That Crotchety Old Rag (Ron O'Dell) played by Andrew Barrett

One of my earliest compositions, "That Crotchety Old Rag" dates from 1992. I'll admit it's not the greatest of mine, but I like the minor B section and the C section quite a bit... and the 20-bar A section... OK, so I guess it ain't too bad...

While hanging out with Tom Brier, Vincent Johnson and David Jasen on Friday night after hours at the 2007 West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, California, Andrew decided he wanted to play this one for me. Thanks, Andrew! (Actually, this was recorded at 1:50 a.m. Saturday -- that's how late we were hanging out!)

He was a little disappointed to have made a couple very minor mistakes, but I think it's a great performance -- especially considering that this was composed without even looking at a keyboard, so it probably isn't the easiest thing in the world to play.

The studio piano has a little too crisp of a sound for some parts of this rag, I think.

Sheet music is available exclusively in my "17 Rags by Ron O'Dell" folio. http://www.armory.com/~keeper/midi.html

See that URL for information, or send me a message here on YouTube.

As for the title: I just wanted a "That ... Rag" title, like "That Demon Rag" or "That Lovin' Rag" etc. The rest then just popped into my head. It didn't dawn on me until later that the A strain has those sort of breaks in it where a measure is written only in quarter notes, a.k.a. crotchets, thus making it actually "crotchety".

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ragtime
• piano
• rag
• andrew
• barrett
• 1992
• ron
• o'dell

[SirDude456]

can you make it better quality? if so it would be vary nice

[Keeper1st]

@SirDude456 Unfortunately, that old camera only recorded at 11kHz.

[SirDude456]

@Keeper1st that crotchety old camera

[HarborGuy]

Pretty good, would sound better I think on an old upright tho. Your quite talented.......

[ivoryman996]

Wow :)

[idasynco]

Andrew does a wonderful sight read of this most joyous contemporary rag! ***** My favorite section is B (love that minor mode)

[theragtimefan]

That's a fun song.