tomberghan - Posted - 08/06/2010:  13:02:49

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The L&N was the line between Louisville and Nashville. The L&N Rag was originally recorded in the late 1920s by Alex Hood and his Railroad Boys for the Vacalion Label.

I hope you enjoy my version.
Best Wishes,
Tom

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Edited by - tomberghan on 08/06/2010 13:33:54

L&N Rag

Paul Roberts - Posted - 08/06/2010:  13:27:39

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Tom, to me you're taking us into an impressionistic early American world, transporting us back in time - before we were born - to an experience of a less complicated, and very picturesque, world. You're really achieving a beautiful artistic imagery with your playing. Very high level in all respects.

PauL
banjocrazy.com/ Gold Tone instruments, and artist profiles and interviews

Laurence Diehl - Posted - 08/06/2010:  14:08:32

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This is really good Tom. I am thinking that this is the music that sprang up when the country boys left the farm and moved to the big city. Plectrum banjo (is it a tenor, I am clueless)? sounds so authentic in this setting. Well done!!
Laurence

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 08/06/2010:  15:07:50

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Very nicely done, indeed!

However ...ahem ... I would like to hear you play this clawhammer on the five string - fast! I'd bet it would cook! (You can consider this a challenge...or you can ignore it!)

tomberghan - Posted - 08/06/2010:  15:28:26

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marc Nerenberg

ahem ... I would like to hear you play this clawhammer on the five string - fast! I'd bet it would cook! (You can consider this a challenge...or you can ignore it!)

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Thanks Marc!
I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I am going to pass on that one because our friend Adam Hurt already recorded that one (clawhammer style and fast) on his CD “Insight.” I think Adam’s performance is a masterpiece and cannot be touched! (I’m not goin’ anywhere near it Dude! )

Laurence,
Correct on three counts! Yes, definitely old country boys! Yes, played with a plectrum (flatpick). Yes, tenor . . . a little short scale one (like a banjeaurine) tuned low GDAE (octave below fiddle)

Paul,
Thank you thank you! I bought that fine little Gold Tone banjo from a place called BanjoCrazy . . . who ever they are . . . OH WAIT . . . that’s YOU! Hey, I think all banjo players everywhere should buy one of these little beauties from Banjocrazy.com They are a LOT of fun!

Paul Roberts - Posted - 08/06/2010:  15:33:59

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Tom,
You've mentioned this before, but I can't find where. What are the string gauges and brand you're using on the tenor. [Thanks for the plug.]

PauL
banjocrazy.com/ Gold Tone instruments, and artist profiles and interviews

tomberghan - Posted - 08/06/2010:  15:55:10

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quote:

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Originally posted by Paul Roberts

What are the string gauges and brand you're using on the tenor?

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You want my SECRETS!?!? Well . . . first some background.

You see, it is seriously pushing the envelope to tune a little short scale tenor banjo like this (19.75 inches) down to GDAE (octave below mandolin). Steel core strings do not work in my opinion . . . not at that pitch at that short scale. (not unless you like a crummy sound)

So, I am using silk core wound strings wound with silverplated copper wire (fake silk . . . the threads are actually a kind of nylon). They have more weight but with increased flexability.

1) 0.013 plain steel
2) 0.025 silk & silver wound
3) 0.035 silk & silver wound
4) 0.045 silk & silver wound

Now EVERYONE will be playing them! You see what you have done?!? Good heavens man!

store.daddario.com/category/15...d_Singles

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 08/06/2010:  15:55:57

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quote:

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Originally posted by tomberghan

quote:

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Originally posted by Marc Nerenberg

ahem ... I would like to hear you play this clawhammer on the five string - fast! I'd bet it would cook! (You can consider this a challenge...or you can ignore it!)

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Thanks Marc!
I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I am going to pass on that one because our friend Adam Hurt already recorded that one (clawhammer style and fast) on his CD “Insight.” I think Adam’s performance is a masterpiece and cannot be touched! (I’m not goin’ anywhere near it Dude! )

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Well whadaya know! I have that CD (okay, I have like over 80 gigabytes of music...it's hard to keep track of every song and tune) ... just listened to his lovely version. Yup...that's the sound I had in mind: clawhammer banjo & fiddle. Though in my mind I hear it played even faster and somewhat sloppier. (Man, I can't play that cleanly, even in my imagination!)

