On my birthday, we swung into Spec's to rummage up a couple of bottles of wine and before we walked out, Ms. Fretboard, knowing my silent film starlet-like weakness for bonbons, got me a box of assorted chocolates to take back to the studio.

It took me five tries to hit the orange cream, and today's newsletter is not all that different, except that what you're reading is attempt number three, and there will be no attempts four or five, orange cream or no. If this is the coconut caramel, so be it.

Attempt number one just felt sort of irrelevant, and attempt number two got orphaned somewhere between my laptop and my desktop – I must have forgotten to hit "save" at some point along the way. So I'm having to freestyle it, and rather than recreating what I'm sure had the makings of a wickedly erudite meditation on Dave Van Ronk, what remains of our six paragraphs together will consist mainly of me teeing up today's Youtube video with as much elan and wit as one can muster while under the influence of a profound post-birthday sugar crash.

The short version, then, is that this same bonbon-pushing helpmeet of mine also had the foresight to get the four of us tickets to A Complete Unknown for Christmas day. I am, of course, intrigued to catch this new biopic, especially given that Dylan himself recently weighed in on the film, praising the Elijah Wald book on which it is apparently based, Dylan Goes Electric.

But what I'll mostly be saving my popcorn for is when Van Ronk appears – or doesn't, because who knows if they'll include him? A recent piece about the New York premier was full of surreal details about, say, who played Pete Seeger in the film, or the agent Harold Leventhal, but I don't remember any mention of the guy who showed Dylan those cool chords for "House Of The Rising Sun."

I am not from the Midwest, nor has anyone ever mistaken me for the voice of my generation. But I also learned a lot from Van Ronk, albeit not as directly, so Dylan and I have that in common. In today's Youtube video, I break down one of my favorite licks I swiped off of Sunday Street, Dave Van Ronk's definitive Philo Records album from 1976. You can find the lesson here:

What I Learned From Dave Van Ronk

Meanwhile, my complete three-month exploration of "Key To The Highway" – every live stream, exercise, short video and PDF – is now available when you join the Fingerstyle Five. Use the link below to learn more and sign up:

The Fingerstyle Five

More soon, and happy holidays!

David