“Slapping Is Encouraged” by the Matt Flinner Trio

This week’s video is a tune I wrote while we were in Santa Cruz, CA. Eric Thorin is a versatile bassist, and I wanted to write a tune that exploit his slapping technique. So this tune goes back and forth between the bass and mandolin, then bass and guitar, then bass and mandolin, etc. I wrote “Slapping Is Encouraged” at the top of the chart as an instruction for Eric, and that ended up sticking as the title for the tune.

We first played this at a house concert at Irene Herrmann’s house in Santa Cruz as part of a “Music du Jour” tour. Irene is a great classical musician as well as an old-time musician, and we were honored to play at her home for the wonderful folks in Santa Cruz.

This video performance is from a show in Putney, VT at the Next Stage Theater on March 25, 2012. Thanks to Barry Stockwell and all the Stockwell brothers for putting the show on.