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maryzcox - Posted - 08/16/2013: 07:15:42
Here’s a little youtube of Kay Van Treese and Mary Z Cox playing around with Washington’s March on a Thursday afternoon in my living room. Kay likes the old Hammons family tunes and when she played this one—I really liked it because it is played in that drop D tuning with that low D string. So—we just started playing it and thankfully recorded it on my ipad so it could be tune of the week on BHO J
This link seemed to have the most history about this tune :)
ibiblio.org/fiddlers/WAM_WAS.htm
WASHINGTON’S MARCH [3]. Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia. D Major. DDad tuning. AA’. Despite the title, the tune is played in reel tempo. May possibly be a very distant derivative of “Washington’s Grand March,” although there were many melodies in America that carried the Washington name, an indication of his influence even in backwoods areas. Betty Vornbrock notices a similarity in the high part of Hammons’ version and the ‘B’ part of the Shetland tune “Sleep Soond i’da Moarnin’”. Allan Jabbour (in 1984 notes to Edden Hammons recording) says that this is one of the tunes in the Hammons family repertoire that has special family associations, in that it was considered to have been composed by early family members, “or at least uniquely preserved by them.” The original 1947 field recorder, a folklorist named Louis Watson Chappell, stated that Edden Hammons won the 1939 Greenbrier Valley fiddle championship playing “Washington’s March,” and the he had learned it “59 years ago and first played it on a gourd covered by a deer skin” (quoted by Jabbour). Randolph County, West Virginia, fiddler Woody Simmons (b. 1911) remarked in a 1979 interview for Goldenseal Magazine:
***
(Edwin Hammons) made that old “George Washington March” up
himself. One day I said, “Edwin, play me that ‘George Washington
March.’” He said, “I’ll play her for you, but I won’t play her fer—he
called Dewey Hamrick ‘Jewey’—he said, “I won’t play her fer Jewey,
but I’ll play her for you.” And he did, he played me the “George
Washington March,” and I learned it from him. I won a fiddlers’
contest in Glenville with it. I could never win nothing at Glenville
(the West Virginia State Folk Festival), only with the old “George
Washington March.” You tune the fiddle altogether different to
play that. Edwin Hammons would drop the G string down to D,
and the E string down to D. (Mountains of Music, 1999, John Lilly ed., pg. 22)
***
The melody was also played in this tuning by eastern Kentucky fiddler Ed Hayley. Source for notated version: Edwin/Edden Hammons via his nephew Burl Hammons (Pocahontas County, West Virginia) [Krassen]. Krassen (Masters of Old Time Fiddling), 1983; pg. 81. WVU Press SA-1, “Edden Hammons Collection I” (1999). Yazoo 2103, Eddon Hammons – “American Rural Classics 1927-37.”
Washinton’s March
Edden Hammons version on youtube—audio with vintage pix of Edden .
youtu.be/irYc6bG78lw
Here are some audio files of Washington’s March by several different fiddler put online by Larry Warren.
slippery-hill.com/DDAD/
Now what if the Hammons Family had an ipad or iphone back in the good old days? They could have posted this themselves J
For banjo—I’m tuned up in double D tuning on my Cedar Mountain Banjo and loosely following the fiddle melody—with a few extry notes to round out the fiddle voice.
Please post whatever you know about this tune and put up other recordings. There are other tunes by this name--but we were trying to go for a version based loosely on the Hammons one.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 08/16/2013: 12:13:03
I really like the way Mary captures the dynamics of the tune, which propels her to sort of dance in place on the couch with banjo in hand.
Here's my video attempt.
I don't dance...
ndlxs - Posted - 08/16/2013: 14:50:47
One thing that no one has picked up about this tune is that it is VERY similar to the fiddle tune Drunken Waggoner; most of the people who play it learned from the phenomenal fingerstyle guitarist Duck Baker, who in turn got it from Art Rosenbaum who got it from Missouri Fiddler Dwight Lamp. The only recorded versions are all Duck's arrangement.
Here's some dude playing Duck's arrangement:
youtube.com/watch?v=87eQVhISq94
maryzcox - Posted - 08/17/2013: 06:34:41
quote:
Originally posted by ndlxs
One thing that no one has picked up about this tune is that it is VERY similar to the fiddle tune Drunken Waggoner; most of the people who play it learned from the phenomenal fingerstyle guitarist Duck Baker, who in turn got it from Art Rosenbaum who got it from Missouri Fiddler Dwight Lamp. The only recorded versions are all Duck's arrangement.
Here's some dude playing Duck's arrangement:
youtube.com/watch?v=87eQVhISq94
Andy -- I see what you are talking about. Boy would I ever like to hear this guitarist take off the capo and play this tune in drop D or Dadgad :)MzcMzc
ndlxs - Posted - 08/17/2013: 09:10:36
Duck does it without a capo. He is a gifted arranger...one of the best, in fact, of anything from celtic to old time to jazz.
blanham - Posted - 08/17/2013: 13:34:13
In addition to the Edden Hammons recording, I have a couple of others in my collection: Alan Jabbour/Ken Perlman on "Southern Summits," and Andy Cahan/Alice Gerrard on "Bolliver's Favorites." Here is the way I learned it (Double D tuning).