Banjophobic - Posted - 08/07/2010:  10:33:20

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Tom

Loved it man! That bouncy syncopation is great and the tone too. Great picking.

tom elder - Posted - 08/08/2010:  09:01:16

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good music tom i like the old rags.I worked at the l and n shops in the early 70s

martyg - Posted - 08/08/2010:  19:37:52

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I enjoyed your picking, very smooth, that tune would also make a great bluegrass banjo tune.....................Hmmmmmmmm

tomberghan - Posted - 08/09/2010:  03:27:46

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quote:

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Originally posted by martyg

I enjoyed your picking, very smooth, that tune would also make a great bluegrass banjo tune.....................Hmmmmmmmm

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Thanks Marty!
But . . . I am playing Bluegrass . . . on a banjo

. . . but, I know what you mean . . . it would sound great played Scruggs style (three finger style) . . . indeed it would!

tom elder - Posted - 08/09/2010:  03:44:54

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it might fit scruggs style like a glove or might not,you certainly have a good hold that way.

LyleK - Posted - 08/09/2010:  06:13:20

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quote:

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Originally posted by tomberghan
but I am going to pass on that one because our friend Adam Hurt already recorded that one (clawhammer style and fast) on his CD “Insight.” I think Adam’s performance is a masterpiece and cannot be touched! (I’m not goin’ anywhere near it Dude! )

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Excellent! And I hear ya' on Adam's version. I used to try L&N in CH, but it was, well,... a train-wreck!

Patrick P. - Posted - 08/11/2010:  05:57:03

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Great picking.

Mark Johnson - Posted - 08/11/2010:  06:11:55

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I dig it. Man, Tom, you've got music pouring out of you.

tomberghan - Posted - 08/14/2010:  20:55:18

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Thanks all of you guys!
I really like ALL of your recordings as well!
Best Wishes,
Tom

Don Borchelt - Posted - 08/16/2010:  05:23:50

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A fine ragtime performance, I would have sworn I was listening to the old 78, you really nail that feel. Great job. I am amazed at how quickly you have developed a delicate touch on the tenor, a difficult thing to do, I would suspect. Very nice.

A personal, historical comment- The L&N was a major rail line that served well beyond Tennessee. It provided freight and passenger service to Cincinnati, (where I grew up), St. Louis, Memphis, Mobile, Pensacola, and New Orleans. My father, who was a mechanical engineer for Proctor & Gamble, used to take the L&N on business to Nashville and New Orleans, where P&G had equipment suppliers, in the days before regular airline service. Many a time my mother would drive us down to Union Terminal to drop him off and pick him up. You remember things like that, even thought you were only five or six years old at the time.


L&N Route Map, 1895


Union Terminal, Cincinnati, in its hey-day

- Don Borchelt

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Edited by - Don Borchelt on 08/16/2010 06:01:38

drybones - Posted - 08/16/2010:  06:49:52

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No one writes songs commemorating the airlines -- is it any wonder?

db

Don Borchelt - Posted - 08/16/2010:  08:57:54

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I'm just old enough to remember when the railroad still used coal-fired stream locomotives. We lived not far from a couple of main lines, and I can remember lying in bed late at night and hearing the steam whistles of those long freights moaning down at the crossing.


L&N Steam Locomotive No. 965

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Edited by - Don Borchelt on 08/16/2010 09:01:17

tomberghan - Posted - 08/16/2010:  13:16:49

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Don,
I LOVE seeing these old photos and learning about the history! Thank you! So many, many great songs and tunes about trains in America over the last 100 plus years.

Dan . . . Well . . . yeah . . . no songs that I can think of about airline routes, or carriers . . . but LOTS of great songs about aeroplanes and airplanes . . . and Boeing aircraft get specifically mentioned in several great songs (We like that here in Seattle, the home of Boeing, although a few years ago the corporate office moved to another state, but we locals don't like to talk about that! Like Gordon Lightfoot sang "You can't hop a jet plane like you can a freight train" (Great song "Early Moring Rain")

Don . . . thanks for your compliments about my tenor. I am stll very much devoted to clawhammer, but I have discovered that I am just crazy about playing 4 string banjo too!

For now, my thing is still American OT . . . I like to listen to Irish Trad and American Trad Jazz, but I dig playing OT on tenor and mixing it with Clawhammer and Fiddle. There is no tradition for doing that, but a few of us here and there are starting one!

Best Wishes,
Tom

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Edited by - tomberghan on 08/16/2010 13:17:55

Don Borchelt - Posted - 08/16/2010:  16:08:41

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Tom Berghan wrote: "...I dig playing OT on tenor and mixing it with Clawhammer and Fiddle. There is no tradition for doing that, but a few of us here and there are starting one!"

Ed Britt will argue with you about that. He has said that back in the 20s there were as many old string bands that used tenor as used five string. Maybe he will weigh in on this...



