Into the Unknown

Into the Unknown is a quirky Americana piece by multi-instrumentalist composer, Mark Orton. This piece is played at the end of Alexander Payne’s film The Holdovers (starring Paul Giamatti). Mark Orton is most famous for composing ‘Their Pie’ the theme to Payne’s critically acclaimed 2013 dramedy, Nebraska.

‘The Holdovers’ was excellent. It’s on par with Alexander Payne’s seminal work, Sideways — one of my all time favorite movies. The film creates a 1970 New England winter world that you just want to inhabit. Paul Giamatti is incredible as the curmudgeonly teacher — and he’s unafraid to look just awful in this film. The character is totally dilapidated; a man in desperate need of reinvention.

Mark Orton specializes in unsentimental themes; meaning the music can lightly muse through the film whether the character is up or down. Into the Unknown is very pleasant and flows like a Beatles song without lyrics. The song has a number of layered guitars and other instrumentation. I dialed the whole thing down into a single, fingerstyle guitar piece.

You might also like to play…

Nebraska: Their Pie (Mark Orton) + TAB

How to play Into the Unknown | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab is beautifully written across 2 pages. I recommend this piece for intermediate guitar players and up. Enjoy! The guitar tab is available below:

My song structure looks like this (in accordance with the guitar tab):

Intro, Verse 2x, Bridge

Verse 2x, Bridge

Verse 2x, Outro

**The Holdovers: Into the Unknown | fingerstyle guitar

This piece is tuned one whole step down. From low to high: D G C F A D.