jack_beuthin - Posted - 02/09/2018:  08:16:11

I’ve been playing a lot of old chestnuts the past couple of weeks, so for this TOTW I’ve dipped into the well of Banjo Classics and pulled up New River Train.  Yes, I was surprised too when I checked the TOTW index and found that it wasn’t there. So, let’s have some fun with it now.

New River Train—a breakdown, a song with lyrics, and a great stand alone banjo piece.  It’s been played and recorded by many artists, inside and outside the Old Time world.  There are too many to list them all here, so I will go with some of the notables, and my favorites, and hope that everyone else jumps in with their favs, and anything I may have missed.

THE NEW RIVER

You could call the New River an “Old Time Heritage River”.  The headwaters (several forks) are in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, not all that far from the homelands of Frank Proffitt, Doc Watson, and Gaither Carlton.  From there, it gathers and flows north into Grayson and Carroll counties, Virginia, passing between Independence and Galax—homeland of Wade Ward, Glen Smith, Charlie Higgins, and many more both living and gone.  It winds across southwestern Virginia, eventually turning north toward West Virginia.  Glen Lyn, home of Henry Reed, is a New River town sitting on the Virginia-West Virginia border.  On its northward journey across the Raleigh Plateau of southern West Virginia, it has cut deep and spectacular gorges and canyons.  Hinton and Thurmond are classic river valley towns.  And just north of Thurmond, it touches the western border of Babcock State Park, which is bordered on its east by, yes, Clifftop.  The famous, and much photographed, New River Gorge lies just down river.  Just beyond the gorge, the New River and Gauley River join to form the Kanawha (ca-NAW) River, which flows through Charleston and eventually merges with the Ohio River that joins the Mississippi which drains to the Gulf of Mexico.  You could add many more names and places to this river journey (and please do!) but you get the idea.

TUNE HISTORY

The Traditional Tune Archive (TTA) has a great synopsis (along with a little train history) that I have hyperlinked rather than repeat.  The TTA does remark that the earliest known recording was in 1924 by the guitarist, Henry Whiter.

SOME RECORDINGS

These are a select few of my favs. Please add yours!

-Wade Ward.  Say “New River Train” and Uncle Wade instantly pops into my head.  I am aware of two recordings.  One is in D (probably best known) on Smithsonian Folkways Music of Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward (FW 02363).  The other in is A, on County Banjo Classic from the vaults of County Records and Old Blue Records (OB 710).  Matokie Slaughter and Seth Boyd also have recordings on OB 710.

Folkways: youtube.com/watch?v=GnLZGVU5Gds

County/Old Blue: youtube.com/watch?v=2ar4-j0bYq8

-Modern artists who have recorded New River Train include Cathy Fink (Banjo Gathering  album), Mike Seeger & Paul Brown (Way Down in North Carolina album), and Reed Martin (Old Time Banjo album).

-There are several recordings here on Banjo Hangout. Notably, Bob Lanham has posted the version tabbed in Miles Krassen’s  Clawhammer Banjo book.

banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...archived=

-I should mention that Bob Carlin and Dan Levenson tabbed and played New River Train in their recent book, Wade Ward—Clawhammer Banjo Master.

-A couple of my YouTube favs include Larry Toto, and Adam Hurt & Beth Hartness:

Larry: youtube.com/watch?v=8cVrvOQTEi...3ZzgUDmHa

Adam & Beth: youtube.com/watch?v=ByQYj4VvNgM

Finally, my take is attached below.  I play a Wade Ward-ish version (no comparison to his execution though) with a twist.  I decided to give New River Train a try in the “Low Bass Open D tuning” (f#-low, A-low, D, A, D).  My Whyte Laydie doesn’t like the strings that loose, so I took it up a whole step to the key of E (g#-low, B-low, E, B, E).  

Dang, I was not going to make this long winded.  Epic fail.  There is so much more that could be said, and recordings that could be posted, but I will just turn that over to the rest of you.  Please fill in any omissions and post your version of New River Train.

Edited by - jack_beuthin on 02/11/2018 20:04:53

New River Train

New River Train

mjt0229 - Posted - 02/09/2018:  08:31:20

I live far from the Appalachians now, but I grew up in Ohio and went to school in the foothills. I have many fond memories of driving along the Kanawha River, across the Gauley river bridge, to spend the weekends dirtbagging around the New River at the climbing crags. People who've never been there always seem surprised when I rave about how beautiful that area is.

