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majikgator - Posted - 06/25/2010: 03:23:42
Ther is something i have always wanted to do on banjo. i personally feel that there is a certain vibe, feeling, a commonality or whatever to guitar players and songs as diverse as Mississippi John Hurt's Richland Woman Blues or Coffee Blues all the way to Blind Bake's Diddy Wah Diddy. If you are following me so far then good. Does any one know of any banjo players who get this sort of feeling and play this sort of material, songs like Stagolee for instance? i would like to achieve this myself with clawhammer and two finger thumb lead because of their power but perhaps there is some way i could come up with a three finger approach strong enough. But i am open to trying anything that might have worked for someone else IF there is somebody, because i haven't heard them and no i don't think Gus Cannon does this, he's too subtle and not nearly as out front.
ramjo - Posted - 06/25/2010: 05:09:17
Majik--try Rev. Gary Davis. I'm not with my music collection right now, so I can't name titles. But there are several cuts on various of his albums of him on 5-string banjo.
Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 06/25/2010: 06:47:52
Don't know if these versions of mine are exactly what you mean. But they seem to be close to what you're talking about - especially Walk Right In and My Creole Belle.
Edited by - Marc Nerenberg on 06/25/2010 07:00:22
majikgator - Posted - 06/25/2010: 07:16:25
i would have thought Rev. Gary Davis myself and i'm not discounting it but i just expected too much based on his amazing guitar ability, i did find one very simple tab for one of his banjo gospel songs none for his wicked ones. His banjo playing seems the opposite of his guitar playing very very simple where as his guitar is well complex. Good job Marc although i would want to play these songs a little differently this exactly the sort of thing i am after and you are certainly further along in this than i am very entertaining. Hopefully i will get this figured out. It would be nice to have a written melody and chord suggestions for a lot of these tunes but they seem to be like hen's teeth, my ear gets confused so easily.
Jim Yates - Posted - 06/25/2010: 07:30:20
I played in a group called Late For Dinner around the turn of the century. We did Diddy Wah Diddy and I played a version of Foggy Mountain Special for a break. We'd introduce it by saying,"Here's a tune by Blind Blake and Earl Scruggs."
BobTheGambler - Posted - 06/25/2010: 08:43:19
I picked a lot of Gary Davis and John Hurt before I started playing banjo, so I can pull off some of them in single C (gCGBD.) Its not entirely dissimilar to Marc's approach above, which is very effective. I three finger pick them in something a bit like Charlie Poole style, but I got the idea from Walt Koken's clawhammer version of 'Candy Man.'
majikgator - Posted - 06/25/2010: 08:51:41
Keep those cards and tips coming, i'm all ears
Uncle Sinner - Posted - 06/25/2010: 09:56:11
I recommend to you Tay Mahal's "De Ole Folks At Home" album, which includes a very Mississippi John Hurt-esque banjo version of "Candy Man" (though not the MJH version of that song). Alternating bass works well in double-C tuning.
Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 06/25/2010: 10:48:57
quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Sinner
I recommend to you Tay Mahal's "De Ole Folks At Home" album, which includes a very Mississippi John Hurt-esque banjo version of "Candy Man" (though not the MJH version of that song). Alternating bass works well in double-C tuning.
Taj Mahal, by the way, plays everything in open C when playing the banjo.
That album had a large influence on my playing. I was just starting when it came out, and somebody had shown me approximately how to play that version of Candy Man, and from that I (more or less) figured out the rest of the banjo stuff on the album.
Then I saw Taj Mahal play an early morning banjo workshop at a Mariposa Folk Festival, at the end of which, he invited people up to ask him questions. I was the only one to take him up on the offer, and approached him with my banjo in hand, and asked him if he could play Candy Man while I played along, to see what we were doing differently (which wasn't too much).
