Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/09/2014:  02:31:49

I’m going to tackle “Come Back Boys, And Let’s Feed The Horses.”   It’s one of those tunes, to use BHO member Bill Long’s apt phrase, that becomes hypnotic when played and can lead a banjoist to spending long, solitary time running the tune on and on. 

Here’s Dwight Diller playing the tune:

youtube.com/watch?v=17iMdbwtmxw

Dwight first heard the tune played by James Hammons, Burl and Edn’s son, and recorded it in one of his home visits.   Notes in Dwight Diller’s tab book, Volume 1, Yew Piney Mountain: Obscure Underground Clawhammer Banjo from Mysterious Central West Virginia, (n.d.) suggest that a fast version recorded by an unnamed old fiddler from Mingo County might not be exactly the same tune. 

Fiddler's Companion (ibiblio.org/fiddlers/) states that this tune is an old time breakdown.  Fiddlers play it in A Major (AEae) tuning.  Kerry Blech “sees some possible similarity to Edn Hammons’ ‘Let's Hunt the Horses.’”  The tune “is known as a West Virginia tune (some times attributed to a member of the Hammons’ family, although this cannot be verified).”  The Companion credits Jimmy Tripplet, Gerry Milnes and Dwight Diller for “popularizing” the tune.

Christian Wig and Mark Ward have the tune on a track on their CD bearing the name: Come Back Boys and Feed the Horses.  Here’s the CD:

countysales.com/products.php?p...Horses%27

And here’s the Wig/Ward version:

amazon.com/gp/product/B00693NA...mp;sr=8-2

I really like everything and anything played by Christian Wig.

Cathy Moore joins two young fiddlers, a guitar player and who knows what else in a 2010 Youtube video capturing this tune:

youtube.com/watch?v=cs_xbYKWTY4

Here’s Nathan Bowles doing a really fine version, with its own galloping pace:

youtube.com/watch?v=SzrVvlX9BRk

And Bowles at it again, in a cut off his CD, “A Bottle, A Buckeye”:

soundcloud.com/soft-abuse/nath...back-boys

And an ensemble combining fiddle, banjo and … harmonica!  I believe these are the Black Twig Pickers; Nathan Bowles is part of the group.

youtube.com/watch?v=6rQ3RzX2oI8

I think this is the fiddler Meg Grey doing a very studied version of the tune.   Note that one of the commentators on her Youtube video suggests that her playing scattered the chickens that were clustered in the foreground where she was fiddling.

youtube.com/watch?v=PrU3UPFAgG0

And here’s a video of someone actually headed off to feed the horses, though it’s not clear the subject really has her head in the game:

youtube.com/watch?v=SdC39sEwHAw

Here’s my crack at the tune:

youtube.com/watch?v=5MC81Nk07jE

You can access the banjo tab done by Andrew Diamond for Diller’s tab book, Volume 1, Yew Piney Mountain: Obscure Underground Clawhammer Banjo from Mysterious Central West Virginia, (n.d.) here:

dwightdiller.com/wp-content/up...rrect.pdf

Go ahead.  Take a crack at it.  See whether you can avoid becoming mesmerized by the pulse of this tune.

Play hard,

Lew

J-Walk - Posted - 05/09/2014:  10:12:16

Good tune, and good write-up, Lew.

FWIW, that video with Cathy Moore was taken at my house. The fiddler to her right is Mary Jane Epps (of "Light & Hitch" fame). Cathy is playing my banjo, which used to be owned by Dwight Diller (and which I've since sold). I'm mostly off camera, but you can see my foot wearing the ugly Croc shoe. 

RG - Posted - 05/09/2014:  12:30:54

Real nice Lew, one of my favorite WVa tunes...

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/09/2014:  12:38:52

J-Walk,

I thought that Crock was fitted to the foot of the person leading the jam.  It is subtly keeping time, and sending out directions.  The more conventional way of ending a tune (demonstrated at about the 2:17 point when one of those fiddlers takes aim at the other player’s shin bone) is ignored, the rest of the jammers remain intently focused on that Crock until it signals, with nuance and style, the end of the tune.   

