much a chord based solo with a few vague references to the actual melody. I had recorded the entire tune, but left a hole in it for a mandolin solo. That didn't pan out so I stuck the guitar solo in at the last minute, but I think it turned out pretty nicely.

On the main guitar, I play the melody capoed at the third fret out of the E position. The accompaniment guitar is played in open G. The strange little fiddle tune at the end is "Dry and Dusty" (the Adam Granger version). It's the only E fiddle tune I've ever learned, and since For JL is played out of the E position, I thought they sounded good together.

Old Joe Clark (Traditional)
I was hesitant to include this one because it's kind of rough, but what the heck. This is Plec. No place for the anal retentive. It ain't perfect but it was fun. The low, slow 3/4 time OJC intro is my twist on a tune that's been played a xillion times.