Hey Cafe-goers,

Here’s the Mazurka à Rigal, with John Williams on clarinet and yours truly on mandola. It's a French tune, so this cafe seems like the perfect setting.

John taught me this traditional mazurka from Auvergne in central France. This style of music became popular in Paris when folks from the country moved to the big city, and is generally played with the fairly high-octane instrumentation of violin, accordion and tenor banjo. There’s a joke in there somewhere, but as someone who makes his living playing bluegrass, I’m already on pretty thin ice 🙂

The tune was originally in a major key and was played on a cabrette, a French bagpipe. But one of Mr. Rigal’s pipes was a bit flat, and this minor key version bearing his name was born. You can check out the Flor de Zinc recording to hear both versions back to back.

I took a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure approach to the chords and backup, inspired by guitarist Dennis Cahill’s beautiful and free playing on his duo records with Martin Hayes. This trad Irish duo and their album The Lonesome Touch has provided a lot of comfort during some tough months, and a ton of inspiration.

And if you catch me smile at the beginning, it's because a field mouse is walking across our mic stand and paying us a little visit.

Thanks for tuning in, as always,

Adrian