Editor's note: this article originally ran in Banjo Newsletter's May 1976 edition. It is re-published here by permission from the author and the Banjo Newsletter.
Although "Blackberry Blossom" has appeared to tablature form in other publications it is still one of the most requested tunes for an appearance in BNL. I have been holding off writing because the way I was playing it was always changing and I couldn't get 'one way' settled enough to put on paper. It still is not locked in to one definite version but when I came up with an upper-neck harmony lick that I hadn't heard anyone else use I thought the time was right. I also wanted to put some back-up figures in that would be helpful for playing behind the fiddle.
So here it is: hopefully enough variation in the versions to satisfy everyone (with a slight deviation into "Orange Blossom Special" since one of the licks I came up with had a sound suitable for the first section of that tune, and also a taste of "Huckleberry Hornpipe".)
So mostly blackberries, but an orange and a few of the huckleberries thrown in!
It is important that this roll have a bounce and lilt to it; accent the notes on the 4th string.
Since this is a fiddle tune, here are two ways to play back-up behind the fiddle for part A. You are just walking a guitar-type bass figure on that 4th string, using a 'Hickman-type' roll. It is cheating slightly since you aren't making full chords but picking up the main sound on the 4th and 1st string and even though the middle string notes are not harmonically proper as you move, it works. You are using the Em position only on the two outside strings. Experiment with it as to what type of roll you want to use and whether you hit the open 2nd or 3rd string. You are faking here and neither one is a 'good note.' Consider the open 2nd or 3rd as drone strings and since the roll is played 'up-tempo' it won't hurt. (It will sound awful when played slowly!) Put a heavy accent or bounce on the bass string as you walk it down.
Here's the idea using a string of half notes and then a roll.
It is important that this roll have a bounce and lilt; accent the notes on the 4th string.
In 1971, while working as a high school librarian, Hubbard Nitchie began compiling information on the 5-string banjo. He called it "The Banjo Clearinghouse," and that, along with a banjo tablature service he also offered called "Tab of the Month," eventually became The Banjo Newsletter.
Hub played 3-finger style, and was especially partial to the melodic style; his own columns in "BNL", Exploring the Fingerboard, concentrated on that style. In September ,1992, Hub received the Personality of the Year in Print Media award from the IBMA. In October 1992 he passed away in Greensboro, Maryland.
In 1988, Hub wrote: "Whatever objective you have with your interest in the banjo—to play for yourself or for others, or whatever musical style you prefer—our goal at Banjo Newsletter is to celebrate the banjo."
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