Thanks for the great TOTW writeup. I've been meaning to learn this one, so maybe this is the week...

jack_beuthin - Posted - 02/09/2018:  08:42:30

I hear you Mark. I spent 16 years doing geologic research in the Bluestone and New River drainage areas of WV. Also canoed the New River and many of its tribs in VA. I live at the base of the Rockies in CO, but I equally love the Appalachians.

BrooksMT - Posted - 02/09/2018:  14:36:07

Jack, I read every word of your write up and enjoyed every one. Please don't condense, you have lots of good stuff to say.

RG - Posted - 02/09/2018:  20:53:06

That's a good one Jack, and a great version you play!

cbcarlisle - Posted - 02/10/2018:  11:23:12

My first (ca. 1961) and all-time fave is by Charlie and Bill. youtube.com/watch?v=NyWMFjly24o
Now That's a Train!

JC Bryant - Posted - 02/10/2018:  17:21:21

GREAT! Thanks!

jack_beuthin - Posted - 02/11/2018:  18:16:55

I've added a tab that fairly closely matches my recording. I rarely play anything the same way twice, so take it as a rough guide, and add your own stuff if you find it useful.

Thanks everyone for chiming in! Much appreciated.

Curt, that Charlie and Bill recording is hard to beat.

Adam Harr - Posted - 02/11/2018:  19:06:28

That New River Train really chugs and rolls right along in Low D. Gives it just the right "atmosphere," as Wade Ward might say, and takes me back to the New River Gorge. Thank you!

JanetB - Posted - 02/12/2018:  16:00:46

It's always a treat when you post, Jack.  I'd not heard the old-time version of New River Train and really like yours and the fact that you don't play it the same way twice, but you always have the melody and then a train in there.  I wish I had Sidna and Fulton Meyer's Field Recorder Collective CD to hear theirs.  Does anyone have it available?

When we visited Virginia Kit and I literally stopped on the bridge over the New River after visiting the Carter Family Fold.  Thanks for all the details about this river.  Kit loves to study rivers and maps (always the water engineer).

This version I'm posting is on one of the three CDs made by the Rough & Ready Fruit Jar Pickers, a big band of seniors who played every Sunday since 2000, mostly at the Rough & Ready Opry Palace--a transformed old gas station, where we'd get up to one hundred people in the audience to sing along with us using our songbooks.  We just disbanded last June, quite the end of an era.  I'd been with them since 2003.  We sometimes sounded great, sometimes awful, but we sure had fun together and kept track of where the visitors came from.  Every state was represented.

My picked solo is heard for a bit after the first verse.  It's quite nostalgic remembering how many times we played this song.  I used to loudly tap my drumhead for each number after singing it.  Even when I had to hit it seven times, I'd manage before the next word was sung. Those were the "good 'ole days."

New River Train (TOTW)

 

Adam Harr - Posted - 02/12/2018:  20:36:36

Here's the Sidna and Fulton Myers recording of New River Train on FRC: fieldrecorder.bandcamp.com/tra...r-train-3

jack_beuthin - Posted - 02/12/2018:  21:36:25

quote:

---

Originally posted by JanetB

This version I'm posting is on one of the three CDs made by the Rough & Ready Fruit Jar Pickers, a big band of seniors who played every Sunday since 2000, mostly at the Rough & Ready Opry Palace--a transformed old gas station, where we'd get up to one hundred people in the audience to sing along with us using our songbooks.  We just disbanded last June, quite the end of an era.  I'd been with them since 2003.  We sometimes sounded great, sometimes awful, but we sure had fun together and kept track of where the visitors came from.  Every state was represented.

My picked solo is heard for a bit after the first verse.  It's quite nostalgic remembering how many times we played this song.  I used to loudly tap my drumhead for each number after singing it.  Even when I had to hit it seven times, I'd manage before the next word was sung. Those were the "good 'ole days."

---

Oh you crazy kids.  I can understand why you are nostalgic about that gathering. What a hoot!

I just thought of another New River-Old Time connection. Erynn Marshall's recent album of originals was titled "Greasy Creek."  Well, Greasy Creek in Virginia flows into the Big Reed Island Creek, which flows into the New River.

Page47 - Posted - 02/14/2018:  09:18:28

For a different take on this tune, check out these crazy kids from Baltimore ... youtube.com/watch?v=Utc_JpPWFPo