Adam Kiesling - Posted - 01/04/2019:  04:13:44

Happy New Year!



I have a tune here where I don't have a lot of information. I've been working on my fiddling lately and take an occasional online lesson with Sammy Lind (of the Foghorn Stringband). He showed me Greasy String (the fiddle is tuned in cross G), and Sammy mentioned that he learned it from a Jimmy Triplett recording with Dwight Diller on the banjo. I dug around online and found this from Dwight's Harvest CD:

dwightdiller.bandcamp.com/trac...-string-3

Unfortunately, the bandcamp page doesn't have any liner notes or credits. I found a used copy of the CD online and ordered it, but it hasn't arrived as of yet. Hopefully somebody out there has a copy and can chime in with any additional info found in the liner notes.

Here is a video I found of a fiddler playing Greasy String: youtu.be/yYO98DeoT3M

But hey, if you take a look at the track listing for Harvest on the bandcamp page, there are TWO(!) different Greasy Strings (the version I'm presenting is track 11). I took a look at the Slippery Hill website to see what it had for Greasy String, and found six versions:

slippery-hill.com/search-page?...sy+string

None of them sound like the version I'm presenting. The first cut of Greasy String on Dwight's CD comes from the Burl Hammons version: slippery-hill.com/recording/gr...-string-1

I dug around a little bit more, and found some banjo tabs of Dwight's music: dwightdiller.com/wp-content/up...rrect.pdf

Both Greasy Strings are found in that tab book (the tab is on page 17 of the PDF), and the notes for the Greasy String I'm presenting mention that it comes from the fiddling of Lee Hammons (1884-1980). Here's some more info about Dwight and Lee Hammons: banjonews.com/2016-09/lee_hammons.html. There are some banjo recordings of Lee out there, but I haven't found any of his fiddling.

Lastly, here's my version that I recorded via my phone.

Greasy String

 

OldPappy - Posted - 01/04/2019:  05:50:49

You are correct that Diller plays two versions, one from Burl Hammons, the other from Lee Hammons.



I like Lee's the best, so that is the one I learned from Diller, and once I started playing it, for about a year I could no longer play John Brown's March without accidentally mixing up the B parts of the two tunes.



You may want to look up the Lyrics, but they probably aren't suitable for public discussion.

I will look at the liner notes when I get home, but I think they only mention what you already know about the origin of the tunes.

Edited by - OldPappy on 01/04/2019 05:53:13

WVDreamin - Posted - 01/05/2019:  12:33:32

And here is Mr Diller playing it at a stately pace on fiddle.

Greasy String

And fiddle /banjo

youtu.be/4iBdV1UXQPY

This is a great tune and i look forward to hearing more of it. 

Edited by - WVDreamin on 01/05/2019 12:41:07

JanetB - Posted - 01/05/2019:  16:02:21

Thanks, Billy, for the links to Dwight! Good pick, Adam. Your pleasant version is very much like the tab link you gave to Dwight's site, which is what I used. My friend, carolynf, thought she heard some Seneca Square Dance in there, which gave me the idea to record a medley with Greasy String from Lee Hammons, Seneca Square Dance, and Greasy String from Burl Hammons. Definite similarities in them, but all distinct, too.

Greasy String (TOTW)/Seneca Square Dance medley

 

carolynf - Posted - 01/05/2019:  18:01:24

Very pretty, Janet. Which banjo are you playing.

JanetB - Posted - 01/05/2019:  23:15:53

Thanks, carolynf. I have a 20" short scale cherry wood banjo with a rosewood tone ring made by Ryan Navey of Carolina Banjo Company. I recall that Dwight Diller has played a short scale, but not that short. OldPappy made him one with a 22" scale. The short scale is a delight for me to play, and having had the broken shoulder it really helps. Ryan also recommended using red nylgut strings and I like them immensely.

Edited by - JanetB on 01/05/2019 23:16:22

Stephen Rapp - Posted - 01/06/2019:  15:32:36

I was just about to start learning a version that Melinda Jamrom played at a jam recently. Looking through Slippery Hill that one appears to be from Ernie Carpenter. Amazing to find that there are so many distinctive tunes with that title.

slippery-hill.com/recording/greasy-string

OldPappy - Posted - 01/07/2019:  05:46:25

In this genre it is certainly not unusual to find many different tunes under the same name.

Often it is mostly the same tune with someone adding their own element to it. Sometimes it is an entirely different tune, that happens to have the same name as another tune usually from another region.

Many times you will find the same tune under many different names. TOTW I presented last year is called "Jimmy Johnson" in parts of WV, "John Brown's Dream" in NC, and goes under various other names in other regions.

This is why TOTW is so much fun for me. If you want to know more about a tune, the best way to find more is to post it on TOTW.

This sort of thing is part of what I think of as the life of a tune. They get passed down, and passed around, and people hear them differently, feel them differently, and play them differently.

I did look at the liner notes from Harvest, but pretty much only tells us where Diller got the two versions from.

carolynf - Posted - 01/07/2019:  21:32:29

What a great tune! I have been playing it on my banjo, and then I tried it on my fiddle. (not that great a fiddle player, but it's fun)
It was ok, but didn't have the right pulse, so I went back and read the OP and saw the fiddle was cross-tuned. Then it all came together.
I'm new at playing and recording over my own recording, but I thought it would be fun to try, so here it is, if it posts.

Greasy String, Lee