I have chosen “Chinquapin Hunting” as this week’s TOTW. It is a three-part tune usually played in the key of A.
I first became acquainted with this tune when I watched a lively rendition on youtube performed by Bruce Molsky and Tatiana Hargreaves on twin fiddles, Jim Miller and guitar and, Rushad Eggleston playing enthusiastically (to say the least) on the cello.
For those who aren’t familiar with the chinquapin, it is a small, edible “nut” that is related to the chestnut. Here are links for more information on that subject:
Norman Edmonds (1889-1976) was a Virginia fiddler who learned the art from his father and passed it on to his son and grandson. More info can be found here:
Great pick! I have loved this one for a long time, and made it a staple on mandolin and fiddle. It crosses over well to the banjo too (I play a version in G or A out of standard tuning, as well as a version in C or D using double-C tuning so that it's in a more friendly key for my wife when she's playing the mandola). We like to play it slow the first few times through, giving a nice staccato "tick-tick" emphasis on that half-measure in the A part to really bring it out.
To be honest, my favorite way to play it is on the fiddle, cross-tuned in AEAE so I can switch back and forth between a low part and high part. The B part of the tune just really sounds dreamy when played low. Bruce Molsky takes good advantage of it, I noticed.
This is on my top 5 list of favorite tunes. And ironically, my new house has two chinquapin oaks in the front yard, so I'm hoping to do some "chinquapin hunting" myself!
I first became acquainted with this tune when I watched a lively rendition on youtube performed by Bruce Molsky and Tatiana Hargreaves on twin fiddles, Jim Miller and guitar and, Rushad Eggleston playing enthusiastically (to say the least) on the cello
I hope this post does not crash like the last one I attempted.
Thank you for posting this song. I also love The Bruce Molsky Band's (named above) rendition of this song SO MUCH, I listen to it almost every day. Did you know Tatiana is a mere 16 yrs old in that video. Egglesond lets out a lone woop to show his enthusiasm.
I've found two versions in clawhammer banjo that you probably know. The first is also labelled "banjukebox" and is played by someone with sunglasses hanging around his neck and has a gray moustache. Is that you?
Also, I like this version by a trio led by Paul Draper(?) who has this video labelled as Paul Draper (as I recall). I could only find this one posted by Mike Jarboe:
Here is my favorite clawhammer version: Traditional Band Contest rehearsal at Clifftop 2013. Rachel Eddy (Fiddle), Kristian Herner (Banjo), Alex Lacquement (Bass), Hunter Walker (Mountain Dulcimer) playing Chinquapin Hunting at Clifftop 2013.
Kristian is one of my favorite players. I wish I could hear him live.
Great tune choice! A perennial favorite here. I will try to post my rendition in the next few days (I'm sidelined with some tendonitis in my leg, so pretty much have to play banjo a lot to pass the time for a few days--darn).
A lively, delightful choice, Pat. Around my neck of the woods we look for pine nuts. I first learned this at a music camp with Masha Goodman Crawford. She has a fun way of making up words that match the meter of a tune, and "chinquapin hunting" had just the right number of syllables.
Bruce Molsky's fiddle playing is the inspiration for this clawhammer arrangement.
Great picking by Pat and Janet, it is alwasy the greatest pleasure to hear them play. My contribution is below. I recorded this video back in 2012, but never uploaded it, not sure why. I am three finger picking my short-scale semi-fretless Paramount in A variant tuning (aEABE), without picks.
Ralph Stanley closed his wonderful autobiography, Man of Constant Sorrow, with some thoughts about the chinquapin that I thought I might share:
Me and Wallace (note: an old friend and schoolmate of Ralph's), we're the last of the Mohicans in our little corner of the mountains. We were the last generation to grow up close to the land, when music was something to get you through the hard times. We take it for granted that we'll always be around somehow, and that the world we knew, at least our memories of it, will be around, too. And then one day, it's all gone, and the mountains bury that world forever.
It set my mind to thinking about things you don't see anymore. Like the chinquapins that used to grow wild up on Smith Ridge. When I was a boy, there was chinquapin bushes all around these parts. One of the first tunes my mother taught me on banjo was the old mountain song "Chinquapin Hunting." Around where I lived, though, you didn't have to hunt for 'em, because they was everywhere.
Most folks have never heard of a chinquapin, so let me tell you a little bit about them:
They were little round black nuts, like a chestnut, but smaller and sweeter. At the end was soemthing like a burr, and you could bite into 'em, and they were a real treat. They were a taste of heaven for a couple of brothers who had to forage for food many a time when we were hungry on our way to school. I remember Carter and me roaming the hillsides, picking chinquapins and gobbling handfuls down like they was going out of style. And don't you know, they did.
Sometime or the other, chinquapins just died out, for some reason or another, and there ain't a one left on the ridge or hereabouts that I've seen or heard about for years. You just can't find chinquapins anywheres. One day, they were as thick as huckleberries, and the next thing you know, they're all gone like they never was. That's something that will set you thinking.
