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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1046
Size: 1,376kb, uploaded 1/12/2016 2:13:44 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Virginia fiddler Luther Davis was said to play this in his 90's. Alice Gerard extensively recorded him and plays it with Gail Gilespie on the Hangout archive (http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/audio_player2.asp?musicid=3041&archived=%20). Unfortunately the album with Luther David -- The Old Time Way -- hasn't been reissued. I learned Lily of the Valley listening to an Adam Hurt and Christian Wig jam recording from last year's Clifftop.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 181
Size: 517kb, uploaded 11/11/2011 11:28:00 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This song title is one of an 1849 collection for Christy's Minstrels. It actually sounds like someone walking with a limp. Mike Compton teaches it to his mandolin students. I'm playing it on my older Tennessee open back.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 2018
Size: 1,305kb, uploaded 11/2/2011 5:45:09 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Just having fun remembering words learned long ago.
12 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1097
Size: 988kb, uploaded 12/29/2013 2:07:23 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For TOTW 12/27/13. I've been glad to learn a piece played by the great Uncle Jimmy Thompson of Grand Old Opry fame.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Jesse James Abbott
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- Play count: 181
Size: 2,102kb, uploaded 7/23/2022 11:52:22 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A pretty, soothing tune for the Tune of the Week. Join in on the discussion thread and enjoy!
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1233
Size: 1,987kb, uploaded 12/6/2016 1:33:15 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Inspired from Art Rosenbaum and Pete Seeger. I'm studying Art Rosenbaum's material, especially 2-finger style from Pete Steele's playing. Though his tab was for that style, I found that it worked equally well for clawhammer and was easier. :( Oh well, please don't call me lazy. :)
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 256
Size: 913kb, uploaded 12/29/2014 12:00:51 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 12/26/14, this tune is found in Jeff Titon's Kentucky Old-Time Fiddle Tunes book and notated from the recordings of J.W. Day (Jilson Setters) and B. Effie Pierson--the former in 1928, the latter in 1975. I like Effie's gentle version better, but chose to emulate Mr. Day's older recording. The notes are a little more "harder-working" in it, befitting the poor little fellow who has to work like a man to pay his board, as per the few lyrics available for the song. I suppose you could call those notes "myxolydian notes." However, the boy will grow to be a hard-working man--a valued trait in my book.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 389
Size: 1,435kb, uploaded 9/24/2012 6:00:28 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Earl Collins learned this from his father, William. Earl was born in Missouri, moved to Oklahoma, and ended up in Southern California, where my guitar teacher hosted a jam where I remember getting to play as a new clawhammer player. Earl was kind and encouraging. He passed away soon not more than a year later.
11 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by William Shakespeare Hays
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- Play count: 182
Size: 1,279kb, uploaded 4/12/2020 4:00:35 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week for 4/10/20, the song always brings a nostalgic feeling to me. I even associate it with a time and place and an older couple bringing it to our picnic jam.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Chuck Levy
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- Play count: 187
Size: 1,113kb, uploaded 8/14/2012 8:54:33 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Original Tune of the Week, Little Olentangy is a river that runs into Big Scioto in Columbus, Ohio. It's been fun learning about geography and playing the cheerful tune on cello banjo behind Chuck Levy's banjo. You might be hearing Chuck's birds chirping in the background.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by John Reischman
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- Play count: 86
Size: 1,480kb, uploaded 1/14/2023 10:16:19 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A contemporary 3-part tune by John Reischman, Little Pine Siskin is played in the key of D. To accommodate a down-the-neck solo the cello banjo allowed me to play it in the equivalent of open G tuning, tuned down four steps. A Pine Siskin is a bird related to a finch. John has an affinity for birds!
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 126
Size: 1,420kb, uploaded 11/14/2022 3:48:14 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A current Tune of the Week, I remembered learning it a while back in a lesson with Adam Hurt. I realized I hadn't done my complete homework at that time (or at least don't have a record of it), so here's my effort starting from scratch by arranging it and taking the A part up an octave. I remember now why I like being a graduated student of Adam. His lessons were tough!
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Betsy Rutherford Coffey
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- Play count: 86
Size: 1,240kb, uploaded 5/3/2021 9:13:15 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here's my very beginning attempt at a tricky tune. The B part rhythm is very syncopated. The C part is both melodic and rhythmic. If you listen to the Tune of the Week presenter play, Carl Baron, you can hear much better what it should sound like. He also used a different tuning than I did, though my open G is said to be what the composer used -- a Galax banjo player from a musical family who sadly passed away at age 41.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 950
Size: 1,423kb, uploaded 6/3/2013 6:32:46 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the Tune of the Week, 5/31/13. The story of the tune is sad, so its beauty is bittersweet. A husband came home and his wife was gone--whether taken by Indians or Union soldiers is unknown, but both tales are given as the tune's history. I'm playing it in Adam Hurt's tuning (fDGCD). You can download for free a new CD by Chance McCoy with Adam and others on the link in the TOTW (or you can leave a tip). There are good liner notes, too.
10 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 281
Size: 1,508kb, uploaded 5/1/2016 8:29:31 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This old-time TOTW explores one of the many tunes entitled Liza Jane. The Carter Brothers and Son recorded it for Okeh in 1928. Check out this week's TOTW -- I know I'm going to read more about this family. There's a link to a good and long article with the Jimmie Carter's (the "son") family stories. http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/317848.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1089
Size: 1,951kb, uploaded 7/3/2015 6:38:40 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 7/3/15, here are three versions. The first is Big Liza Jane from the banjo playing of Kyle Creed. Next is a similar tune via West Virginian fiddler Franklin George and his banjo-playing partner, Katie Johnson. Then comes my arrangement of Going Down to Cairo (sometimes called Goodbye Liza Jane).
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 869
Size: 3,006kb, uploaded 7/3/2015 6:31:12 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 7/3/15, here are five versions of Liza Jane. The first is from a 1917 recording of Little Liza Jane by Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band. Second is J.P. Fraley's Little Liza Jane. Third is Mountaineer's Love Song via Al Hopkins and the Hillbillies (1926). Fourth is from Clyde Davenport and fifth is Bob Thornburg's Liza Jane, learned from Dwight Diller.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 54
Size: 2,759kb, uploaded 1/27/2024 12:14:59 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A tune from Ohio with a title referring to the old way of logging where a horse pulled the log attached to a chain. It's a good drop thumb workout for us clawhammer players.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Wade Hemsworth
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- Play count: 1019
Size: 1,196kb, uploaded 3/8/2015 7:52:49 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Someone played this tune a while back and I wondered about the lyrics. Today I received them in the form of a youtube video made in Canada to promote the composer who is revered there for writing some enduring folk songs. It's a cute animation and the beginning shows log rollers doing an amazing job of balancing on logs in a river. The song is about a girl choosing the log roller to dance with because he makes it so fun. I'm playing my little old banjo with no tone ring and some nylgut strings.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 194
Size: 1,456kb, uploaded 7/31/2021 12:18:12 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This old tune goes by other titles, but I chose the recording made by the great Missouri fiddler Cyril Stinett. I tried to eliminate some of the notes so typical for Ozark hornpipes and managed to simplify by using the 5th string as a kind of a drone.
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