JanetB - Posted - 08/17/2013: 17:31:47
I like this choice for TOTW, Mary. Your duet with Kay is inspiring. I've listened to Track 1 on the Edden Hammons Collection, Vol. 1, but wouldn't have thought to try learning it till this week, so I thank you. My version is rather notey, like his fiddle. Maybe after I know the tune longer it could be simplified.
The many military tunes in the old time repertoire convey the image of soldiers marching, battling, or retreating. It must be more than the power of suggestion.
Edited by - JanetB on 08/17/2013 17:35:39
RG - Posted - 08/17/2013: 19:01:13
That would be Dwight "Lamb"...
ndlxs - Posted - 08/18/2013: 08:47:20
Yes, it is Dwight Lamb. Not on either of the Dwight Lamb recordings available, too; It is written out in the Old Time Fiddlers Missouri repertoire book, though.
Here is a version of it on fiddle:
slippery-hill.com/RP/112-Drunk...oneer.mp3
jojo25 - Posted - 08/19/2013: 09:43:39
I contacted Duck via FB...here is a link to something reasonably close to his version of Drunken Waggoner...per Duck..."a tune from Nebraska fiddler Bob Walters, that I learned from Art Rosenbaum many years ago."
youtube.com/watch?v=87eQVhISq94
hope this helps
mojo_monk - Posted - 08/19/2013: 13:00:13
quote:
Originally posted by ndlxs
Yes, it is Dwight Lamb. Not on either of the Dwight Lamb recordings available, too; It is written out in the Old Time Fiddlers Missouri repertoire book, though.
Here is a version of it on fiddle:
slippery-hill.com/RP/112-Drunk...oneer.mp3
Man. Hardly anything in this world can top Bob Walters fiddling with Bob Christesson seconding on pump organ. Well...MAYBE Cyril Stinnett with Bob Christesson seconding on pump organ 
-Sean
Edited by - mojo_monk on 08/19/2013 13:01:03
JanetB - Posted - 08/19/2013: 21:08:43
Wow, Lew! Thanks for that big batch of video links. I'm a Chris Coole fan and he sure gets in the notes from Edden Hammon's version.
maryzcox - Posted - 08/20/2013: 06:31:04
Kind of liked that dulcimer version with the guy in the kilt. He really delivers that old time quality to the tune with that noter version .
I'm teaching several classes dulcimer at the fall festival at Unicpi this year--might have to work this tune up for tthem since it sounds so cool on dulcimer :)
YorkshireWannabeOldTimer - Posted - 08/21/2013: 05:09:51
Another very fine TOTW choice. I've really enjoyed all of the versions posted, as played both by BHO members and by all the others. Here's another effort, in a somewhat blues-y vein:
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 08/21/2013: 06:12:14
Yorkshire,
Nice feel to that tune.
Thanks for sharing.
Lew
bd - Posted - 08/21/2013: 10:56:24
Here's my shot at it. I did it in 2 finger thumb lead & my banjo is in open D (dADF#A)--so I could play along with Mary and Kay. It's pretty humid here & the calf skin head's a bit slack, so there's extra plunk.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 08/21/2013: 11:09:21
BD,
Plenty of plunk there, even with the slack skin head. Nice two finger approach. Is that an Eric Prust banjo?
Cheers,
Lew
bd - Posted - 08/21/2013: 11:23:39
quote:
Originally posted by Brooklynbanjoboy
BD,
Plenty of plunk there, even with the slack skin head. Nice two finger approach. Is that an Eric Prust banjo?
Cheers,
Lew
Thanks! Yep its a Prust.
I thought a loose head=more plunk! Shows what I know.....
rubicon - Posted - 08/21/2013: 14:06:29
quote: well played
Originally posted by JanetB
I like this choice for TOTW, Mary. Your duet with Kay is inspiring. I've listened to Track 1 on the Edden Hammons Collection, Vol. 1, but wouldn't have thought to try learning it till this week, so I thank you. My version is rather notey, like his fiddle. Maybe after I know the tune longer it could be simplified.
The many military tunes in the old time repertoire convey the image of soldiers marching, battling, or retreating. It must be more than the power of suggestion.
Mtngoat - Posted - 08/21/2013: 14:54:20
Nice picking bd!
bd - Posted - 08/21/2013: 15:09:36
quote:
Originally posted by Mtngoat
Nice picking bd!
Thanks!
maryzcox - Posted - 08/22/2013: 09:08:32
Lots of fun versions here--keep posting--the TOTW changes tomorrow 
