Orange on Blue

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“Max and Donna are really a treat – fabulous musicians with a wonderful way of playing together.” Jay Ungar, fiddler

Orange on Blue’s collection of nine tunes (six originals) is our sweet journey through Celtic, Québecois and fingerstyle guitar landscapes. We love to play the slow tunes, but also like to get under your feet and make you dance.

1. Da Slockit Light (Tom Anderson) – A composition of Shetland fiddle legend Tom Anderson, the title means ‘the light gone out’. This is one of the fiddle world’s favorite Scottish airs. I start this one off on guitar and Donna joins on fiddle.

2. Bonnie Kate’s Jig (Donna Hébert) / Gwendolin’s Jig (Max Cohen) – We put our tunes together in this quirky medley. The first is a crooked jig that bops from 6/8 to 9/8 and back, mining Scottish bowings and Québecois rhythms. The second tune jumped out of my guitar years ago and is reprised in track six on solo baritone guitar.

3. La valse pour Carmelle Bégin (Philippe Bruneau) – Donna learned this from Québecois pianist and accordionist Mario Loiselle in the early 1980s. Written for the folklorist who collected Mr. Bruneau for the Museum of Man in Canada, this is a waltz where the trick is to make the fiddle sound like a button accordion. I think she pulls it off!

4. Morning Star / La marche du célibataire (both Max Cohen) – These have been falling out of my fingers for years. I love their medieval flavor. Where’s my lute?

5. Sweet Journeys (George Wilson) – George is a fine fiddler indeed and we ought to play with him more often. I start this one off, and Donna adds multiple fiddle parts.

6. Gwendolin’s Jig reprise (Max Cohen) – My solo turn on California: luthier Peter Rodman’s beautiful baritone guitar.

7. Orange on Blue (Donna Hébert & Max Cohen) / Long Distance (Max Cohen) – The title track is an air inspired by the incredible fall foliage in Western Mass. Donna penned the first half of Orange on Blue and left me the second part to play with. The wistful Long Distance is a guitar snippet of mine that wants to be a tune someday.

— Max