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Don Borchelt |
Posted by Don Borchelt, written by Gary Harrison
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- Play count: 560
Size: 1,362kb, uploaded 8/8/2011 4:18:12 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I had a nice jam session early on at Clifftop this year with my good friend Tim Rowell (clawhammertim here on the Hangout and on YouTube). Tim has established and now runs the Traditional Music Program at the Real School of Music in Burlington, Massachusetts. We see each other a lot at jams around the Boston area, but had to travel 800 miles to West Virginia to find some quiet time to do play some nice double banjo togrther, clawhammer and three-finger style. This is our take on Gary Harrison's fine twisty fiddle tune.
6 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 86
Size: 3,380kb, uploaded 11/7/2025 12:45:27 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This tune comes from fiddler Buddy Thomas (1934-1974) of Lewis County, Kentucky, who learned it from Ohio fiddler Morris Allen. Jeff Titon notes the A part's close similarity with the English dance tune The Rose Tree.
1 commentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1505
Size: 1,962kb, uploaded 8/19/2011 6:23:55 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is the last of three recordings I made with my friend Tim Rowell at Clifftop 2011. The tune comes from Art Stamper, who learned it from his father. His father reportedly learned it from a Civil War veteran, who said that it was composed at the end of the war to commemorate one of the last engagements, in Pike County, Kentucky. So to borrow on of my mother's favorite expressions, this tune is "old, old, old. Tim is playing clawhammer style, I am picking behind him in three-finger style.
5 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 946
Size: 1,877kb, uploaded 12/6/2020 1:58:20 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Upload for the Old Time TOTW for December 4, 2020. The tune is generally called Too Young to Marry, but the fiddler I learned it from called it Buffalo Nickel.
3 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 865
Size: 1,482kb, uploaded 12/2/2013 5:58:31 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I love chicken tunes. I made this recording of the old barnyard stalwart in March, 1998, with my friends Brian Clancey and Tom Speth. We called our trio Wry Whiskey. Uploaded for the TOTW for 11/29/13.
2 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1632
Size: 2,192kb, uploaded 9/17/2012 6:08:12 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
The last night of Clifftop, Don Couchie and I sat down to pick some tunes with Ralph Roberts, an old time West Virginia fiddler who lives near the festival. Ralph knows a whole bunch of tunes that are old, old, that you rarely or never hear anyone else play. This tune, Cherry River Line, is an example of an old mountain song that has evolved into a fiddle tune. I am playing three finger style banjo, winging it as best I can, and Don is playing rhythm guitar.
4 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 123
Size: 2,377kb, uploaded 2/20/2022 7:21:09 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is one of the first fiddle tunes I learned to play on banjo. I made this recording fifty years ago at the Union Grove festival on the Van Hoy Farm in Union Grove, North Carolina, using a little cassette recorder I had with me. If I remember correctly, I was in open G tuning using C positions, but capoed on the 2nd fret. These days, i play it in open D tuning.
Add CommentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 986
Size: 2,410kb, uploaded 8/21/2012 7:45:57 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
According to the Fiddler's Companion, Joe Coleman was a shoemaker from Adair County in south central Kentucky, who in 1899 was convicted of murdering his wife. Claiming his innocence to the last, he reportedly played this tune while riding in the cart, sitting on his coffin on the way to the gallows. Don Couchie and I played it at our first jam session on Geezer Hill. Don is playing fiddle, I am three finger picking in open D on my semi-fretless Tubaphone.
2 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1249
Size: 1,358kb, uploaded 8/29/2010 7:37:43 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Early Sunday morning, it was time to pack up and leave, after a full week of good Clifftop picking. Don Couchie was heading down to Galax, and I was starting the long drive back to Boston. Jim Reed had already gotten up very early and headed back home before either of us had woken up. As the last of the gear got stowed away, Don and I sat down for one last tune, Cookhouse Joe, an old-time fiddle tune from Southeastern Kentucky. On the way out, we stopped at the Lodge to eat up the last of the biscuits and gravy. Until next year...
1 commentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 244
Size: 1,528kb, uploaded 3/28/2013 5:46:32 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I made this recording of the old mountain hoedown version of the tune Cotten Eyed Joe in my living room back in 1997, with my friend Brian Clancey, who now backs up fiddler Robin Warren. They go by the name Spirit Fiddle. I was playing a Paramount banjo with a semi-fretless neck I made myself, tuned in G Variant tuning (gDGAD).