When I was looking around for a tune for TOTW, I was really surprised to find that Chinquapin Hunting had not been covered. It seeems like a tune that is universally known. Thanks for all the additional contributions.
Tobus: I'd be interested in hearing your fiddle version. I've been in some jams where they play it in cross G tuning.
notbob: I found the Paul Draper you were referring to. It's essentially the same version you posted. Link:
Ernest M: Thanks for posting the link to the Rachel Eddy's version. Kristian Herner really provides some drive!
Jack: Hope you tendinitis improves quickly. Looking forward to hearing your version.
Janet: Thanks for adding your version. Sounds like you snuck a slide or two into your A part as well.
Don: Thanks for posting your version as well. This thread wouldn't have been complete without a contribution from the master of old-time three finger picking. Really enjoyed it!
notbob: I found the Paul Draper you were referring to. It's essentially the same version you posted. Link:
Thank you kindly for replying, Pat, but you didn't answer my most important question, "Is that you?" ;)
Ernest M, since yer jes down the road from me, I added my more detailed location. Perhaps we can get together ....soon as I learn how to down-thumb. ;)
Such a great tune. I like that slide into a unison in the A part, too. Here's a version I recorded a while back trying to figure out how to do some multi-track recording. Still not sure about the drum part...
Took a while but I finally caught a reasonable recording, so here's my take. Really fine contributions all. Interesting renditions--no two are quite alike, which goes right to the heart of great fiddle tunes.
Tobus: I'd be interested in hearing your fiddle version. I've been in some jams where they play it in cross G tuning.
Unfortunately, I don't have any way of recording video. I tried it with my phone once, and the results were terrible. Then I went an bought a digital camera, which got lost in the move last year. Maybe I'll find it in the next 6 months, LOL. But my fiddle playing, despite giving me great joy, is probably not worthy of public consumption at this point!
FingerLakesReisling, to make a link clickable, just copy/paste the link into the reply field and then highlight it with your cursor. Go up to the little icons above the reply field. One of them looks like a little image of the planet Earth with a couple of chain links below it (it's 5th from the right). Click it, and then paste that same link into the URL text box. Then click OK. It will activate that link. And for that matter, you can turn any bit of text in your reply into a link. Just highlight the words you want to make into a hyperlink, use that same icon, and paste the URL of the website you want it to point to.
While the Chinquapin Hunting is a killer link, do you have another link for Bruce Molsky's Red Rocking Chair?
I ask cuz Bruce's PDF tab is fer banjo, but Bruce plays a fiddle fer that particular song. He plays clawhammer banjo fer Red Rocking Chair. Also, is the tuning he uses for Chinquapin Hunting the same as he uses for Red Rocking Chair (aEAC#E, open G + 2)?
My apologies. I was looking for a link to Bruce's banjo tablature (PDF) of Red Rocking Chair, not a U2B vid of Bruce playing sed song. I've probably watched all the above links, more than once. What I was looking for was a PDF file of his tablature of Red Rocking Chair. like the one you provided for Chinquapin Hunting.
Finger Lakes Riesling, The Stamper tune is a completely different tune, rather than a version of the A tune. I learned it from Will Keys, who learned it from Art Stamper, who learned it from his dad, Hiram Stamper. You can hear my take on it (in D) on my BHO music page. One of my favorite tunes :-)
Chip, your version of the Stamper/WIll Keys Chinquapin Hunting is lovely! I wish I'd gotten to hear Will play it as well, but I'm guessing yours is pretty close to how he played it. Really nice playing!
I had the good fortune to play this tune with Art Stamper, Mark Simos, and Tina Liza Jones at Mark's album release party at Clifftop in 2003, and much later found out that somebody had captured some of that session on video, which was posted on YouTube in 2013. I'm the banjo player sitting on the opposite side of Art from Mark, though I'm only visible in the video for a few seconds at a time. He played fast, and I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth!
Partly inspired by this session, Mark's and my band the Cliffhangers recorded a version of the tune inspired by both Art's and his father Hiram's version. In Mark's words:
"I first heard Art play this tune late one foggy night at Clifftop - standing in a muddy clearing amidst a gathered crowd, hat slouched on his head, cross-tuned fiddle sailing the glorious fat low notes out into the dark trees. Though our version here is closer to his dad Hiram's, we dedicate this tune to Art's memory."
Thanks for the kind words, Brendan. My playing is close to Wills. He learned it from Art, but as he did with most tunes, he "made it his own" and I like to play it that way.
Your version is beautiful. I like it played at a sedate pace. Leaving for Clifftop in the morning.
I played banjo on Art's recording of Chinquipin Hunting on the Lost Fiddler album for County Records. When we had finished recording it, Art was fine with the playing but he felt that something was missing. We went back into the studio and he had us overdub hand clapping to liven it up some. I'm sure Art remembered it as a dance tune from his childhood and wanted to make it sound more like that.
Here is my first attempt at this tune. My fingers don't quite coordinate with each other yet on this clawhammer stuff, but I am making progress. Not sure how to imbed a video, even after all these years. Sometimes I think it just happens by magic.