- Don Borchelt

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Edited by - Don Borchelt on 08/17/2010 08:09:56

tomberghan - Posted - 08/16/2010:  18:04:06

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quote:

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Originally posted by Don Borchelt

Ed Britt will argue with you about that. He has said that back in the 20s there were as many old string bands that used tenor as used five string. Maybe he will weigh in on this...

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Yes! Please! I would love to learn more and to hear and collect some recordings of OT music using tenor. Also, I think I should have been more clear. I have heard some old 78s (old time) that have tenor chunking out chords, but as of yet I have not heard any where the tenor grabs the lead (as I did in this little recording) and stands shoulder to shoulder with the fiddle.

I have heard only a few rare and far-between modern day recordings where this is done. Now, I am not talking about "melodic clawhammer," I'm talking about 4 string banjo played with a plectrum, and not in the Irish style. What I am talking about is pretty much exactly like bluegrass flat-pick guitar but played instead on the tenor. Bruce Molsky is one such musician. Here is an example of "Wake up Susan" done in this manner. I "think" this is Bruce playing both parts (double tracking). amazon.com/gp/product/B0010T9U...m_dp_trk4

By the way . . . Bruce, if you ever read this, NICE performance!

Couchie - Posted - 08/17/2010:  04:39:19

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Don Borchelt, very nice pictures and historical material, you know your stuff buddy....

stevel - Posted - 08/17/2010:  05:36:22

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very well done. like others have said, listening to this instantly transports you back in time...

however, there were a few parts that sound like a video game soundtrack to me. no offense meant at all, because it sounds very OT, but some of those low notes bouncing around remind me of some old arcade games.

cheers

BrittDLD1 - Posted - 08/17/2010:  06:10:54

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quote:

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Originally posted by Don Borchelt

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I believe the large fellow on guitar is the famous 7 Foot Dilly (John Dilleshaw)
and his Dill Pickles. (Sometimes "Hot Pickles")

youtube.com/watch?v=eCgewypoa68

Best-
Ed Britt

tomberghan - Posted - 08/17/2010:  07:08:53

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Thanks for that link Ed! That led me to a whole bunch of other OT tunes that I was not familiar with.

Steve writes: “however, there were a few parts that sound like a video game soundtrack to me.”

That’s funny! I think it is the other way around however. The program directors for Super Mario chose ragtime melodies for that happy (albeit cornball) carnival feel such ragtime melodies provide.

And, you Steve are a younger generation (from me). It made you think of arcade games. I on the other hand remarked to my wife just after I recorded this piece that it sounded like it might have been used for some of the scene-music from an episode of either Petticoat Junction or Green Acres. (And, here we are with Billie Jo, Bobby Jo, and Betty Jo all hanging out with Wilber the pig down at the Whistle Stop!”)

Ah well, such is the burden we tenor players must suffer (listen to me . . . I have only been playing a couple of months and already I sound persecuted!). Whenever people hear that plinka-plinka of a tenor banjo they immediately think of candy-cane vests and straw hats. Well, it is a dirty job but someone has to do it! I will carry this heavy load. But I ain’t wearing the get-up dude!

Don Borchelt - Posted - 08/17/2010:  08:08:37

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quote:

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I believe the large fellow on guitar is the famous 7 Foot Dilly (John Dilleshaw)
and his Dill Pickles. (Sometimes "Hot Pickles")

youtube.com/watch?v=eCgewypoa68

Best-
Ed Britt

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"Don't sound like Soldier's Joy to me! I wanna hear Soldier's Joy!" Well, we've all been there. "Quit blowing you're breath in my face, you smell like Fido!" Been there, too.

It sounds to me like he is basically strumming chords on that tenor, but very loosely following the melody around the neck, while he does it. there is another person on Youtube who has a lot of other old time music posted, including more material from this group.

youtube.com/user/BBYMRLCCOTN

- Don Borchelt

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Edited by - Don Borchelt on 08/17/2010 08:15:45

stevel - Posted - 08/18/2010:  08:38:10

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quote:

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Originally posted by tomberghan



Steve writes: “however, there were a few parts that sound like a video game soundtrack to me.”

That’s funny! I think it is the other way around however. The program directors for Super Mario chose ragtime melodies for that happy (albeit cornball) carnival feel such ragtime melodies provide.

And, you Steve are a younger generation (from me). It made you think of arcade games. I on the other hand remarked to my wife just after I recorded this piece that it sounded like it might have been used for some of the scene-music from an episode of either Petticoat Junction or Green Acres. (And, here we are with Billie Jo, Bobby Jo, and Betty Jo all hanging out with Wilber the pig down at the Whistle Stop!”)

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cool... so it wasn't just "in my head".

now that you've mentioned the happy (albiet cornball) "carnival feel", I can't get Mr. Bungle out of my head. Yup, guess that shows my "age".