Variations on Danny Boy

This recording was made in November, 1997, by Brad Hopper, a family friend who was testing out a new all-digital recording system in the living room of Dave and Janet Williams in Ashland, Oregon. Brad ended up recording over an hour of piano improv from Dave.

The original DAT tape on which the digital recording was saved was recently found and converted in July, 2010 to an editable AIFF and subsequent MP3 files.

At the beginning of the tape you can hear Janet making a few song requests...and Dave quickly ignoring them. He launches instead into his favorite song, the Irish ballad Londonderry Air (more commonly called Danny Boy, after lyrics were written in 1910). You can also hear various household chores going on in the background and kitchen; these are not defects in the recording.

Dave never played a song formally, as it was written. In Dave's musical mind, every song was crying out for improvisation, style conversion, and odd chord changes.

Brad Hopper's hour-long digital "test" is the only known recording of Dave playing the piano, except for a brief, poor-quality video of Dave playing Christmas songs the winter after he was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor. Playing this song is likely what Dave would've been doing today. Enjoy.