carlb - Posted - 04/16/2020:  18:38:03

            First, I’d like to say that my favorite thing to do is to duet with the fiddler. That is, whatever setting I, the banjo player, come up with follows close to what the fiddler is playing. I learned many tunes that way, before I started to play fiddle. Sometimes we both adjust to each other. So for “Sally Will You Marry", I decided that here, on BHO, is to give you a ghost version of how I learned this tune. I play along with Melvin Wine's solo recording from the Augusta Heritage “‘One More Time’ The Life and Music of Melvin Wine” DVD-CDRom set. While I keep the volume of the banjo forward, you can hear the Melvin’s fiddle bleeding through the microphone. I play along what I feel is a good fit. It’s below. He learned the tune from his Dad.

augustaheritagecenter.org/store/

However, as you can read in the above link, the online store is presently closed. [On 4/20/20, I got a reply to my email I sent on the 16th, when I found the link didn't work.

In fact, I started to prepare this before the COVID pandemic (and am editing at this point), and during the last weeks in March and early April, I started playing banjo with the “ghost” of Melvin Wine. There are some tunes in my repertoire that I learned from Melvin while I only played banjo. As I played along with his solo fiddle versions of those particular tunes memories poured into my head.

Back in 1977, I asked Melvin just to play a lot of tunes (which I recorded), with me playing with him. The main purpose was so that I could have more time with his tunes when I was away from him. That way when I did visit, I had a lot of his tunes under my belt. I had been playing with him, a few times a year, since I began playing banjo in 1973. “Sally Will You Marry Me” was one of those tunes. On a minor note, in my 1977 recording, on the Augusta Heritage recording and in my memory, Melvin always started and ended on the low part. Gerry Milnes and Ron Mullennex said that it was Melvin’s decision to start on the high part for the recording on the “Hannah at the Springhouse” cassette (now CD). Here’s some words from the cassette notes:

            Sally will you marry me

            Do girl, do girl

            Sally will you marry me

            Do girl, do.

            I play the tune in (gDGde), as I do with just about all of the G tunes I play (just got into to it when I was early into learning banjo). Besides "Sandy River Belle", what other G tunes could I play in that tuning? I just didn't stop. Also, as with many of the tunes I play, the 5^th string is used a melody note in the high part.

Ed Haley’s recording of "Sally Will You Marry Me” is, to me and some others, just “Sandy River Belle” or "Tugboat”.

bluegrassmessengers.com/sandy-...1927.aspx

Here are some links of other banjo settings to the tune:

From the “Hannah at the Springhouse" cassette - Ron Mullennex (banjo), Melvin Wine (fiddle), Gerry Milnes (guitar) (Note – I can only hear guitar on the recording. On some recordings on this album, it appears that only one instrument, and in some cases none, was used to accompany Melvin).

slippery-hill.com/recording/sa...-marry-me

Walker and Wolf - Andrew Walker (banjo), Evan Lebow-Wolf (fiddle)

walkerandwolf.bandcamp.com/tra...-marry-me

Ben Townsend (banjo), Dave Bing (fiddle)

questionablerecords.bandcamp.c...-marry-me

Reed Island Rounders - Diane Jones (banjo), Betty Vornbrock (fiddle), Bill Cornette (guitar)

youtube.com/watch?v=wTxpOlttEK8

Bob Lanham on BHO

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

Evie Ladin (banjo), Brad Leftwich (fiddle)

evieladin.bandcamp.com/track/s...-leftwich

Edited by - carlb on 04/20/2020 05:45:13

Sally Will You Marry Me

 

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 04/17/2020:  02:40:10

Great TOTW, Carl.  Wasn't Melvin Wine the featured Appalachian Master at Clifftop in 2001? I seem to remember first hearing you play banjo alongside him at Clifftop, in the building where they held dances.

Edited by - Brooklynbanjoboy on 04/17/2020 02:51:57

carlb - Posted - 04/17/2020:  05:02:50

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brooklynbanjoboy

Great TOTW, Carl.  Wasn't Melvin Wine the featured Appalachian Master at Clifftop in 2001? I seem to remember first hearing you play banjo alongside him at Clifftop, in the building where they held dances.

---

Actually, what happened is that I contacted the organizers of Clifftop sometime in the winter and suggested that Melvin do a concert/workshop in the hall and that Gerry Milnes should organize it. Gerry did. However, I played guitar for that concert. I don't remember exactly, but most probably Kate Brett and Ron Mullennex were playing banjo. Someone out there might have a recording.

banjukebox - Posted - 04/17/2020:  07:22:49

Great tune choice, Carl. It just happens to be one that I recently learned. I used Erynn Marshall's version to figure it out on the banjo. I tuned the banjo to open G (never tried gDGde).

Here's what I came up with along with the TAB:

Sally Will You Marry Me? - Banjo

Sally Will You Marry Me -TAB

 

RG - Posted - 04/17/2020:  10:51:36

Great TOTW Carl, one of my favorite Melvin tunes!

JanetB - Posted - 04/17/2020:  21:23:32

Lots of nice examples of the tune and good to hear BHO members sharing theirs. Thanks, Carl, for offering another of Melvin Wine's great tunes. I thought about playing the low part first, like Melvin did, but stayed with the recording from Hannah in the Springhouse. I can hear the lyrics you wrote, 'Sally will you marry me, do girl, do girl", in the high part. Perhaps the lower part is her response, or perhaps he's giving her many good reasons why it's a good idea to marry him. :)  Thankfully you caught my error in starting with a different tuning. By using your suggested tuning of gDGDE it's easier to play. You can read about it in Anita Kermode's description of Old G tuning.

VIDEO: Sally Will You Marry Me (TOTW)
(click to view)

Sally Will You Marry Me (CH) tab