David Delarre

I've been thinking about making this record for a long time. I've always loved lo-fi / bedroom records, whether that's The Mouldy Peaches' self-titled album, Moby's Play, or Chris Wood & Andy Cutting's demo tapes—there's always been something about them that grabs me, so I made one.

Recorded in my bedroom with a Shure SM57 and occasionally a Shure Beta 181... the plan was to make a solo guitar record. But then I got bored of hearing just guitar, decided to sing a few songs, and ended up down a rabbit hole of finding old songs and tunes from Essex and London. The majority of these songs are just old words I found in the Bodleian Library or Cecil Sharp House. I set them to my own melodies, changed the melodies to something that suited me, or added a chorus... they've been thoroughly messed around with!

I hope you like it. It's just my attempt at a bedroom record in a lo-fi way, where I had a lot of fun making textures from wires, foam, paper, and paperclips shoved into my guitar strings, alongside weird recording techniques. It's been a thoroughly enjoyable experience putting it together.

I did all the artwork myself, too!

Listen / Buy the record here:

https://daviddelarre.bandcamp.com/album/king-death

It'll be out on all major streaming platforms on December 4th 2026.

Rule 1 
You're only allowed to play from Fret 1 to Fret 12.

Rule 2
Go from the thinnest string to the thickest string finding the same note e.g 
G on the E string fret 3
G on the B string fret 8
G on the G string fret 12
G on the D string fret 5
G on the A string fret 10
G on the E string fret 3

Rule 3
Do it in time preferably with a metronome and say the note names, the fret and try to visualise the what you are doing at the same time.

Rule 4
Try learning all 12 notes in western music, if that's too much of a task try learning just 3 notes per week and then you'll have it down within a month.

When you have a good understanding of the notes, try to create your own chord voicings, try picking out simple melodies in all the different areas of the neck.

I've been teaching John Renbourn's arrangement of this lovely old English folk ballad recently on my guitar course for the English Folk Dance and Song Society so I thought I'd make a video for you guys. You can listen to John Renbourn's version here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/7xXG4C02vMHkMMhWoLILdq?si=b6af8034087c47c8

Head over to my downloads page to get the transcription!

Rowan and I have wanted to play together for a number of years now and on Sunday we got the chance to do a handful of songs together at Walthamstow Folk Club which meets at the brilliant old east end boozer Ye Olde Rose & Crown Pub on Hoe St.

We didn't get a chance to rehearse this one - this is literally the first time we have both played it together. I recorded it on an old Zoom recorder sat next to my pint of pilsner and paired it with a video that Giulietta Cinque filmed in the second row - thanks Giulietta!

Lyrics:

Come in, come in, my old true love,
And chat for a while with me,
For it’s been three-quarters of a long year or more
Since you spoke one word to me.

Oh I can’t come in, I won’t sit down,
For I haven’t a moment’s time,
Since you are engaged to another true love,
And your heart is no longer mine.

When you were mine, my own true love,
And your head lay on my breast,
You could make me believe, by the falling of your arm,
That the sun rose up in the west.

For there’s many a star that jangles in the west,
And many the leaves do blow,
And many is the damn that will light upon a man
For treating a young girl so.

I'm a bit of a lurker on the facebook group 'Tunesday Tuesday' - essentially a facebook group for trad. folk players to learn and then share a tune every week - this tune was offered up by the admin. It was played as a dance tune by Lewis "Scan" Tester on his concertina (this is what it's meant to sound like - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nav8p7ohDEE ) but I like to find things in these old tunes so came up with this.... it sounded a bit jazzy to me so I decided to play it on my old Gibson L4-C. Bloody love this guitar! 

If you fancy learning it you can find my transcription of it on my website: 

https://www.daviddelarre.co.uk/downloads

I've not uploaded anything in a while as for the last 9 months I've been playing guitar in the #WestEnd for #Hadestown. It's a great show! Love it to bits but its 8 shows a week and knackers me out so I've been neglecting those of you who take the time to watch my videos and leave your lovely comments - my apologies for that - anyway this arrangement just fell out of my brain the other day when I was sitting at home and I thought I'd record it for you all. It's in Drop D and I've transcribed it and put it up on my website in the members section if you want to learn it. Thinking about starting up a Patreon soon... would you guys be interested in that?

Getting back on the transcription train! I’ve not uploaded anything in a while - currently playing guitar for ‘Hadestown’ in the West End which is keeping me very busy with 8 shows a week but I really want to get back into transcribing so I thought I’d give #transcriptiontuesday ago. I love Lester Young’s playing it’s so soulful and playful. If you want to learn my transcription from it head on over to my https://www.soundslice.com/slices/v9Gzc/ it’s a really great resource for musicians to learn from.

Just noticed my last post on my website was back in November 2023…. whoops. My apolgies for that - one of the main reasons I've not been so busy on my website and on my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DavidDelarre is that since February 2024 I have been playing guitar for the Tony and Grammy Award winning musical “Hadestown” at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. I'm absolutely thrilled to be playing guitar for this show as I love pretty much anything Anais Mitchell has written so it's a real honour to play her music to the fans 8 shows a week. You can book tickets here:

https://uk.hadestown.com/

you can just about see me in the background of this press night image here! Nice to wear a hat for a change. Maybe I'm a hat guy now?!

In this first part of the tutorial I teach the form of the song, the chords and the bass line that will get you started to learning this classic from Lightnin' Hopkins. 

You can download my transcription of this by heading over to the downloads page!

https://www.daviddelarre.co.uk/downloads

If you fancy sending me a tip or buying me a beer send cash to:

HTTPS://PAYPAL.ME/DAVIDDELARRE

Thanks!