4/4 March written for my First band director, tuba instructor and life-long colleague and friend, John H Evans

Here's hoping this rock is a little less crazy a place in the coming years. Merry Christmas to all of you, or happy whatever else you might celebrate, and a peaceful 2016. Banjo is just an accent piece in this one. Guitar in Drop D tuning, banjo standard g tuning.

I really like Sufjan Stevens Christmas music so I thought I would put something together in that style. Not what I usually play but it turned out ok....

A ragtime tune on guitar, and overdubbed with a second guitar.

Here's the mp3 version (played twice) from 20 O'Carolan Irish Classics for 5-String Banjo and All Instruments. I'm muting the banjo with silver tie clips, and the chords used here exactly match those found in the transcription, using standard notation and tablature. Link: http://www.melbay.com/Products/21599M/20-ocarolan-irish-classics.aspx

My first composition on banjo, a hornpipe from the Celtic Diaspora, came to me 30 years ago. I recorded it five years later for my first CD, Bucket of Bees (released in 1991). Personnel: Patricia Bradaigh, bodhrán; Todd Collins, mandolin; me, Stelling Whitestar banjo; Kenny Kosek, piano/fiddle; Walt Michael, hammered dulcimer; William Garrett, engineer. This track blends the sound of New England and Ireland, and finds the ubiquitous Kenny Kosek drifting, in his words, "somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean."