watercarving - Posted - 03/29/2022:  05:41:47

I don't have a fiddler to play with in my area and would like to find some albums/songs that would be good for a beginner to play along with.

I've been playing for about 1.5 years. I wouldn't say I'm at the point where I'm a decent player, but do have years of experience playing music which has helped a lot. I also don't have a good working knowledge of OT music so I'm don't really know who to listen to. Looking for albums with fiddle on them that would fit my level of playing. Don't mind if it also has banjo, bass, etc.....

Thanks!

jduke - Posted - 03/29/2022:  06:01:31

oldtimejam.com/

This is a jam-along-site that Josh Turnkett developed years ago. It's just what you are looking for, all the old time tunes with various levels of accompaniment. Dr. Turnkett has gone on to develop a lot of clawhammer learning tools and methods. I believe the "Old Time Jam" machine is still free, but you may want to explore all the other stuff he has to offer, including tabs for just about everything!

Culloden - Posted - 03/29/2022:  08:44:24

Art Stamper's album "The Lost Fiddler" is a great album if you can still find it. It is a great mixture of fiddle tunes, some played old time style, some with a little more of a bluegrass style. J.D. Crowe and Harry Bickel (who is a member here) played banjo in the background.

Nic Pennsylvania - Posted - 03/29/2022:  08:51:33

On top of the good recommendations already given, I'd add The Field Recorders Collective. It's a good place to hear different versions of tunes, learn about players, and even play along.

cevant - Posted - 03/29/2022:  09:13:27

We have a lot of fiddlers here, so I try to listen to versions of tunes that don't go too far astray from what a fiddler might play, but that still have some interesting variations for banjo. Here are a few that I have in constant rotation.

Rhys Jones - All I've Got's Done Gone / Mississippi Square Dance
Hogwire Stringband - Rascal Fair
The Stage Hogs - A Tribute To The Hillbillies
Tom, Brad, and Alice - We'll Die In The Pigpen Fighting
Soundwagon - Give The Fiddler a Dram
The Stuart Brothers - The Stuart Brothers
Rayna Gellert - Ways of the World
Lynn Chirps Smith - Down in Little Egypt
Bigfoot - I've Got a Bulldog
Art Stamper - Goodbye Girls I'm Going to Boston
Rachel Eddy - Hand on the Plow
Almost anything by Dwight Diller

This album list is influenced somewhat by the tunes that fiddle players play in this area. Your list might vary. Ask me in a couple of months and I'm sure I'll have a whole different list.

BeeEnvironment - Posted - 03/29/2022:  10:00:51

How about Arkansas Traveller?

Bill Rogers - Posted - 03/29/2022:  10:52:24

See my recent thread on Midwestern fiddling. The Slow Jam Fizz YouTube series is likely exactly what you're looking for. See Brendan Doyle's two posts at the end of the thread. Lots of material available.

banjohangout.org/topic/382231

BrendanD - Posted - 03/31/2022:  04:48:56

quote:

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

See my recent thread on Midwestern fiddling. The Slow Jam Fizz YouTube series is likely exactly what you're looking for. See Brendan Doyle's two posts at the end of the thread. Lots of material available.

banjohangout.org/topic/382231

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Thanks for the mention of the Slow Jam Fizz series, Bill! Just to clarify a bit, Slow Jam Fizz is an ongoing series of live Zoom jams that are simultaneously live-streamed to YouTube and also archived there for future viewing (and you can even slow down or speed up the archived shows to suit your pace comfortably!). Each jam has different leaders (usually fiddle and guitar), instead of a round-robin, and the leaders are all great players, many of them well-known. It's like a private jam with these great musicians, but they can't hear you, so nobody cares if you mess up - just jump back in! Also, the jams are all free, though we strongly encourage tipping the generous leaders.

Follow Bill's link above, and you'll find my posts with more details and the link to the Slow Jam Fizz page on the Berkeley Old-Time Music Convention website, as well as a link to the whole YouTube archive of past jams - I think there are 29 posted as of now. Enjoy!

Edited by - BrendanD on 03/31/2022 04:52:41