Cedar Hill
David Grisman
Responding to numerous requests, I offer the music to "Cedar Hill," my earliest mandolin composition, which I recorded for my Warner Brothers LP "Mondo Mando". The piece was originally written in 1964, during the embryonic stages of my bluegrass mandolin-playing career. In fact, the chord progression of the first part (first eight measures) is based on a song called "Well Enough Alone," which was written by one of my early mandolin heroes, Frank Wakefield.
Through the years, slight changes in the chords and the melody have occurred, an accent here, an embellishment there. In 1974 I utilized the tune as the main theme for my first film score, "Big Bad Mama", a take-off on Bonnie And Clyde. The arrangement on Mondo Mando is a mandolin duet, played by myself and Mike Marshall. I played the melody shown below, and Mike played the harmony part. Pay close attention to the fingering, which makes frequent use of the fourth finger (pinky) at the 7th fret on the A and D strings, still keeping the left hand in the first position. Happy mandolin playing!