Ukiah Ranch Waltz

[Rita]

This is a waltz I composed. It also has a second violin part. My band, The Oyster Crackers, play it with our cello playing harmony and 2 guitars.

[Sally Loder]

What a lovely tune.

[Marg Sherringham]

Wow, that is such a lovely tune Rita and played beautifully, nice vibrato. You seem right at home on the fiddle, have you been playing a long time?

[Rita]

I’ve been playing for about 6 years. Playing in our band has given me a lot of confidence. I really like posting here, it’s another way to practice with an “audience”. Thank you!

[Marg Sherringham]

Rita,I just noticed that you wrote this tune, and harmonies too! It would be lovely to see a video of the Oyster Catchers playing it. I have a deep interest in ensemble music, have written some harmonies for a composer of folk tunes, these were published in her book. Also arranged one of them as a classical guitar solo, but I would love to write an original tune as you’ve done, that takes real creativity, and you certainly have that. 🙂

[Rita]

Good morning Marge, I am out of town, but can certainly send you a recording of the song by the Oyster Crackers. We have a CD and it is all original songs written by myself and Bette Lu Krause (one of the guitarists in our band). We also did a live stream concert during COVID at the Columbia Theatre in Longview, WA. It is on YouTube, and we did do Ukiah Ranch Waltz there.

[Jan Cokely]

This is a lovely tune, Rita. I can see Jay Ungar playing it!

[Marg Sherringham]

Hi Rita,
I’m away for a few days too, for my Grandaughter’s birthday. I’ve managed to watch a little of your concert on YouTube so far and looking forward to watching more. Thanks for sending info about it.

[kate.kakadu]

So clever! I’ll have to check out your band (love the name!) . Great that your composing music too – thanks for sharing!

[Marg Sherringham]

Rita, I finished watching your band’s concert video. So polished, you must all have worked very hard to put that together. Beautiful vocal harmonies, what a great thing to be able to sing so well. I think that would be very helpful for audiation as a fiddle player.
I hope the Oyster Crackers will soon be able to do live gigs again, I’m not sure of the covid situation in your part of the world. Here, in Australia festivals and concerts have recently started again, I play fiddle and mandolin in a couple of amateur bands, a classical guitar duo and run a community group, we’re all so happy to be able to play together again.

[Rita]

Thank you for watching our concert, Marg. We have started live concerts here in Long Beach, Wa. We have 2 performances coming up in June. I just finished directing and acting in our local communist theater musical which ran 3 weekends. We had to shut down 2 years ago, 3 days before we were to open. So nice to be back to live entertainment in our little community!

[Deb Hilton]

Gorgeous!

[Rita]

Thank you. I enjoy writing music. Not too good at adding lyrics, so I stick to tunes, mostly waltzes, but have done a few others along with some songs with lyrics. Retirement is great!

[Deb Hilton]

That’s awesome Rita, WTG!

[Fixkids]

Very nice. You are very talented. Thanks for sharing.

[Rita]

Thank you. I had shoulder surgery 4 weeks ago, so my fiddling has been very limited. Slow and steady!

[Fixkids]

That is a complicated surgery. Wishing you a complete recovery.

[Diane Thompson]

Congratulations on writing such a wonderful tune. I heard it on Laura Staples waltz kit and fell in love with it. No wonder it sounds so good when you play it!!
Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Rita]

Thank you. Glad you like it.

[Author]

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