sugarinthegourd - Posted - 08/14/2015:  07:00:51

TOTW (OT) 8/14/2015 - Dull Chisel

Key: A major

Hi all, 

This week's tune is "Dull Chisel," composed by the late Garry Harrison and appearing on his ca. 2000 CD Red Prairie Dawn. 

Not sure when I first became aware of this tune, but I've heard it in a lot of jams and at festivals for at least the past few years.

The CD went out of print some years ago, after which Garry made it available for free download on the web. That link seems to be gone and [EDIT: one I had posted earlier looks highly questionable at best.]

One thing to note is that I think a lot of people play it differently from the original in one (or both) of two ways:

1. The high part was the A part in Garry's recording - I often hear the low part played first when I hear this in jams.
   
    


2. In Garry's recording the first measure of the A part contains first a D arpeggio, then an A arpeggio. The backing instruments also play 2 beats of D (the IV chord) and then 2 beats of A in the first measure. I mostly hear this played with the D arpeggio repeated and a full measure of D among the backing instruments. 

Neither of these is necessarily a bad thing, but I wanted to start by pointing out that the way the tune is getting socialized is perhaps somewhat different from how the author wrote it. 

There is a wonderful video of "Dull Chisel" performed by Hopping Jenny here: 

While I love this performance, they are playing it with both the variations I mentioned above. 

Here is a recording of Mary Jane Epps and Michele Lanan playing it, closer to the orginal recording (though they do a lot of harmonizing). 

I found a few transcriptions and banjo tabs online. Here is one by Ken Torke that I thought was good. By the time I saw this one I had already done my own take on notating the fiddle melody and creating a basic banjo tab, Both are attached to this post. 

Hope you all enjoy this wonderful tune, and play it in your next A jam, perhaps in Garry's memory. 

John

Edited by - sugarinthegourd on 08/17/2015 07:44:08

Dull Chisel - fiddle notation

Dull Chisel - banjo tab

vrteach - Posted - 08/14/2015:  07:29:51

One of my favorites, and I really like both of your example videos. I finally learned it from Lyle a couple of years ago, but I haven't really been picked up by my local friends yet. I've got a version on the BHO that I think I recorded the day after I picked it up the evening before while visiting Urbana.

I also have a lower-quality recording (on my little voice recorder) of our local jam from July of last year, one of the few times we've played it when Lyle and his wife were visiting Springfield. At the end we discuss which is A and which is B. I think I do the 2 D arpeggio variation, but to be honest I generally don't have any idea of what I'm actually playing.

vrteach.org/content/dull-chisel-0

I'm going to look around to see if I can put up a sample of Garry's version.

Edited by - vrteach on 08/14/2015 07:36:19

Dull Chisel

vrteach - Posted - 08/14/2015:  07:56:06

Found my copy of the "Red Prairie Dawn" CD which I had downloaded back when Garry had it available on the Dear Old Illinois site.

After listening to it I can see that I might want to modify what I play. Here is 30 seconds of it (Garry played fast) for educational purposes.

Dull Chisel (excerpt)

sugarinthegourd - Posted - 08/14/2015:  08:06:10

Erich, thanks for posting that. I spent enough time with that recording slowed down that now it sounds really fast at normal speed!

John

jack_beuthin - Posted - 08/14/2015:  11:56:11

Jack Burgess and the Stanly County Boys recorded a nice medley of Road to Westfield and Dull Chisel.  The recording appeared on their Patchwork Kimono CD (2003), but Jack has added it to his music files on the Fiddle Hangout.

fiddlehangout.com/myhangout/me...archived=

JanetB - Posted - 08/14/2015:  12:00:44

I'm glad to be learning more about Garry Harrison week-by-week.  Thanks for one of his originals, John, and just a week after a Dear Old Illinois tune was TOTW (Old Kentucky Whiskey).  And thanks for the MP3 original by Mr. Harrison, Eric.  I used that one to learn it today.  If I could play as fast as you I'd be jam-ready!  The pleasing discovery I made in was barring the 5th fret right off to get those D chord notes, so I'm including my tab to share this. 

