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Don Borchelt |
Posted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 282
Size: 2,581kb, uploaded 8/7/2012 7:34:58 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I first learned this tune from a Library of Congress recording of the western Virginia fiddler Henry Reed (1884-1968). Reed, who died in 1968 at the age of 83, learned the tune from his neighbor and mentor, Quince Dillon, who had been a fifer during the Mexican War. This recording is from a Clifftop jam with my pal Don Couchie, who is playing the fiddle. I am three finger picking on my short scale, semi-fretless Paramount, tuned aEABE.
5 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1685
Size: 5,541kb, uploaded 1/30/2012 11:53:31 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Ed Britt and I recorded this for the Tune of the Week for 1/27/12. I am three finger picking on my semi-fretless Tubaphone, Ed is playng clawhammer style on his OME. Both of us are in open G tuning.
6 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 727
Size: 1,807kb, uploaded 8/28/2012 10:23:48 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This tune comes originally from North Carolina fiddler Martin Marcus (1881-1974), who recorded it for the Library of Congress in the early 40s. The rather obtuse title makes sense once you know that a pig's foot is a blacksmithing tool. Another recording from one of our campsite jams on Geezer Hill. Don Couchie is doing the fiddling, I am three finger picking in open G tuning on my semi-fretless Tubaphone.
2 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 450
Size: 3,029kb, uploaded 6/3/2012 7:16:27 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This recording was made in my living room in 1998; we called our trio Wry Whiskey. I'm picking banjo and singing, such as it is. The guitar player was Brian Clancey, who now plays in a duet with fiddler Robin Warren as Spirit Fiddle. Brian is the best back-up guitar player I ever heard, bar none. Here he is fingerpicking; we experimented a lot with the mixing together of finger style banjo and guitar. Tom Speth was the bass player; his knees have given out, and so he doesn't play much music anymore, but we've gone fishing together a few times over the last several years, which is almost as much fun.
6 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 737
Size: 1,794kb, uploaded 8/17/2010 9:18:20 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Another recording on my Tascam DR-1 from Banjo Hell Road, Geezer Hill, Clifftop, West Virginia, with Don Couchie and Jim Reed. This recording really features Don Couchie, who is clawhammering the heck out of Chip Arnold's 69 Baldwin at breakneck speed. I didn't think this was humanly possible. Awesome playing, Don. Jim and I are playing three-finger style; Jim is on that tremendous 25 ball-bearing of his, and I'm picking my demure little 64 Ode.
1 commentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 342
Size: 4,328kb, uploaded 2/27/2010 5:14:49 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Unknown/None Chosen
I've uploaded this as part of my contribution to the TOTW for 2/26/10. This is a recording from an outdoor jam session at the 2008 Clifftop festival, made with my little hand held Tascam DR-1. Please forgive the wind noise and static, and the fact that the banjo is just slightly out of tune. Sometimes you just have to do the best you can and jump in with what you got. Ed Britt and I were jamming with Jimmy Costa, who is just an all around terrific musician, and a truly authentic Uncle Dave interpreter. I was playing my Fairbanks Whyte Laydie in Open D tuning.
2 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 350
Size: 1,220kb, uploaded 2/27/2010 5:09:50 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Unknown/None Chosen
I've uploaded this also as part of my contribution to the TOTW for 2/26/10. This is a tape I made around 1985, one of my first experiments in overdubbing. Back then, I played the tune in Standard C tuning (gCGBD), and capoed on the 2nd fret when I wanted to play with a fiddler.
3 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1558
Size: 2,735kb, uploaded 8/7/2009 3:34:57 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Another tune from my Clifftop picking with BHO member Don Couchie, who plays just the kind of fiddle playing I like to hear. This was just plain great fun. The Paramount semi-fretless banjo is tuned to open A tuning (aEAC#E).
3 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 233
Size: 1,517kb, uploaded 8/27/2011 5:41:25 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I've uploaded this as my contribution for the TOTW for 8/26/11. This is a practice recording I made back in the early-80s, playing both the three-finger lead and the frailing style back-up. This was my first experiment with three-finger/clawhammer duets, even before I got together with Ed Britt.