We played that, and at the end, he said,"Hey, that was great -- what else do we know in common?" I told him I knew that whole album, so we proceeded to play through all the banjo tunes together. Unbeknownst to me, a whole big crowd gathered behind me to watch. Always the gentleman, Taj Mahal then turned his attention to fielding questions and requests from the crowd.
What a treat that was!
Edited by - Marc Nerenberg on 06/25/2010 10:50:25
ramjo - Posted - 06/25/2010: 10:50:51
TomB, the Rev played both 6 and 5. Here's a thread from 2008 citing some 5-string recordings. (I'm still not with my music, but I don't know if there are more.) banjohangout.org/archive/133441
BobtheGambler, the recommendation of Walt Koken's version of MJH's "Candy Man" is stellar. What a great arrangement and performance that is!
Edited by - ramjo on 06/25/2010 10:51:44
majikgator - Posted - 06/25/2010: 12:08:41
Right about Rev. Gary Davis playing both 5 and 6 strings and about Taj Mahal playing that open C tuning, he even plays Colored Aristocracy in that tuning, as good as he sounds doing it, i'm not going there for that tune, i'll stay in open G, works for me. Double C is a good blues tuning. AH yes the what do you do to replace the bouncing thumb problem. i have not figured out a cure all for that, it may be there isn't a set thing to do. i am seriously thinking about jumping completely into this thing. It occurs to me that some of the Piedmont players get a nice funky bluesy thing with the heavy rhythmic frailing sound like Odell Thompson and that might be an element to incorporate.
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 06/25/2010: 13:04:58
I like DD and DC for blues too, but my bluesy friends all play in G - such is life.
I did do just about all the tunes you mention with my group - Diddy Wha Diddy, One Woman Blues, Louis Collins, Richland Woman, Coffee, and a whole bunch of others that will fit well into the string band/jug band category. But, like you, I can't get past that lack of bass. I don't care for them as banjo songs at all. Louis Collins is the only one I've ever had any luck with and I suspect my growing hand problems has probably paid put to even that one.
I once turned a guitar into a faux banjo by putting a 1st string on the 6th position and using a screw to make a nut for it (cheap guitar - no loss). This resulted in a great instrument that I could tune to Double D + (aADADE) or A + (aAEAC#E) or Sawmill+ (aAEADE). It would have done the job - and I loved riffing with the two pairs of octaves when I could get a sort of faux 12 string sound from it. Unfortunately the neck was still too wide for me - the reason I gave up guitar in the first place) so I put it back to guitar so that friends coming over could grab it up to show me stuff.
majikgator - Posted - 06/25/2010: 14:54:51
My friend Chuck Levy plays a GoldTone sis string banjo, not a gitjo or banjitar, just like a 5 string banjo with an extra bass string, this allows for a lot of this sort of guitar copying thing and also lets you follow a fiddle more easily because like a fiddler you can then get double octaves in the first position, where as with a 5 sttring you are a lucky to get a double octave on the whole neck. The Goldtone has a very large rim however and at least the way they have it setup if much too bassy for my taste. They claim the heavier strings on the OT-6 Lojo are needed to drive the 14" head, if it weren't for that i would probably really like it, i believe there is another maker of six string banjos nut i can't recall if i am right on this or who they are. My goal is not to imitate the guitar parts of these players so much as to grab that essence and apply it to the banjo, to my way of thinking there is a banjo like quality to a lot of these tunes to begin with, kind of hard to explain.
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 06/25/2010: 15:49:59
I would find a 14 inch head worse than a resonator on my thigh - no thanks. But I'm not a one for Gold Tones experiments anyway. I do own a 13 inch banjo - my avatar - and that is about as much as I can handle. It helps that the pot is thin.
A fellow I met once at a local jam owns a 6 string banjo (5 long one short) and I really liked the extra string - it was playing it that got me to try out the banjo set up on my old guitar. That banjo happens to be a famous (in banjo circles) antique that was in a photo taken on the deck of an early Union Ironclad - I think it can be found in the Gura book.