I agree with the current jammers that starting this tune on the course part sounds better.  Hopping Jenny's recording is wonderful.

Dull Chisel (TOTW)

Dull Chisel tab

bhniko - Posted - 08/14/2015:  12:31:50

Just dropping in to say how much I appreciate all of you who post and participate. Wish I had the talent to play as well and join in.

sugarinthegourd - Posted - 08/14/2015:  12:55:54

quote:

---

Originally posted by JanetB

 

 The pleasing discovery I made in was barring the 5th fret right off to get those D chord notes, so I'm including my tab to share this. 

I agree with the current jammers that starting this tune on the course part sounds better.  Hopping Jenny's recording is wonderful.

---

Yeah I tried it that way too: 

 D       A

-5-------5-------|
---5-------3-----|
-----5-------4---|
-----------------|
-------5-------5-|

...but it didn't work quite as well for me. 

I also tried getting all the notes on the arpeggio, which is pretty easy with the A chord but harder with the D:

 D       A

-5----p2-5----p0-|
---5-------3-----|
-----5-------4---|
-----------------|
-----------------|

...but I abandoned that before long. If you don't hit the 5th string at least once or twice a measure it doesn't sound like clawhammer to me anymore -- might as well use a flatpick! (Though I broke that rule in a couple of other places, I try not to break it too often.)

John

P.S. Nice tab, Janet! I'll give it a try soon. :-)

Edited by - sugarinthegourd on 08/14/2015 12:57:15

greenbrooms - Posted - 08/14/2015:  13:05:46

looking forward to taking a stab at this over the weekend, john - nice tune! i love finding some "new old-time" charts that really stand out.

and i swear, week after week i say to myself, "man one day i need to learn alternate string pull-offs like janet."

LyleK - Posted - 08/15/2015:  06:49:21

quote:

---

Originally posted by sugarinthegourd

 

In Garry's recording the first measure of the A part contains first a D arpeggio, then an A arpeggio. The backing instruments also play 2 beats of D (the IV chord) and then 2 beats of A in the first measure. I mostly hear this played with the D arpeggio repeated and a full measure of D among the backing instruments. 

 

---

Guilty as "charged," as you can hear in the UIS jam recording that Erich posted.  I learned the tune from a local fiddler and only heard the Red Prairie Dawn recordings much later.  By that time, the double D arpeggio was too ingrained to ever shake it.  Whether the person I learned it from actually plays it that way I don't know.  I could easily have misheard it as she plays the tune at "Harrison speed" (fast).  There's a party at her house tonight so I'll ask her to play it slowly for me.

rudy - Posted - 08/15/2015:  11:43:49

Nice tune selection!

I love all of Garry's tunes with "Red Prairie Dawn" being one I occasionally play with friends.  His music always seems deliciously complex to me with just the right crooked feel to a lot of the tunes.  Since Garry's passing I've taken up the slack with Jim Childress tunes, who has a very similar fiddle style (at least to me), but that's a whole nother subject for another time!

jack_beuthin - Posted - 08/15/2015:  16:11:55

I'm still knocking the burrs off this one, but here is my "work in progress." Compare to Janet's and Eric's fine versions of this tune, my rendering is a bit more chordy and brushy.

Dull Chisel

Tamarack - Posted - 08/16/2015:  06:48:12

A fine tune -- not a new tune that sounds old, but a timeless tune.

A fine title too -- every woodworker can relate...

calden - Posted - 08/16/2015:  09:02:24

Sugar:

Thanks for posting this.  I'd LOVE to get those Garry Harrison tunes you referenced.  Going to that link, however, requires that not only do I register

but that I also sign up for free-trial services for goods, asking for my email, address, and phone number. I'd REALLY like to avoid that. 

Do you know of any other way to grab those tunes?

Thanks,

Carlos

quote

:

---

Originally posted by sugarinthegourd

 

TOTW (OT) 8/14/2015 - Dull Chisel

Key: A major

 

Hi all, 

This week's tune is "Dull Chisel," composed by the late Garry Harrison and appearing on his ca. 2000 CD Red Prairie Dawn. 

