waync - Posted - 05/19/2010:  06:37:13

hi,

i've been trying to translate delta blues into my clawhammer playing for a while but haven't yet got it to flow,
like this Fred McDowell tune: youtube.com/watch?v=hMAlK-0DVlc

anyone know of a player or video that has this feel played clawhammer style?

i like seeger's version of roustabout which sounds like the base of that delta blues thing but haven't found any other vids with tunes like that.


thanks,


wm

George Flink - Posted - 05/19/2010:  07:17:08

Check out Martin Grosswendt and Michael Miles.

Dear Old Dad - Posted - 05/19/2010:  08:42:12

Here are a couple of examples from past Daily Frail files.

Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down
dailyfrail.com/2009/06/01/the-...ail-6109/

Get Right Church
dailyfrail.com/2007/12/27/folk...y-122707/

Both songs also appear in Songs For Sunday.
Includes a video DVD with every title played and sung.
funkyseagull.com/songs%20for%20sunday.html

Peace to all,
Pat Costello (Dear Old Dad)

Edited by - Dear Old Dad on 05/19/2010 09:01:44

handsup8 - Posted - 05/19/2010:  10:49:05

I've posted a couple clawhammer country blues tunes:

Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...archived=

Travelin' Riverside Blues
banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...archived=

Hope you enjoy these. Bob Carlin has set some blues nicely on the clawhammer banjo: John Hurt's "Payday" and somebody else's "Trouble."

Ron Ortegel - Posted - 05/19/2010:  10:49:21

Wayne,
I heard your two pieces from "A Celebration of Old Banjos".
They both are awesome playing.
I'll bet you could make some great blues tunes playing very similarly with a blues scale.
I'd like to hear the results.

mojo_monk - Posted - 05/19/2010:  19:24:35

The dirtiest banjo blues I've ever heard: cdbaby.com/cd/johnwhite.

...and thanks for reminding me how awesome Mississippi Fred ("I do not play no rock'n'roll") McDowell is.


- Sean
2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com/

caintuck - Posted - 05/20/2010:  02:51:30

I find clawhammering blues in the styles of Fred Mcdowell, Charlie Patton et al. to be virtually impossible. I find after several years of trying that I can't get the rhythm and syncopation right and probably never will. Don't get me wrong. One can take many a tune by the great delta and hill country players and "clawhammerize" it, but it won't have the same groove. This has been proven to me by going to jams where delta and hill country tunes are being played pretty much in their original form. I start in on the banjo and the boys start looking at me sideways. I'm playing in time and at tempo, but it just doesn't fit, that is UNTIL I switch to two-finger thumb/index. Then the boys smile. Just my opinion.

BTW, I think I can play stuff in clawhammer style that has all the dirt and grit of the delta blues, but it ain't like any delta blues I know of. I guess it's "Caintuck Blues", or maybe it ain't even blues, I dunno.

I just listened to handsup8's version of Skip James' "Hard Time Killing Floor". That was great playing and nice singing and is a good example of what I mean by "clawhammerized".

Edited by - caintuck on 05/20/2010 03:19:17

handsup8 - Posted - 05/20/2010:  06:31:52

Caintuck, I agree with you about the issue of "clawhammerizing" the country blues. I don't try to play them as I would on the guitar (you can hear me playing "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Louis Collins" on the guitar on my homepage), and they are definitely in a different musical zone. (Perhaps the "Traveling Riverside Blues" I've posted is more close to country blues as I am using a fat metal slide on a fretless tackhead.) For me, the difference is liberating as I feel much more comfortable doing covers of these iconic tunes in a different vein rather than trying to do a copy of a masterwork. I rarely play the country blues on guitar during gigs, but the "Killin' Floor Blues" clawstyle has become a favorite.

robertsart - Posted - 05/20/2010:  07:22:24

quote:

---

Originally posted by handsup8

Caintuck, I agree with you about the issue of "clawhammerizing" the country blues. I don't try to play them as I would on the guitar (you can hear me playing "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Louis Collins" on the guitar on my homepage), and they are definitely in a different musical zone. (Perhaps the "Traveling Riverside Blues" I've posted is more close to country blues as I am using a fat metal slide on a fretless tackhead.) For me, the difference is liberating as I feel much more comfortable doing covers of these iconic tunes in a different vein rather than trying to do a copy of a masterwork. I rarely play the country blues on guitar during gigs, but the "Killin' Floor Blues" clawstyle has become a favorite.

