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Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/06/2013: 02:23:45
Good Morning BHOer’s/TOTW’ers.
The tune this week: “Georgia Row” aka “Walking Up Georgia Row”
I confess that my TOTW effort is a fool’s errand, based as it is on the playing of the incomparable duet of Adam Hurt and Beth Hartness, playing live in late April 2013 at WAMU's Bluegrass Country:
youtube.com/watch?feature=play...2oZyhOWSg
Trying to decipher Adam’s banjo playing is akin to piecing together an understanding of Chaucer based on only a rudimentary understanding of contemporary Brooklynese (my native dialect).
Adam played the tune on his CD, Fine Times at our House, and identified it as “Walking Up Georgia Row,” from Uncle Charlie Osborne, Russell County, Virginia. His banjo was tuned aDADE: adamhurt.com/new_cds.html
Rich Kirby, a long-time WMMT Mountain Community Radio staff member -- and producer of A Fiddle Runs Through It, a radio series profiling the young musicians carrying on Appalachia’s music traditions and the older musicians they learned from -- was gracious enough to answer some questions of mine via email (25 April 2013), and his note is worth quoting in its entirety:
“I first heard "Georgia Row" from Uncle Charlie Osborne, probably around 1980. I understand he learned it from his father. Tom Bledsoe had introduced me to Charlie; Tom and I spent many a happy hour playing tunes with Charlie and listening to his stories. He lived with his daughter on Moccasin Creek in Russell County, VA, and passed away in 1992 at the age of 101. When Tom produced Charlie's June Appal LP "Relics and Treasures," "Georgia Row" was a tune we made sure to include. It's been in my repertoire ever since. There's something deeply satisfying about it. The band I play with, Rich and the Po' Folk, learned it; our then-guitar player Roy Tackett started using A and G chords exclusively behind the B-part, not getting to a D chord until the very end of the part. It underlines the tension implied in the (almost) key change and makes the eventual resolution even more, well, satisfying.”
Gail Gillespie, a noted multi-instrumentalist and Senior Advisory Editor of The Old Time Herald, posted this on Fiddler Hangout in December 2012:
“Between the Revolutionary & Civil Wars, wealthy southerners summered at mountain spring resorts. It was partly for health reasons (escaping the heat of the low country indigo & rice plantations), but also social. It was a marriage market & there were dances & balls. The resort owners hired orchestras that played classical music during the "season," but in the winter, the off season, the mountain locals played reels for their own dances. The rows were rows of cottages, built by the wealthy, for their summer stay--sometimes wealthy planters who lived in the rice country of Georgia & SC might as long as 3 or 4 months. South Carolina & Georgia planters had their own cottage rows with others of the same area. I did my dissertation on this years ago but still have old guide books. Maps of White Sulphur Springs & Sweet Springs show rows of cottages with names such as "Virginia Row," "South Carolina Row," and "Georgia Row." “See: fiddlehangout.com/myhangout/mu...cid=10499
Here’s the tune on fiddle being taught by Jane Rothfield: oldtimeyjam.blogspot.com/2011/...-row.html
And a nice ensemble version: youtube.com/watch?v=IfPif-9_qqE
Here’s a tab version with the tuning set to gDGBD, capo at second fret, from L.W. Konigsberg’s Clawhammer Banjo Tabs:
lylewk.home.comcast.net/~lylew...20Row.pdf
Fiddle Hangout offers a number of insights into the tune. For example, our Fiddle colleagues have noted that “Walking Down Georgia Road” is:
- An Old-Time, Breakdown. D Major. Standard tuning. AB. From the playing of Angie and Tim Wooten. Source for notated version: Isla Ross [Silberberg]. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 163.
- Possibly related to a song recorded by Riley Puckett and McMichen, whose lyric begins "Way down yonder in Georgia, by an old pine rosin tree. That's where I hugged and kissed her, and she said that she loved me." This is the link to which Fiddler’s Hangout players point in making the argument that there is a resemblance between the Uncle Charlie Osborn and the Thomas/Riley version, and a relationship between the Skillet Lickers version: youtube.com/watch?v=iIcnMlGrM0k
- Derived, at least insofar as the verse Riley sings, from "The Farmer's Daughter" by James Bland, published in 1883. According to as persistent Fiddle Hangout cadre, it is in the Levy collection at this link levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/
- A tune from James Bland who lived part of his life in England. Fiddle Hangout cadre conclude that this song must have entered the folk tradition over there, because it was collected from traditional singers. Fiddler’s Hangout cites a recording of the song by Arthur Smith:
1001tunes.com/PCvolume02/farme...SMITH.mp3
- A tune that Rich Hartness got from Uncle Charlie Osborne, who learned it from his father. Uncle Charlie plays it on this CD: appalshop.org/store/index.php?...bsp; ; Parenthetically, Buddy Thomas' "“Georgia Row” " and Charlie Osborne's "“Georgia Row” " are related, different key and tuning though.
