I had a really nice gig this past weekend with a new duo partner, Tim Connell. We played out at Newberg Music Center, about 45 minutes Southwest of Portland. The owner, GD, is really supportive of the local music scene and has a final friday concert series at the end of every month. Its alot of fun to play in a music store surrounded by neat instruments.
This was Tim and I’s first formal gig together . Our repotiore is mostly irish music, Tim flatpicking melodies on mandolin and me providing rhythmic backup on guitar. We’ll also do some more arranged duets, where I play a fingerstyle piece and Tim provides supporting melody, harmony, or chords, as well as a few solo pieces each throughout the course of a gig.
Tim is an amazing mandolin player, and I feel honored and happy to be playing music with him. He plays in a seemingly endless variety of styles, including jazz, bluegrass, irish, and his main passion, choro, which is a music native to Brazil. And he has only been playing mandolin for five years! Before the mandolin it was mostly piano, bass, and the irish pennywhistle. Tim attended music school in Boston, which as you may know has a great irish music scene. He originally learned his irish tune repotiore on the whistle, only recently transferring it all to the mandolin. Its worked out pretty well. Look for Tim and I to be playing out more around Portland and the surrounding area. I hope to work up some flatpicking tunes so we can either play unison melody, or he can accompany me on the mandolin.