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Posted by JanetB, written by Ben Winship
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- Play count: 114
Size: 2,024kb, uploaded 10/16/2018 2:36:21 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Lew Hendrix' banjo duet inspired me to try Early Times with a cello banjo accompaniment on this current Tune of the Week for 10/12/18. (Previously I accidentally posted the original Ben Winship mandolin learning recording, sorry.)
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 282
Size: 659kb, uploaded 5/5/2012 8:01:10 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This lively song comes from the fiddling of Frank George of West Virginia and is in the popular clawhammer tab book of the 70's by Miles Krassen. I learned it for the Tune of the Week.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 182
Size: 1,261kb, uploaded 11/7/2020 10:50:56 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Ebenezer as a title goes by three melodies. This Tune of the Week is a new one for me. Ivan Weddle of Floyd, Virginia played it in the 80's. He had roots in nearby Willis, where Mac Traynham lives and builds banjo. In his honor, I'm playing my Mac Traynham banjo I call MacWillis. Using a capo shortens the neck for me and makes my sorish shoulder happier. I've considered selling this precious banjo to the right person....
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 77
Size: 2,281kb, uploaded 2/17/2024 4:08:32 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This Tune of the Week, Echoes of the Ozarks comes from a 1920's recording by Kansas fiddler Sam Long. His fiddling was said to be smooth and rhythmic, but I found this piece too crooked to easily play along with him. It also has lots of syncopation. It's said to resemble Little Old Log Cabin in the Woods.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1028
Size: 540kb, uploaded 2/26/2012 3:30:20 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Though important historically as the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, the song is important to me as a useful lesson in learning melodic style. I used Tony Trischka's Melodic Banjo book.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Marty Robbins
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- Play count: 1797
Size: 739kb, uploaded 8/1/2011 8:57:21 AM
Genre: Country / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Its lyrics were changed for a gold rush era play: Down in the gold camp of old Rough and Ready I fell in love with a gal with blue eyes. Nighttime would find me in Susan's great kitchen Drinking fine coffee and munching on pies. Etc.
12 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by David Richardson
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- Play count: 325
Size: 668kb, uploaded 7/29/2011 5:31:35 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
We listened over and over again to this Texas song along Virginia's Crooked Road.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1135
Size: 1,771kb, uploaded 7/10/2015 11:44:19 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 7/10/15. The sad story of this tune fits the somber, slower pace presented by greenbrooms (Kevin) in the TOTW discussion. I'm reminded of a version of Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie, as played by Todd Phillips and friends, which I've sandwiched in-between Elk River Blues. Both have a melancholy theme. If you haven't looked and listened to the TOTW, here's a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/306217
10 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 587
Size: 925kb, uploaded 2/13/2014 6:42:09 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Virginia fiddler Emmett Lundy (born 1864) recorded this in 1941 for the Library of Congress. He mistakenly called it Richmond Cotillion, another tune. I've arranged three of his tunes as encouraged by my Skype lessons with Adam Hurt. This tune appears to be played more straightforward than the others I've done, which stand out more in the unique style of Mr. Lundy. In this cotillion I can picture the costumed folk dancers.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by DeFord Bailey
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- Play count: 841
Size: 670kb, uploaded 7/31/2012 1:33:22 PM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A comparison recording with the fretless gourd banjo. The slides from the gourd transfer easily to the fretted neck of the openback.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by DeFord Bailey
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- Play count: 239
Size: 645kb, uploaded 7/31/2012 12:59:45 PM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A fun and challenging project--something I've left unfinished for a long time. The gourd banjo is showing me how to use more slides. I'm also recording it on an open back, both clawhammered.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 186
Size: 1,567kb, uploaded 4/21/2015 8:06:08 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Emmett Lundy played this lovely waltz and may have learned it locally. But it was actually recorded by De Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters in the 1920's, where it modulates. I like Mr. Lundy's simple version. They were in North Carolina. He was in Virginia. The radio influence was strong then. I like the image the title gives of dancing when the Evening Star is first seen. That is the planet Venus and is something you who are interested in astronomy may want to look up.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1376
Size: 1,580kb, uploaded 5/18/2016 6:51:43 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This cheerful tune comes from West Virginian Wilson Douglas, though I learned it from Bobby Taylor. I found it examining the very first old-time Tune of the Week dated 7/26/08 and suggested by Erich (vrteach) who never guessed that the TOTW list has way over four hundred tunes now. Fair Morning Hornpipe was offered as a related tune to the original topic, Nancy, and even favored by Erich. It's cheerful and fits the morning today!
5 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 348
Size: 1,032kb, uploaded 2/10/2012 6:02:18 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
O'Carolan's Fairy Queen is highly regarded by scholars of his work. To me its sound is more classical than Celtic. Irish folk have believed in fairies, the "good people," and O'Carolan's first composition, Shebeg Shemore, was about a battle between the little people of two hills.
2 commentsWritten/Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 756
Size: 1,179kb, uploaded 9/25/2011 7:13:36 AM
Genre: Classical / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This reminds me of the swirling leaf eddies that keep my first graders from having an orderly line every fall by the cafeteria.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 822
Size: 2,070kb, uploaded 2/14/2015 11:50:22 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week. I listened mostly to Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham's Fall on My Knees and also to Rayna Gellert. It's a sad song for Valentine's Day. I hope everyone's having a happier one!
9 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1105
Size: 1,723kb, uploaded 4/1/2013 9:17:46 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is my interpretation of Edden Hammon's fiddling. There's been much discussion on the Hangout about this tune and I wanted to find the oldest known source of it, though it's said it comes from his great-uncle Pete, born 1847. I like to think it's about the waterfalls of the James River, but the somber modal tone sounds more like it's about a historic event in Richmond, which would actually make the title "Fall of Richmond," as many also use.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 752
Size: 1,758kb, uploaded 5/31/2013 5:58:56 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is my second recording of West Virginia fiddler Edden Hammon's tune. The first one was in modal tuning. This one's in open G tuning. I found it was easier and am puzzled why I didn't discover this while learning the piece.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 142
Size: 1,475kb, uploaded 2/5/2021 5:35:35 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Interesting to get a Tune of the Week from the Shetland Islands, which is far from home even if you're from Scotland. Our TOTW presenter suggested a homesick sense in a couple of measures, but overall happiness in the rest of this dance tune.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 181
Size: 1,551kb, uploaded 4/11/2021 8:36:34 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Played by the treasured fiddler of Kentucky, Clyde Davenport, this Tune of the Week introduced me to a second CD of field recordings I wouldn't have known about. This crooked tune is typical of Mr. Davenport's unique, but traditional Appalachian tunes with roots that usually go farther back across the sea.
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