I've been thinking about fitting an extra string into a normal or somewhat wide 5 string neck - not easy but not impossible - I've owned some archtop guitars that probably weren't any wider. I just don't think my hands are up for the experiment.
Edited by - oldwoodchuckb on 06/25/2010 15:51:25
majikgator - Posted - 06/25/2010: 19:28:04
That's a first for me banjopaolo Freight train on a tenor, i played it for a long time on guitar and somebody hearing me play it at this restaurant i was gigging at asked if i could play it on banjo so i figured it out three finger first them two finger and clawhammer after that, but never with a flatpick, nice job.
John Gribble - Posted - 06/25/2010: 19:50:46
Gus Cannon. Especially his very few solo or duo recordings.
Don Borchelt - Posted - 06/26/2010: 04:34:38
Years ago I played with a guitar and lap steel player who had me listening to a number of the early country and ragtimey blues guitar greats, like Mississippi John Hurt, Furry Lewis, Gary Davis, Bo Carter, and Arthur "Blind" Blake. Some of these pickers used an open D tuning (DADF#AD) fairly often, which allowed them to get those deep bass notes with their right hand pattern, while freeing them up to find the melody notes they wanted almost anywhere on the neck, using the other right hand fingers. For me, it opened up some new ways to insert melody into my right hand patterns that sounded subtly different from what my hero Earl Scruggs did, and in particular sounded a lot more bluesy and old-timey. I reached for the same sound by leaning on the Alternate Thumb pattern (TITM), sometimes called the square roll or box roll, a lot more than most bluegrassers do. Of course, I don't try to get all the bass notes, because they aren't there, but I can achieve a good if not perfect approximation of their unique syncopation, by liberally using the 5th string drone instead.
Here's my MP3 take on My Creole Belle, recorded around 1998. The guitar player is Brian Clancey, who now plays with fiddler Robin Warren as Spirit Fiddle. Here's a link to the banjo tab:
banjr.com/hangout.htm
I haven't gotten around to taping it, but the above link also has my version of Stagolee, also based loosely on John Hurt's wonderful version.
The great John Hurt
Edited by - Don Borchelt on 06/28/2010 03:27:32
majikgator - Posted - 06/26/2010: 05:33:13
Thanks very much Don, truly excellent and i will certainly have a look at those tabs and see if i can adapt some of them to my vision (possibly a two finger thumb or mixed lead).i will also check out that tuning, i had been using f#BEAD i had got from Paul Brown to play Down to Tampa and some other songs in D (or up a step to E) but it is definitely a little slack (though effective). i very much enjoyed that and if i were to ever go that smoother three finger route (as opposed to a choppier Charlie Poole like three finger) or the two finger or clawhammer that i prefer, i would just do my best to imitate what you have done there, very enjoyable and masterfully done.
jakeyvimto - Posted - 06/26/2010: 08:55:03
I just got done wishing for a thread like this, I'm starting to learn some more 3-finger banjo, with an eye to playing more blues and ragtime songs. Thanks particularly to Don and Marc, you've given me a lot to think about. And thanks for putting the topic up gator.
bordertownbrown - Posted - 06/26/2010: 09:23:38
Here's a version of "Poor Boy" I made up for clawhammer style on the five string banjo. My version of this tune is not from a single source but inspired by Gus Cannon, Sam McGee, Willie Mctell and Robert Wilkins. This recording was done for a sound clip for one of the mesquite banjos I build and was recorded directly onto the computer with a Blue Snowball mike with no editing.
Richard Brown
majikgator - Posted - 06/26/2010: 12:36:17
Very nice Richard and plenty of drive. i've been thinking about those Snowball mics myself, i have a big mess when i try to record which isn't often and partly due to the inconvenience.
bordertownbrown - Posted - 06/26/2010: 14:32:32
majikgator, I like the Snowball because it is so simple and perfect for this kind of sharing. Just one wire pluged in and you are ready to go but you do have to convert the sound file to an MP3.
