Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 86
Size: 2,290kb, uploaded 3/8/2025 11:27:18 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the playing of Illinois fiddler Lynn "Chirps" Smith who learned it from coal miner Noah Beaver of Elkville, IL. I like its ragtime feeling and syncopation in the B part.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 951
Size: 875kb, uploaded 1/23/2013 6:36:37 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Comparing this song to another I came to record it with the tuning f#DADE. I remember Doc Watson's singing of it best.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 143
Size: 1,204kb, uploaded 3/6/2021 3:56:04 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Also known as Rose Conley and Rosin the Bow, the melody is so nice, but the lyrics aren't, so I'd rather just play the instrumental. It's a song we all seem to learn, but why a murder ballad -- ugh!
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Sarah Armstrong
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- Play count: 876
Size: 1,651kb, uploaded 10/24/2017 4:44:25 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Sarah Armstrong came from a large family in southwestern Pennsylvania and learned fiddling at the age of 5. Her favorite mentor was her Uncle Laney and her Dream Song came to her in a dream about him. She woke up and learned it. Samuel Bayard listened and transcribed many of her tunes in 1943 and 1944. You can see these transcriptions in an 80-page book called Hill Country Tunes. I'll post the pdf file in the discussion thread with another one of her tunes.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1072
Size: 1,040kb, uploaded 10/28/2012 8:14:09 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I really liked how Don Courchie fiddled this with Don Borchelt's banjo at their Clifftop jams, so I've learned it listening to their playing. Don's fiddle certainly had embellishments to challenge me.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 258
Size: 1,267kb, uploaded 10/30/2012 6:11:19 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Classical
After posting a fast version of Dry and Dusty, here's a slowed up one on the little gourd banjo. The title insinuates struggles, perhaps relating to the Dust Bowl era, since the Morrison brothers most credited with this tune came from Arkansas.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 147
Size: 857kb, uploaded 1/7/2022 3:17:47 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The modern recordings of Ducks on the Millpond are great listening, and my first round through comes from them, in particular Rayna Gellert. Going back to the older for this week's Tune of the Week was also interesting. Virginia fiddler Emmett Lundy always portrayed tunes uniquely in both his rhythmic nuances and note choices. You'll hear the next three parts as he played them, arranged here for clawhammer banjo.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1098
Size: 1,436kb, uploaded 7/24/2015 11:59:20 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This nice modal tune is usually attributed to West Virginian fiddler Henry Reed, but I learned it from the fiddling of West Virginian Dwight Diller. It was a BHO old-time Tune of the Week in 2010 with lots of information in this TOTW link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/187542.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Garry Harrison
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- Play count: 755
Size: 1,388kb, uploaded 8/14/2015 12:00:06 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 8/14/15, this one was actually written by the great collector of the Dear Old Illinois compilation (soon to be released again), Garry Harrison. The fine part expresses a bit of the over-exertion needed if your chisel needs sharpening.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Ed Haley
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- Play count: 1066
Size: 2,198kb, uploaded 2/23/2017 2:12:45 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
All of Ed Haley's fiddle pieces are a good challenge. Dunbar is a little town in West Virginia though Haley had moved to nearby Kentucky.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 608
Size: 1,137kb, uploaded 8/7/2014 8:00:17 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 8-8-14, the first version is from Bruce Molsky, the second from Kentucky fiddler Jake Phelps (1885 - 1977), and the third from Donald Zepp.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 823
Size: 1,455kb, uploaded 8/7/2014 7:58:07 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 8-8-14. I learned this from Adam Hurt who learned it from Jarred Nutter, who learned it from Bobby Taylor, who learned it from Clark Kessinger. Adam calls this the "folk process in action." It's the only 3-part Durang's Hornpipe I've heard and Adam plays it with lots more intricate variations.
8 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 60
Size: 2,984kb, uploaded 9/9/2024 3:46:14 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the fiddling of West Virginia Melvin Wine, Eadle Alley remains a mystery as far as a real place. Playing his tunes is always an experience with a squared off, traditional fiddle tune that make good square and contra dance music.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Kit & Janet Burton
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- Play count: 397
Size: 732kb, uploaded 2/18/2012 2:42:08 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Kit and I wrote this over the phone years ago. It sounds like a hornpipe. He wrote the A part and I wrote the B part. He always wondered how my part ended in a chord other than the tonic, but then the song goes back to his A part and ends right on the tonic note. Maybe my part was a bridge, not a B part. This goes to show how tabbing (or recording) something as you create it is wise. I tabbed it, but never really learned it until today, played on my Gold Tone Cripple Creek mini openback.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Plinky & Plunky
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- Play count: 896
Size: 2,850kb, uploaded 3/18/2012 12:41:25 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is the song Kit and I wrote over the phone. John "the KIDD" Kuhn added guitar. What a nice difference!
5 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Ben Winship
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- Play count: 115
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: 284
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: 187
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: 83
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: 1033
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 commentsCopyright Notice:
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