Frenchman’s Bend – Rehearsal Snippet 8/22/25

Frenchman’s Bend 8/22/25

How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home.

― William C. Faulkner

Yesterday I was rehearsing an old piece that I have re-acquainted myself with in the past week or so. Its called Frenchman’s Bend and was inspired by William Faulkner’s Snopes books. They are a good read and I highly recommend if you like this sort of thing.

Anyway, I was testing my sound set up and hit “record” about the same time the clouds opened up. So I made a little video and added an arty Faulkner quote.

This piece is played on an old battered Taylor 555c in a fairly simple if unusual open tuning:

A D A D A D

where the low A is the same as an A on a bass guitar (55 hz) and the next A is an octave higher, the D is like the open D on a bass guitar and so on. The octave strings are just what you would expect. I suppose you would call it a baritone tuning.

At some point I will record the full piece when I am satisfied with my playing, its not there now.

As an aside, I originally recorded Frenchman’s Bend and a couple other pieces as part of a little Snopes trilogy of my own 20 odd years ago at the time these pieces were written. You can find them in a playlist on my Youtube channel. Enjoy.