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trick420 - Posted - 03/19/2011: 07:43:25
This week's tune of the week is Billy in the Lowground.
I chose this tune for a couple of reasons. First, this is the tune that I played ad nauseum when I was trying out banjos last Christmas - It is significant because it is also the first time that I ever played banjo with another musician, a fiddler, and none other than Music Folk's Colin Blair. The second reason I chose it is because I've been enamoured with open C tunes lately, as well as playing ASPO's, and the arrangement of this that I play has quite a few of them. And Finally, it appears to have Irish roots, so it's appropriate for the week of St. Patricks' Day.
The version I play is Mike Iverson's arrangement, and you can find the tab of it on his website: bluesageband.com/Tabs.html
Here's what the fiddler's companion has to say about the song: [ibiblio.org/fiddlers/BILL_BINS...W_GROUND_[1]
Here's the Folk Music index for Recorded Sources entry: ibiblio.org/keefer/b07.htm#Bilinthl
And finally some non-bluegrass performances that I like:
youtube.com/watch?v=SaHpFXhORCc
youtube.com/watch?v=h7PRkxGO1_k
This is one of my favorite arrangements (I really need to learn this arrangement): youtube.com/watch?v=a0HkKtVl4Ps
This is a nice Fiddle version: youtube.com/watch?v=FVA_zz9H1Q0
And finally, a nice, mellow version with banjo and mountain dulcimer! youtube.com/watch?v=1cdntgI4h8...e=related These guys are local to me here in Chattanooga (although I don't know either of them)
Enjoy!
Jeff
Edited by - trick420 on 03/19/2011 07:43:53
J-Walk - Posted - 03/19/2011: 10:54:17
This is one of those tunes that just never clicked with me for some reason. I have 20 recordings of it and I probably hear it a lot, but it never jumps out and says, "Learn me!"
By the way, Billy in the Lowground is in Levenson's "Festival Tunes" book, and he recorded it on his "Barenaked Banjos" CD -- plus on "Salt & Grease" with the Boiled Buzzards.
The Canote Brothers do a tune called "Old Time Billy in the Lowground." It has nothing at all to do with the other tune (and is even in a different key). But the first time I heard that one, I had to learn it. Here's a video:
youtube.com/watch?v=GBdWeXXzj8Q
Don't mean to hijack your thread, but I thought I'd point out the other tune with a similar name in case anyone gets confused.
trick420 - Posted - 03/19/2011: 11:11:42
quote:
Originally posted by J-Walk
This is one of those tunes that just never clicked with me for some reason. I have 20 recordings of it and I probably hear it a lot, but it never jumps out and says, "Learn me!"
By the way, Billy in the Lowground is in Levenson's "Festival Tunes" book, and he recorded it on his "Barenaked Banjos" CD -- plus on "Salt & Grease" with the Boiled Buzzards.
The Canote Brothers do a tune called "Old Time Billy in the Lowground." It has nothing at all to do with the other tune (and is even in a different key). But the first time I heard that one, I had to learn it. Here's a video:
youtube.com/watch?v=GBdWeXXzj8Q
Don't mean to hijack your thread, but I thought I'd point out the other tune with a similar name in case anyone gets confused.
Not a hijack at all really. Interesting to hear that other version. On a similar note, I was going back and forth between this and Rickett's Nornpipe. It's in the same boat as I learned the traditional version of it, but I got the interest from the version recorded by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, which sounds NOTHING like every other version I have ever heard of it. Old time is fasci9nating to me in that there are so many songs with multiple alternate titles, and there are so many titles with multiple melodies...
Don Borchelt - Posted - 03/20/2011: 05:01:57
Dan always nails them.
I've loved this tune ever since I heard Doc Watson do it way back in the 70s. This is a tape I made back in the mid-80s, after I had been experimenting for a number of years with "bass" drones, something I do routinely now. The guitar player is Jim Murphy, who at the time was a graduate student at MIT. I've lost touch with Jim, last I heard he was working at Hannaford. The banjo is tuned in double C, gCGCD.
I still pick it this way, on the once-in-awhile occasions when an old time jam session around here moves to the Key of C, Billy always comes up. I have a tab for my three-finger arrangement posted on my website:
banjr.com/tablatures.htm#B
Somewhere in the past, I believe I read that the "Billy" in question was King William III of England, known as William of Orange, who ruled jointly with his wife Mary II at the end of the 17th Century. William is best known for his defeat of Catholic forces in Northern Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne, and was an important historical hero for the Scotch-Irish people who later settled in Appalachia.
LyleK - Posted - 03/22/2011: 07:34:45
quote:
Originally posted by Don Borchelt
I'm going to bump this. I wouldn't want our lurkers to get the idea that Billy in the Lowground is just too tough for our BHO old-timey pickers!
