carlb - Posted - 04/07/2017:  05:04:35

            I first heard, and fell in love, with the banjo tune "Singing Birds" as played by Burl Hammons on the album "Shaking Down the Acorns - Traditional Music and Stories from Pocahontas and Greenbrier Counties, West Virginia" (1970-72, Rounder 0018; also in the Milliner-Koken Collection with an audio on Slippery Hill).

slippery-hill.com/recording/singing-birds

A number years ago I was able to pull it off in a performance in the banjo contest at Clifftop and was awarded a 3rd in the Senior Division.

            "Burl learned "Singing Birds" from Early Cogar. It has a slight, but probably coincidental resemblance to the well-known bluegrass tune "Little Birdie", but Burl knows no words to it. He plays it with his banjo tuned f-sharp-D-A-B-E." (from Rounder recording booklet notes by Alan Jabbour).

            When I first learned the tune, I heard that the tuning was called "Little Birdie tuning". Upon checking the notes in my copy of "Roscoe Holcomb & Wade Ward" (1962, Folkways FA2363), I found it so (listed as one step down from Burl as e-C-G-A-D). This tuning was used for "Little Birdie" by Willie Chapman (Smithsonian Folkways 40077) and Pete Steele (1958, Folkways, FS3828).

            Other then Burl, I've only heard it played by players younger then him: Diane Jones (1996, Hubie King and Diane Jones "There Are No Rules", self-produced), John Blisard (Kennedy Center, 2000, from a concert with Jake and Dara Krack and John Blisard),

kennedy-center.org/video/index/M1136

and Mac Traynham (Copper Creek CD "I’m Going That Way").

mactraynham.com/

I recorded it, alternating playing "Singing Birds" and singing "Little Birdie" (West Virginia, Book Learnin' and Other Stuff, self-produced, 2006) and had that version on the old Banjo Addiction web site. I have both "Singing Birds"

banjohangout.org/song/9507

and the "Singing Birds - Little Birdie"

banjohangout.org/myhangout/mus...cid=40023

on my BHO music page.

          Recently, I discovered two videos of Paul Draper playing it on a fretless banjo

youtube.com/watch?v=WJz7kpLwJmg

and a fretted banjo

youtube.com/watch?v=JSSun839dgs

            On BHO, there's a tab in the archive, done by janolov (Jan-Olov Sundqvist)

hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...82013.pdf

and a recording done by Steve Kendall.

banjohangout.org/song/106

Edited by - carlb on 04/07/2017 05:07:08

championofnorthhuron - Posted - 04/07/2017:  07:37:58

Great TOTW! The first and favorite of mine is Paul Brown's version off his Red Clay Country Album.

youtube.com/watch?v=YcgpfJYspJo

RG - Posted - 04/07/2017:  08:36:04

Real nice Carl, "Singing Birds" is a GREAT tune...

sellis - Posted - 04/08/2017:  11:47:13

Great tunes!  Singing one and playing the other between verses must be a bit like patting your tummy and rubbing your head.  Is it my imagination or are they both crooked in the same way in the same spots?

JanetB - Posted - 04/08/2017:  19:50:02

Nice picking and singing, Carl, and congrats on your Clifftop accomplishment -- wow!  Listening to Burl Hammonds' banjo, here's my try at Singing Birds with its unique metric timing -- 5 1/2 measures, then repeat 5; next the B part has six measures, repeated, and an extra half when going back to the very beginning.  Still, very fun tune to play and I like how it meshes with Little Birdie.

Singing Birds (TOTW)/Little Birdie medley

Singing Birds (CH) tab

carlb - Posted - 04/09/2017:  04:24:15

quote:

---

Originally posted by sellis

Singing one and playing the other between verses must be a bit like patting your tummy and rubbing your head.  Is it my imagination or are they both crooked in the same way in the same spots?

---

If they are crooked in the same way, it's not a concious effort. I don't have a problem going back and forth as in Singing Birds the banjo leads and in Little Birdie the voice leads. Sometimes while singing, I might hold a note longer in one verse then in another. I haven't done an analysis of my performance. So in the end, it might be like patting my tummy by itself and then patting my head by itself.

Bill - Posted - 04/09/2017:  08:09:37

This one has been on my to-do list for 15 years. You finally got me to learn it. Thanks, Carl!

mbuk06 - Posted - 04/09/2017:  09:30:01

Like I already commented...that's some sweet, sweet pickin' Carl. Absolutely beautiful.

Accompanied by evening birdsong drifting in from my garden I just listened again to your recent recording and the same tune you recorded 9 years ago. Both are fabulous and yet it's as if in the passage of years this tune has gone deeper in your musical soul. That's the only way I can describe it because there's something impossible to quantify but discernibly more in your 2017 playing. Nothing to do with the mechanics of technique; that quality resides in the expression. And that comes from you. And I love that you love this tune. That's evident too, and there is something very personal and special in those tunes we are drawn to and never let go of. I guess this one was meant to be your signature tune, just waiting around till you found it.

There's a myriad of styles and approaches out there but to my ears I don't think banjo pickin' gets better than this.

janolov - Posted - 04/10/2017:  11:46:49

Great tunes. I really like joint version of Carl's  Little Birdie and Singing Birds!

I have listened a lot to different versions of Little Birdie and compared to Burl Hammons' Singing Birds. My favorite Little Birdie is by Pete Steele, and I think his break between the verses is very similar to Burl's first part of Singing Birds. Pete Steele's break seems to be a compressed, truncated and crooked version of the verse.   Listen and compare

Pete Steele: youtube.com/watch?v=Y8KRE6A8T00

Burl Hammons: slippery-hill.com/recording/singing-birds