carolynf - Posted - 10/02/2020:  06:56:31

I was revisiting some favorite Bruce Greene tunes, searching for one in particular (Apple Blossom) to see if anyone else had recorded it. Well, I did find it, and in doing so, I discovered one of my new favorite Old Time bands, Hog-Eyed Man. In their 4-CD set, there were so many wonderful tunes, I could spend years exploring them. One jumped to the top of the pack though; Green River. Jason Cade and Rob McMaken create magic with that tune, and BAM! there was another piece of music where I couldn’t rest until I owned it.

I put it on my lovely slowdown app, “AnyTune,” and whittled away on it until I had figured out the fiddle notes on my banjo. (Also on my fiddle, but that’s not fit for prime time.) I had a little trouble because it is a mite crooked, but Janet Burton helped me out with the tricky piece.

BUT, the banjo is not a fiddle, so my primary purpose in tabbing all the notes out is to know which ones I should leave out for banjoing. I’m sharing both tabs here, since you may make different choices.

I figured it out first from the CD, but when I watched their YouTube video, I saw that some notes had been modified, so the second tab reflects that.

Here is the CD recording.

Here is the Video recording.

“Green River” comes from North Carolina fiddlers, Osey Helton and Marcus Martin. They seem to have been contemporaries, born in the 1880's and made their recordings in the earlier days, in the 1920’s. One would assume that many fiddlers of the time were also playing the tune.

Osey Helton and brother Ernest Helton, fiddler and guitarist grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. Osey learned to fiddle from a former slave who worked with his father at a whiskey distillery. Osey was eventually able to make his living as a professional musician. More info on Osey here.

Osey’s “Green River” is here.

Marcus Martin was born in the Aquone community in Macon County, North Carolina. He played with Bascom Lamar Lunsford, at his festival and touring other regions. He is best remembered for his “masterful fiddling.” When asked by Alan Lomax what he thought music was for, he replied, “It’s for the uplifting of the people…it’s the most high thing.”

I’m sure we all here at Banjo Hangout share that belief.

More info on Marcus here.

Here is Marcus Martin’s “Green River.”

When I turned back to search again for versions of “Green River” on YouTube, I came across this one played by Brittany Haas. Although the tune is historically in G, standard tuning, Brittany plays it in D, which lends something different to the tune you may find interesting.

Brittany’s “Green River.”

And here is me, playing my latest version of “Green River.”

Like other tunes named after rivers and river boats, I like to keep that in my mind while playing. The river meanders along, the steamboats magnificently steam upstream, people who live along it are out in their boats fishing, the greenery droops over places of backwater, and the air is warm and humid. 

Green River, North Carolina

Photos: Osey and his brother Ernest. Marcus Martin

VIDEO: Green River
(click to view)

Green River tab#2

Green River tab#1

 

ndlxs - Posted - 10/02/2020:  07:44:24

So much to process! Good job, Carolyn.  I especially like your visualization of the scene.  That could be the Sacramento Delta in the gold rush, too...

carolynf - Posted - 10/02/2020:  08:02:41

We both live within about a mile of the Sacramento River. Just a hundred and fifty miles apart. That would be a great tune. We had a gold rush up here too.

JanetB - Posted - 10/02/2020:  09:20:21

And I'm a mile from one of the distant tributaries of your Sacramento River, the Yuba River. These river tunes are always a treat, as is your playing and of course your old-time tune discoveries, Carolyn. I'm privileged at times as Tune of the Week coordinator to know what's coming so here's my contribution early this Friday morning to a crooked tune.

Osey Helton's 1924 recording was new for me and proved to be a fascinating tune to arrange.  Anything in the Milliner - Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes has been worth studying.  Osey Helton is represented there with three tunes.  Marcus Martin has twenty-five!  And Hog-Eyed Man is indeed a duo to delve into.  Thanks, Carolyn.

Green River (TOTW)

Green River (Osey Helton)(CH) tab

carolynf - Posted - 10/02/2020:  09:43:57

Beautiful, Janet! And you slipped in some lovely triplets, I think I heard.

JanetB - Posted - 10/02/2020:  10:18:26

Thanks, Carolyn. The triplet came from Osey’s recording. I didn’t think I’d be able to get it, but with the use of my thumb on the fifth string it worked.

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 10/02/2020:  11:10:25

Carolyn, absolutely brilliant tune of the week. Spent an hour looking and listening to all your links and found it fascinating. Lovely tune and both you and Janet play it so well.

carolynf - Posted - 10/02/2020:  11:12:45

Thanks for your kind words.
I'm going to try to get an mp3 fixed up also to post.

ndlxs - Posted - 10/03/2020:  14:47:57

One thing I just noticed about this tune: I was writing out the sheet music of Janet's tab, odd timing and all.  The tune is pentatonic!  A lot of Chinese music is also pentatonic; the normal G scale has: G A B C D E F# G; in the pentatonic you throw out the fourth (C) and the seventh (F#) to get G A B D E G.



I have another version of the Ose Helton tune from Tune Archive:

tunearch.org/wiki/Green_River



I like the way you phrase it, Janet; there is kind of a call and response at the end of the first part, which makes way more melodic sense than the version on the tune archive. 

Edited by - ndlxs on 10/03/2020 14:55:35

Green River

 

JanetB - Posted - 10/04/2020:  20:42:37

Are you going to fiddle it, ndlxs? My version plays along with Osey’s, so all pentatonic credit goes to him. I’ve always liked that scale, though I read that blues guitarist use it and some people think it portrays a spooky voice. It doesn’t sound blue or spooky to me, at least not in Green River. Pat Cloud wrote an interesting instructional book on the pentatonic scale and various fingerings and patterns to master it. They all sounded nice to me. One favorite was Sally Johnson — so pretty.

Sally Johnson