Up for your consideration this week is "Shoes and Stockings", a fine fiddle tune in A [sometimes].

Tune Background

This, like Quince Dillion's High D Tune, is a historically enjoyable tune, as it gets to us from the Civil War era with very stops in between.  Henry Reed learned it from Quince Dillion, Alan Jabbour learned it from Henry Reed, and we're learning it from Henry too thanks to Alan.

Here is the Library of Congress page for "S" titled tunes by Henry Reed, recorded by Mr. Jabbour.  Unfortunately the LOC urls don't allow me to get you any closer.  You'll have to click on "Shoes and Stockings" yourself:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?afcreed:1:./temp/~ammem_v94Q::

Mr. Jabbour himself fiddles a very spirited version of it on the album "Henry Reed Reunion".  I can't find any samples online, but I mention it so as to not miss a chance to recommend this album.  It is really terrific: http://www.countysales.com/products.php?product=JABBOUR%2C-REED%2C-LEVY-'Henry-Reed-Reunion'

Samples On the Hangout

Cathy Fink has an excellent version on her page, http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/music.asp?ID=11762

Gurulou has a lovely multitrack version with some really tasteful harmony work, http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/music.asp?ID=11762

Finally, I added a quick banjo + uke take on it to my archive, which will be attached below.

Ah, the internet

Searching for the tune on You Tube has some perils.  I don't mean to take us too far afield, especially in to such a topic, but I was really unaware of 'shoe play'.  Apparently some people really enjoy watching videos of other people putting shoes on and taking them off.  There are lots and lots of such videos on You Tube.  

Anyway, with a little perseverance, you can find the fiddle tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF9mOZhmM7I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3yjznqcsbo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjqEooa_nyI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E5Xtu-Q1MQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM7NY17ISvM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAefaxSerpE&feature=related (this one is a video of yours truly from a few years ago)

Your Turn

​My favorite TOTW's are the ones that turn in to the "Post Yours" threads of old.  I'd love it if this thread prompted more folks to share their take on this tune.  I know of at least one recording not in circulation from guys with unpronounceable last names.  Hopefully it will surface.

Shoes and Stockings

Nice job.  Good choice. 

Seeing Alan Jabbour dig into this tune is a real treat.

I'm at work so I didn't have time to listen or watch them all, but I watched your YouTube vid. Wow, beautiful job on that. That is a really nice tune. Will definitely be adding that to my list of must-learns. Thanks!

Great tune! Never heard it before but I'm going to enjoy figuring out and bashing my way through some sort of take on it. Thanks for all the info and links; vmuch like your take on it too.

Edited by - YorkshireWannabeOldTimer on 01/27/2012 07:19:01

Tab by Lyle W Konigsberg)

http://lylewk.home.comcast.net/~lylewk/

in Old G (gDGDE)

Edited by - Julian44_4 on 01/27/2012 07:25:09

It is a real nice tune. I have heard Reed's recording before but I haven't discovered it until now. It is one of these simple tunes which can be played both with simple bum-di-ty and also more advanced. I know what I will be playing tonight.

abcnotation.com has several sheet music versions plus mp3

Hey, Mark. Excellent playing as always!   

Mark,

You've set the bar high with your recording! I love it. I might try to see if I can work one up. We'll see.

Thanks for introducing me to a cool new tune. Not that the tune is new, but it's new to me!

Great song.  You never cease to amaze me.  Very fine playing.  So clean!

Great song.  You never cease to amaze me.  Very fine playing.  So clean!

Here's a link to Alan Jabbour and Bertram Levy playing it live (Digital Library of Appalachia.)

http://www.aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/Warren43&CISOPTR=1877&filename=1878.mp3

... and WOW, Mark, your mp3 is quite a beautiful and tasteful performance!

I like this tune, but just about never play it. I don't think I had known of it until MrSrubas posted a version back in '07, so my version is based on what he played.

http://vrteach.org/content/shoes-and-stockings

My future versions will have stuff stolen from you, Mark.

Well i'm having computer problems, a couple i couldn't get to play including yours (weird, Cathy Fink's played??) but i know the tune and like it a lot excellent choice and write up.

It wasn't you, Majikgator, the files was boogered up.  I had to reload it.

I'm bummed, because there were some very kind comments already, not to mention a number of "Likes".  If you already listened and liked and commented to my recording, please consider doing so again, your first attempt didn't count!  

Nice version, Erich.  Steal away, btw.

blanham, I'm super glad you posted that version.  Alan and Bertram really nail this song... they're such good players and the meld so nicely.  Thanks!

Thanks for all the kind words, folks!

-Mark

Mark says he likes "post yours," so here goes. Actually, it's more like "post his and mine."

I took Mark Johnson's great recording, pitch-shifted it down two half-steps (to G), and added myself playing along on a low-tuned Bowlin (dGDGA).

