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Posted by JanetB, written by Ira Bernstein
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- Play count: 421
Size: 1,364kb, uploaded 10/28/2016 6:18:17 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 10-28-16, New Yorker Ira Bernstein wrote this tune in the 80's. He is known most famously as a dancer, specializing in Appalachian flatfoot, clogging, and tap. I was quite surprised this week when I learned he wrote a fiddle tune, which is also his favorite instrument to dance to. The A part begins with a minor and the B part modulates, so it's not a common fiddle tune. It's catchy and was actually played in my neck of the woods when Earl White played at a bluegrass festival in Grass Valley, California. However, I admit I'd have learned the tune if it wasn't for this week's TOTW.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 73
Size: 1,025kb, uploaded 4/17/2023 5:42:44 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The curious part of Chorus Jig is why it's named a jig, but isn't in jig time. It's an old tune and apparently jig used to be the name of a dance. The tune modulates, giving it more interest, and to watch dancers, as linked in the TOTW discussion, they're certainly having fun.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 80
Size: 1,603kb, uploaded 12/21/2019 7:54:41 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Kentucky fiddler Jim Bowles heard the tune from an old colored fiddler who played it for dances and it's said that the tune may pre-date Civil War days. It has an unusual pattern of AABBBBB. The B part has variations, however, with three different parts as I heard it played. I'm playing this on a short scale Doc's Banjo tuned to a double C tuning. I get a happy Christmas Eve feeling from it and look forward to that day soon this year.
3 commentsWritten/Posted by JanetB
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- Play count: 683
Size: 898kb, uploaded 12/22/2013 1:44:02 PM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Inspired after a wonderful Christmas party for the less fortunate kids at my school and by the anticipation of my own family's time together this season. Dedicated to my husband, Kit, who understands it all.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Bob Wine
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- Play count: 285
Size: 1,232kb, uploaded 12/19/2012 5:51:22 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Melvin Wine's father traditionally played this for the kids. Along with the simple gifts of candy and fruit, with biscuits for breakfast, the tune became a part of Melvin's cherished memories.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 389
Size: 783kb, uploaded 11/29/2011 6:00:25 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A song that celebrates the season.
4 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 513
Size: 1,412kb, uploaded 12/15/2012 4:08:12 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the TOTW--12/14/12
2 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 270
Size: 729kb, uploaded 12/10/2011 2:25:39 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The melody is tender and pretty.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1107
Size: 730kb, uploaded 12/11/2012 7:14:36 PM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
One of the caroling songs we do every year.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1418
Size: 1,280kb, uploaded 12/6/2012 5:42:37 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A very old hymn widely sung today.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Jay Livingston & Ray Evans
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- Play count: 349
Size: 1,006kb, uploaded 12/2/2011 6:02:24 AM
Genre: Popular / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A song I sang long ago in the school choir.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 1237
Size: 781kb, uploaded 12/9/2011 6:13:17 AM
Genre: Popular / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The first graders like to play the drums on this one.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Rev. John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
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- Play count: 1253
Size: 619kb, uploaded 12/13/2011 6:08:01 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Fun to play with full chords, like a piano.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by Felix Bernard & Richard B. Smith
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- Play count: 392
Size: 804kb, uploaded 12/6/2011 5:49:30 AM
Genre: Popular / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A popular Christmas song written in 1934.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Tex Logan
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- Play count: 363
Size: 1,173kb, uploaded 12/1/2011 5:53:38 AM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Bill Monroe sang this one. It's the perkiest Christmas song I've heard.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB, written by Chuck Levy
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- Play count: 242
Size: 942kb, uploaded 12/14/2013 3:01:06 PM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the TOTW, 12/13/13, this is an original by Chuck Levy named for a disastrous diesel oil fire upon an actual river in Ohio. I'm playing cello banjo with Chuck's video and hope the recording quality is bearable.
3 commentsPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 123
Size: 1,408kb, uploaded 8/8/2022 3:07:38 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the playing of Alabama fiddler Sam McCracken, here's a kind of happy-go-lucky tune for Tune of the Week.
2 commentsPosted by JanetB, written by William S. Pitts
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- Play count: 470
Size: 2,597kb, uploaded 9/30/2012 8:23:36 AM
Genre: Bluegrass / Playing Style: 4-String (Tenor/Plectrum)
Written in 1857, but recorded by the Carter Family in the late 1920's. Definitely a favorite jam song for Kit and I, "Plinky and Plunky."
1 commentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 74
Size: 2,864kb, uploaded 12/9/2023 11:29:37 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A hornpipe from Ohio played by an Ohioan fiddler, Estil Adams, is my source. I learned another version from a Kentuckian and will be comparing the two versions for similarity.
Add CommentPosted by JanetB
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- Play count: 177
Size: 1,268kb, uploaded 12/9/2023 11:50:08 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For comparison sake to the Estil Adams recording, here's John Salyer's version of Cincinnati Hornpipe. Adams came from Ohio, Salyer from Kentucky, but who can say where the tune was composed?
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