Listen to Roscoe Holcomb for some good ideas about how to play blues on the banjo. He played with a lot of drive, using pull offs to keep the banjo ringing and thats what I did on my Poor Boy rendition.
Richard
majikgator - Posted - 06/27/2010: 08:16:32
Bordertownbrown (love that moniker by the way) yes that is what attracts me to that mic and that's excellent fidelity you got there (and playing), Roscoe Holcomb is definitely a person of interest.
THIS IS LONG -
i have begun to come to the realization that any attempt i make at trying to copy or of ever being a good clawhammer player (or any other style of playing for that matter) is not only in vain but has just become too much like work. What i can do is pick up on other's phrasing and try to see what i can pick up of that or what glorius things i stumble across in that pursuit. i started off this latest venture into banjo with a couple things in mind.
One thing was that after first hearing Mark Johnson's Clawgrass i was under the mistaken impression that he was mixing three finger and clawhammer together, he isn't of course it's all clawhammer but my naive ears didn't know any better. Anyhow point being i really liked the idea of seamlessly blending styles together and thought and still think of it as being the most natural way of playing this or any other instrument, why confine yourself, let it flow
The other thing that really shouted at me was the point of this thread, that banjo suits and really cries out for this kind of music. For crying out loud it was born to it, literally. i have always sort of thought of MJH, Blind Blake and all the ragtime blues and jug band as a sort of "happy" blues which i love. The other things that appeal to me are absolute blues like Deliah or more gospel or pre blues things like See that My Grave is Kept Clean. The other thing i like is the romantic stuff of earlier years (think Leon Redbone) but that is a different subject and i am not at all sure a banjo would fit most of them maybe a tenor but a uke or guitar would probably be better for most of those.
ALL that being said i am beginning to think that really getting these melodies and chord progressions down (the latter for the more Rag things) will be the most essential thing. Listening to as many BANJO players as i can and at least trying to see if i can emulate some of their phrasing (regardless of playing style) and trying to force myself to sing these songs. i believe singing is the best way to really grasp a song but i have a weird thing where i ONLY like to sing in public, yeah i know a psychiatrist would have a field day with me. Being able to determine what tuning best fits a particular song seems to be a really hard one for me but can make a world of difference and no the key the song is in is not what i am talking about, the key doesn't matter a lot to me personally, rather the mood or feel, the voicing a tuning can give to a particular melody and rhythm seems to be either an art or luck of experimentation, unless some of you more gifted than i can enlighten me ( i would love that).
Any advice on these things would be welcome or of course any thoughts on the error of my ways as well. It's just that continually working at clawhammer is wearing at me, i have tried long enough to know i do not have the innate ability to be even moderately respectable at it and find myself laboring at trying to sound like some Round Peak player or something when only a small handful of the songs they play appeal to me at all, it's their virtuosity that really gets me not the material. i am far from young and think it's high time i got on with the goods, my coloring box of mechanical techniques is full enough.
Well got that off my chest. i feel like apologizing somehow but don't think i will.
Edited by - majikgator on 06/27/2010 08:19:23
janolov - Posted - 06/28/2010: 01:00:45
I was trying to learn finger-style guitar in the early 80's, and I listened a lot to Stefan Grossman's interpretations of Gary Davis, John Hurt, Blind Blake and others. Their guitar playing is mainly based on some kind of alternating bass with the thumb while the melody line is played by the index and middle fingers. The melody is usually played very syncopated and the bass line very regulary and steady.
I have tried to clawhammer some of these tunes, but without success so far. It is easy to get the steady rythm in clawhammer, but it is difficult to make the combine the syncopated melody notes with that steady rythm. I think it's necessary to find some kind of compromiuss between syncopation and steady rythm.
