carlb - Posted - 11/21/2018:  12:07:55

            The “Calhoun Swing” is a tune I learned from Melvin Wine. I was only starting to play banjo at that time. The tune proved to be my entry into drop thumb. I had gotten the idea (sort of from how Kyle Creed played, that is one should play a string with the thumb after every down stroke). So if you didn’t need to drop thumb to get a melody note, then it should be sounding the 5^th string. Lots of drone.

            Anyway, I used the “Calhoun Swing” to learn to get my right hand relaxed when I did drop thumb. There’s a phrase in the B part, the only place where, at that time, I needed to get a note with the thumb. That phrase occurs three times and, playing the B part twice, allowed you to have six drop thumbs, all the same. It was my exercise to get my hand relaxed with a drop thumb. (Note that I had gotten my hand relaxed after about three weeks on the banjo, with no drop thumb, and the drop thumb exercise felt like I had regressed almost two weeks).

            Melvin first recorded the tune on his album “Cold Frosty Morning" While the liner notes have no description of where the tune came from, he did talk about it after playing. You can hear the entire track at:

roanerecords.bandcamp.com/trac...oun-swing

or without talking

oldtownschool.org/fiddle/fun/t...e7716.mp3

slippery-hill.com/recording/calhoun-swing

Also there’s a notation by Andrew Kuntz

tunearch.org/wiki/Calhoun_Swing

 tunearch.org/wiki/Calhoun_Swing

            In preparing his doctoral thesis in philosophy “Fiddling Way Out Yonder: Community and Style in the Fiddle Music of Melvin Wine" (University of Memphis, 1997), Donald (Drew) Beisswenger transcribed 52 selected tunes. The "Calhoun Swing" was included. "Melvin says this is one of his favorite tunes.” Struck me that way too, as I remember signing a Christmas card to Melvin and Etta “From the man who loves the Calhoun Swing”. From Drew's thesis: "Melvin told me he learned it from Jilly Grace”, a former slave who lived in the Braxton County, a mulatto fiddler in the Burnsville area (see Gerald Milnes' "Play of the Fiddle" (University of Kentucky Press, 1999)). Another recorded version is from Sam Hacker of Braxton County (1947):

oldtownschool.org/fiddle/fun/t...r6545.mp3

            I’ve never written a tab for this tune as I learned it by ear and concocted a banjo setting that duetted well with Melvin Wine’s fiddling. Note, one could also come up with their own settings that would work as well as mine.

            The last phrase of the B part stumped me for years. Eventually, I read Drew’s transcription, as sound wise, I agreed with it. Also, note that I’ve gone back to playing over the head and you may hear some percussion, as I play, similar to how my friend Henry, sounds with brushes on a washboard.

            I hope many of you will learn this tune by playing along with Melvin’s recording. I feel that whatever setting you come up with, if it can work with Melvin’s playing, then that's perfect.

            Here is my playing along with Melvin’s fiddling in the background. It’s the same cut as in the links above, which is solo fiddle. I apologize in that, for the last 20 years, I’ve play lots of fiddle and not much banjo and my technique has suffered. However, you can hear when I do pull off the phrases correctly. I’m using my Bruno banjo, the one I first used to learn this tune.

banjohangout.org/myhangout/mus...id=24368#

Edited by - carlb on 11/27/2018 08:50:08

RG - Posted - 11/21/2018:  13:03:12

Great tune Carl! What a blast to play...

JanetB - Posted - 11/25/2018:  19:14:37

Thanks, Carl, for a peppy little tune, your research, and your examples. Before I realized it was on Melvin Wine's CD I listened and learned from your CD "West Virginia, Book Learnin' and Other Stuff," where it's the first tune. When I played along with Melvin it worked just as I'd hoped. But you two play sooo fast! Melvin describes Calhoun Swing as a "ragtime dance tune." He also thought it could be slowed down and become a good clogging tune, so says Drew Beisswenger twice in his book -- that would be more like my normal speed.



Calhoun County touches Braxton County in central West Virginia, where Melvin was from. What brought you to that region, Carl?



No drop thumbs in my arrangement. If you analyze my use or non-use of thumb in my tab you'll see some interesting techniques. Check out measures 6, 8, and 12 for three of them. I'd be glad to explain any of them if anyone is interested.

Edited by - JanetB on 11/25/2018 19:15:50

Calhoun Swing (TOTW)

Calhoun Swing (CH) tab

carlb - Posted - 11/26/2018:  05:41:15

quote:

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Originally posted by JanetB

When I played along with Melvin it worked just as I'd hoped. But you two play sooo fast! Melvin describes Calhoun Swing as a "ragtime dance tune." He also thought it could be slowed down and become a good clogging tune, so says Drew Beisswenger twice in his book -- that would be more like my normal speed.

Back in the middle 70s and through 2000, I had no problem with playing at that speed. I did have to play quite a bit with his recording to get back to that speed in the recording I made for this TOTW.

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hoodoo - Posted - 11/26/2018:  15:05:39

Thanks for sharing the link to the album from Roane Records. The version of Cold Frosty Morning sounds quite different then other versions.

carlb - Posted - 11/27/2018:  05:55:46

quote:

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Originally posted by hoodoo

Thanks for sharing the link to the album from Roane Records. The version of Cold Frosty Morning sounds quite different then other versions.

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You shouldn't confuse Henry Reed's tune "Frosty Morning" (presently misnamed "Cold Frosty Morning" which, I believe, stems from Miles Krassen's "Appalachian Fiddle" (Oak Publications, 1973), p. 38)) with Melvin Wine's "Cold Frosty Morning". The use of "Cold Frosty Morning" for Henry Reed's tune has caught on and I don't believe we can reverse this back to "Frosty Morning".

Here is the link to what Alan Jabbour wrote about the tune "Frosty Morning".

loc.gov/item/afcreed000149/

Melvin Wine's tune "Cold Frosty Morning"

slippery-hill.com/recording/co...y-morning

Note - While locating the Melvin Wine tune at Slippery-Hill, the Henry Reed tune is also misnamed there in the Alan Jabbour version <slippery-hill.com/recording/co...morning-0> and is correctly named in the Henry Reed version <slippery-hill.com/recording/frosty-morning>.

Edited by - carlb on 11/27/2018 05:58:25

hoodoo - Posted - 11/27/2018:  10:55:02

Super interesting. Actually, I’ve been wondering about this for some time after discovering that a version of “Cold Frosty Morning” on a compilation of fiddle tunes from Mississippi sounded quite different than the one that I guess is more commonly known. Its much closer to the Melvin Wine version. Now I know a bit more on the reasons why.

jack_beuthin - Posted - 11/27/2018:  19:26:03

I just about had last week's tune (Kentucky Winder) all cleaned up and ready to go, and then along comes Calhoun Swing, and it got in my head and wouldn't leave. I'd faked through this in jams a couple times, but hadn't really sat down to learn it. But TOTW is always motivator, when I can keep up with it.



For some reason, when I hear many Melvin Wine tunes, my banjo brain switches to finger picking rather than clawhammer. The hard part is getting my fingers to go there too. So once, again, I am giving my nascent two-finger picking a shot at it. I am far, far from getting up to Melvin Wine speed, so this is just what I can get though a couple times without major flubs.



Really fun tune Carl--thanks!

Edited by - jack_beuthin on 11/27/2018 19:26:44

Calhoun Swing