Sunset

Written/Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 786

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.

Susan's Gone (Sweet Susan)(TOTW)

Posted 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.

Susannah Gal (TOTW)

Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 766

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!

Swallow Tail Jig

Posted 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.

Swannanoa Waltz medley

Posted by JanetB, written by Rayna Gellert

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- Play count: 1132

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.

Sweet Betsy From Pike

Posted 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.

Sweet Ellen

Posted 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.

Sweet Ellen (TOTW)

Posted 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.

Sweet Marie

Posted by JanetB, written by Walter Lile

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- Play count: 384

Size: 1,508kb, uploaded 7/16/2013 8:45:51 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

For the Tune of the Week, July 12, 2013. I listened to Mike Worden's version, which sounds great, and the original by Walter Lile on Slippery Hill. I used notation in the Milliner-Koken American Fiddle Tunes book to make sure I got the crooked measures. It's a charming tune and will take more practice to truly learn it.

Sweet Milk and Peaches

Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 654

Size: 1,014kb, uploaded 10/6/2013 8:17:04 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

For the TOTW, 10/4/13. Kind of makes one hungry for something that sounds so yummy. It's a sweet-sounding song and has the interesting history from having been recording by two Mississipian musicans--Narmour and Smith--by Okeh, the company who recorded the Carter Family during that era.

Sweet Nell (TOTW)

Posted by JanetB, written by Rob Pines & Jim Mullany

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- Play count: 597

Size: 1,354kb, uploaded 11/9/2018 5:26:25 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

For the old-time Tune of the Week, Sweet Nell is the title name of a CD by a Washington-based group who wrote the tunes. The tune is named for Nell, the daughter of Paul Newman, partners in a charity-based organic snack company. It's a sweet tune.

Sweet Nora Lee

Posted by JanetB, written by J. T. Adams

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- Play count: 80

Size: 2,809kb, uploaded 9/12/2026 11:37:32 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

In topics:
TOTW 11 September 2026 (Sweet) Nora Lee J.T. Adams via Art Rosenbaum

Art Rosenbaum included Sweet Nora Lee in an album and a book subsequently tabbed. He played it in Seeger's up-picking style, but I arranged it for clawhammer here. It's a sweet song with some lyrics, too.

Sweet South Anna River

Posted by JanetB, written by Alice Gerrard

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- Play count: 733

Size: 2,154kb, uploaded 3/24/2017 4:44:27 PM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Alice Gerrard, a living legend herself, wrote a song about another musical legend, Elizabeth Cotten, who she knew and whose conversation with her inspired this song, released on Alice's CD Bittersweet. As I listened to the CD this song moved me to attempt it on banjo and I've had the delight of learning more about these two amazing women. As the lyrics say, "And won't you sing to me as I take my leave, you're going to miss me when I'm gone."

Sweet Sunny South

Posted by JanetB, written by W.L. Bloomfield (1853)

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- Play count: 609

Size: 559kb, uploaded 7/26/2011 9:11:45 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

A song about leaving one's home and sadly returning.

Swing Lady Home/Rocky Hill medley

Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 709

Size: 1,651kb, uploaded 3/21/2013 5:53:21 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

These two pieces go together, both in chordal flavor and lyrical themes.

Swinging on a Gate

Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 238

Size: 1,687kb, uploaded 3/20/2016 9:56:46 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 3/18/16 this tune was a new one for me. I listened to a lovely guitar arrangement by Ken Perlman and simplified it for clawhammering. Kids would like to swing on a gate, wouldn't they. Parents would tell them to get off, but it must be too fun to resist

Sycamore Tea

Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 72

Size: 2,553kb, uploaded 11/11/2023 3:03:58 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Here's a modern, pretty, rather crooked tune from North Carolina. The key is G, but I used gDGBE tuning to facilitate ease of fingering.

Tailor's Twist

Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 812

Size: 1,117kb, uploaded 11/15/2014 1:25:07 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

Neill Connor of Sedgely, UK recently posted a video "challenging" me to learn his favorite hornpipe which he's been working on, so here's my effort after 3 days. I simplified Ken Perlman's original tab by changing the 5th string tuning and removing the difficult triplets. Though it's still the same tune, it's probably not what Neill hears more commonly in his country. I guess it's an Americanized hornpipe.

Tally Ho (TOTW)

Posted by JanetB, written by Blanche Coldiron

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- Play count: 243

Size: 1,867kb, uploaded 4/6/2018 1:59:51 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 4/6/18, Blanche Coldiron comes fully to my attention -- a Kentucky musician who lived the rural life of work and generosity and leaves a quiet legacy that we come to know after her passing. Tally Ho is a 4-part tune that builds up to a gallant descending end. I'm playing this in double C tuning on a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie openback.

Tam Lin

Posted by JanetB

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- Play count: 1027

Size: 1,029kb, uploaded 10/1/2015 7:40:44 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time

This is a traditional tune from Scotland going back as far as 1549 in a published ballad format. Dave Hum played this tune and his videos are still on-line to view -- what an amazing picker he was! I'm playing on a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie openback, but also enjoyed it played lower on the cello banjo. You can compare the two, as I've uploaded them both.