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Sebastopol Train

from Back In Free Fall by David A. Harley

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An instrumental track captured from live video, based on the traditional-ish tune 'Vestapol', a go-to piece for blues and ragtime players. Its provenance is actually somewhat complicated. 'The Siege of Sebastopol' is a "Descriptive Fantaisie" from the 19th century by Henry Worrall, notable for the fact that the piece is written in open D tuning, which may well be why open D is sometimes referred to as Vestapol tuning, and the name (or some variation on it) has been passed on to a number of otherwise unrelated guitar pieces, like the one I've used here, associated with Elizabeth Cotten, among others. Much the same tune is also associated with songs by Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins and others.

Such pieces often sound more like a train blues than pseudo-classical parlour guitar, and I've introduced some tropes that I like to think build on the train blues theme.

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from Back In Free Fall, released January 22, 2022
Traditional, arranged and adapted by David A. Harley. Acoustic guitar by David A. Harley.

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David A. Harley England, UK

David Harley is a former professional musician, administrator, IT security editor, author and researcher, and former much else that is even less impressive. He now lives in Cornwall. More info at whealalice.com

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