- Mentioned in Fiddler's Companion as having a resemblance to "Angelina Baker," ibiblio.org/fiddlers/GEO_GH.ht...ROW though Fiddler's Companion says the tune is in A yet the notation at that entry says its in D, but it's really the Buddy Thomas version in A. Fiddler’s Companion also suggests the tune is played from DDAE thought it is listed as AEAE in the M-K collection. To me, this is all too much like algebra or trigonometry.
The Angelina Baker connection is interesting. John Huerta, an old banjo friend from my days in northern Virginia, and now a devoted resident of Elkins, West Virginia – and a serious contributor to the old time community there – tells me that most folks in Elkins just call the tune that is our subject “Georgia Row.” It is a D tune, John says, “and if a fiddler just starts playing it, unless I listen very carefully it sounds to me a lot like Angeline the Baker, especially the high part,” echoing the point made by some Fiddler Hangout companions.
For myself, I see the similarities most clearly in this version of the tune “Georgia Row” : youtube.com/watch?v=uyBB6ofBJJQ
George Gibson, a great old time banjo player born and raised in Knox County, Kentucky, and an extremely well informed source regarding regional banjo history and tune lineage (
banjohistory.com/recording) told me that “Georgia Row” may be a “folk version” of
Angeline the Baker. I’ve also seen the assertion that “Georgia Row” bears similarities to Coon Dog.
tunearch.org/wiki/Georgia_Row
Our Fiddle Hangout friends note in various threads that Rich Hartness played it on Ray Alden's fine compilation, "Tribute to the Appalachian String Band Festival", IIRC. In a 22 April email, Bob Carlin told me that though he does not recall much about the tune, he used to play it years ago with Rich Hartness. John Huerta mentioned that on “Young Foggies, Vol. ll,” Rich Hartness and Beth play the tune.
Three more versions worth listening to:
Deleuran Eevoldsen
youtube.com/watch?v=keVVoca12U4
Mac and Jenny Traynham and Shay Garriock -- very interesting subtle twists to the banjo version here:
youtube.com/watch?v=5uxXQh0johM
And here’s an interesting version -- I think we've seen this musician before, on a previous TOTW:
youtube.com/watch?v=CftFoFbFA4M
I’ve sanded off the polish Adam and Beth brought to this tune, and dropped all the accomplished licks that Adam infuses into his music, chiseled away the gymnastic fingerings, and boiled down the tune to make it accessible to me, so it comes out like this in Sledgehammer Style:
This take in gCGCD:
youtube.com/watch?v=q-9X4rCRH4U
This time in gDGBD:
youtube.com/watch?v=LEpJ03Y33LI
We now return control of your computer to you until next week, at the same time, when the Control Voice will take you to next … Tune of The Week.
Play hard.
Lew
JanetB - Posted - 09/06/2013: 05:46:26
Bravo, Lew! Great TOTW choice and nice simplification of the tune on your part. It sounds fantastic to me. Adam's a favorite clawhammerist of mine (and I recommend his Skype lessons highly--he'd show you exactly how he plays this). Mac Traynham made my banjo and I'm a great fan of his, too.
You did an absolute thorough job of giving us the story behind the tune, especially Gail's history lesson.
I'm now motivated to learn it, so many thanks.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/06/2013: 06:40:54
Thanks, Janet.
Nice to have that Buddy Thomas version.
Have a great banjo-fueled day.
Lew
mworden - Posted - 09/06/2013: 10:01:01
Lew, great tune and a formidable write up. I especially liked listening to your two versions using different tunings. It's very interesting how the different tunings add tension or resolution in different places in the same tune.
Tatersoup - Posted - 09/06/2013: 12:02:03
Thank you, Lew. Great tune and great playing!
BANJOJUDY - Posted - 09/06/2013: 19:05:42
One of my favorite tunes that I just rarely play, and certainly, when I do play it, never like Adam's version.
I have the incentive to learn to play it better now - thanks for bringing this one to our attention.
Judy
Jay K - Posted - 09/06/2013: 19:40:23
Love this tune, great choice! I believe the first ensemble is Hungry Joe, just found out about them from the TOTW two weeks ago. Another nice performance from them, thanks!
