Tune Stories!

1. Liminal Gnome in the Melting Snow

In 2020, I started asking gnomes for music. I decorated our yard and house with various kinds from chainsaw-cut gnomes and resin figures to ETSY pieces of pottery and metal. I asked their spirits for music, and they gave generously. In order to qualify as a full piece of gnome music (not just a fiddle tune), there must be 3 voices that form harmonies in counterpoint, and the form or phrasing should feature some kind of a twist. I released a 3-song EP in 2022, Music for Gnomes: Gnomecore, and this track continues the series.

Liminal Gnome in the Melting Snow is a gnome tune that is a polska (a Swedish type of fiddle tune generally in one of the various permutations of 3/4). This tune has been described by Swedish fiddler, Lena Jonsson as “a real hit!” It appeared in my brain in the morning after writing a rambling 4-part polska that was not so catchy. This second (and better) tune shares the same golden nugget in the B-part with otherwise different material. Processes like this show how important it is to never throw away your ideas. The act of writing a piece of music can snowball into more and better music in your future. All that said, it wasn’t me - it was the gnomes!

The guitar (Flynn Cohen) and primary fiddle were recorded live as a duo, much like the rest of this album. The additional fiddle and mandolin overdubs were recorded on my third studio day - a half day with myself and the engineer, Jason Phelps. The arrangement came together sitting with James Tuttle, my post-production engineer, using a subtractive process of muting various clips at various times. Standard fiddle tuning - GDAE.

The name, Frozen Snow Covered Bull Wheel, existed in my data bank of potential tune names looking for a melody for years. Lonely and long forgotten, the remains of an old ski chairlift sit in the town of St. Mary’s Glacier. The resort operated from the 1930’s to its final season in 1986. The bull wheel of the lowest lift was never fully dismantled, and it can be seen from the road on the way to the glacier hike trailhead. There it sits, slowly succumbing to the wheels of time.

The melody and rhythm of this tune are what I call a “shakedown” - a tune with polska-style 3/4 rhythms that derive phrasing from American old-time or bluegrass. (See my other tunes Loveland Shakedown, also on this record, and Scarecrow Shakedown). Melodically, harmonically, and on a zoomed-in rhythmic scale, this tune is inspired by Flynn Cohen’s tune, “The Good Part,” which you can hear on his album Fierce Modal, available on Bandcamp. I performed it with the faculty of Brian Wicklund’s Fiddle Pal camp in Massachusetts in 2016. (WHAT?! There is even video evidence? You can watch it here!) Flynn has such a cool concept of harmony - in both The Good Part and Frozen Snow Covered Bull Wheel, there are multiple sets of chord changes. It is awesome and cosmic to have Flynn Cohen playing guitar on this track.

My fiddle is in Baroque tuning (A=415hz) (down a half-step).

Introducing: my brother, Eric Eid-Reiner on piano! This is a medley of two tunes - a slip jig and an Irish-style polka. Fiddle is back to standard tuning for this one (and all tracks with the piano, turns out).

When March 2020 hit the world, one of the first images I will never forget is the blue skies above the city of LA. Known for its traffic and smog, the contrast was stark. I remember feeling like I needed to start writing tunes to not waste the moment at home, and this (I believe) is the first tune that presented itself. The A-part spends a lot of time in C mixolydian, but resolves to an F. The B-part gets to call ‘F’ home. The C-part goes high for the dramatic G minor chord, but “resolves” to the C mixo, which blends back into the A-part. You can hear my first little demo of this tune on my youtube channel.

In 2018, Joy and I followed my parents to Botswana and Namibia to drive around in beefy cars looking at animals (safari!) An incredible experience, no one will ever forget their first look at cheetah families, giraffes eating the leaves off thorny twigs, and hiding from elephants (bike safari!) When it came to our tour of Namibia, our guide, Gerhardus, drove us around the entire country. We had not realized when booking how many 8 to 10 hour drives on washboard dirt roads would be involved, but once we were in it, we were IN IT. Roadside picnic meals with coriander-flavored bacon. An orex hits cruising speed next to the “highway.” Family, laughs, fun, and *endless* super-loud dirt roads. I passed the notebook around to the musicians in the family, and this is the tune that appeared. On the road, not yet arrived. It was worth it.