2 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 229
Size: 1,728kb, uploaded 9/24/2012 10:59:18 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is another unusual tune from our Geezer Hill jam with Ralph Roberts. Ralph called this tune Sugar Hill, but it doesn't bear any resemblance to the tune I know by that name. It's a sprightly, bouncing little tune that sounds more like a distant cousin to Cripple Creek, one that Ralph fiddles with a lot of playfulness. Don Couchie is playing rhythm guitar, and I am three finger picking in open G tuning.
1 commentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 2787
Size: 1,787kb, uploaded 3/29/2013 10:55:07 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Ed Britt and I recorded this in my living room back in January, 2009. I had just worked this up after listening to a fine version by West Virginia fiddler Jack Krack. Ed is playing clawhammer stytle on his Ome, in double C tuning, capoed on the 2nd fret, I'm three-finger picking on my semi-fretless Vega Tubaphone, in open D tuning.
6 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 492
Size: 2,161kb, uploaded 10/28/2011 8:33:17 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is my contribution to the Old Time Tune of the Week for October 28, 2011. This is a recording I made at Clifftop with my pal Don Couchie. Don is on fiddle, leaning on those double stops just the way I like it; I am three-finger picking on my short scale, semi-fretless Paramount, in open A tuning.
3 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 922
Size: 1,293kb, uploaded 11/4/2013 9:25:44 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I just learned this tune a few months ago from Boston area old time musicians Linda Henry and Jerry Dallal. It comes originally from Samuel P. Bayard's 1994 collection, Hill Country Tunes, Instrumental Folk Music from Southwestern Pennsylvania. I am three-finger picking in open D tuning (aDF#AD).
Add CommentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1109
Size: 1,952kb, uploaded 7/11/2011 2:24:20 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A tune preserved from a magical early morning jam I had with Marty Lebenson of Jamaica, New York, at the 2011 Harry Smith Frollic, an old time festival held in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Marty is a master of the harmonica, I've never heard old-time music played on the mouth fiddle with more skill and spirit.
3 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 289
Size: 4,562kb, uploaded 8/6/2012 6:18:16 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This great old Melvin Wine tune has some fine nonsense in the chorus, "The old coon’s tail has rings all around, but the possum’s tail is bare." My friend Tim Rowell joined Don Couchie and I for some tunes near the end of Clifftop 2012, and this is one we played. Don is playing fiddle, Tim is clawhammering, and I am picking three finger style.
2 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 2610
Size: 3,740kb, uploaded 9/26/2008 5:34:00 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This old time tune was composed by California clawhammer picker Curt Bouterse. I learned it from Ed, who is playing his Ome. capoed up 2 in double C tuning. I am using my new Ode, in open D.
12 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1199
Size: 2,243kb, uploaded 7/2/2010 6:56:41 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is my contribution to the TOTW for 6/26/10, just a week late. I am playing my 64 Ode, without fingerpicks. This is the Bill Stepp tune in A mixolydian, not the Luther Strong tune in D of the same name. The banjo is tuned gDGAD, capoed on the second fret. I just learned this a few weeks ago from Stephen Bland, a fine fiddle and banjo player from Rochester, New York, at the Black Creek Fiddler's Reunion. I recorded it on my Tascam DR-1.
8 commentsPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 698
Size: 1,840kb, uploaded 2/27/2015 11:46:35 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Recorded with my friend Don Couchie on fiddle. Uploaded for the Tune of the Week, February 27, 2015. I am picking my semi-fretless Tubaphone, in open D tuning (aDF#AD).
1 commentPosted by Don Borchelt
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- Play count: 1136
Size: 1,869kb, uploaded 9/7/2011 10:04:17 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This is another tune I recorded with fiddler Matt McConeghy, from Providence, Rhode Island, at the Fiddlin' Bear Old-Time Musicians' Gathering at Lake Genero Park, in Hamlin, Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. This is a West Virginia fiddle tune that comes from Wilson Douglas, among others. The banjo is tuned to open D.
Add CommentPosted by Don Borchelt
[download]
- Play count: 692
Size: 1,180kb, uploaded 11/10/2013 5:15:35 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
I first learned this tune in 1970, from a Voyager LP recording of fiddler Dick Barrett, playing at the Weiser Idaho fiddle contest. It was one of the first tunes I worked out in melodic style. This tape was made in 1975, with my friend Steve Harris on guitar. I am playing in standard C tuning. This is uploaded for the TOTW for 11/9/2013.
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