Not sure when I first became aware of this tune, but I've heard it in a lot of jams and at festivals for at least the past few years.

The CD went out of print some years ago, after which Garry made it available for free download on the web. Those links seem to be gone, but I think it would be OK to point out that someone still has it posted and downloadable here (some sort of registration is required). 

Edited by - calden on 08/16/2015 09:03:06

bjcole - Posted - 08/16/2015:  13:01:38

That certainly looked like too sleazy a site to do anything except make a quick exit.

rudy - Posted - 08/17/2015:  06:19:35

quote:

---

Originally posted by calden

 

Sugar:

Thanks for posting this.  I'd LOVE to get those Garry Harrison tunes you referenced.  Going to that link, however, requires that not only do I register

but that I also sign up for free-trial services for goods, asking for my email, address, and phone number. I'd REALLY like to avoid that. 

Do you know of any other way to grab those tunes?

Thanks,

Carlos

---

I normally don't encourage folks to participate in getting their music by the backdoor approach, but the entire Red Prairie Dawn album is posted on YouTube.  All you have to do is go to the YouTube website and type it into the search box.

The YouTube availability in this case is a bit of an "odd duck" as Garry Harrison had Red Prairie Dawn posted on the Dear Old Illinois website as a free download for quite a while.  I'm not sure who has rights to RPD's distribution currently, but what normally happens is whoever maintains the rights can request that the material be removed from YouTube.  The rest of the band "New Mules" is alive and kicking as far as I know.  ...and a fine group of folks they are!

WHOEVER maintains rights should make RPD either available as a re-issue or freely distributed as it's FAR too valuable as a source for Garry Harrison's compositions and legacy to let it fall by the wayside.

Edited by - rudy on 08/17/2015 06:22:36

sugarinthegourd - Posted - 08/17/2015:  07:47:11

quote:

---

Originally posted by calden

 

Thanks for posting this.  I'd LOVE to get those Garry Harrison tunes you referenced.  Going to that link, however, requires that not only do I register

but that I also sign up for free-trial services for goods, asking for my email, address, and phone number. I'd REALLY like to avoid that.  

 

---

Ugh! I should have checked further before passing that link along. I have edited my original post to delete the link.

I actually bought the CD, used, on Amazon not long ago, for a reasonable price (less than $10). Keep an eye out and maybe you'll get lucky too. I just watched an interview with Garry's daughter Genevieve Koester, who said she would like to re-release Red Prairie Dawn, in addition to Dear Old Illinois. For that reason, I would not encourage sharing copies of RPD online.

John

rudy - Posted - 08/17/2015:  09:45:38

quote:

---

Originally posted by sugarinthegourd

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by calden

 

Thanks for posting this.  I'd LOVE to get those Garry Harrison tunes you referenced.  Going to that link, however, requires that not only do I register

but that I also sign up for free-trial services for goods, asking for my email, address, and phone number. I'd REALLY like to avoid that.  

 

---

Ugh! I should have checked further before passing that link along. I have edited my original post to delete the link.

I actually bought the CD, used, on Amazon not long ago, for a reasonable price (less than $10). Keep an eye out and maybe you'll get lucky too. I just watched an interview with Garry's daughter Genevieve Koester, who said she would like to re-release Red Prairie Dawn, in addition to Dear Old Illinois. For that reason, I would not encourage sharing copies of RPD online.

John

---

I totally agree with that.  I know Dear Old Illinios has been "in the works" for re-republication for quite a while.

A recent topic regarding DOI tunes:

banjohangout.org/topic/306838

...and as close as we're gonna get to the truth about re-publication:

banjohangout.org/blog/32197

Edited by - rudy on 08/17/2015 09:56:22

jojo25 - Posted - 08/25/2015:  19:06:07

thank you John...and Erich and everyone...working on dis...a real challenge for this old geezer to play with them Jennies...but a wonderful set of learning tools...a band that never gets tired...though I sure am!