For this week's TOTW, I'm going to bring back a tune that's been covered before, but not for quite a while. The tune of the week is Twin Sisters, last covered in 2015 (banjohangout.org/topic/303172) and before that, in 2012 (banjohangout.org/topic/240606).
I learned a version of this tune not long after I started playing banjo, maybe sometime around 2016, and I'm not sure where the version I learned comes from. But not too long ago, a short recording by Jake Blount (instagram.com/p/CRu3wAPDGJX/) highlighted an interesting version of the tune that he took from the playing of Sidna Myers and his brother Fulton (who played fiddle).
I could write more about the Myers brothers, but there's a really wonderful post about them that has everything I know and more:
I couldn't find the fiddle music anywhere, so I wrote out what I hear. He plays it differently every time, of course. Fulton Myers' fiddle could be crosstuned to AEAE. If you listen to the recording with both of them, you can hear that Fulton plays the second part three times, and Sidna often continues to play the second part when Fulton switches back to the first part. Sidna appears to be briefly lost.
I couldn't find the fiddle music anywhere, so I wrote out what I hear. He plays it differently every time, of course. Fulton Myers' fiddle could be crosstuned to AEAE. If you listen to the recording with both of them, you can hear that Fulton plays the second part three times, and Sidna often continues to play the second part when Fulton switches back to the first part. Sidna appears to be briefly lost.
The one in D is a different tune with the same name; it is a variant of the Irish horn pipe The Boys of Bluehill. Siena and Fulton are definitely not playing in D: They are pitched at G# in the Field Recorders link that you posted. Tape speed/lack of clip on tuners could explain why Siena and Fulton are not pitched to A.
The one in D is a different tune with the same name; it is a variant of the Irish horn pipe The Boys of Bluehill. Siena and Fulton are definitely not playing in D: They are pitched at G# in the Field Recorders link that you posted. Tape speed/lack of clip on tuners could explain why Siena and Fulton are not pitched to A.
Yeah, I'd spent a few minutes listening and singing pitches back to a tuner (no banjo handy, sorry) and that's about where I arrived. Fascinating.
I learned a version of this tune not long after I started playing banjo, maybe sometime around 2016, and I'm not sure where the version I learned comes from. But not too long ago, a short recording by Jake Blount (instagram.com/p/CRu3wAPDGJX/) highlighted an interesting version of the tune that he took from the playing of Sidna Myers and his brother Fulton (who played fiddle).
I could write more about the Myers brothers, but there's a really wonderful post about them that has everything I know and more...
Have fun, everyone, and have a great week!
Okay Mark, from this I'm reading that your choice for the TOTW is definitely the Myers brothers version in A. Ed Britt insisted I learn it maybe 20 years ago from Reed Martin's Old Time Banjo CD, which is still apparantly available at County Sales. Here is a sampling from the cut:
If you are a clawhammer player and you don't have Reed's CD, your education is incomplete.
There is also a tune called Twin Sister (singular) in the key of C, which comes from fiddler Osey Helton of Buncombe County, North Carolina. Just wanted to confuse you all some more. Here is a group called the French Broadcasters playing it, I believe that's Rob Fong on the fiddle.
I do play all three tunes, more or less, but I do love the Myers Brothers' tune, maybe because I'm partial to modal tunes. I made a twin banjo video with my pal Don Couchie at our camp at Clifftop back in 2015. Don plays banjo, both clawhammer and bluegrass, fiddle, guitar, bass, and pedal steel, all amazingly well.
A simply beautiful tune. Here's my solo fretless take on Sidna and Fulton's version pitched somewhere down around eDEAB. Personally I think this tune gives up it's real treasure in duet. With (fretless) banjo and fiddle (or (fretless banjo and fretted banjo) it takes on a whole other dimension. I don't know why...it just does.
My fiddle playing friends weren't around this morning.
Thanks, Mark, for an interesting tune to re-explore. I learned Twin Sisters from Sidna Myer's version back when TOTW shared it in 2012. After listening to Jake Blount's recording and hearing his variations, which he said Sidna performed differently each time through, I see that could be a beneficial study. But in the meantime, here's the version I worked out eleven years ago and still enjoy playing. And still, I imagine the tune as two sisters having a conversation. The first is more emotional and persuasive. The second sister answers in a monotone, but persistent argument. And on and on it goes without resolution between the two. This illustrates why I find titles meaningful.