Shoes & Stockings

Mark, 

Thanks for the inspiration to sit down, learn a new song, and do some recording tonight. My wife's away for the whole weekend, so tonight has gotten things off to a great start!

JWALK, I love what you added. That's really neat.

Here is my arrangement - guitar (capo 2) and banjo (capo 2). It's played a bit slower than the ones I've heard so far. I started off pretty much copying everything Mark did, but tried to add a few original things here and there so I didn't rip him off 100%. Hope I didn't take too much liberty with some of the chord structure! 

**edit - just realized I left the "s" off of stockings in the mp3....my apologies
-also, sorry the song fades out so quick at the end...i'm the world's worst at letting the click bleed through...seems that no matter how low I turn it, it still gets through!!!

Shoes and Stocking

Edited by - SCclawman on 01/27/2012 17:41:55

Travis, that is awesome. Great playing, and it sounds like a studio recording.

What kind of recording setup do you have?

Thanks JWalk! That means a ton.

I have a Blue Bluebird, macbook pro - and I'm currently using a newer mbox...i had a maudio firewire 410 for awhile, but it wasn't working correctly...a friend of mine works at a local music store and I pretty much use whatever he gives me - which are all free :) --- I did pay for the bluebird though...got a great deal on it on amazon...normally around 300, and got it for $210 brand new...

Great tune, a new one to me!  I started to mess around with it and it seems to be in G, or at least its played in G in the links I checked out.  Or am I missing something?

quote:

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Originally posted by aeroweenie

I started to mess around with it and it seems to be in G, or at least its played in G in the links I checked out.  Or am I missing something?

---

Heh.  Thanks, aeroweenie. 

The source recording of Henry Reed is decidedly in A.  That was my basis for thinking/saying that it was an A tune (now amended above to say 'sometimes').  But you're right, almost all of the other recordings, my own video included, are in G.  Cathy Fink is in F.  As for what key that means it is "in", I guess we're stuck saying "it depends".

So, I'd say be mindful.  Who knows what key it'll show up in.

J-Walk, that's awesome.  When I recorded that I wanted to add a low part but never really came up with anything... good thing too as I couldn't have done anything as solid as what you cooked up.  I'm flattered and impressed.  Great stuff.

Travis (scclawman) that is really wonderful too.  You have such a tasteful take on things, and this one is no exception.  Terrific arrangement and playing, especially impressive given how quickly you turned it out.  I'm with JWalk too, I need to get my recording act cleaned up a bit, you're recordings sound so much more pro.

The fiddlers companion just lists it in G (standard fiddle tuning), and that is what is in the Silverberg book (Tunes I Did or Didn't Learn at the Tractor Tavern). I just gave it a quick try on fiddle--lays out easily in G. In A (standard tuning) you either start out very low (4th string second "fret") or if you start on open second string then the high part takes you up a position I can't do. I didn't try cross-tuned, that might help in A.

FWIW, Jere Canote does it in D on this "Uke Life" CD.

quote:

---

Originally posted by vrteach
I just gave it a quick try on fiddle--lays out easily in G. In A (standard tuning) you either start out very low (4th string second "fret") or if you start on open second string then the high part takes you up a position I can't do. I didn't try cross-tuned, that might help in A.

---

Yup, it's "G for me" on fiddle for this one.  That way you can pinky your way up to the "B" on the first string.  In A you either have to have a sixth digit or you have to go out of first position to get a C#. 

I've had "S&S" at BHO since July of '08 but it wouldn't show up in a search because it is hidden in a medley with four other tunes, as follows:

0:00-1:11 Ladies in the Ballroom
1:12-1:44 Sandy River Belles
1:45-2:46 Shoes and Stockings
2:47-3:18 Last of Harris
3:19-4:13 Lost Girl

The medley is titled "Old G-athon" (link below) because it is in gDGDE tuning, a tuning that I much prefer to gDGBD.  But in truth, I have largely abandoned both G tunings now in favor of gEADE. 

Now for some serious thread drift, though eventually I will get back to S&S (great tune by the way, and I've enjoyed hearing all the new recordings).  I had been in the process of switching allegances from gDGDE to gEADE for some time, and then I kept dredging up a tune when I was in the latter tuning.  It was  great tune that modulated between keys with one part in G and one in D.  I couldn't place the tune and I kept torturing friends with "what's this tune?"  Then in going through Miles Krassen's fiddle book one day I found it: "Red Fox."  I remembered then that when I was in my late teens I thought that was a pretty cool tune, but I never could get it down on banjo (Krassen's CH book has it in standard G tuning).  And finally, to bring us full circle, Red Fox is, like S&S, another Henry Reed tune.  I'll try to get those two tunes recorded together in gEADE soon.

Old G-athon

Mark,  Beautiful song beautifully played.  It gives me something to aim for, Thankyou.  Mac.