Lew

ramjo - Posted - 05/09/2014:  16:00:45

Lew, thanks for this TOTW, which I'll take the liberty of claiming to be my birthday TOTW (blush). I trust my memory less and less these days, but I don’t think I’d ever heard it before. It’s got a great title; I can hear my father in it, yelling at me to finish one more chore as I tried to get away on a Friday night, and I suspect that would have made the tune stick with me had I heard it. It’s pretty straight forward and should be easy to learn, which I’m going to get on right away. Not the Wig and Ward version, with their wondrous rhythmic swing; that will be a real challenge for this standard-time guy. (But I'll practice with their fiddling, and maybe someday...) I like what you’ve done with it, Lew, the way you articulate it so well; very nice, clean playing. But I must say the greatest revelation to me in your post is Nathan Bowles. I did a search on BHO and found several not-so-long-ago posts that I must’ve slept though. Nathan is a great player, and I’m downloading his solo album as I type. I’ll definitely check out his other stuff with Pelt and the Black Twigs. A fan is born.

Thanks again!

A shout-out to J-Walk for his house, his Crocks, and the quality of players at his jams. Well, maybe not the Crocks....

vrteach - Posted - 05/09/2014:  18:42:29

I spent my afternoon humming this to myself. Pretty good tune.

I think nothing beats green Crocs with black socks.

New Salem Traditional Music Festival 2007

wormpicker - Posted - 05/09/2014:  19:18:36

Another correction:  The fiddler who scattered her backyard chickens is Michele Lanan.  She made graciously made that video at my request.  If you look closely, you'll notice that Michele is indeed the other young fiddler to the left of Mary Jane Epps in the video taken at J-Walk's house (which I recorded).  Small world, huh?

wormpicker - Posted - 05/09/2014:  19:27:19

By the way, the reason Mary Jane assaulted Michele's shin is that Michele loves to take outrageous "musical liberties" with this tune in an effort to screw up Mary Jane.  You can see the seeds of mischief first sprout in her eyes at the 1:29 mark.  You can find many more awesome twin fiddling videos by these two if you look through my YouTube channel.

wormpicker - Posted - 05/09/2014:  19:41:31

Carolyn Camp and her band Pick and Holler play Come Back Boys on their great newly release album, Soon as I'm Gone.  You can sample it and buy it from CDBaby.

Mary Jane, Michele, and Carolyn were a common trio (and real treat) around the southern Arizona jammers, and introduced Come Back Boys to us all early on.  (Mary Jane has  moved back east last year.)

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/10/2014:  05:06:12

WormPicker,

Thanks for catching and correcting the fiddler ID issue re: Michele Lanan

Lew

wormpicker - Posted - 05/10/2014:  06:40:40

Ha--I just noticed that you got the "Meg Grey" from the credits at the end of Michele's demo video.  Pretty sure that was one of the starring chickens.  Undoubtedly named for another old Kentucky fiddle tune, which could be the topic of another TOTW.  

Paul

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/10/2014:  07:20:54

Paul.

I "googled" Meg Grey, not knowing whether it was the name of an OT tune or a species of chicken.
I see something in the way of similar trajectories between Come Back Boys and Meg.
 

Here's the version I listened to:

wormpicker - Posted - 05/10/2014:  07:39:11

Yep, that's the one.  Comes from Kentucky fiddler George Lee Hawkins, by way of Bruce Greene, I believe.  Another great tune.  

aeroweenie - Posted - 05/10/2014:  11:14:09

Lew - nice tune, I like it.  The diverse examples you've included are very helpful for getting a feeling for the tune and how to approach it on the banjo.

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/10/2014:  11:36:45

Here's the specific tab.  Dwight said to go ahead and post it."It's all about helping people," to use his words.