Another option with the banjo is to play some kind of what often is called "Travis style" (which is what Davis, Blake, Hurt and other played on guitar before Travis) with a steady alternating bass with the thumb: for example thumb 4th string, thumb 5th string, thumb 3rd string, thumb 5th string and then finding the melody notes on first and second string with the index and possibly also middle finger.
Don Borchelt - Posted - 06/28/2010: 03:52:40
janalov wrote: "It is easy to get the steady rythm in clawhammer, but it is difficult to make the combine the syncopated melody notes with that steady rythm. I think it's necessary to find some kind of compromiuss between syncopation and steady rythm... Another option with the banjo is to play some kind of what often is called "Travis style" ...with a steady alternating bass with the thumb"
I've heard quite a few banjo pickers attempt the Travis style approach. The problem, of course, is that you just plain don't have enough bass notes to provide that solid rhythmic foundation that would be ideal. So whatever approach you take, you have to compromise.
The essential element of the African contribution to American music is the overlay of triple rhythm on top of a duple rhythm (the subject of the great conductor Leonard Bernstein's college thesis back in the 1930s). Unlike the unusual African scales, the resulting highly complex rhythmic patterns have no true parallel in the northern European music that the early white settlers brought with them. Struggling with this concept on banjo, clawhammer style clearly has the edge in laying down the steady rhythmic foundation, while syncopation comes far more naturally to three finger style. Whatever the solution, I think there is much to be learned from listening closely to John Hurt, Gary Davis, Blind Blake and the other blues guitar greats. But in the end, it is still a banjo, not a guitar, and though we may not have the bass notes, we do have the 5th string. The way we each tackle and resolve that compromise between rhythm and syncopation helps define our own personal approach to the banjo. Ironically, the changes I made to my playing listening to the Delta pickers, particularly John Hurt, have influenced my approach to fiddle tunes as much as my approach to country blues. But everyone hears it differently, that's the beauty of it.
- Don Borchelt
Edited by - Don Borchelt on 06/28/2010 09:27:26
majikgator - Posted - 06/28/2010: 08:50:29
i am not a trained musican and a little of that last post is a bit technical for me but one point there (and they are all good) is that it is a banjo not a guitar (or piano) nor would i want it to be, i very much like a banjo to sound like a banjo. What does this mean " banjo to sound like a banjo" well again not being a trained musician i can only give an example. Immediately one song that springs to mind and of course you may disagree that it fits the category we are discussing here, is Paul Brown's banjo playing on "Down to Tampa" on the Way Down to North Carolina album by him and the lately departed and very much missed Mike Seeger. By the way those not famiilar with this tune should be able to "Google" a free listening sample easily enough and i would recommend it.
This is a two finger primarily thumb lead playing style. This tune doesn't have a steady alternating bass sound, that sound here is provided by Mike Seeger's guitar playing (sort of but not really) but if you were to subtract that and i believe it would still have that "feel" to me. I know that his rhythm is very good but maybe some one more qualified than me could explain the how and why of it. To me it seems what Paul Brown is doing on that song could be applied to a lot of country and ragtime blues songs. Whatcha think?
i am sorry about my last entry here after all, i'm a bit hard on myself sometimes and don't intend to discourage other students of clawhammer banjo who may think something like. well if he thinks he's a bad player what does that make me, it's just a character flaw on my part. i say this because some members here are aware of how i play even though i have not and am not likely to make any music files to be heard here. It is also a pretty tall order for anyone to attempt to seamlessly blend multiple playing styles together and anyone including myself who fails to pull this off belongs to the majority of banjo players.
