John Reischman and Scott Nygaard: “Sarafina”

Mandolin master plays a new original tune that he recorded for his new album "New Time and Old Acoustic."

By: Dan Gabel

August 6, 2021

When John Reischman was in the Peghead Nation studio in January 2020 to shoot new lessons for his popular Melodic Mandolin Tunes course, he recorded a lesson for a new tune he had just written for his granddaughter, a beautiful waltz called “Sarafina.” In this video, John plays the tune with Peghead Nation co-founder and instructor Scott Nygaard accompanying him on guitar. John and Scott have played often, including their great Harmonic Tone Revealers project (with Sharon Gilchrist).

John also recorded “Sarafina” on his new album, New Time and Old Acoustic, and he enlisted the help of his Peghead Nation cohorts Sharon Gilchrist (bass) and Mike Witcher (dobro), along with Sullivan Tuttle (guitar), and Trent Freeman (fiddle).

In the Mandolin Cafe’s great interview with John, here’s what he says about the tune:

“Sarafina” was brand new and that came from an interesting place. I was actually looking at Instagram and there was a post from Peghead Nation about Mike Witcher teaching either “Midnight on the Water” or some other key of D waltz. I knew I wanted to get Mike to play on the record and I thought “oh, well, he likes D waltzes” and I picked up my mandolin and this tune just jumped right out.

Glad Peghead Nation helped inspire the tune!

You can order New Time and Old Acoustic on Bandcamp, and it releases on August 9!

To learn “Sarafina” and another tune off of John’s new album (“Suzanne’s Journey”), plus dozens of other Reischman tunes, sign up now for his Melodic Mandolin Tunes course on Peghead Nation. Use promo code JohnLand at checkout and get your first month free.