JanetB - Posted - 05/10/2014:  18:45:23

Like you, Brooklynbanjoboy, I'm tackling this tune, trying to meet the challenge of learning directly from a fiddler. Dwight Diller plays it simpler and my pace resembles his.  I used Christian Wig and Mark Ward's fiddle recording and am grateful for your recommendation to hear more of their music.

For TOTW choice, it's always good to turn to your mentor and I thank you for including Dwight Diller in this week's study.

Edited by - JanetB on 05/10/2014 18:47:09

Come Back Boys and Feed the Horses

Come Back Boys & Feed the Horses tab

atleson - Posted - 05/10/2014:  19:17:36

Lovely version, Janet.  Dwight doesn't play super-fast, and that's why i like his playing so much.  Model tunes, especially, are thoughtful and melancholy, and, at least to me, sound truer at a more relaxed speed.  Christian plays it fast and I very much like his playing.  I have all his recordings---hope everyone is impressed and purchases his various cds, usually with different banjo players.

jim

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/11/2014:  02:22:53

Here's a VIMEO video of someone else who learned the tune from DD:

vimeo.com/58431018

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/11/2014:  02:30:08

As an aside to this TOTW, picking up on the thread’s focus on Crocks as the shoe of choice of banjo players, I need to interject.   Please see this BHO blog note:

banjohangout.org/blog/30355

For the record, I'm not entirely sure the footwear Dwight is sporting in the first video in this TOTW are Crocks.  If they are this could change the entire ideological polarity of this argument.

Edited by - Brooklynbanjoboy on 05/11/2014 02:32:55

Paul S - Posted - 05/11/2014:  11:28:50

Lew, thanks for reintroducing me to this tune. I learned it from Dwights tab years ago and am having a great time playing it again.

Paul

Zischkale - Posted - 05/12/2014:  07:02:28

Awesome, Lew, good call on this tune. Hadn't heard it before, and it does sound like something to get lost in. Appreciate the slow rendition by Michele Lanan, and man she's got some great tone. That Will White version you posted is also excellent, real sticky tone, love the pull-offs he adds.

I'm thinking this needs to be at a slower pace with a funkier drive, rather than a galloping string band tune. I need to work out my own rendition!

Zischkale - Posted - 05/12/2014:  07:35:50

Forgot to add--thank you so much Lew for countering Crocks (gross) with boots. I already face enough social stigma choosing to play the damn banjo. I don't need people to expect me in Crocks with socks (no offense to the wonderful becrocked players above). 

The greatest choice of footwear for old-time music, of course, is sans footwear. Gotta go barefoot.

Paul S - Posted - 05/12/2014:  10:14:34

Thanks Lew for asking me to post a video, took me a while to figure out how and sorry for the abrupt ending but hey I'm learning.

Paul

Edited by - Paul S on 05/12/2014 10:18:55

VIDEO: (click to view)

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 05/12/2014:  13:14:01

Nicely played.

Thanks for sharing.

In the background on your video, there’s a pile of toys or some such objects.

Looking at the screen, to the right of the yellow and red spheres, I see a free floating pendulum of sorts.

It serves as an intriguing little metronome throughout your tune.

Adds to the mesmerizing power of the tune.

Take care,

Lew

pickincat - Posted - 05/12/2014:  14:22:03

Too much fun. But I think Mr. Ed wants some more hay. :-) Thank-you for sharing! Mesmerizing.

small fry - Posted - 05/13/2014:  11:00:55

Awesome tune. And here I was wondering what I was going to obsess over today....
Thanks so much for the pick.

JanetB - Posted - 05/14/2014:  21:01:06

Brooklynbanjoboy, you have much experience with Dwight Diller which perhaps you'll share here.  For those interested in the Hammons family of West Virginia, here's a 77 page essay, based on field work by Dwight Diller, Alan Jabbour, and Carl Fleischhauer.  I have great respect for Dwight's work and immense enjoyment from the music he unearthed and shared.  Further resources would interest me and shed more light on the background of this good TOTW.

loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFSL65andL...mmons.pdf">192.168.1.1:8181/loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFSL65andL...mmons.pdf