Key of A – aEAC#E
Tune number 53 means we start a second year of tunetorials. Well, start and hold. Dan is going to take the rest of August off as he travels west so it will be after Labor Day until the next one. This gives you a chance to catch up and visit some of the older tunes in the collection as well as post your experiences, videos, questions and requests for the upcoming year.
This week’s tune is Bob Tail (or Bobtail or Bob Tailed) Mule. It comes from the playing of Kenner “KC” Kartchner of Arizona fiddle fame. He was born in the late 1800’s and played it on fiddle in cross A (AEae) sometimes referred to there as “The Italian” tuning. We play it in A on the banjo as well.
BTW, this is NOT the tune called Buckin’ Dunn which is often confused (in title anyway) with this tune. That is a different tune and Kartchner also played that one though the recording of it is only a fragment of that tune. A search on the Internet does not show much else for this tune so Kartchner would be the resource to hear the melody. The banjo part of this less complicated melody compliments the fiddle version though it is not exactly the same – but then this is banjo music.
Finally, please excuse some distortion as Dan was unable to use his regular rig to record this.
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