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mworden - Posted - 07/12/2013: 08:29:47
For this week's tune, I've chosen Sweet Marie (not to be confused with the Bob Dylan song "Absolutely Sweet Marie"). I learned this tune this past spring from Jeff Titon, who I believe learned it from Bruce Green. Jeff called the tune "a real honey" and I have to agree. It's a tune that gets stuck in my head and when it does I'm happy it's there.
Interestingly, Sweet Marie apparently didn't start out as a traditional fiddle or banjo tune, though Fiddler's Companion does have a very brief listing for it. Instead, the tune seems to have started life as a slow, sentimental ballad in the late 1800s. There is an interesting discussion about the origin of the tune on this thread over in the Fiddle Hangout: fiddlehangout.com/topic/29596
I don't know how or when it came to work it's way into the old-time repertoire. Bruce Green recorded Kentucky fiddle player Walter Lile playing the tune in 1970. You can listen to that recording here: slippery-hill.com/M-K/AEAE/SweetMarie.mp3. North Carolina fiddler Benton Flippen recorded a mellow version on his album Fiddler's Dream when he was in his eighties.
Here is a video of Bruce and friends playing the tune at a Mt. Airy: youtube.com/watch?v=SpsNW2OjFHU
There are a few nice recordings on the hangout, including:
Jack (JackAK) Fontanella's version here: banjohangout.org/song/8095
Erich (vrteach) Schroeder's version here: banjohangout.org/song/20314
BHO's Don Borchelt has an excellent version in his trademark 3-finger style with a great harmonica accompaniment. Don's account is inexplicably locked at the moment (few give more back to BHO than he does) but you can listen here: banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...cid=22227
One of my very favorite versions is played by the Troublesome Creek String Band (featuring BHO member Steve Arkin on banjo) on their album Fast As Time Can Take Me. (The whole album is a winner.)
In the old-time world, it shows up most often in the key of G but also sometimes in A (the original seems to be in the not very banjo-friendly key of Eb). Here it is in G the way I played it a couple days ago. Slow and sweet or fast and bouncy, let's hear your version.
vrteach - Posted - 07/12/2013: 08:48:56
So cool! I was thinking of doing this sometime for a TOTW. I learned the tune from that excellent Troublesome Creek album. There is a version of it by Ray Wright, recorded at a 1974 fiddle contest in British Columbia and posted in the field recordings of Northwest fiddlers on the Voyager Records web site: voyagerrecords.com/nwffrmp3.htm#RW
As I listen to what I had posted a couple of years ago, I think that I don't pause so much between the parts when I play it now.
bhniko - Posted - 07/12/2013: 09:45:17
Great tune...great players...great playing and great listening. Enjoyed the post.
jojo25 - Posted - 07/12/2013: 09:49:35
Don's version is very nice!...but remain curious as to what it would sound like in E flat
MBuesseler - Posted - 07/12/2013: 12:10:01
Tab, anyone?
BANJOJUDY - Posted - 07/12/2013: 12:26:37
That sure is a "sweet" tune. I listened to Don and Mark (harmonica) version a few minutes ago. Cool combination. Well done, boys!
MBuesseler - Posted - 07/12/2013: 14:06:38
This is a great tune.! Don's version sounds like harmonica and hammered dulcimer almost. Very nice tune. I hope someone works out the tab. In the meantime I'm slowing down Mike's mp3.
Btw, anyone got any hints on how to play Don Borchelt's 2 or 3 finger tab? It's nice tab, but with no indication of which fingers to use where. I get completely tangled up in it and give up.
Dock Jekel - Posted - 07/12/2013: 14:23:57
Great job mworden. Excellent mellow plunkin'. Nicely done with guitar!
chip arnold - Posted - 07/12/2013: 14:25:23
Will Keys, Doug Smith and Barb Kuhns did a cassette with this as the title tune. It has words though I don't remember them. I think Will's playing of this song is the best I've ever heard. I'll be playing Sweet marie at a gig tomorrow.
whyteman - Posted - 07/12/2013: 21:36:48
Fell in love with Sweet Marie upon my first listen on the Troublesome Creek recording. Curiously, I think I read that that particular track was not recorded live. Arkin's banjo was overdubbed. Maybe.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 07/13/2013: 16:33:14
Great tune choice, Mike. And a great MP3 by you.
I’m putting two videos up.
This first represents my contribution to the TOTW “Sweet Marie” thread:
youtube.com/watch?v=nWAdqUR7ed4
This second one represents an attempt to capture, as Cam does so effectively, some of the nice views here in Staunton, VA.
This one has our little cabin in the background, but it was filmed in the midst of a full frontal attack of a regiment-sized group of Augusta County mosquitos. I retreated back to the basement, acknowledging that the critters bested me again.
youtube.com/watch?v=7ehk5NEBkOs
Play hard.
