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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 334
Size: 849kb, uploaded 4/10/2015 11:20:29 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, this comes mostly from Burl Hammons, then Dwight Diller and Jimmy Tripplett, then David Margolin and Yigal Zan. That makes it 4th generation here! It's in modal tuning (gDGCD), but if you check out the current TOTW you'll learn of another beautiful tuning to try it in: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/302159
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 195
Size: 1,903kb, uploaded 9/22/2015 7:23:45 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Since the current old-time Tune of the Week, Rattletrap, is said to be related to Old Granny Rattletrap I thought it would be interesting to compare the two. I discovered that within the first part of the Granny version is the second part of the Rattletrap tune. Old Granny Rattletrap was recorded in the 40's by a fiddler, Bill Hensley, originally from eastern Tennessee, born in 1873. Rattletrap was recorded much later by the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, a group from eastern Tennessee begun by the Birchfield family in the 70's (though the founder, Joe Birchfield, born in 1912, had learned fiddling with his family as a youngster). I'd conclude Bill's Old Granny Rattletrap influenced Joe's Rattletrap, a tune said to be the group's theme song.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 160
Size: 1,564kb, uploaded 12/16/2022 11:40:50 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A nice Celtic tune used as a contra dance tune here in America, it is in Em and only uses two chords (also a D, but it has a dramatic, catchy melody.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 155
Size: 1,304kb, uploaded 10/14/2017 10:20:30 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
As played by Ozark fiddler, Cecil Snow, this is the old-time Tune of the Week for October 13, 2017. It's called a hoedown and its style is compared to Texas swing style with slurred notes. I found it was easy to play because it only used open strings and the second fret. It also has a neat ascending melody in the B part.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 234
Size: 1,160kb, uploaded 4/18/2015 4:34:32 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This version of the old-time Tune of the Week, 4/17/15, comes from the Kessinger Brothers. It has more of a swinging beat. I haven't listened a lot yet to Clark Kessinger, but in Jake Gillie I hear the skill and smoothness in his fiddling that's highly regarded.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1073
Size: 1,508kb, uploaded 4/28/2015 6:03:15 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A second tune I've learned from the playing of Missouri fiddler Lonnie Robertson (1908 - 1981). Old Joe was also played on the Opry and possibly has some links (in its "odd metric patterns") to a minstrel tune of the same name.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 281
Size: 1,041kb, uploaded 8/8/2015 3:14:43 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 8-7-15, this comes mostly from the original source, fiddler Noah Beavers who recorded for Gerald Harrison on the Dear Old Illinois collection. I also listened to the Indian Creek Delta Boys. I'm playing on a Gold Tone cello banjo just re-strung with nylgut minstrel strings.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 215
Size: 1,065kb, uploaded 8/9/2015 1:17:11 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here is a second rendition of this old-time Tune of the Week for 8/7/15 played on a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie. The first recording was on a Gold Tone cello banjo, an octave lower. Here's the link to the current discussion: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/307438.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Jim Reed
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- Play count: 212
Size: 1,436kb, uploaded 9/15/2012 10:01:59 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
An original Jim Reed tune played on gourd banjo.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 206
Size: 1,269kb, uploaded 2/28/2019 12:06:48 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Learned from a Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson recording, Same Old Man Living at the Mill is the old-time Tune of the Week for 3/1/19. Mary Z Cox recently recorded this with all of the lyrics for her new CD Carolina Banjo and says she learned it from the Dillards. What I like about the song, besides its mixolydian melody, is the fact that it has square dance calls in some of the lyrics. I only sing the ones with the dance calls.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 328
Size: 1,278kb, uploaded 9/18/2021 12:15:22 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The tune's title meaningfully fits the music. I added some reconciliation at the end. The tuning is so different from what I normally play in the old-time genre -- f#ADAD -- which made playing it even more fun. Look it up on Tune of the Week to learn more and for tab.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 137
Size: 1,364kb, uploaded 3/23/2019 11:06:22 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This Pennsylvania tune was tracked down by Carl Baron after about 45 years! See the current TOTW for 3/22/19 for its history and story. Rumor has it that Martha was a messy housekeeper...
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 722
Size: 1,745kb, uploaded 9/30/2016 8:20:57 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For this good ole old-time Tune of the Week, here's a cello banjo/mini banjo duet. After learning that Old Molly Hare's roots go back to Fairy Dance, I couldn't help but thinking of my little Plucky mini-banjo as dancing fairies (I can thank my granddaughter for appreciating the Good People).
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 264
Size: 689kb, uploaded 7/8/2011 10:27:55 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Learned from Miles Krassen's Clawhammer Banjo book. Played on a Bart Reiter Whyte Ladye open back.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 93
Size: 1,572kb, uploaded 1/15/2022 10:15:24 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
As played by A.J. Hoggs from the Samuel Bayard collections of SW Pennsylvania, I'm always glad to learn a tune from my father's neck-of-the-woods. This Tune of the Week has roots around the time of the Civil War. Perhaps it was played on fife as well as fiddle. It sounds like a good marching tune.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 174
Size: 1,420kb, uploaded 10/31/2020 3:08:41 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the Samuel Bayard collection called Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife, this old march has a repugnant name, but may have been named after a General Pisselli. The Tune of the Week has introduced us to several fiddle tunes from the enormous SW Pennsylvania collection, but this may be the first one from a fifer.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 539
Size: 1,452kb, uploaded 8/14/2020 9:49:13 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is the one of the versions for the old-time Tune of the Week, differing from the famous Uncle Dave Macon song. My arrangement comes from Erich Schroeder (BHO's vrteach). I wish he was still active here and I really enjoyed learning a tune from his recording. The title, as we learn in the discussion thread, is probably not the real one. But if it were to be, I'm reminded of Old Sacramento where you walk on the historic old plank road as you visit the shops and museums and go on the old Delta King steamboat on the Sacramento River. At least, I nostalgically hope we can still do that....
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1008
Size: 1,340kb, uploaded 6/18/2015 8:51:45 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Learned this week from Missouri gentleman and musical extraordinaire Joe Newberry at the annual music camp in Grass Valley sponsored by the California Bluegrass Association. He turned up the fun meter! He learned this from listening to field recordings of Fred Cockerham, a musical hero he never got to meet.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by John Hartford
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- Play count: 229
Size: 1,078kb, uploaded 8/3/2011 8:43:43 AM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
John Hartford captured our attention and our imagination. These two songs are about steamboats--one of the loves of his life.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 179
Size: 801kb, uploaded 8/26/2012 6:58:24 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This one's for Jim Reed's pick-a-thon, played ever so slowly and delicately for an old sailor to dance a hornpipe, actually because it's all I can do. You've got to respect these pickers who whip out this song like it's a ship in full sail.
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