Award-winning instrumentalists and composers Tristan Scroggins and Alisa Rose have created an album that explores both the dynamic capabilities of a string duet and the creative overlap between baroque and bluegrass improvisation. With vast experience and knowledge of both traditional folk music and classical styles they create new music that utilizes risky improvisation and innovative musical techniques that are captured in both the original and familiar tunes present on this recording. Their effort present a study of both active listening and performance skills as the listener is invited into and pulled to each others spur of the moment musical colors and ideas to create a ever changing exciting performance. Listeners will be rewarded with missed details after every following listening as this record adds to the ever growing lexicon of new acoustic music. Album Notes All pieces performed by Tristan Scroggins, mandolin Alisa Rose, violin and baritone violin. Recorded with portable recording equipment at an AirBnB with high ceilings in Kentfield, CA, ​March 11, 12, and 13, 2016 Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jason O'Connell Cover Photo © Yelena Zhavoronkova Back Cover Photo © Jason O'Connell Package Design by Anna Singer Copyright © 2016 Alisa Rose and Tristan Scroggins Both the name and front cover of the album come from Yelena Zhavoronkova's series by the same title About the Tunes 1. Prelude: Goodbye Liza Jane Fantasia The guitar playing of Simon Lindsteadt can briefly be heard on this track. Simon was in the studio to play on one of the originals that was cut from the final album and jumped in on this improv. 2. Eagle's Nest A tune of Tristan's composed while watching the birds fly around the cliffs of Lyons, Colorado. 3. Argonaut's Armada Another tune written by Tristan and named for its likeness to a sea shanty. The melody is based loosely on the tune "Diadem" performed in 6/8. 4. Fritz Road A tune of Alisa's named after the street she was raised on in Wisconsin 5. Improvisations on Bill Monroe's Wheel Hoss This tune, written by Bill Monroe (often refered to as the "Father of Bluegrass Music") is named after a term for the horse in a horse team that is closest to the wagon wheel and coloquially referes to a person who works hard and steadily at a job. Orignially recorded by Monroe in the 50s, it has since become a standard bluegrass instrumental. 6. Improv. on Elzik's Farewell This tune is said to have been composed by Harvey Elswick (born around 1838) who played it for his mother on her deathbed. More information on the tune can be found here. 7. Krakatoa A tune written by Alisa meant to emphasize the differences between sparseness and density. While recording this, Tristan broke an E string and couldn't find another. Tristan happens to carry around a set of Russian, classical mandolin strings that had been found in the possession of one of his mandolin heroes at the time of his death and Tristan was forced to use a D string from this set tuned up to a lower E creating the strange 12-string guitar-like sound heard on this track 8. Improv. on Arkansas Traveler ​"The Arkansas Traveler" was the state song of Arkansas from 1949 to 1963; it has been the state historical song since 1987. The music was composed in the 19th century by Colonel Sanford C. 'Sandy' Faulkner (1806–1874) 9. Frayed Knott This tune of Tristan's is named after a joke he likes which is described here. 10. Improv. Variations on Paganini's 24th Caprice 11. Grana Title track of the album composed by Alisa Rose and named after a photograph series by Yelena Zhavoronkova 12. Improv. on Cluck Ol' Hen This was one of the first tunes that Alisa and Tristan ever played together when they met in Sorrento, British Columbia teaching at a bluegrass camp. This tune (or at least a variation) was the B side of the first ever "country music" recorded. Recorded by Fiddlin' Arthur Smith for OKEH records in 1924 under the name "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow." 13. Improv. on Bill Monroe's Jerusalem Ridge This tune was named after an area near Monroe's birthplace in Kentucky where he would fox hunt as a child. Written and recorded in the 70s, this is one of Monroe's more complex tunes and has also become a standard bluegrass instrumental. 14. Wyoming This tune was written by Tristan and named by Alisa who said it made her think of wide open spaces.