jojo25 - Posted - 01/25/2009:  12:04:09

sorry that I'm a bit tardy...had some familial complications

This week's Tuna the Week is Winder Slide. I fell in love with this tune the very first time I heard it, at a session/jam in Elizabeth, Illinois, just after Xmas last.

This tune has several aspects of note: The form is AAB. The B part is 9 measures long. Thus this is a "crooked" tune. Please, do not let that put you off, as this is (IMHO) a very easy tune to play. The tempo, as I have heard it and as I play it, is quite moderate; a slow stately pace. Only a wee bit of double thumbing is needed, right at the beginning of the A part. In my recorded version I have played it 2 ways; up-picking in a variation of Pete Seeger's style (kinda 3 fingerish) and then downpicking in traditional clawhammer style. My version is a bit quite. I'm stilling learning how to use my new recording gizmo

I highly recommend that you hear this tune played by a fiddler (buy Rayna's CD if need be, I did!). I have to thank Bill Baskin (sp?) and the rest of the Fever River String Band for turning me on to this tune

link to banjo tab: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/d.k.ma...ndex_004.htm

This tab is a fairly decent guide to the tune. I recommend that you stay on the 2nd string as you make the run to the G chord in the 2nd measure.

link to maxmax's version:

http://www.banjohangout.org/myhango....asp?id=7545

Zepp's version:

http://zeppmusic.com/MP3/winder_23tbp9.mp3

link to buy Rayna Gellert's CD with fiddle version:

http://www.rayna.utopiandesign.com/cd.html

My condensed version of tune source: tune was written by Joe LaRose, roughly in 1980...mistakenly attributed to Gus & Theo Clark, circa 1930 AND mistakenly attributed to Bert Layne

notes on tune source (thanks to Dan Gibson): WINDER SLIDE. AKA – “End of the Lane.” Old-Time, Breakdown. A modern ‘old-time’ tune composed around 1980 by Joe LaRose, in the style of Gus and Theodore Clark, who recorded 2 sides in North Georgia about 1930 --"Barrow County Stomp" and "Wimbush Rag." Two versions are played, one from Joe’s original recording, covered by Bruce Molsky. A second version was developed by LaRose, who added to the ‘B’ part of the tune. This latter version was recorded by Rayna Gellert, learned from Bill Dillof. Kerry Blech writes: “Bruce first heard it on a tape sent to him by a friend. Joe's original recording of it was double tracked guitar and fiddle, with 78rpm surface noise overlaid. The first version he sent around was jokingly titled as by Gus and Theo. Clark. I forwarded it, as is, to many friends, and that is what Bruce apparently received in the mail. WS also was left alongside the other two real 78rpm cuts of the the Clarks, and was at the end of the taped interview with Bert Layne. Bruce later told me that what he found out from me was called "Winder Slide" was untitled on that tape and that he started calling it "The End of the Layne."

END OF THE LANE. AKA and see “Winder Slide.” AKA – “End of the Layne.” Old-Time, Breakdown. The title supposedly came about because it was the last piece on a privately-circulated tape recording of old-time fiddler Bert Layne, of Skillet Lickers fame. The tune was not introduced or otherwise identified and, since it was at the end of the tape, it was dubbed “End of the Layne.” The original title is Winder Slide, composed by Joe LaRose.

you tube link with fiddle and cello, gives a feel of the moderate pace of the tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juRZnbC5vb0

Scott's version:

http://www.banjohangout.org/myhango....asp?id=6501

photo of Joe LaRose with Andy Cohen circa 1981

http://www.wirz.de/music/cohenfrm.htm

My humble echo chamber version:

http://www.banjohangout.org/myhango....asp?id=5191


Enjoy!!

Now I'm off to play tune!s


Don''t forget to play all of the quasihemidemisemiquavers!!
Drop thumbs, not bombs

Joe

GerryH - Posted - 01/25/2009:  13:50:02

I love this tune. Thanks for featuring it as the tuna of the week. I first heard Mary Z. Cox play it and I learned it from her.
GerryH

jojo25 - Posted - 01/26/2009:  06:14:36

here is another link on our neighbor site Fiddle Hangout

http://www.hangoutstorage.com/fiddl...27122008.mp3

and I hope to have more soon, enjoy!



Don''t forget to play all of the quasihemidemisemiquavers!!
Drop thumbs, not bombs

Joe

Edited by - jojo25 on 01/26/2009 06:17:25

strokestyle - Posted - 01/26/2009:  06:32:36

Thanks - I had not heard this before your post - Tune of the week is a great idea!

jojo25 - Posted - 01/26/2009:  07:02:28

OK, I owe you all a bit of an explanation (TANGENT ALERT!!) for my less than stellar recording of Winder Slide and my tardy posting.

First off, we are having an addition put on our house and this includes a 16'x20'x10' sunroom. The sunroom is nominally complete, including heat (all important in Wisconsin this time of the year!). I recorded in this room. It was empty except for me, my banjar, a chair and my new recording gizmo. Thus the garbled echo effect. Pretty much nothing but hard surfaces.

I am still very much clilmbing the learning curve on using my new gizmo. The levels for this recording where set way too low. I adjusted the gain (later using Audacity), but it is still very quite. You CAN hear me if you turn the volume up all the way.