1 commentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 727
Size: 2,493kb, uploaded 1/29/2021 2:55:04 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I'm uploading this Marcus Martin tune as my contribution to the 1/29/21 old time Tune of the Week. The fiddler is my good friend John Maguire. We recorded it exactly one year ago, today.
6 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 3775
Size: 1,903kb, uploaded 9/11/2008 10:29:30 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
As long as I can still hold a banjo in my tired old hands, if I can still play this tune, I will be okay with it. This is the tune that got me hooked on picking, and it is still the best banjo tune there is, and I'm not afraid to say so. This is our take on it, Ed Britt and me, and we hope you like it. I'm playing my new old Ode, and Ed is picking his Ome, and we are both in open G tuning. Recorded on my Tascam DR-1, no fancy microphones, nothing.
16 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 52
Size: 2,993kb, uploaded 8/16/2025 11:26:05 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Other
Uploaded for the Old Time Tune of the Week for 8/15/25.
Add CommentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 567
Size: 945kb, uploaded 10/7/2012 3:44:42 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Another tune from our Clifftop jam with Ralph Roberts. Ralph knows a lot of rare old tunes, but he plays the chesnuts with equal enthusiam; this is his version of Cumberland Gap. Don Couchie is playing rhythm guitar, and I am trying to get straight with some three finger style old time banjo.
Add CommentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1339
Size: 2,376kb, uploaded 6/3/2012 5:38:19 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This was one of Doc Watson's signature tunes, which he elegantly fingerpicked on guitar. It was originally recorded by the Delmore Brothers in 1933 as Big River Blues. Ed Britt is playing clawhammer style in double C, capoed on the 2nd fret, and doing the singing, while I'm fingerpicking in open D.
9 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1066
Size: 1,850kb, uploaded 8/24/2012 9:16:18 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Dry and Dusty is a Missouri/Arkansas fiddle tune that comes from the repertoire of twin brothers Apsie (1876-1964) and Abbie Morrison (1876-1965), both fiddlers from Searcy County, Arkansas. This is another recording from one of my jams with Don Couchie up on Geezer Hill. Don is fiddling, I am three finger picking my semi-fretless Tubaphone in open D tuning.
7 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt, written by Carl Jones
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- Play count: 242
Size: 1,911kb, uploaded 1/27/2014 1:43:26 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This recording of Carl Jones's new old-time classic is from a jam back in December, 2013, with my Boston area pals John Reddick, Linda Henry, Jerry Dallal, Mike Roguska, and of course, Ed Britt. Three fiddles, two banjos, and one guitar. Recorded on my Tascam DR-1.
3 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 616
Size: 1,943kb, uploaded 8/14/2011 9:46:50 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is another recording made with Don Couchie on Sunday morning at Clifftop 2011, after we had packed our gear to leave. This is from the repertoire of the legendary West Virginia fiddler Edden Hammons. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the title of the tune refers to a baby being born. That would explain the lyric "Fine times at our house, Katie’s got a little one, bless its little soul, it’s another little pretty one." That's just how I always felt about it, I remember those moments like it was yesterday. Key of A, sort of mixolydian; Don is playing fiddle, I am playing three finger style banjo on my short-scale, semi-fretless Paramount.
3 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt, written by Fred Rose
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- Play count: 2497
Size: 2,970kb, uploaded 5/28/2009 4:17:20 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Well, since you all tolerated my singing on that last one, I thought I'd post another from my days some ten years ago picking with Brian Clancey and Tom Speth. This is not your 'grass Fireball Mail, I'm afraid. Brian is playing finger style guitar here, a sound I really like with three-finger style banjo. Banjo is a semi-fretless Paramount in open D.
11 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 931
Size: 1,609kb, uploaded 7/1/2011 4:44:10 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I first heard this tune a few years ago at a the old time music jam at Sandy’s Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jon Gersh and Kathy Fletcher, who have led the jam for quite a few years now, were kind enough to record this with me in their basement studio. Kathy is playing fiddle, Jon is playing banjo clawhammer style, and I am playing three finger style, in open D tuning. Jon and Kathy are known around Boston as Planet Banjo, and have an old time group called the Dixie Butterhounds.
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