I'm workin' on it. The only recording I had was on a fretless and it sounded, well, terrible. But with frets, it shouldn't be so bad. And for fun, I might toss in a couple of versions of "Old Time Billy..." (in G). Thanks Don for culling and collating the O-T BHO offerings and for providing the 3-finger.
vrteach - Posted - 03/22/2011: 11:13:34
I agree with Lyle, thanks for "culling and collating" those versions. I'll see if I can work something up.
WGE - Posted - 03/22/2011: 12:03:31
Franklin George talked about the derivation of the title of this tune at the recent Breakin' Up Winter get-together. He also said the term "Billy" came from immigrant supporters of King William III and that the folks settling in the mountains were "Hill Billy's" whereas those who settled below were "Billy's in the Lowground." Who knows but this makes for an interesting annecdote. Personally, I enjoy playing the tune but I have to always concentrate hard to avoid turning it into "Whiskey Before Breakfast" when I start it, and vice versa.
trick420 - Posted - 03/22/2011: 12:14:24
Interesting, I have never confused those two tunes. Of course, I play Bill out of Open C and Whiskey out of Double C. And, I guess for me the tunes sound so different. Whiskey Before Breakfast sounds more "country" or "hillbilly" to me, and Billy in the Lowground sounds decisively Irish to my ear.
Steve Donnelly - Posted - 03/22/2011: 13:41:28
The version in Miles Krassen's book (Clawhammer Banjo) sounds
quite a bit different from the examples played here or on youtube.
ramjo - Posted - 03/22/2011: 15:48:47
Hill Billy, Low Billy, King Billy? I always thought it was about a billy goat that got out of the pen. Once again TOTW is a learning experience.
Trick420--you linked to a youtube guy who's playing Richie Stearns' arrangement. Here's my cover of Richie's. It's got that extra measure in both parts the way Miles Krassen's tab has. (He credits Lowe Stokes.) Just checked, and there's a picture of a billy goat next to the tab. That must've been where I got that idea.
WGE - Posted - 03/22/2011: 16:04:39
Around my parts, we do "Billy in the Lowground" as a C tune (double C tuning for me) and "Whiskey Before Breakfast" as D tune (double D tuning). However, the first several notes in their respective keys are so similar to me, I find I can get easily sidetracked.
Kitt - Posted - 03/22/2011: 16:26:37
quote:
Originally posted by Steve Donnelly
The version in Miles Krassen's book (Clawhammer Banjo) sounds
quite a bit different from the examples played here or on youtube.
I don't know what youtube examples you are referring to, but Blanham of BHO has a Billy in the Lowground posted that he based on Krassen's book version.
hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...12011.mp3
vrteach - Posted - 03/22/2011: 16:34:02
Billy in the Low Ground is one of those tunes that I enjoy listening to, and playing along with, but I've never been inspired to actually work it out. However, I got inspired by the last of the four links to BHO tunes that Don listed above; the one from rcmoore which is a recording by Steve Moore (father?) made in the 1950s or 60s when Steve Moore was in his 80s. He calls it "Billy in the Low Land". In the recording I believe that he is in "E," but I expect it could be that the recording device wasn't running at a standard speed.
When Mr Moore is playing it, I can certainly recognize it as "Billy in the Low Ground" but when I play it, I can recognize what I play as coming from Mr Moore, but it no longer sounds like "Billy in the Low Ground" to me. Hmm, must be doing something wrong. But, I was having fun with it.
Edited by - vrteach on 03/22/2011 16:35:26
Bill Rogers - Posted - 03/22/2011: 19:14:19
Yeah, that's Billy in the Lowgroound. Billy in the Low Land is a different tune entirely, whatever Steve Moore called his BitLg version. It's the first tune here, played about as well as you'll hear it: youtube.com/watch?v=3-BEvSa9Y3U
RWJones1970 - Posted - 03/22/2011: 19:48:51
*** I really find Frankin George summary of the two tunes quite interesting. Being that fella is one heck of an old time musician he very well could be on to the truth there. I first heard this tune on a Doc Watson album, not to be confused with "Billy In The Lowland" in which Alan Jabbour and Ken Perlman do a fantastic version on their "Southern Summits" album. Thanks for doing a wonderful job researching this as TOTW! It's always been a favorite of mine.
trick420 - Posted - 03/22/2011: 21:25:19
Ok, so I posted the darn song, so I guess it's time I put up my attempt at it.
It's a little rough and sloppy, but I just had a 10 minute warmup and made a quick take, so forgive me.
Again, this is the arrangement attributed to Mike Iverson. I learned it from his tab.
Jeff
Edit: I would also add that the first string notes sound a little weak because I broke off my claw nail today at the gym, so I had a hard time in that regard.
Edited by - trick420 on 03/22/2011 21:26:36
RWJones1970 - Posted - 03/24/2011: 18:59:52
*** I have really enjoyed everyone's version of this awesome tune. It's one of those old time tunes that can stand me hairs on end and give me goosebumps. Thank you all !
halfshavedma**hole - Posted - 03/26/2011: 14:29:21
One of my favorite tunes that Burnett and Rutherford recorded. Two finger.......................in classical tuning.....
