Little Maggie

Posted by schwimbo

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- Play count: 311

Size: 2,189kb, uploaded 2/28/2012 11:12:23 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

demo of one day old Recording King RK-R36 banjo on an old song (with an interpretation of a Bill Emerson lick thrown in)

Miner's Lament

Posted by schwimbo, written by Chris Floyd

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- Play count: 76

Size: 4,783kb, uploaded 5/30/2019 4:15:25 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Here is a recording from around 2011, which started as Chris Floyd's studio project, which had Chris on lead vocal, Dale Adkins on rhythm guitar, Suzanne Pearce on bass, Martin Stevens on fiddle, and Jered Widman on tenor vocal. When the now defunct group Cedar Flats (with Chris Floyd on guitar, Jered Widman on bass, Tyler Lynn on mandolin, either Sam Weiss or Ellie Hakanson on fiddle, and me on banjo) decided to make a demo for getting gigs, etc, we took Chris's studio version and had Tyler and me substitute our mandolin and banjo playing for the studio version's original mando and banjo tracks. That is what you are hearing in this recording.

Park 'n Ride

Written/Posted by schwimbo

- Play count: 1786

Size: 3,743kb, uploaded 1/25/2007 10:03:37 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Another track from my Used TV Breakdown CD. I played all the parts on this cut, as on the other cuts, except where there was a wind instrument played (oboe, pennywhistle, recorder), in which case, those instruments were played by Miriam Rosenblum.

Pent-Up House (banjo: Tom Slavicek)

Posted by schwimbo, written by Sonny Rollins

- Play count: 155

Size: 2,902kb, uploaded 8/8/2016 9:24:59 PM
Genre: Jazz / Playing Style: Other

Tom Slavicek lives near Montreal, but was raised in Czechoslovakia. He plays a 6 string banjo he built himself, similar to the kind Sonny Osborne played (with an extra low string - Tom tunes this string to an "A" note below the low "D" string). The piano and bass parts were recorded by JP Zanella, a fine saxophone player from Montreal, though Tom said he did some editing of the piano accompaniment via MIDI. Tom added the drums via MIDI. I'm posting this with permission from Tom.

Poor Ellen Smith lick played by Eddie Adcock

Posted by schwimbo

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- Play count: 156

Size: 23kb, uploaded 11/9/2011 10:23:36 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

One measure of Eddie Adcock playing on a Country Gentlemen recording showing his straight 8th timing.

Rebecca

Posted by schwimbo, written by Herschel Sizemore

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- Play count: 242

Size: 2,791kb, uploaded 2/28/2012 11:14:41 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

demo of one day old Recording King RK-R36 banjo on classic mandolin tune written by mandolin great Herschel Sizemore

Rebecca

Posted by schwimbo, written by Herschel Sizemore

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- Play count: 240

Size: 2,847kb, uploaded 2/17/2014 9:03:40 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Here is a recording done in my living room with a just forming band made up of Jered Widman (guitar), Jeff Smith (mandolin), Belinda Underwood (bass), Ellie Hakanson (she was not present for this recording), and myself. This was our second get together.

Road to Columbus

Posted by schwimbo, written by Kenny Baker / Bill Monroe

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- Play count: 180

Size: 3,574kb, uploaded 12/26/2015 8:51:30 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Yet another Grass Station tune played at the KBOO bluegrass fundraiser on 12/5/15. Ellie Hakanson is the featured player on fiddle, Jeff Smith on mandolin, Jered Widman on guitar, Josh Adkins on bass, and myself on banjo.

Roll On Buddy

Posted by schwimbo

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- Play count: 157

Size: 2,789kb, uploaded 2/17/2014 8:58:56 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Here is a recording done in my living room with a just forming band made up of Jered Widman (guitar, tenor vocal on chorus), Jeff Smith (mandolin, lead vocal), Belinda Underwood (bass), Ellie Hakanson (she was not present for this recording), and myself on banjo and baritone vocal. This was our second get together. I thought there was going to be a "tag" at the end which is why the song didn't end in the most definitive way.

Roll On Buddy

Posted by schwimbo

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- Play count: 241

Size: 6,286kb, uploaded 6/30/2014 3:44:33 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Here is a more recent version of an old standard with Jeff Smith (mandolin, lead vocal), Jered Widman (guitar, harmony vocal), Ellie Hakanson (fiddle, harmony vocal), and Rob Wright (bass). We just recorded it in my living room on a Zoom H2 recorder on 6/28/14. We don't have a band name, and actually have not been able to get together much due to scheduling conflicts, but hopefully we'll have an "official" band (with name, etc) sometime soon.