Second, I was late. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I mistakenly thought I would be OK posting on Saturday (and I was supposed to do it Friday!). When Saturday rolled around I thought I was going to be home all day, but had to make an emergency trip to my mother-in-law's. She is elderly and was stuck alone on her farm and had not left the farm since Xmas. So Saturday was consumed with that important task. I posted Sunday afternoon as soon as I got home from that trip. My apologies to all for any worries or fretting I caused, esp. Judy, the keeper of this wonderful BHO feature.

Now go off and learn this great tune. I wonderful mellow ride.

Don''t forget to play all of the quasihemidemisemiquavers!!
Drop thumbs, not bombs

Joe

Edited by - jojo25 on 01/26/2009 07:07:34

ZEPP - Posted - 01/26/2009:  07:41:27

I'd like to say that I learned my version at someone's knee or something, but I heard Bruce Molsky's recording on Sugar in the Gourd, and played it from that. I'd never heard of the tune before, and had never heard anyone else play it.

BTW, I went to see what/where/when I played it: on a 1923, 11-13/16" Tu-Ba-Phone no. 9. Capoed from aCGCD to aDADE. March, 2005.

Cheers,
ZEPP

Edited by - ZEPP on 01/26/2009 07:41:55

rinemb - Posted - 01/26/2009:  09:06:05

Like Gerry, we learned it at MaryZCox's banjo class a couple of years back-or so, at the JC Campbell Folk School. I still play it in my playing around by myself sessions. I guess it is that little tag-thingy measure at the turn around that attracted me, along with the pleasant good feeling it gives me playing it at a moderate speed.

Brad

You may be man enough to take my woman, but you''ll never get my banjo.

May not the incidence of success, nor the pretense of retirement-
Lessen the want of enlightenment.

BANJOJUDY - Posted - 01/26/2009:  10:09:03

It is great to have a new Tune of the Week that I was familiar with in terms of melody, but I had never tried to play it. I guess it is not popular in our area - yet!

I'll learn it this evening and then start playing it at the jams. That's how new "old" tunes get played, it seems, in these parts.

And now folks, the adverstisement -HELP! TUNE OF THE WEEK VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED!!!!!

Email me at inquiry@siliconheights.com. It is easy to do a Tune of the Week. 27 have done the task in just 6 months -you can do it too!!!

Judy

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Where you will find great prices on
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J-Walk - Posted - 01/26/2009:  13:30:54

Thanks for a great tune, Joe. I'm hooked. I've been learning it from Rayna's recording -- which you can get from Amazon for a mere $0.99. I went ahead and bought the entire 20-track album for $8.99.

And if you have a music-reading fiddle-playing buddy, here's a link to a PDF of Rayna's version:
http://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/tu...derslide.pdf

ScottK - Posted - 01/26/2009:  17:47:04

Hi J-Walk,

Good move buying the whole "Ways of the World" album from Rayna Gellert. It's a great album. And around here lots of fiddlers have picked up lots of tunes from it. Some of the tunes from that album that get played in jams around here include Old Yeller Dog Come Trottin Through the Meeting House, Ways of the World, Willow on the Lake, I've Got no Honeybabe Now, Where's That Preacher with the Rabbi's Wife, and Jenny Ran Away in the Mud in the Night (in addition to Winder Slide and some of the other more common tunes).

Scott

MrSrubas - Posted - 01/27/2009:  19:53:10

This is an odd one for me.
I bet I've stolen this tune from Zepp a half-dozen times.
Every time, I steal it, play it for a while, hear bits and pieces as to suggest why DZ is about a bazillion times better than me at banjo and consequently move on to something else before the melody sticks.
I repeat this every couple months.
Someday it'll probably stay with me, but until then, I'm perfectly comfortable not having the reminded in my repertoire.
I have no idea as to why it's worse with this tune than most others, but I'm okay with that too.

Also, DZ, Molsky doesn't play that sweet C# on the way down. gorgeous addition.

Easy,
Steve Srubas

Bisbonian - Posted - 01/27/2009:  20:26:17

I once tried to learn it from one of Mary Z Cox's tab books, and made a little progress, but I need to go back to it. Thanks for the motivation, and for the link to that cello version. I'll get my brother playing Old Time on the cello, yet!

"When Banjos are Outlawed, only Outlaws will have Banjos."

Edited by - Bisbonian on 01/27/2009 20:26:53

ZEPP - Posted - 01/28/2009:  07:47:56

quote:

---

Originally posted by MrSrubas
Also, DZ, Molsky doesn't play that sweet C# on the way down. gorgeous addition.

---

Oops. well, consider that part of the "folk process." As I said, I heard it on SitG (thanks, John!) and simply played what I remembered--I still don't have a recording of the tune (other than my own, and that doesn't help me learn it )

And thanks for the kind words, Steve; would that they were deserved...

Cheers,
ZEPP

beenjammin - Posted - 01/28/2009:  08:05:57

I'm having trouble viewing the tab. am i missing a program?

beenjammin - Posted - 01/28/2009:  08:06:54

answered my own question....don't mind me!