Edited by - majikgator on 06/28/2010 09:33:02
Coonskin - Posted - 06/28/2010: 20:47:44
i do that type of think on my banjo...lots of different ways to do it. I strip it down for a strong beat, and it sort of has a minstrel sound, especially on the tackhead: myspace.com/banjokel see WHISTLESTOP BLUES
Lots of fun in the banjo...just takes some time and patience with yourself.
brokenstrings - Posted - 06/28/2010: 23:18:30
I liked your slide banjo, Marc!
bordertownbrown - Posted - 06/29/2010: 16:17:08
For many years I have played blues on the banjo much to the dismay of many guitar players but I also play guitar and ukulele on which blues are much more natural. I think that some material works on the banjo and some just does not. A lot of the material from the Memphis guys like Furry Lewis, Frank Stokes, John Estes, etc. lends itself to banjo while much of the more rag type songs do not. I like this thread and plan on recording and posting more of the songs I have worked out, as time permits.
BobTheGambler - Posted - 06/29/2010: 20:50:00
This thread got me totally inspired and I've been working out a lot of MJH tunes in single C in a couple different picking styles. I'll post one as soon as I get them up to snuff. Louis Collins has been particularly fun. One thing that got me thinking about how to go about it was hearing Hobart Smith's banjo version of Railroad Bill. It has a very different feel than his guitar version, as it lacks the drive of the alternating bass, but it serves to demonstrate one means of translating a C rag into a banjo tune. Don pointed out above that the banjo's means of creating syncopation lies in the use of the 5th string rather than the driving bass notes found in raggy blues guitar playing, and Hobart's loud and driving drone string fills that role on Railroad Bill. What's sacrificed in this translation is the feel of independent movement of bass and melody, analogous in ways to stride piano, which I notice particularly in the playing of Rev. Gary Davis.
majikgator - Posted - 06/29/2010: 21:10:20
Bob the Gambler and Bordertownbrown, i look forward to hearing your tunes and i am glad Furry Lewis was mentioned i am listening to his version of Stack- O- Lee right now. i Actually i don't know that rag "like" blues tunes can't work out fine on the 5 string banjo which is one thing i am trying to explore here. i have played around with some rag time blues progressions myself and have heard enough examples to satisfy me of this. i am very happy to play old time banjo because we can see here how encompassing old time is, i really like that, a lot of variety but still there is this common thread somehow and not just in name, bands like the New Lost City Ramblers really do it for me, it's pretty exciting music i think.
Edited by - majikgator on 06/29/2010 21:16:54
bordertownbrown - Posted - 07/02/2010: 11:14:11
Today I just recorded this version of Goin' to Brownsville which is derived by those of Sleepy John Estes and Furry Lewis. The song is played on a"Texas Traveler" an A scale banjo which I build from local materials (mesquite and Texas ebony), it has a 10" rim and is tuned to A.
Richard Brown
majikgator - Posted - 07/02/2010: 14:50:27
Very nice Bordertownbrown very bluesy. Question, what is Texas ebony?
clawhammermike - Posted - 07/02/2010: 20:04:38
I was just listening to MJH the other night and he is untouchable. He is one of those guys that I wish recorded everyone of my favorite songs so I could just listen to him. I wish I was his friend so I could've asked him to play tunes I want to hear I also don't think the banjo could ever do it justice. I hate the guitar but his is brilliant. the old blues guys took the guitar and own it. I think old-time just borrows it . now what is great is playing banjo with a guitarist who plays like that- sorry I lost mine. The farthest out I go is Mississippi Sheiks- they seem to lay out on my banjo real nice.
majikgator - Posted - 07/03/2010: 05:41:16
Any Mississippi Sheik songs that work out paricularly well for you Clawhammermike? A very influential group. i'm (again) not talking about imitating guitarists. What i am talking about is a very up front banjo, playing that type of music with a rhythmic (and melodic) feel, but suitable to the banjo not trying to warp a banjo into some sort of weird guitar. Again, besides the great examples already given here Paul Brown's Down to Tampa itunes.apple.com/us/album/way-...id2753035 sort of stirs up a similar feeling to me.
