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Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1330
Size: 1,100kb, uploaded 1/21/2013 12:27:46 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
As played by Dwight Diller who learned it from Lee Hammons. The banjo here is a Bart Reiter Whyte Laydie.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 280
Size: 968kb, uploaded 1/21/2013 1:00:33 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The first recording of Lee Hammon's Calloway as learned from Dwight Diller was on a Bart Reiter with a White Laydie tone ring. This one is on a simpler, lighter banjo with no tone ring for comparison sake.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 645
Size: 1,818kb, uploaded 11/20/2015 7:06:29 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 11/20/15, this version comes from West Virginia fiddler French Carpenter, grandson of Solomon Carpenter who played a tune he called Camp Chase when he was a prisoner-of-war at that location in Ohio during the Civil War. It's said that by playing the tune best Sol actually won his freedom. Check out the TOTW for more info.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 341
Size: 945kb, uploaded 9/25/2015 12:57:58 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This week's old-time Tune of the Week comes from Uncle Bunt Stephens, who was the winner of the 1926 fiddle contest presented by Henry Ford. The tune is simple enough to allow fun with rhythm and variations.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1317
Size: 746kb, uploaded 11/23/2011 9:20:30 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A round with banjo and mandolin.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 1617
Size: 1,100kb, uploaded 12/17/2011 8:13:46 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Turlough O'Carolan (1670 - 1738) was influenced by Italian composers and this is one of his best such tunes.
8 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 216
Size: 1,535kb, uploaded 11/30/2015 11:34:48 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
In Carolan's Cottage I'm given to think of the blind harpist, Turlough O’Carolan, beginning in the late 1600's, wandering from "big house" to "big house," earning a living by entertaining his hosts with song and harp. His must have had his own small cottage when he eventually married and raised five children. Or perhaps the cottage of this tune was one of a few from his childhood, in particular the one on the land of a major patroness, Mrs. MacDermott Roe. It was here he caught smallpox and lost his sight. Subsequently he received instruction on the harp and was given a horse and guide to make his way in the world.
1 commentPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 139
Size: 1,220kb, uploaded 12/6/2019 8:55:02 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A lovely old air by O'Carolan, the famed Irish harpist, born in 1678.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 1887
Size: 954kb, uploaded 1/2/2012 9:17:17 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This song is so pretty it's hard to imagine it's about a quarrel, but I think the landlady didn't want him to keep drinking her supply of ale, so he argues about it. At least that's what the biographic sources say.
8 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 1555
Size: 1,030kb, uploaded 2/16/2012 7:43:26 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A song O'Carolan wrote in honor of Dr. John Stafford, friend and patron, in celebration when he prescribed whiskey to treat depression, after the blind harpist had become depressed when another doctor had him refrain from whiskey for a medical condition.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Turlough O'Carolan
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- Play count: 1944
Size: 753kb, uploaded 11/16/2011 5:55:11 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
In my continuing effort to study O'Carolan's works, I've found another gem of a melody, #171 in his notated songs from Donal O'Sullivan's biography Carolan,The Life, Times, and Music of an Irish Harper; and tabbed nicely in Ron Hughes O'Carolan for the 5 String Banjo book.
5 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 113
Size: 1,695kb, uploaded 9/5/2020 2:21:14 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Samuel Bayard, the famous tune collector from Pennsylvania, had several versions recorded of Carrolltown Breakdown, popular during his day. He claimed it's related to Buffalo Gals, so I tacked that one at the end for comparison. The first comes from one of the sources, Wilbur V. Neal, who was an elderly man when recorded in the 1950's. The second comes from the modern arrangement by Mark Tamsula and Richard Withers, based on the source fiddled recording of Harry "Tink" Queer, in his 50's in the 1950's, and the last is a snippet of the traditional Buffalo Gals.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Owen "Snake" Chapman
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- Play count: 90
Size: 1,384kb, uploaded 11/27/2021 9:34:59 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
An original tune by Kentucky fiddler "Snake" Chapman. I can see in my mind's eye the wet-pawed cat tracks on the porch, or the soft little tracks on the dusty dirt road where I live...
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Ed Haley
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- Play count: 1029
Size: 858kb, uploaded 6/13/2012 1:26:01 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Ed Haley (1885 - 1951), a blind fiddler from WV who settled in Catlettsburg, KY, raised a family with his blind wife. Both were professional musicians.
10 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Ed Haley
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- Play count: 1216
Size: 1,332kb, uploaded 9/2/2013 2:51:08 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is the clawhammered arrangement of the tune I first learned 3-finger picking style.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1333
Size: 998kb, uploaded 8/19/2014 6:13:15 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I like the way the modes change in this tune--from minor in the A part to mixolydian in the B part. It was also interesting to play the minor sound out of open G tuning--I had to avoid hitting the second string unless it was fretted.
3 commentsWritten/Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1471
Size: 1,040kb, uploaded 5/23/2013 6:31:33 AM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
My beautiful daughter has a green thumb. This tune is dedicated to her. It's in double C tuning with the 5th string tuned down to an F. I found the pretty notes at the beginning by accident and didn't want to forget them.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 130
Size: 1,336kb, uploaded 10/28/2022 10:06:17 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Two versions of Chase the Squirrel have resemblances, but are different. I explore them both in the Tune of the Week for 10/28/22.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Ephraim Woodie
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- Play count: 951
Size: 2,238kb, uploaded 7/22/2016 7:17:23 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 7/22/16, this is a song originally recorded for Okeh Records in 1931 by the Woodie Brothers. It has since become part of the old-time repertoire. I found it's a catchy melody with fun words. Learning it has caused me to look into ash cakes and starry crowns. I haven't tried making ash cakes yet, though....
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1944
Size: 765kb, uploaded 7/7/2011 9:29:10 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A great square dance tune.
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