While Old Joe Clark is the fifth track in the TFTT order, it was the very second to be recorded in the studio. My fiddle is in Baroque tuning (A=415hz) (down a half-step). Why throw one of the most common fiddle tunes ever into my mix of original music? I have my reasons…

I noticed that my most popular track on Spotify is “Boil Them Cabbage Down,” from my Canyon Sunrise album with Jon Sousa (guitar.) One of the amazing things about that track is that Jon, having come from Irish and rock music backgrounds, had zero baggage about Boil Them Cabbage Down being a “beginner’s tune.” He played the guitar completely differently than anyone from an old-time or bluegrass background would play it. This Kickstarter-supported album seemed like the right moment to try another trad. cover with a similar concept. I had been playing Old Joe Clark in the Key of E in what we call “swamp tempo.” I performed a similar version at Chautauqua in Boulder with Jeremy Garrett (Infamous Stringdusters) and Dr. Joy Adams (Big Richard) (wife). Changing the key on tunes makes you think and play differently. Baroque tuning actually pushes this one into E flat. Key changes aside, my note choices and general shape are directly from Alan Jabbour teaching Henry Reed’s version of Old Joe Clark that he collected for the Library of Congress at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp (when I was a wee lad!) Swamp tempo allows the ooze to seep out of a tune naturally and the bluegrass inevitably slides in. This was recorded in one take - just count it off, and this is how it happened.

Welcome to Lone Pine, the only tune on TFTT that I have previously recorded and released. We are now in the key of Eb minor, by way of the Baroque-tuned fiddle and original key of E minor. This tune was written as an ode to the ski run, “Lone Pine,” at Alta Ski area in Utah, where I spent a season ski-bumming after graduating from Berklee College of Music. This is a simple tune that doesn’t have a lot of notes, but it is super vibey. My old Boston-based Swedish old-time band, Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, recorded this on our album, Rousted. The haunting sounds of the nyckelharpa echo through the original arrangement. You can hear it on streaming platforms (but mysteriously, not yet Spotify… I’m working on it!) and on my Patreon page.

I’ve always been extremely satisfied with how that first recording came out - a perfect representation of the idea of the tune in my head. Lone Pine came back on my radar mostly because Joy loved the tune and wanted to hear it more.

Let’s talk about the tempo. This TFTT album version verrrrrry gradualllly speeds up. Until it slows down, slightly less gradually. My favorite Frank Zappa album is Hot Rats, where the song, “Willie the Pimp,” (which features a truly epic violin solo from Jerry Goodman,) speeds up imperceptibly. The tempo fluctuation only becomes obvious with the first riff comes back at the end with a much higher and different energy.

The wild guitar sounds towards the end are Bethany Waickman’s guitar overdubs, massaged by post production engineer, James Tuttle, who pulled off a magic trick. I believe this sound came from a wild reverb plugin with some modulation. It’s a similar sound to what you have heard applied to mandolin harmonics on Liminal Gnome in the Melting Snow towards the end, and the soaring violin “synth” on Krampuscarol (track 8).

This one’s a straight ahead old time tune. I would love for this to become a jam circle classic, but I also know that playing it in G flat (yep, more Baroquen tuning) is not going to make it easy on everyone. If you wanna learn it, at least I am providing the sheet music, and you can go play it with your friends! Or (check this out) you could tune your fiddle down and revel in the vibrations and overtones and play along.

Flynn Cohen is the only guitar player I know who can seamlessly mix old-time boom chucks with Celtic strumming. (If you know of anyone else who can do this, please put me in touch so I can meet them and jam.) The arrangement in the studio was “look at each other for the end.” I believe what made the record is the second of only two takes.

