Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1121
Size: 1,267kb, uploaded 7/19/2012 12:29:10 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A friend played it long ago, a lot of BHO members post it, and it's on the Henry Reed collection. I'm finally learning it, but wonder about the major/minor parts.
7 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 904
Size: 783kb, uploaded 7/4/2012 7:20:37 AM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is the first part of an African slave song notated when Sir Hans Sloane was in Jamaica in 1668. It's quite a lovely tune and I thought putting it to clawhammer banjo was fitting. Sloane also drew the earliest known pictures of the gourd banjo, seen in many written reference materials.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 54
Size: 1,372kb, uploaded 2/25/2023 1:00:04 PM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Have you ever heard of a bour?e? It's a dance of the 1700's. The Tune of the Week introduced us to two dance tunes, interestingly with a mid-eastern flavor.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 110
Size: 1,480kb, uploaded 11/6/2021 10:43:54 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
We don't often get a French Canadian tune on Tune of the Week. This one is a charming dance tune, said to be Quebecois, which must mean that Quebec has its own style of music. The B part is crooked and adds to the charm. The source recording played it much more quickly and it must have made for a happy, lively dance.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 139
Size: 1,257kb, uploaded 2/3/2017 3:30:46 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Turlough O'Carolan wrote many of his harp tunes to honor the friends where he stayed at length, earning his living as a bard. Those friends are called patrons and the tunes are called planxties. Lady Athenry was one such patroness who hosted him as he traveled. It's written that this composition was one of his loveliest. I found that 2-finger picking was the easiest way for me to play this tune. It was exciting arranging a tune in 6/8 time in this style since I sort of make up my own rules as I go. If I want to pick something twice in a row with my thumb, I do. If I want to use my finger likewise I do! Not using picks, though, the tone may not be as bright as it could have been.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1224
Size: 1,489kb, uploaded 2/25/2014 6:13:00 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Three versions from my Skype lessons with Adam Hurt. The first one comes from the fiddling of "Uncle Norm" Edmonds (born in the 1890's) of Hillsville, Virginia and is one I arranged as an "extra credit" homework assignment. The other two come from Parley Parsons (born 1864) from near Galax, Virginia and from Paul Brown's recollection of the B part.
10 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 225
Size: 1,424kb, uploaded 12/19/2016 11:04:27 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 12/17/16, this Bob Walters tune, recorded by R.P. Christeson and notated in The Fiddler's Repertory, Vol. 1, has roots in a syncopated minstrel tune called Hell on the Wabash. It's a happy tune, though nobody seems to know what the title really means.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 84
Size: 2,856kb, uploaded 12/1/2023 3:55:58 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here's my arrangement of Lafayette from the playing of Kirk McGee and Arthur Smith found on the Slippery Hill site. It was a popular dance tune on the Grand Old Opry back in the days.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by John Jones
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- Play count: 745
Size: 1,424kb, uploaded 1/31/2016 7:16:30 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here's another tune heard from the great Alabama fiddler James Bryan. Per usual, he makes it sound so good I just need to try it. The story behind the title is that Missouri fiddler John Jones was walking home with his children after playing for a dance, humming this new tune, and their lantern fell in the ditch. They walked the rest of the way in the dark.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1130
Size: 3,582kb, uploaded 1/15/2015 6:18:39 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
These two tunes also are the names for the tuning they use, also called Old G tuning, which I've been studying this month. I'm tuned a step down to fCFCD. I'm finding that some tunes work well in this tuning, some work okay, and others don't work well at all!
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Paul Brown
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- Play count: 168
Size: 895kb, uploaded 6/25/2021 9:03:50 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Paul Brown is a living legend, a quiet one who has and still contributes beautiful music. I know that someone else gave his tune this title, and so it is The Last Cold Whiskey. I made a few changes because I learned it from another's tab and felt like it. In the discussion tab we haven't even heard Paul Brown play it yet. It's a beauty, though I don't know what I think the title should actually be...
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 153
Size: 2,976kb, uploaded 4/5/2024 6:39:35 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Old Kentucky crooked fiddle tunes are intriguing and Hiram Stamper is an authentic learning resource in my book. Bruce Greene recorded this one and it was tricky to arrange. I got some help listening to George Jackson, the New Zealander old-time player that's a pleasure to hear.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 153
Size: 2,154kb, uploaded 5/11/2018 8:56:35 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 5/11/18, Last Shot Got Him via the Mississippi Possum Hunters' 1930 recording. It resembles in melody Mississippi John Hurt's sung version called First Shot Missed Him. Hurt recorded as early as 1928, though this song isn't available to hear until a much later recording in the 60's. Hurt played it slower and didn't have the little tag ending on the A part. Music historian and fiddler Harry Bolick put the two together (see the current TOTW to hear that version). I think the Possum Hunters sound rather ragtime and I can imagine it being at one time a bar-room song about someone who was shot, an event not unheard of at that time in that place in Mississippi.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 265
Size: 1,280kb, uploaded 7/9/2017 12:17:20 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 7/7/17 Lazy Kate was recorded at the beginning of the 1930's buy a Mississippi stringband called Leake County Revelers. In the key of D, I put it in what's equivalent to open G tuning on the cello banjo (dADF#A). For an easy-sounding tune, it was a bit challenging to arrange, but easier for me to play than in double D tuning. Easier playing makes for a better end-result, don't you think?!
4 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Paul Roberts and Janet Burton
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- Play count: 806
Size: 957kb, uploaded 8/19/2013 4:33:31 PM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
After hearing Paul's Leap Frog I found that I could easily play along with it. I tried composing some counterpoint melody to it, but forgot to re-set the slow-downer back up to the key of D. This came out in C with my banjo tuned to double C and I'm playing clawhammer. Paul is playing a mandocello tuned in 5ths and uses a flatpick.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 157
Size: 5,043kb, uploaded 5/21/2022 11:20:44 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A combination of learning Mike Seeger's version via W.A. Hinton's 1930 Okey recording, plus my own attempt at playing Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland notation for Leather Britches -- a fascinating comparison.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 706
Size: 447kb, uploaded 6/28/2011 7:38:46 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Inspired by Megan Lynch. Also known as Lord McDonald's Reel.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 160
Size: 1,329kb, uploaded 9/17/2016 12:30:15 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, this version of Liberty is from a 1925 Okeh recording of Fiddlin' John Carson of Georgia, said by many to be the musician who recorded the first country record (Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane and The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster is Going to Crow).
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 699
Size: 1,328kb, uploaded 9/17/2016 12:34:44 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This version of Liberty is also called Liberty Two-Step, which distinguishes it from another tune called Liberty. (Check out the current Tune of the Week for 9/16/16 for more info.) I learned this one from John Burke's Clawhammer Book for Banjo back in the 70's and it was a popular square dance tune then. I think it's a pretty tune.
1 commentPosted by JanetB, written by Bobby Neuwirth and Henry Burnett
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- Play count: 238
Size: 517kb, uploaded 12/22/2011 10:18:28 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This song was used in the Cold Mountain soundtrack.
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