---

handsup8 - Posted - 05/20/2010:  11:32:47

Shucks, Scott, thanks for the kind words! I love the Old Groove website, and usually use it when I'm searching instrument makers. Cheers, Ted

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 05/20/2010:  13:54:44

When it comes to the stop and go rhythm of a lot of blues played on slide guitar I would try using "slide" banjo. No actual metal slide needed, but it really helps. I used to use a jetslide, which is worn like a ring, and you push it down with another finger. Unfortunately I've not been doing it much lately - too much OT jamming going one around here.

If you want to do it without a slide just listen to the guitarist and use your thumb as a High drone where guitarists use a low drone. Or go for a midrange drone. I mostly change up between up and down picking on blues. Basically I want to be free-er in the syncopation

When it comes to regular - even tempo blues. Put a jug band record on the turntable and listen to the banjo line - no melody, it does riffs - and that is what I mostly do.

For EZ solo try Louis Collins out of double C tuning, or Milwaukee blues in either C or G tuning.

deineko - Posted - 07/16/2010:  13:43:31

check the "Hillstomp" out - the wildest blues banjo play I ever heard

They came out with the new CD on cdbaby, I am playing it daily for a week now

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 07/16/2010:  14:41:23

Here are some of my blues and blues-related videos on the Hangout. Of these, God Moves on the Water, Walk Right In, and Needed Time are clawhammer, and some are slide:

VIDEO: Needed Time - Marc Nerenberg, with Willow Rutherford (click to view)	VIDEO: DELIA (A.K.A. Delia's Gone) - Marc Nerenberg 12-12-2009 (click to view)	VIDEO: WALK RIGHT IN (by Gus Cannon) - MARC NERENBERG (click to view)	VIDEO: MY CREOLE BELLE - MARC NERENBERG (click to view)
VIDEO: I SHOOK HANDS WITH THE DEVIL - Marc Nerenberg, with Catherine Planet (click to view)	VIDEO: God Moves on the Water - Marc Nerenberg (from Blind Willie Johnson) (click to view)

ramjo - Posted - 07/16/2010:  14:44:29

As others above have pointed out, Piedmont guitar style can translate well to banjo. To the adaptations of Mississippi John Hurt's songs Handsup and Woodchuck cited, I'll also mention Walt Koken's version of "Candy Man." I attempted to learn this from Walt's Banjonique CD, and it's posted here. I'm working on another MJH, and if I can get a suitable recording I'll post that too.

Edit: and Marc's excellent Creole Belle

Edited by - ramjo on 07/16/2010 14:45:59

MarkRough - Posted - 07/16/2010:  17:20:10

Seems to me there's a pretty good album of banjo stuff put out by Etta Baker who's a really good Piedmont blues guitarist. Not all the stuff is blues (a lot of "country" that her dad used to play, e.g. Cripple Creek, etc.), but there's a fair amount.

banjo bill-e - Posted - 07/17/2010:  13:11:24

I really think 2-finger thumb lead works better than clawhammer for the blues. I hope to learn a bit of that style some day. John White does a nice job with it on his Banjo Blues CD.

R Buck - Posted - 07/23/2010:  06:37:20

Checkout Harrison Kennedy's Cruise Control. You can preview it on Amazon from his One Dog Barking CD. He was a member of the Chairman of Board, the funk group, but he is playing banjo and it is the blues.

bordertownbrown - Posted - 07/24/2010:  03:45:25

Here are a couple of blues I recorded a few weeks ago, no mix or edit with a Blue Snowball straight into the PC.

Richard Brown

James Alley Blues

Goin' to Brownsville

POOR BOY

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 07/24/2010:  20:26:19

Here's another: a clawhammer version of Blind Lemon Jefferson's See That My Grave is Kept Clean:

VIDEO: See That My Grave is Kept Clean - Marc Nerenberg. (click to view)

derwood400 - Posted - 07/26/2010:  18:27:21

Marc, that was awesome. I don't even know what else to say.