Rose of Old Kentucky

Posted by schwimbo, written by Bill Monroe

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- Play count: 122

Size: 4,462kb, uploaded 12/26/2015 8:40:52 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

This cut was played at Portland Oregon radio station KBOO's bluegrass marathon fundraiser. Our band has had several names, the latest is "The Grass Station" (though the name has also been used by a marijuana dispensary in Denver, CO, which came to our attention after we had already came up with the name). Anyway, the band members featured on this cut are: Jered Widman (guitar and lead vocal, Jeff Smith (mandolin), Josh Adkins (bass), Ellie Hakanson (fiddle and tenor vocal), and myself on banjo. The recording is not so great, but it was done live in a studio with no real sound check done beforehand.

Rose of Old Kentucky

Posted by schwimbo, written by Bill Monroe

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- Play count: 165

Size: 4,109kb, uploaded 1/31/2016 12:39:34 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

I got some suggestions from the other members of The Grass Station about the first mix I put online, so I changed it a little. It is not too different, but I might as well put up the best sounding version (for your listening pleasure). Again, not much different, so sorry for re-posting it (in case you don't hear the differences or if you like the old mix better). I should again list the band personnel, as that info got deleted when I deleted the previous mix: Jered Widman plays guitar, sings lead vocal, and tenor vocal on the chorus. Jeff Smith is on mandolin and sings lead on the chorus. Josh Adkins plays bass and sings baritone on the chorus. Ellie Hakanson plays the fiddle (she is a part-time member of the band, due to her commitment to playing with other bands).

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Posted by schwimbo, written by Johnny Marks

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- Play count: 225

Size: 4,163kb, uploaded 12/10/2017 11:04:21 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Another multitracked effort by me recorded back in 2003.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

Posted by schwimbo, written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie

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- Play count: 145

Size: 7,251kb, uploaded 12/10/2017 10:25:07 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Here is a multitracked version of the song with all parts played by yours truly (partly because I was too cheap, like Scrooge, to hire other musicians and it was also fun to try to play the other parts anyway). I guess I only sold a few copies of my individually burned CD compilation of Christmas tunes so there wasn't any income to pay for other musicians (excuses, excuses). :-)

She Left Me Standing on the Mountain (copy of Allen Shelton's first break)

Posted by schwimbo, written by Allen Shelton

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- Play count: 257

Size: 636kb, uploaded 12/15/2010 4:01:20 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Here is the same combination of me playing Allen Shelton's first break with the Jim and Jesse rhythm track, with a little of that rhythm track extended past the banjo solo so you can see it was mostly me playing the banjo part. This latest version has the banjo part delayed by about .02 seconds relative to the rhythm track. The reason I needed to do this is that when I played along with the track in Audacity, the new part added to the rhythm track is delayed slightly by the computer's processing time, and you need to manually shift the new track relative to the one being played along with. I didn't shift the track the correct amount to match what I had actually intended when playing (I over shifted it by a small amount). I compared the Jim and Jesse version with my newer time shifted version (delayed slightly) and it matches much better. When the snare in both tracks line up, the banjo parts from Allen's playing and my copy of his break also line up better. I think that it still sounds bouncy (at least as much as when it was inadvertently pushing the beat slightly in the first version I posted with the rhythm track).

Stay there Till I Get There

Posted by schwimbo, written by Lynn Anderson

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- Play count: 60

Size: 261kb, uploaded 2/29/2012 5:01:30 AM
Genre: Country / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

Here is Bobby Thompson's break to Lynn Anderson's recording of the song. I played it kind of soft (affecting the tone) because it was late at night and I didn't want to wake anybody.

Sunny Side of the Mountain

Posted by schwimbo, written by Harry McAuliffe-Bobby Gregory

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- Play count: 236

Size: 1,861kb, uploaded 2/28/2012 11:09:50 PM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

demo of one day old Recording King RK-R36 banjo on old song I first heard done by Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys

The Christmas Song

Posted by schwimbo, written by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé

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- Play count: 175

Size: 5,397kb, uploaded 12/26/2015 9:25:02 AM
Genre: Popular / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

I've seen other people uploading this song, so I may as well upload my version from a few years ago (since it is the season, though maybe a day late). I added the electric bass after playing the banjo part.

the New Old West

Written/Posted by schwimbo

- Play count: 1109

Size: 9,257kb, uploaded 1/11/2010 2:06:47 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

I wrote and recorded this tune a couple of years ago and multi-tracked the other instruments. I think I might have been playing my RK-R85 rather than my Prucha to see how it sounded (maybe a little brighter than my Prucha).

Used TV Breakdown

Written/Posted by schwimbo

- Play count: 2235

Size: 3,310kb, uploaded 1/1/2007 6:07:53 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs)

I multi-tracked all the parts on this tune which is from my CD of the same title.