Peanut's Last Ride

What follows is the improbable story of the new Mel Bay book/CD combination School of Mandolin: Irish Mandolin (21546BCD), an unusual friendship and a fun tune. Several years ago, I met mandolin enthusiast Michael Gregory on the Internet. Mike is a retired mathematics professor, an Irish music devotee, a mandolin player and builder, and a C#D accordion player from North Dakota. Before long I had recruited him to write the regular beginning Irish mandolin column for this webzine. This has become one of the most popular articles here at mandolinsessions.com.

Using email as our only contact, Mike and I developed a friendship over the following months and we soon decided to write the above referenced Irish mandolin book together. Combining my book writing skills and Mike’s logical “math” brain with our shared experiences as beginning mandolin players, we wrote what is in my humble opinion an excellent method for beginning to intermediate “want-to-be” Irish mandolin players. Check it out.

Mike and I also shared interest in Irish style C#D button accordion. When I needed an accordion upgrade, Mike agreed to sell me one of his named accordions. I should explain that Mike names his musical instruments and he sold me “Peanut” with the agreement that he would buy it back if I ever decided to sell. Peanut soon made his first trip from North Dakota to West Texas. As crazy as it sounds over the next few years Mike and I sold Peanut back and forth three times! It is testimony to Mike’s patience with my indecisiveness that he kept agreeing to buy Peanut back. The happy ending is that I finally decided to buy and keep Peanut forever. When Mike mentioned in an email that this would be Peanut’s last ride, I replied that this would be a great tune title. Days later I received an mp3 attachment of Mike playing the A part of Peanut’s Last Ride with instructions for me to write the B part.

What follows is that tune. Using only the mp3 and Mike’s explanation that it was a slide (12/8), I wrote the B part completing this virtual music composing experiment. I noticed that Mike’s A part was relatively “notey” and used the recurring quarter/eighth note slide feel sparingly. Therefore I decided to make the B less notey and introduce some “slide-like” motifs while keeping ideas from the A part. Notice I only introduced new ideas in measures 6 and 8 and otherwise re-used melody from Mike’s A part. As a result, I think the A and B parts sound like they belong to the same tune and we both like it.

Note: Michael and I are working on a second book – this one a C#D accordion tutor. We still have never spoken - a situation I plan to rectify soon.