The Splinters Live

J Johnson and I have been hanging out in my basement for a while shedding fiddle tunes. We debuted at the West Roxbury Open Mike night and have played at Roslindale too. One of these days, we'll get more than 2 songs to play at a real gig. :) We typically include some form of improvisation after playing the melody a few times; and it's fun to trade 4's back and forth.

We're making our way through the bluegrass top 20 tunes like:

• St. Anne's Reel
• Salt Creek
• Red Haired Boy
• Billy in the Lowground
• Whiskey Before Breakfast
• Cherokee Shuffle
• E.M.D.
• Blackberry Blossom
• Arkansas Traveler
• Soldier's Joy
• Temperance Reel
• Prisoner's Waltz (from Tone Poems 1)
• I Am Pilgrim
• Shady Grove

We still want to add some more vocals and probably some more swing. We've played All of Me and Sweet Georgia Brown, for example, along with Minor Swing, which seem to be popular with the bluegrass/newgrass set. I picked up the Fiddler's Fakebook recently, so I'm ready to mine it for some of the more obscure tunes to go along with the fan favorites.

We have been influenced by Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Tony Rice, David Grisman, Chris Thile, Bill Frisell, and Frank Zappa, among others.

We put up a web site under The Splinters name. Check it out to listen to some of the basement tapes.

Chris