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/07/2013: 14:59:18
Thanks, all. I hope you’ll add some of your fine banjo playing to this thread.
Here’s one I missed the first time around. It’s about two minutes of a fiddler playing the tune, and she sounds great. But the real reason I’m putting this up is the guitar player’s left hand is pretty easy to read in this video, and he does a nice job of backing the fiddler.
youtube.com/watch?v=2rJQT6a0RN4
It was a while before I realized that the fiddler is – by her Youtube name – MoonshineV, the ubiquitous flatfoot dancer who appears in videos of Clifftop sessions dancing her heart out, excellently I might add. She’s got some instructional material on flatfoot dancing on her Youtube channel that’s worth looking at.
Have a fine banjo-fueled day,
Lew
JanetB - Posted - 09/08/2013: 13:21:35
I'm a faithful student of Adam Hurt's since January, but I can't resist an opportunity to learn something from Buddy Thomas. Here's my clawhammer take on Georgia Row, and a thanks to Adam for introducing me to Buddy Thomas. I'm hoping Adam will put up a tab of his version of Walking Down Georgia Row, which is a gem, and save us some hard work!
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/08/2013: 13:36:25
Great playing, as usual, Janet. I hope you'll do a video of yourself playing. You get some really nice notes in there, it would be as much a pleasure to see them on a video as it was to hear them on whatever those sound things are called.
Take care,
Lew
JanetB - Posted - 09/08/2013: 18:32:27
Thanks, Lew. I'm including a video of Buddy Thomas' rendition of Georgia Row and can post a tab if anyone is interested. I think it's a different tune from Walking Down Georgia Row. I'm a fan of Buddy's fiddling and thought it would be interesting to learn one of his tunes, though I really like what Adam is doing and may learn it, too. Then I'd understand better what may be similar and different between them.
I think knowing about Buddy Thomas (1934 - 1974) is important history. In the liner notes of his CD Kitty Puss he describes his childhood of poverty and his hunger to learn from the old-time musicians. He was esteemed greatly for his excellent fiddling and lamented for his early death.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/09/2013: 02:41:44
Thanks for that, Janet. It's a nice tune, and I agree it's probably a different one though people do shorthand the name of the TOTW to "Georgia Row." I did refer to it, while I was looking around and writing about it, to "Going DOWN Georgia Row," and was quickly reminded that the tune should be "Going UP" etc. Maybe Georgia Row was a one way street? On a lark I googled "down the road, up the road" and came across this interesting discussion of the distinctions: forum.thefreedictionary.com/po...road.aspx While it is interesting, it does not shed light on the reason the TOTW bears that name instead of another, and merely underscores the danger implicit in any act of Googling...
I really enjoy the clarity of your playing. Wish that snippet wasn't so short.
Play hard,
Lew
clawhammerist - Posted - 09/11/2013: 10:17:14
Many thanks to Lew for his outstandingly comprehensive report on one of my very favorite tunes, and for his kind inclusion of Beth Williams Hartness' and my recordings among his references. I have learned a lot more about "Walking Up Georgia Row" than I had previously known, simply by reading this thread! The other video-ed and recorded versions are terrific, too; there are a few here that I had not yet seen on YouTube.
My setting of this tune proved to be a useful case study last year for one of my Skype students who was keenly interested in the subject of variations and how they can be choreographed to make a cohesive arrangement. Together, we chose this tune (which he had come to know from Beth's and my "Fine Times at Our House" CD) as representative of my arranging style, and we deconstructed it, comparing A parts and B parts--and corresponding fragments thereof--all the way through the tune, to see how the variations built upon one another and when they did so, and, perhaps more importantly, what essential elements of the melody were left more or less alone over the course of the arrangement. My student's task was then to take another tune with a standard structure, not unlike this one, and develop a multiple-times-through arrangement of his own with deliberate variations occurring throughout the arrangement at calculated intervals; fortunately, he was more than up to the challenge, and he delivered very thoughtful, musical, and creative results after a fair amount of woodshedding time spent.
While my student and I were beginning to examine "Georgia Row," I thought that it would be useful--to both of us!--for me to tab it out as note-perfect to the CD version as possible, so that we would have not only a sonic reference to guide our work but also a visual one. This was a more cumbersome task than I had expected; on the relatively few occasions when I have tabbed a tune that was included on one of my CDs, I chose to tab what was in my view the "fundamental" version--basically an A part that repeats itself verbatim, and a B part of the same nature--without getting into the rest of the arrangement. In tabbing my entire arrangement of "Georgia Row," not only was I needing to listen for musical minutiae over a decent span of recorded time, but I then had to tab out FIVE times through the entire AABB form, with NO one A or B part repeating itself verbatim--because I never did play any two A or B parts identically! (Who knew that what seemed like a straightforward task to aid someone else's learning would turn into a not-insignificant project from which I too would learn so much?!)