ramjo - Posted - 07/03/2010: 11:48:58
Inspired by this thread, I decided to work on Walt Koken's setting of MJH's "Candy Man." This is my straight clawhammer effort as it stands now. (I need to get it to swing better, to say nothing of cleaning up the mistakes.) I realize Majikgator is talking about more of a blending of styles, but I think the Piedmont stuff can work in CH. Walt certainly makes MJH work.
majikgator - Posted - 07/03/2010: 16:43:42
I would never advocate playing in multiple styles unless, if somehow the tune, arrangement or your fancy at the moment cried out for it, sometimes it might. Piedmont style playing is a giant gap in my clawhammer education. i asked this in another thread recently, does anyone have any experience with Bob Carlin's DVD on Piedmont style playing? Bob is a great teacher and i wondered if this particular venture was worth while in explaining and giving introductory exercises in this. Excellent job Ramjo, very enjoyable.
bordertownbrown - Posted - 07/05/2010: 10:33:32
Gator,
I was out of town for a few days so couldn't reply earlier. Texas ebony is a very dark dense and heavy hard wood that is native only to the southern Rio Grande. It is related to mesquite and compares favorably to ebony, at 65 pounds per cubic foot it sinks in water.
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majikgator - Posted - 07/05/2010: 10:44:23
Now i know, pretty wood, pretty frailing well and Lonestar.
Coonskin - Posted - 07/06/2010: 18:10:01
I started to do my three-finger on the banjo because my friend Brandon plays some fiddle tunes fairly slowly, and because I drink 10-15 cans of Coca-Cola a day, i can't frail slower than a cat on fire. i figured out most of my thing by trying to copy Blind Blake and Dock Boggs and failing. i used to have a complex about putting blue notes into oldtime tunes, but I just can't help it, so I just go with it. I'm a huge ragtime fan, and no matter how much I try to get that feeling out, it just kinda bleeds in. It seems to me that there's lots of room for that stuff. myspace.com/banjokel
bordertownbrown - Posted - 07/07/2010: 05:47:11
Coonskin, Nice layout on myspace and great pickin' too! If you traded those 10-15 cans of Coke a day for the same amount of beer, I bet that would slow you down some.
five-string fever - Posted - 07/07/2010: 07:48:23
FYI-The same album is on iTunes and very easy to listen to samples.
Coonskin - Posted - 07/07/2010: 18:03:56
quote:
Originally posted by bordertownbrown
Coonskin, Nice layout on myspace and great pickin' too! If you traded those 10-15 cans of Coke a day for the same amount of beer, I bet that would slow you down some.
Hahaha...thnks for the kind words and advice. But I'm a 100% Tee-totaller! Besides, nobody wants me to start on the alcohol, and that's a promise!
I collect meat cleavers and I've got a shooter that could kill Godzilla! Alcohol would be a very bad third on that list.
Fred Cockerham, BTW, does an incredible blues on the Field recorder's collective recording...that guy was amazing.
bordertownbrown - Posted - 07/08/2010: 13:24:54
I've been kickin' around a bunch of blues on the banjo these past few days to get something together to record. These are songs that I have played for years mostly on guitar or ukulele, they are recorded with a Blue Snowball directly into my computer with no edit or mix. My performance may not be perfect but I don't care about that, I'm only sharing ideas.
This is a Richard Rabbit Brown song "James Alley Blues" played clawhammer style in the key of A on short scale Texas Traveler.
Richard (not Rabbit) Brown
bordertownbrown - Posted - 07/08/2010: 14:57:27
Had time for one more today, its a Bo Carter song played in the key of A and picked with three fingers.
five-string fever - Posted - 07/08/2010: 15:07:39
Bordertown Brown great blues man! I thought you'd be singing about the rising floodwaters of the Rio Grande. Keep yer banjers dry! I spent most of the Sixties in the thriving metropolis of Premont, Texas.
majikgator - Posted - 07/08/2010: 16:39:12
I like both of those tunes Richard, banjo, vocals and song selection
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