8. Krampuscarol

Many of you know about my love for all things Halloween. Krampus, the evil version of Santa, gets top billing for the holidays at America’s haunted houses. There are many Christmas carols. Shouldn’t there be more Krampuscarols? I got this - here’s one to get us started.

Krampuscarol is unique on Tunes for Time Travel as it is a live trio. The texture of both guitar (Flynn Cohen) and piano (Eric Eid-Reiner) was really fun, and each of my guests get a solo. In writing this tune, echos of the fantastic Child’s Play fiddle albums were bouncing around my head. And a touch of Klezmer.

There’s an ethereal quality to Celtic music, where a soaring high part with longer notes might exist above the range of the tune. I wanted to recreate that feeling as if I were a synthesizer, so I played my acoustic violin in the studio as an overdub. Post production engineer, James Tuttle, made it sound like I really was a synth. I couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s the sound that I ‘heard’ in my head, without being able to actually hear it when recording.

Standard fiddle tuning: GDAE.

9. Dream Lake / Bubbly Brook

These tunes share a thematic heritage in Rocky Mountain National Park. Dream Lake is a famous high alpine lake above Bear Lake and Nymph Lake, and below Emerald Lake. My Dad’s side of the family would take trips to Estes Park for hiking and family time. Both when my Dad was just a kid, with my grandparents, and when I was a kid, and getting older. I always thought we were visiting Colorado in the wrong season - what would these mountains be like covered in snow with chairlifts? I remember my Nana, my Grandma on my Dad’s side, slowly making her way up to Dream Lake and back, shepherded patiently by my Uncle Pete. It was a family tradition so it was important to her. I hope this tune captures how epic it feels to be there on a sunny day, or perhaps on a windy winter morning, covered in fresh snow. A few years ago, after backcountry skiing the “Dream Chutes,” the wind was HOWLING on the lake and blew me and my skis across the length of the lake on the ice. I stuck my arms out and felt like a bird.

Bubbly Brook is not referencing a specific brook, but a series of them in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park. My family visited this area when I was a kid as well, and my tune “Ouzel Falls” is captured on the Fiddlefoxx “UFO” album. Living in Allenspark in 2020 - 2021, I spent countless days hiking to far-off high alpine lakes, generally listening to Stephen King’s The Dark Tower books on tape. In certain spots, the view from the trees opens up while a bubbly brook flows down the middle of a bushy gully.

Fiddle tuning: G flat D flat A flat E flat. (Baroque is back). I love playing this tune for contra dances.

10. Dearest Nana

Dearest Nana is a truly special waltz. This tune came straight from the universe and emerged through my instrument. This tune is a memory of the last time that I visited my Nana, my Grandma on my Dad’s side of the family, Irma Reiner. At the time, she was a few years into living in a nursing home. She didn’t have a lot of things in the room, but she did have a painted fan that I had purchased on the street in Seoul, South Korea, close at hand. Nana said it reminded her of me. We talked and spent quality time. I remember her being among the kindest people I’ve met. Many who met her earlier in her lifetime knew her as a brilliant and tenacious mathematician.

As usual, I brought a fiddle and played her some music - a mix of fiddle tunes, old songs, and Klezmer. As I sometimes do (and recommend to my friends), I improvised a new fiddle tune. I was recording with the voice memo app on my phone, and when I listened back, I heard the tune you hear on the record. Lightning doesn’t always strike, but it sure is awesome when it does.

Like the original performance, this is in standard fiddle tuning, GDAE. Recording this song with my brother, Eric Eid-Reiner, playing piano was like closing the loop on this tune. We had some moments in the studio remembering Nana as we toyed with a few different chord options.

11. The Dissent

The Dissent? The Descent? This is a tune for all who dissent! …from what is happening, what has been happening and what is going to happen. It is also a tune that descends.

I had a blast recording this with my brother, Eric Eid-Reiner on piano. His musical choices emphasize the hard-hitting nature of this mixed-influence, Celtic reel. We’ve each got a solo - and not a frankencomp of many solos. Just two humans playing music together, in search of the best take.