Attached, then, is my full arrangement (well, tabbed to the best of my ability, anyway!) of "Walking Up Georgia Row" as I played it with Beth on the CD. I hope that others here find it as useful and enjoyable as I have found the resources and versions previously shared!
(Notes on the tab: the large up-pointing arrow indicates the use of a "Galax lick," which I also marked with a label the very first time that this lick occurs. There are many alternate-string pull-offs throughout the tune, as well as some delayed regular pull-offs: a fretted note struck, followed by some other note, and then the initial fretted note pulled off. Sometimes these occur between measures and even between lines, which can be difficult to read due to the way that Tabledit's line breaks are made. When syncopation takes place, typically involving alternate-string pull-offs and/or "ghost" strokes, know that I do not break stride; if you think "bump-a-dit-ty," "finger-thumb-finger-thumb," straight through a syncopated passage, you should be able to tell when the finger--or the thumb--is in play, assuming that the fretting hand is ruled out as being responsible for the note in question. That said, all thumb-executed notes should be reliably marked with an encircled "T," but there is always the possibility that I missed something. Please do not hesitate to ask questions if anything else about the tab is unclear!)
Cheers,
Adam Hurt
adamhurt.com
cdbaby.com/artist/adamhurt
-regular or one-time lessons available, in person or via Skype, as well as group workshops; please contact me for details
BANJOJUDY - Posted - 09/11/2013: 11:01:07
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Adam
:
WOW! That's an incredible accomplishment - all that tab, and I know you methodically plotted all this out for us Hangout members. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
You are tempting me to Skype with you for a lesson or two.
Judy
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/11/2013: 12:43:43
Adam,
Thanks for your substantial addition to this discussion, and for your heroic efforts at tabbing the tune.
Hope you are well. There's still a guest room here with your name on it should any of your festival hopping take you through Augusta County.
Take care,
Lew
steelhead - Posted - 09/11/2013: 14:47:14
Adam....thanks so much for taking the time to tab this out and share with the hangout community. It's a beautiful little tune and I look forward to learning it and working on my Galax lick.
Edited by - steelhead on 09/11/2013 14:50:01
BANJOJUDY - Posted - 09/11/2013: 15:00:05
quote:
Originally posted by Brooklynbanjoboy
Adam,
Thanks for your substantial addition to this discussion, and for your heroic efforts at tabbing the tune.
Hope you are well. There's still a guest room here with your name on it should any of your festival hopping take you through Augusta County.
Take care,
Lew
Lew - Our guest room is actually named "Adam's Room" you too? Really?
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/11/2013: 15:43:13
Truth be told, Judy, since we moved down here 4 years ago now our guest room has essentially had a revolving door. I’ve taken to “naming” the room after its last inhabitant. In this case, the most recent banjo guest was Clarke Buehling. We’ve since changed the pillow cases and such, though I confess I did entertain the idea of harvesting Master Banjoist DNA with the help of the plentiful pharmaceutical companies in the Shenandoah Valley, and selling vials on eBay, but after scientists assured me that this would be the equivalent of an orphan drug, I abandoned the idea. So, no, the room doesn’t actually bear Adam’s name, but please don’t tell him that – especially since I’ve told his guitarist that we have christened the room the Beth Hartness Guitar Sanctuary.
Take care,
Lew
JanetB - Posted - 09/12/2013: 05:58:03
Thanks, Adam, for the opportunity to study what you've done. You've taken your student to the higher levels of learning--great teaching! I don't know much of Uncle Charlie Osborne's music, but it must be a rich resource.
Paul DeBlois - Posted - 09/12/2013: 08:40:18
This great thread is another example of BHO members sharing knowledge, encouragement and inspiration. Thanks to Lew, Adam, Janet and all the respondents who gave generously of their time, resources and opinions to bring this tune alive. I hope that we’ll be hearing many more versions of Walking Up Georgia Row from the general banjo populace in the near future.
vrteach - Posted - 09/22/2013: 09:26:42
Last night I was thinking back to recent TOTWs, and I recalled that I rather liked this one. Listened again and sure enough it's really pleasant. I also like the information on what "Georgia Row" may refer to.
Here is my somewhat simplified version.
