Flute and guitar duets

William and Anton playing irish flute and acoustic guitar in the living room

I’ve got a handful of new videos up, a few with my friend William on flute and then a new fingerstyle guitar video.

Irish flute and fingerstyle guitar duets

William recently came down to visit and we recorded a handful of videos on fingerstyle guitar and irish flute. It was a ton of fun, and we hope to record more this summer. You can find the full playlist of videos on my Youtube channel.

We first met at the Swannanoa Gathering Guitar Week more than 20 years ago. The Swannanoa Gathering is wonderful music camp that takes place every summer outside of Asheville, North Carolina. We were both there as guitar students, I think at that point I had just started playing irish flute, which prompted William to start playing it too. Its a very convenient instrument to bring to a pub session.

We were both interested in arranging celtic tunes for fingerstyle guitar and enjoyed the playing of Steve Baughman, who was teaching that weeek. We came up with a few nice guitar duets that week, and have been friends ever since. Now we live a few hours from each other on the west coast and get to spend more time together, which is great.

William and Anton playing irish flutes at Roche Harbor — Playing some duo flute tunes at the Roche Harbor Irish Music retreat. Photo by Angeline Lelux-Bajzek

William and Anton playing guitar on the sidewalk — At the Swannanoa Gathering when we first met. I think we were playing Cold Frost Morning. I do not know why I am not wearing shoes.

Two fingerstyle guitar tunes

I also just recorded a new video of one of my arrangements, Granny In the Corner. I paired it with another tune, Bobby Casey’s. I heard Bobby Casey’s on Kevin Burke’s album, If the Cap Fits. The second one I first played by Steve Baughman hanging out at his place one evening while I was visiting San Francisco. He said he got it from the irish fiddler Martin Hayes, and I made a note to arrange it one day. I recorded both these tunes on my second album, The Isolation Waltz.

You can find the tab for Granny In the Corner below, and both of them on the Tabs page.