Two by Three in Anza Borrego

Two by Three in Anza Borrego is a suite of (mostly) bluegrass music arranged for mandolin orchestra, two guitars, and contrabass. I wrote two of the songs for the violin, “Rub-a-dub Scrubjay” and “Quail Waddle,” when I was visiting the Anza Borrego Desert in Southern California in the summer of 2021. “Raymond’s Song” is an arrangement of a melody written by my uncle, Bob Pryor, in 1998. I added the first and last movements in 2022 to fill out the suite.

Two brief movements set the scene at the beginning and end of the work: a dry wind softly blowing through string instruments sitting outside a desert home. Three bluegrass songs form the center: a scrubjay takes a dirt bath; a song in memory of a loved one; and a quail waddles in patterns of three against two.

Released by the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra in 2026 on Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, Apple Music and Amazon Music.