JanetB - Posted - 01/12/2024:  12:42:38

Snowdrop has been popular since Kirk McGee (1899 – 1983), a talented banjo player, recorded it for Mike Seeger and Folkways in a 1957 album called “Look Who is Here: Old Timers of the Grand Old Opry” and again in 1964 in “The McGee Brothers and Arthur Smith” (liner notes in pdf below has good bio info). Some people think Kirk is credited for writing it, but apparently it’s an older tune.  It’s said he learned the tune from a Black man named Jim Sapp in Kirk and Sam’s father’s shop near their hometown in Franklin, Tennessee. Some say the tune may go back to the minstrel era, and if you know more, please do share.

As I learned in Stephen Wade’s book The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience, Snowdrop can be thought of as a fandango with its use of ascending and descending chordal sounds and its movement up and down the banjo neck. It has four parts and sometimes is played an octave lower as a variation.

Stephen actually visited Kirk McGee and shared the experience with me: “On the first of the occasions that I visited with Kirk, I played it for him. It was the first truly lyrical instrumental I had ever learned, and receiving his blessing for it meant so much to me. I play it at the close of "Catching the Music” as the credits roll (Kirk appears in the film) as well as having recorded on my 1990 Dancing Home album. I recently recorded it again and it appears on my forthcoming album…” The album has come out since Stephen and I last communicated, called “Hands on the Tune” and you can hear Snowdrop on Track 4 in a medley with Spanish Fandango. 

Here’s the link for Catching the Music, a delightful 1987 documentary by Stephen about passing on banjo music.  Stephen calls the banjo a “musical mule” and wrote that “the banjo is a metaphor for America-- brought here via slavery, shared with mountain whites to make a new music for us all.” A short description of Kirk McGee appears at 15:37 and a clip of Kirk describing Uncle Dave Macon is at 35:20. Afterwards is some of Kirk’s musical history, including talk of his father’s country store as a learning spot and Kirk’s experience as a Grand Old Opry performer. If you go to the end of Catching the Music, you’ll see Stephen playing Snowdrop.  

I’ve had fun arranging Snowdrop and offer it in three tunings for clawhammer.  In addition, my husband, Kit, AKA Plinky, and I recorded together with my 3-finger picking and his mandolin, though I didn’t tab it.  You can hear "Plinky & Plunky's" Snowdrop in the link below for BHO mp3s.  We learned it listening to a Bob Flesher CD.  

For now, suffice it to say that I enjoy hearing and playing Snowdrop and hope you’ll be encouraged to try it, too, and post more of your favorites.  And as a postscript I'll add, it sure is pretty played slowly, as in the Stephen Wade, Adam Hurt, and Russ Carson links below, so don't think you need to speed through.  

Look Who's Here! Old Timers of the Grand Old Opry  Kirk McGee's banjo with his brother Sam's guitar accompaniment, in case you didn't listen to the link above

Stephen Wade

BHO mp3 playlist  It's a long list!

Adam Hurt

Mary Z Cox

Brad Kolodner

Donald Zepp

Russ Carson

Josh Turknett

Edited by - JanetB on 01/15/2024 20:02:14

Snowdrop (CH) tab, double C tuning

Liner notes on the McGee Brothers and Arthur Smith

VIDEO: Snowdrop
(click to view)

Snowdrop (CH) tab (gCGCE)

Snowdrop (CH) tab in open G

 

thisoldman - Posted - 01/12/2024:  13:41:37

Thanks Janet. Snowdrop is the tune that lured me into banjo. Alas, I didn't stick with CH long enough to learn how to play it. But it is still one of my favorite banjo tunes.

Mtngoat - Posted - 01/13/2024:  12:23:45

I heard Jimmy McCown, Paul David Smith, and Bert Hatfield play this tune about twenty-five years ago. That session is still fresh in my memory.

JanetB - Posted - 01/14/2024:  18:22:50

To clarify the right hand playing in Snowdrop as played by Kirk McGee and to offer a tune using C tuning, Mike Seeger offered an instructional video from Homespun in 1994 called Old-Time Banjo Styles.  Snowdrop was included because, he said, he wanted to demonstrate the C tuning, GCGCE, as used by Kirk.  Mike performed the piece after explaining the two picking styles Kirk used.  For the A, B and D parts there was an up-picking style, as commonly used by his brother Pete and others like Ralph Stanley and Elizabeth Cotton, all who were able to play it smoothly and rapidly.  The difference between the common clawhammer down-picking and this style is the use of the index finger to do an up-picked note, in this case on the first string, followed by a downwards strum with the middle finger, or middle and other fingers.  The C part utilized a 3-finger picking pattern, using no picks, in a sequence I can't label, but like a mixed/reverse roll.  It went: 4th string, followed by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1st.  This also was played at a rapid tempo.  Mike shows both styles clearly in the DVD and half-apologized for not being 100% sure about the 3-finger roll sequence.  The DVD includes special guests Doc Watson, Kirk Sutphin, Greg Hooven, Etta Baker, and Joe and Odell Thompson -- good old-time music history!

janolov - Posted - 01/15/2024:  12:04:01

I have made a tab from Kirk's playing. According to the Mike Seeger video he had his right hand planted on the head and playing bum-di-ty with index finger up - pulloff - index finger brush down - thumb: banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=26875 (TablEdit, pdf and midi files).

Snowdrop

 

JanetB - Posted - 01/15/2024:  13:14:49

Thanks for the close observations on the Mike Seeger video and for the helpful tab. You must have put some real time into figuring out that arrangement. You're correct in that he used the bum-dit-ty rhythm in the A, B and C parts, so I stand corrected.  Planting the little right finger on the head and playing something akin to clawhammer would sure be a learning leap for me, but I'll stick with traditional clawhammer!  

Edited by - JanetB on 01/15/2024 13:18:53

chip arnold - Posted - 01/16/2024:  08:36:05

Here's Rebekah Weiler winning a contest playing it clawhammer style ...

youtube.com/watch?v=Bq-J97M5dl0

JanetB - Posted - 01/16/2024:  09:26:51

That was an amazing performance by Rebekah Weiler. Thanks, Chip! That YouTube was from 16 years ago. Her playing reminded me of Bob Fisher’s version, so I looked it up on the CD Dr. Horsehair’s Old-Time Clawhammer Banjo, where we first heard Snowdrop. That was recorded 32 years ago. Perhaps Bob influenced Rebekah. I can't find his recording to share here. 

JanetB - Posted - 01/17/2024:  12:33:53

I just recalled once looking up Snowdrop, which is a beautiful little flower that comes up in winter.  It is much like the Paper White Narcissus flowers that also come up seasonally early where I live.  When the state highway department got ready to take some of the land where our Paper Whites grew, we easily transplanted the bulbs and still enjoy their blossoming every winter. They're just coming up right now.  Here's an article on the Snowdrop flower, including a lovely photo, plus a description of the symbolism associated with its delicate appearance and white color.  It also references a poem by Sir Alfred Tennyson called The Snowdrop.  

The article says Snowdrop plants have been cultivated in Europe, where they are native, as well as in Asia.  Has anyone actually seen them?

janolov - Posted - 01/17/2024:  13:16:43

Snowdrops are very common in Sweden. They use to come just when the snow disappears in February to April. They are popular in gardens, but there are also wild plants, probably comming from gardens.