Lew
Couchie - Posted - 07/13/2013: 17:03:44
quote:
Originally posted by MBuesseler
This is a great tune.! Don's version sounds like harmonica and hammered dulcimer almost. Very nice tune. I hope someone works out the tab. In the meantime I'm slowing down Mike's mp3.
Btw, anyone got any hints on how to play Don Borchelt's 2 or 3 finger tab? It's nice tab, but with no indication of which fingers to use where. I get completely tangled up in it and give up.
Don's tab is likely a 3-finger tab. Sorry I cant offer any more than this other than it would be worth the effort to figure it out as his playing is sublime.
Couchie
gailg64 - Posted - 07/13/2013: 19:19:08
Thanks for posting the link. Ray Wright's version of Sweet Marie is wonderful, charming, unpretentious, and still singable. Nice backup too!
gailg64 - Posted - 07/13/2013: 19:39:36
Here's a little verse to Sweet Marie in circulation in NC, said to have come from Tommy Jarrell.
Sweet Marie, come to me, come to me sweet Marie
Because your face is fair I love to see
Go up to your Daddy's (old man's) still get your whiskey bottle filled
It will only hold a gill sweet Marie.
BrendanD - Posted - 07/14/2013: 00:39:58
And to balance Gail's sublime with some ridiculous alternate words I've heard:
There's a skeeter on my peter, sweet Marie
There's another on my brother, sweet Marie
All my uncles, aunts, and cousins, they've all got 'em by the dozens
There's a skeeter on my peter, sweet Marie.
I think maybe I'll just slip out this side door now...
JanetB - Posted - 07/16/2013: 07:48:15
Fantastic choice to share with us, Mike. It's so pretty and engaging that I woke up humming it in my mind. I learned it from your version and by writing out tab from the Milliner-Koken American Fiddle Tune book--something I rarely do. But this tune is rather crooked and I needed some help while it's still so new. Thanks so much for introducing me to a lovely tune.
mworden - Posted - 07/16/2013: 07:56:51
That's lovely, Janet. Your version is a little more crooked than mine, I think. My only suggestion is to make it louder (increase the recording gain, maybe?). I had to really crank up the volume to hear it.
mbanza - Posted - 07/16/2013: 08:02:22
A nice harmony can be found playing one string up.
JanetB - Posted - 07/16/2013: 08:53:25
quote:
Originally posted by mworden
My only suggestion is to make it louder (increase the recording gain, maybe?). I had to really crank up the volume to hear it.
Here's a louder version and hopefully it does the job, Mike. Thanks for letting me know. The laptop volume is not always true and your feedback is appreciated. The tune is so charming I don't mind playing it all morning! By the way, what's recording gain?
MBuesseler - Posted - 07/16/2013: 09:00:34
Dang! That is SO sweet, Janet! I almost want to call it Sweet JanetB. Love your tone and the tempo was perfect, IMO.
I'm still hoping for some tab, but I can hear that the tune is probably not that difficult. I just don't know how to download your mp3 so I can slow it down. Can I do that? Where is says "download mp3' on the Jukebox, it just open and plays, doesn't download to my computer.
mworden - Posted - 07/16/2013: 09:26:36
quote:
Originally posted by JanetB
By the way, what's recording gain?
Sometimes called input gain. It's basically just how much your recording set up boosts the volume of whatever you are recording. If you make it too high it can saturate and cause distortion. Where, how and whether you can set it will depend on your recording set up. I use a Zoom h4n recorder as a mic and audio interface to garage band on a mac. I can set the recording gain on the device and for the individual channels in garage band. I think you can also set the input level for the system too but I don't usually mess with that. I usually set the gain around 80% and then play with the volume of each track to get a good mix if I have recorded more than one instrument/track.
banjo_brad - Posted - 07/16/2013: 12:28:06
Kismet! This tune was just rotating through my playlist. Done on Autoharp by Neriah & Kenneth Benfield on the CD "Mountain Music Play on the Autoharp."
There are a couple of phrases in it that remind me of some old "party song" that I knew as a kid. I'll have to try to learn this one.
twothphry - Posted - 07/17/2013: 11:04:15
I may have missed it but is there a link to a tab available or a copy of the tab available? The archives don't have a tab available.
JanetB - Posted - 07/17/2013: 21:13:15
Here's a tab for my MP3 above, based on Walter Lile's fiddling as notated in Milliner-Koken American Fiddle Tunes. There is syncopation and unexpected accents that made his fiddling sound unusual and difficult to follow. I turned to the written notation to make it simpler and faster to pick it up. What I'd really like to do is listen longer to the great links here and play it simpler. Thanks so much for this tune, Mike!
