Wasting bandwidth since 1996

I think I’ve finally got this to a stage where I’m happy with it. I love the sonorous ring of the drone.

Grew up with this tune and thought a banjo version would be a giggle

So I’ve devised a recipe for what I’m hoping will be a nice Christmas Pudding Ale. The Youngs one, if I remember correctly, is just a winter warmer mixed with a stout and with a dash of coconut added. The one I’m planning is significantly more spiced.

The actual brew will be a fairly standard winter warmer – 5.22kg Pale Malt, 0.45kg Crystal Malt and 0.25kg Chocolate Malt, bittered with Kent Goldings. The trick, though, will be in the infusion I’ve concocted to be added into the last 15 minutes of the boil.

Basically, on the stove top I boiled up:

• The juice and rind of three oranges
• 2.5 tsp ground nutmeg
• 6 crushed cardomom pods
• 1.5 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp mixed spice (pudding spice)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• About an inch of liquorice root
• 400g of clear honey
• 200ml water

I let these boil for a good fifteen minutes or so and then sealed up in a tub and left to infuse for about a week. I’ve no idea if this is going to work out or not, but I’ll be sure to update if it does.

So it appears that pirate-metal arrangements of sea shanties also works well when performed by an old guy with a banjo. This is basically just G, D7/D and C with a plethora of sliding and phantom hammer ons. Tuning, as ever, is open G.

Happy New Year, all! This is my own arrangement of an old mountain dulcimer tune. It still needs a bit of practice, but the fundamentals are all in there.

This is an interesting one as it’s my first attempt at a song with drop-thumbing in it. The dropped thumb is in the third of every four measures and gives the run a nice rippling sound.