Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 658
Size: 1,544kb, uploaded 2/2/2013 6:53:13 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is a West Virginian fiddler Edden Hammons tune. He probably learned it and didn't have the title, so gave it this unusual one. The title is found in similar lyrics in an 1850's shape-note book. He liked it so much he's heard to say, "Ain't that nice" at the end of the recording.
10 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 865
Size: 963kb, uploaded 8/25/2013 2:33:43 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is my clawhammer version based on West Virginia fiddler Edden Hammons. It's also known as Wounded Hoosier or Wounded Hussar. I've also heard the recording from Marcus Martin of North Carolina so I think Mr. Hammons learned it without knowing the title at the time.
8 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 254
Size: 725kb, uploaded 5/1/2012 6:59:49 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Henry Reed learned this from the Civil War fifer Quince. Alan Jabbour recorded Reed and it's in the Library of Congress. I learned it when a friend showed it to me. The high D note creates a unique sound. I'm playing in open G tuning.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 150
Size: 1,242kb, uploaded 9/21/2018 4:07:27 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Re-learned for the TOTW, 9/21/18. When Carolyn (the presenter for Quince Dillon's High D) introduced me to the tune a while back I was trying to do everything with 3-finger picks and without re-tuning. Now I'm back to good old clawhammer re-tuning mode and my short scale Carolina Banjo made it even easier to hit the high D at the 10th fret when tuned to double D tuning.
6 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 683
Size: 2,254kb, uploaded 6/7/2017 7:03:05 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 6/2/17, this is R.D. Lunceford's recording from his seminal CD Drop-Thumb, 21 Clawhammer Banjo Solos. He graciously gave permission to upload it here and his tab will be included in the discussion forum for TOTW.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 89
Size: 2,649kb, uploaded 11/4/2023 7:01:32 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
James Bryan, Alabama fiddler, recorded Rabbit in the Grass on a very early album, Lookout Blues, as a medley with two other Mack Blalock tunes, the most well-known being Farewell to Trion.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 756
Size: 1,400kb, uploaded 6/15/2013 11:06:46 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For Tune of the Week, 6/14/13. From the playing of Harry Elie of Dundas, IL as transcribed by Garry Harrison in his book Dear Old Illinois. I'm playing in open G tuning on a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie.
6 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 150
Size: 1,304kb, uploaded 10/19/2018 3:00:53 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 10/19/18, here's a medley from two source recordings, West Virginian fiddlers Ralph Roberts and Bobby Taylor. The versions are different, yet similar, and I like how they went together.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 675
Size: 1,012kb, uploaded 7/11/2014 11:22:30 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 7/11/14. I worked it out in double C tuning after having played it for years in open G. I dedicate this to Wayne Rutherford who asked for this one every time I ever saw him at a jam.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Tony Ellis
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- Play count: 855
Size: 2,194kb, uploaded 11/28/2017 10:16:22 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Another one of Tony Ellis' lovely 3/4 time original tunes. The cascading notes remind me of falling water. Though Tony plays 3-finger picking, I play it clawhammer style. The sound of Tony's music is that of old-time, though he was an excellent Bluegrass Boy banjo player for Bill Monroe in 1960 - 1962. His grandmother frailed a banjo and Tony says his re-tuning the banjo to double C reminded him of what he heard her play when he was young.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 117
Size: 1,573kb, uploaded 12/24/2011 10:54:47 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A nice song borrowed from Chris Sharp and the John Hartford String Band.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 209
Size: 1,019kb, uploaded 7/26/2019 5:18:43 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the fiddle and vocals of Tommy Jarrell for the old-time Tune of the Week, 7/26/19. Tommy says in his recording that he first heard a colored man come on Sundays and sit under his window quietly picking and singing. Tommy's brother-in-law learned it on guitar and then taught it to Tommy. There's more than one theory about the origins and meaning of the song. I mostly like the bluesy melody.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 51
Size: 1,835kb, uploaded 10/7/2025 3:48:48 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
In topics:
TOTW 10/03/2025: R’ar Up (aka Rare Up)
An upbeat tune, sounds to me like a horse that rears up in great spirit and power. This arrangement is first arranged from the source recording, Oklahoman fiddler George Mert Reeves, and then from Kerry Blech (1947-2023), wonderful collector, scholar and player of fiddle tunes.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 852
Size: 516kb, uploaded 11/23/2013 3:29:38 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is the Tune of the Week for 11/23/13. It's based on the fiddling of Kentuckian George Hawkins who learned it in 1915 from Bill Trumbo, a black fiddler. Jeff Titon notated it in his book Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes. The title doesn't describe the beauty of the tune, which reminds me of Maggots in the Sheep Hide, another nice tune with a yucky name.
6 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 103
Size: 3,138kb, uploaded 5/29/2021 10:27:59 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The Tune of the Week for May 28, 2021 is an obscure tune named for a rattlesnake, which could have been a desert sidewinder, and a Texan pony, recorded by an obscure Arkansawyer clawhammer player named Green Berry Horton, shared on the site for Missouri Friends of theFolk Arts. A nice, simple tune it is and I had fun on Garage Band here in California with harmony on my Ryan Navy Carolina Banjo and a Goldtone cello banjo made in Florida. All done in the USA. :)
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 285
Size: 933kb, uploaded 9/18/2015 2:15:02 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 9/18/15, this version comes from the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers. Two descriptions of rattletrap: (1) it was a noisemaker to announce when a tinkerer was coming by to sell his wares; (2) it described the old vehicle the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers used when traveling to perform. The kicker on this tune is the one note (an F) that takes you by surprise in the B part. It must be fun to perform in jams when this part comes up -- everybody seems to sway and smile a bit.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1464
Size: 863kb, uploaded 10/24/2013 7:26:32 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Based on William Stepp's version and inspired by Rhys Jones, Rebels Raid is the current Tune of the Week. This is the slow and sweeter version. The aggressive soldiering of Morgan's Raiders inspired a slide show video, with the help of Tom Berghan's encouragement and movie-making talent.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 325
Size: 1,196kb, uploaded 10/26/2013 9:43:46 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is my first recording of Rebels Raid with a moderate tempo. When making a recording for Tom Berghan's accompanying slide show he asked me to play it rapidly in order to better portray the historic event.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 68
Size: 2,912kb, uploaded 4/30/2024 10:42:33 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here's a Henry Reed version of Red Fox, recorded in the enormous collection of this West Virginia fiddler by the great Alan Jabbour. I went to gCGCE tuning for ease of playing down the neck.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 702
Size: 1,627kb, uploaded 2/7/2015 10:03:13 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The old-time Tune of the Week is from Kentucky -- one of those very old tunes that many in the region played and it's stayed alive and still being passed around. I found it to be very pretty, especially when slowed down some. If you read the thread for the TOTW you find links to a local woman named Lella Todd who played the tune and was also well-known for her kindness to the neighborhood kids. She hunted, fished, fiddled, played guitar and banjo, and was remembered in an interview posted on the thread by a one of the neighborhood children, then already in her 80's. My kind of lady! Check it out: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/298998 I listened to another regional fiddler, Billy Stamper, to get my clawhammer arrangement.
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