This tune is officially a winner - it won 1st place in the 2017 Nebraska ASTA Fiddle Tune Composition Contest. It slays at contra dances. Check out a Half Pelican video from the same year over here.

Standard fiddle tuning: GDAE

12. Chris Turner’s Leap of Faith into the Fire at Winnie’s House

As legend would have it, at a Rustic Roots Retreat long long ago, in a Connecticut far far away… Harmonica hero and our friend, Chris Turner, was jamming around the campfire. His harmonica bag lay at his feet. In one unexpected motion, he tripped over the bag and landed mere inches away from landing his entire upper body directly into the blazing fire. Chris dusted himself off and was fine. But it was a very close call we can never forget. On that night, the music gnomes were watching over Chris.

This tune is a co-write with Boston fiddler, Julie Metcalf. While we did attempt writing more tunes, this was the one that all of our friends wanted to learn.

Utilizing the magic power of groups of 2’s and 4’s over the 6/8, this beast of a jig is ridiculously fun to play. There’s so much going on between the polyrhythms and the lydian flat 7 mode that the possibilities are endless. In a way, this helped seed the inspiration for this album as a whole - If possibilities are endless and music is infinite, how can we ever settle on something that is “good enough?” Sometimes it is better to get things done in a humble way than wait a lifetime before the moment passes. How much art has been passed by in pursuit of perfection? What if we just played the tune? Yea!

I love this tune and I’ve never previously recorded or released it. Fiddlefoxx used to play this tune a lot. The Folk Arts Quartet released it on their album (listen on youtube). The opportunity to record with Flynn on guitar seemed like a cool moment, so I arranged some ultra gnar chords, let Flynn work out the rest, and played the dang thing like I meant it. Standard fiddle tuning.

13. Fool’s Spring / Abel Maverick Jacobson’s / Send It

When the temperature rises in the middle of spring, the sun comes out and the birds are chirping. But don’t relax and don’t put your shovels in the garage just yet - it’s just Fool’s Spring!

Joy and I spent a few summer weeks teaching at the Montana Fiddle Camp, where we met doctor and cellist, Doug Ezell. The fiddle camp auction is a famously good time, and I donated a custom tune as one of the items. Doug, the winner, tasked me with dedicating a piece to his fourth grandchild. I wrote it on the mandolin, (and in some ways I think it is a better mandolin tune than a fiddle tune.) (Search youtube to find 3 Half Pelican versions with different instrumentation). Bonus: can you hear the nugget that’s also in Cluck Old Hen?

I’ve always loved fast B minor Celtic reels. Jennie’s Chickens, Maggie’s Pancakes …. I’ve written a lot of tunes in this vibe and key, but this one’s my favorite. SEND IT! (If you are struggling to find the meaning in the title, perhaps a round of googling).

Brother Eric Eid-Reiner on the piano; fiddle in standard tuning.

14. Echo Pass / Jolly Jug / Secret Bridge

Echo Pass is a magic road that takes the traveler to a magical and somewhat controversial ski area: Echo Mountain. It’s the tiniest ski area on the front range, and they re-groom their slopes for night skiing under the lights. I absolutely love it. It’s also extraordinarily close to the high alpine base where my grandfather on my Mom’s side, Richard Eid, spent time as part of the Arctic Training Center in the 1940s. The adjacent 14er was renamed Mount Blue Sky in 2023. It’s a beautiful place - a gem hidden in plain sight.

Jolly Jug may be the single most trad. Irish tune I’ve ever written. It’s also the name of an iconic blue square ski run at our local Eldora ski area. It is not always easy to parse meaning from a piece of instrumental music, but it helps if it has a great name!

Secret Bridge is another entry from the “tunes from hiking around Wild Basin in Rocky Mountain National Park in 2021” category. I remember the bits of this tune coming together in my head as I hiked towards Pear Lake. This one was strong enough to come together in my head before I put pen to paper or held an instrument.