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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 90
Size: 1,216kb, uploaded 11/25/2021 10:58:18 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The Tune of the Week for 11/19/21 is called Geese Honking. When it was recorded by the source fiddler, Clyde Davenport, he called it Wild Goose Chase. Other tunes have this title and perhaps that's why the title changed over time. Anyway, here's what I hear Clyde playing on fiddle in the key of Bb. I tuned down lower than normal in the tuning of fBbFBbD to match his fiddle. This is the tuning Nick Hornbuckle played in and it was his 2-finger version which really inspired me to learn. I see the geese flying when I drive down to town, as the rice fields filled with water attract many migrating birds. Today being Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for the forthcoming turkey dinner and thankful we have good food to eat this day and family to enjoy it with.
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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 122
Size: 1,419kb, uploaded 7/28/2023 1:46:30 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the playing of Virginia fiddler Taylor Kimble. I like the melody, though it's rather squirrelly the way he played Wild Hog in the Woods. The lyrics -- well, no thanks!
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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 89
Size: 1,451kb, uploaded 7/28/2023 4:00:43 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A second arrangement of this Tune of the Week with a more modal sound, plus the use of a capo to put it in its traditional A modal tuning (aEAC#E).
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Posted by JanetB, written by J.P. Fraley
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- Play count: 401
Size: 880kb, uploaded 2/29/2012 6:18:52 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This song is the title on one of Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley's albums of the 70's, performed along with his wife, Annadeene. It's a different tune from a more common one of the same title.
4 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1016
Size: 866kb, uploaded 9/22/2013 7:09:33 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
J. P. Fraley's album with this title name has a gem of his fiddled tunes. Kentuckian J. P. was influenced greatly listening to Ed Haley as a youngster. Previously I'd arranged this with 3-finger picking. By changing the key it laid out better for clawhammer.
3 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 410
Size: 1,208kb, uploaded 6/28/2019 10:10:47 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 6/28/19, Kentucky fiddler Clyde Davenport (still alive and able to play in his 90's) played the banjo for a tune his father, Will, taught him. The source I found for Will Davenport's Tune (actually the title isn't known) is in an excellent DVD called Shades of Clyde. The key is F in the unusual tuning of fFGCD. I don't find many tunes hypnotic, but this one qualifies.
3 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by Carter Family
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- Play count: 1510
Size: 945kb, uploaded 5/25/2012 6:08:40 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A signature Carter Family song.
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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 113
Size: 1,376kb, uploaded 1/25/2020 1:17:08 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From Lee Stoneking, Missouri fiddler (1907 - 1989) for the old-time Tune of the Week, 1/24/20.
1 comment
Posted by JanetB, written by Rayna Gellert
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- Play count: 983
Size: 902kb, uploaded 1/9/2014 7:05:36 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
In Rayna's CD "Ways of the World" I kept listening to two songs over and over--both turned out to be her own compositions. She's an amazing fiddler--one of my all-time favorites.
5 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by Tony Ellis
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- Play count: 272
Size: 2,198kb, uploaded 11/3/2017 2:28:39 PM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Here's one of Tony Ellis' pretty 3/4 time original tunes. He said he and his son Bill wrote this after visiting Japanese families in Colorado and wanting to remember the special occasion. Tony wrote it in double C tuning for his gentle, sparse 3-finger picking, but I found it easier in open G for my clawhammer arrangement. The wind chimes at the end are real!
2 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1804
Size: 650kb, uploaded 9/6/2011 8:51:48 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Originally learned clawhammer from John Burke's Book of Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo, now picked 3-finger style.
7 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by Joe LaRose
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- Play count: 620
Size: 1,171kb, uploaded 7/21/2012 4:19:06 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A beautiful tune played by Bruce Molsky and Rayna Gellert. I'm comparing 3-finger picking to clawhammer in my other version.
2 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by Joe LaRose
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- Play count: 1212
Size: 1,184kb, uploaded 7/21/2012 4:17:18 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A beautiful tune played by Bruce Molsky and Rayna Gellert. I'm comparing clawhammer to 3-finger picking.
7 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by J.P. Fraley
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- Play count: 549
Size: 1,268kb, uploaded 8/7/2017 2:18:46 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
J.P. Fraley is one of my favorite fiddlers and this is one of his few original compositions. I learned Winds of Shiloh last year and am re-visiting now, thinking it reminded me of another original Kentucky tune recently learned called Foxfire, by Owen "Snake" Chapman. Both melodies sound like there's Native American influence -- I think of the many Cherokees who used to live in those mountains and wonder how much musical interaction occurred. Kentucky tune writers have often amazed me in the delicacy and musical beauty they create. BHO member Jim Reed comes to mind. He'd write a tune at the drop of a hat and they'd all be winners to my ears, worth pursuing on my banjo.
2 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 991
Size: 1,567kb, uploaded 10/8/2015 9:49:50 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Learned from Art Galbraith and Lonnie Robertson, two great Missouri fiddlers and included in R.P. Christeson's book The Old-Time Fiddler's Repertory, Vol. 2, #132. The tune has a long history as a popular song of the late 1800's and is still played today. I prefer the music to the lyrics!
2 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1407
Size: 543kb, uploaded 7/20/2011 11:41:23 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I like how Pete Wernick did this in D. The lyrics can be pretty sad and his version caught some of that with a minor sound. The high G is tuned down to an F#, which sort of fits my unwritten rule about only changing the tune of one string for any given song. Not that re-tuning doesn't produce a great sound...
5 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 493
Size: 1,328kb, uploaded 3/13/2020 2:51:18 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This version of Wolf Creek is from Harvey "Pappy" Taylor (b.1894), recorded in 1974. Slowed down from the original, it makes a pretty piece in fDGCD tuning. DOI stands for Dear Old Illinois, a compilation of songs and fiddle tunes by Garry and Steve Harrison and Jo Burgess. Wolf Creek is the old-time Tune of the Week for 3/13/20.
2 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1897
Size: 1,364kb, uploaded 7/13/2015 8:50:29 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
While exploring the Slippery Hill site I came across four versions of Wolves A-Howling. Two were Bruce Molsky's source, too. I used the one by John A. Brown. His photo is a classic one for the LP Great Big Yam Potatoes. See it in the Sound Off thread, as well as the complete liner notes for this rare album from Mississippi. Do you think the wolves are literal or figurative? I was thinking they could be creditors or the bank wanting their money you don't have....
6 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 250
Size: 1,053kb, uploaded 10/15/2016 12:24:21 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Earl Collins played this tune and it's the old-time Tune of the Week for Oct. 14, 2016. Earl was the one who came to my guitar teacher's home for a jam when I was a fledgling banjo player and I remember him well, smiling and encouraging me. The title is appropriate for the wrestling I'm doing with my 95 year-old mother to convince her that she needs more help at home or to move into a retirement home. She's a fierce, independent wildcat! My playing here is a little tame, as are my efforts to be forceful with my mother...
3 comments
Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 180
Size: 715kb, uploaded 1/5/2012 3:26:53 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I heard Bill Monroe's version and learned it. It's a fun one.
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