Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 373
Size: 1,260kb, uploaded 2/29/2020 12:20:22 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Any time I can learn another tune from the immense Samuel Bayard collection, that's a good day. This jig, recorded in 1948 by fiddler Albert Stear, is a challenge. Clawhammering in 6/8 time is another genre in itself.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 71
Size: 2,928kb, uploaded 7/21/2025 4:47:45 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The current Tune of the Week honors the only Illinois female fiddler Stelle (or Stella) Elam who recorded ten tunes for the immense Dear Old Illinois compilation. The medley of three included in this medley are called Grotts, Jaybird, and Crooked Road. They've been arranged in double C tuning and use an AAB format, as she did for the most part.
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 251
Size: 1,316kb, uploaded 9/1/2017 4:13:16 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 9-1-17, from the mandolin playing of Alabaman Sam Taylor. I played this a bit differently than usual, avoiding extra notes and bass notes that seemed to slap, and also used more slides than I usually do. Johnny was laid-back, I guess, probably due to overworking in the excessive heat.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 206
Size: 1,448kb, uploaded 8/22/2015 2:02:01 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the fiddling of Nebraskan fiddler Bob Walters and the current old-time Tune of the Week for 8/21/15. This make a great dance tune. You can hear and read more at: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/307971.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Tony Ellis
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- Play count: 91
Size: 1,723kb, uploaded 1/3/2018 7:22:12 PM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Unknown/None Chosen
Tony Ellis and Stephen Wade are good friends, with Stephen having produced at least one of Tony's CDs. The tune "Stephen" I understand was written for him by Tony. It's another beauty. It uses syncopation in the last parts, which is something I understand Tony learned about from Earl Scruggs. I hope to learn more from Tony himself about these tunes and am researching one for a future old-time Tune of the Week. The tuning I used isn't the one Tony composed with, as I hear a higher 5th string than I'm using. Soon I'll have Tony's tab book and perhaps will see first hand how he arranged Stephen, as well as several others I've worked on. I think it's okay to adapt a tune in an inventive way and it's more fun than memorizing somebody else's playing. Do you agree?
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 154
Size: 1,340kb, uploaded 5/3/2022 11:33:00 AM
Genre: Ragtime / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Having heard Doc Watson's version, I was familiar with Stone's Rag. But only having Vernon Spencer's version from the Field Recorders Collections, I used that one for a clawhammer arrangement. Usually in the key of C, I tuned on the cello banjo to what is equivalent to open G tuning on a regular banjo. It was easier and more fun to do the runs in the A part.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by William Sydney Mount
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- Play count: 115
Size: 1,627kb, uploaded 8/28/2018 4:09:08 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
One of several tunes we can hear based on the fiddle playing of the famous American painter William Sydney Mount of Stony Brook, NY. Notated on January 11, 1859 and played not long ago by contemporary fiddler, Gilbert Ross, Stony Brook Moonshine was recorded on one of Mount's three patented Cradle of Harmony fiddles. Perhaps you're familiar with Mount's painting The Banjo Player, which was the example for the modern minstrel banjo building of George Wunderlich and other luthiers. I wonder about the title of this tune, Stony Brook Moonshine.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 878
Size: 821kb, uploaded 9/29/2013 4:20:59 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the TOTW, Sept. 27, 2013. This was learned listening to Howard Sims recording by Gerry Harrison on the Dear Old Illinois set. I had such a dog growing up, and, boy, how he could wag that little tail!
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 314
Size: 906kb, uploaded 9/6/2014 7:13:29 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week based on the playing of William Stepp and the more modern recording by Jesse Wells. This title could describe a dog or a laundry item. I'd go along with the laundry as the original idea, but who knows. And I'm grateful for my modern washer and dryer. Here's the link for the TOTW: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/290832
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1366
Size: 1,324kb, uploaded 2/10/2014 2:22:25 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This version of Sugar Hill comes from the fiddling of Grayson County, Virginia fiddler, Emmett Lundy, born in 1864. Adam Hurt's Skype lessons provided the vehicle by which I've been encouraged to listen to, learn, and attempt my own arrangement of Mr. Lundy's tunes. I'm playing on a Gold Tone cello banjo.
6 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 320
Size: 1,292kb, uploaded 9/11/2015 9:25:51 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 9/11/15. Melvin Wine played this one with his father, both of them playing one fiddle just for fun. It's quite a cheerful tune. I remember the candy Sugarbabies as a child--very chewy. Now that's a good memory, though I don't indulge any more!
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 837
Size: 760kb, uploaded 6/3/2012 2:02:03 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Inspired to learn by Adam Kiesling's Tune of the Week.
2 commentsWritten/Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 783
Size: 588kb, uploaded 7/13/2011 10:30:16 AM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Unknown/None Chosen
Just holding the banjo and fooling around, sometimes you come up with a sound you like.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 71
Size: 2,019kb, uploaded 5/3/2025 11:24:50 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Learned from the playing of a group called Ruglifters. I hadn't heard of them, but John Herrmann was their banjo player and that's good enough for me. The source recording was by the Lomaxes in 1937 by Kentucky fiddler J.W. Day.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 764
Size: 1,687kb, uploaded 3/24/2018 11:14:25 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, March 23, 2018. Susannah Gal goes by other titles. This one comes from the duet CD of Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham, both from the Round Peak, NC region. Their B part is unique, but they play it together and so it sounds great. Fred adds slides which I attempted to include, too. They must have had lots of fun playing together!
6 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 97
Size: 2,536kb, uploaded 3/23/2024 8:51:12 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
It's rare to work on a jig with clawhammer. This is a sweet tune with a real Irish (to my ears) melody. Its minor tones make it a bit bittersweet.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Rayna Gellert
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- Play count: 1130
Size: 1,213kb, uploaded 11/19/2013 5:56:59 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Rayna Gellert wrote this after coming home from college. I can feel her wistful longing for what she knew were some of the "good ole days." I learned it and then let it remind me of my own college days in the 70's when we played every day in the plaza for the cloggers. I speeded up the waltz to a 4/4 time and think of it as "Santa Barbara Reel." Thanks for the memories, Rayna.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by John A. Stone
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- Play count: 299
Size: 411kb, uploaded 7/1/2011 12:58:51 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Written about Gold Rush era pioneers who emigrated to California from Missouri.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1075
Size: 1,148kb, uploaded 11/4/2013 5:36:26 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Searching for Sam Bayard's Hill Country Tune book on-line, I accidently printed out one of the nearly 100 tunes--#2, Sweet Ellen--and found it wasn't hard to learn. The credit for it is given to Irvin Yaugher of Pennsylvania, where Bayard collected all his tunes. Others have recorded it, included the Canote Brothers and Don Borchelt.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 643
Size: 1,701kb, uploaded 5/16/2015 9:52:05 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 5/15/15. This comes from Samuel Bayard's Hill Country Tunes collection (link in TOTW: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/303774). My first effort to play Sweet Ellen was in open G tuning with a raised 5th string. This version is in double C tuning (capo 2 for its original key of D). It's really a sweet tune and I'm interested in anything from Samuel Bayard's collections. I'll never know if my father knew Sam Bayard -- same college, about the same time, same major....We all find personal connections in this old-time musical journey and that's one of mine.
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