Pat Lyons offers a modern old time tune composed by Seattle fiddler Eric Merrill. The title's meaning is "a highly prized opportunity or an exclusive pass that guarantees access to something incredibly desirable." Remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? It's a tune that grabs you -- TOTW, 7/24/26, The Golden Ticket. 

Once in a while we get a TOTW presented with the skill and intensity of a bonafide professor.  Today Lyle Konigsberg offers a historic and musical perspective of a past banjo player that is worthy of our study -- Wade Ward.  We can hear Ward and other examples of the tune played at tempo (i.e. very fast) and Lyle also gives the opportunity for tenor banjo players to try his arrangement.  Most of us have heard this tune before, but Wade Ward's version is definitely a classic, as well as challenging.  Who will give it a try?! TOTW, 7/31/26, Wade Ward's Chilly Winds.

Andy Taylor has done a nice job covering a John Salyer tune. We don't know the namesake of the tune, but it may have been a famous fiddler of the 1800's and you can read about him.  Other tunes with this kind of title are about fiddlers about to be hung, but perhaps not this one.   Take a listen to the video samples Andy has linked and share your own recording, as per his hope for this week's TOTW, 8/7/26, Last of Harris.

For my turn this week I chose a bluegrass tune learned by listening to Kenny Baker's fiddle and Bill Monroe's mandolin.  During research it was discovered that the tune was actually written by a Bluegrass Boy fiddler, Byron Berline, along with Monroe.  Berline had a slightly different rhythm in one part and I've tried to adopt that version.  In fact, he was quoted as saying that the B part (where this occurs) reminded him of "wagons going over a rock" and therefore the title Monroe had suggested was fitting. When playing the tune, I can picture the overland journey by covered wagon that eventually made California a populous state (and caused my little town of Smartsville to be founded).  Hope you enjoy the TOTW, 8/14/26, Gold Rush.

R.P. Christenson has a large collection of tunes from Missouri.  Mtngoat has chosen one by a rather obscure fiddler, but one who has many tunes recorded by Christenson.  You can view 19 of them on Slippery Hill if you look for August Merrill in this list: Old Time Fiddling from the State of Missouri.  The tune is named for a well-known coon hound of the South and sounds like a good dance tune:  TOTW, 8/21/26, Old Blue Tick.

Noah Cline stays true to his West Virginia roots and has uncovered a "barn burner" of a tune, with a source recording by Clark Kessinger.  We have been introduced in TOTW to this extraordinary fiddler before, but here we also see Noah digging deeper to link up with Kessinger's living relatives.  He also treats us to a barn-burning duet version of the tune himself and gives other links for our learning and listening pleasure.  Here's the TOTW, 9/4/26, West Virginia Hornpipe.

Rick Hocutt has given us a tune he learned from Art Rosenbaum, an influential banjo player he personally got to play with and whose LP taught him this tune.  RG also gives us some personal history of the music world as experienced via his father's line of work and the many prominent musicians they got to know. This tune is on an album recorded by Art which one can hear these days by purchasing a Mel Bays book that reproduced the accompanying tabs with an on-line audio.  Rick plays a "frolicing" version we can learn from and also includes a link to another slower one played and sung by the great Mike Iverson on a gourd banjo.  TOTW, 9/11/26, Sweet Nora Lee

Here's a tune posted by the talented Mark Gentry hiding in a medley performed by Bruce Molsky and Bob Carlin. It was learned from the fiddling of Tennesseean John Sharp, but has older roots which are also explored here. It sounds like a fun challenge to learn this week, so join us for the TOTW, 9/18/26, Lake Erie.

This week Mtngoat has a 4-part dance tune recorded 99 years ago by Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters.  You can hear several groups playing it and Hilarie Burhans has a good tutorial on how to. Mtngoat reports: "The tune is a standard in our weekly jam group.  When visiting jammers say, as they invariably do, 'It sounds like Ragtime Annie', the fiddler who introduced it to us always responds indignantly with 'IT DOES BUT IT AIN’T!'  Jam regulars have learned to anticipate and enjoy this exchange whenever we have a guest."  Join in the fun with TOTW, 9/25/26, Bug in the Taters.

Jan Olov Sundqvist delights us this week with a Fred Cockerham recording of a familiar tune many of know under other titles.  He gives examples of them all and includes a five-part tab of Fred's own banjo.  If you've never tried a Round Peak style tune, this is a good one to attempt.  TOTW, 10/2/26, Pretty Little Miss (Fred Cockerham).

Today's new Tune of the Week comes from abroad, published as a French song as early as the 18th century. Carl Baron learned it in 1990 and brings it to us now, with history and the invitation to explore. A very popular current French Canadian dance tune and a contra dance tune here in the states, we can listen to and learn the TOTW, 10/9/26, La Bastringue.

Bill Rogers digs way back to one of the first songs he learned to sing on banjo, coming from a classic LP called "Banjo Songs of the Southern Mountains."  The song has Irish roots, but Bill says its in a different timing.  Though he also says he's not singing any more, the melody is a pleasant, easy one to play and the lyrics a universal warning to follow the law and stay out of "the penitentiary."  The American song goes by two titles, both of them cities:  TOTW, 10-16-26, Boston/Louiseville Burglar.

Jim of Virginia is re-visiting a worthy Tune of the Week covered in 2012.  Bruce Greene spent time recording fiddlers in the 1970's, one being Sam Dyer of Tennessee.  Sam's tune caught on and is still played today, with two well-known groups of musicians linked in the thread for us.  It's light and lively and not too hard to learn.  Jim demonstrates two versions and a discussion of the flattened note is included.  Give this one a try! TOTW, 10/23/26, Jimmy Shank.

Mike Keyes has chosen a 3-part Bill Monroe tune named for a town in Texas, with a flavor described by Monroe as reminiscent of "how the people would have danced and listened to the music."  Bluegrass tunes often line out nicely with clawhammer, but it's more rare on TOTW that we get to hear the smooth elegance of 2-finger picking, as shared by Mike on his banjo.  He also has links to two living legends -- Adam Hurt on banjo playing with Mike Compton on mandolin, who as a teenager shadowed Monroe to learn his style. This may be a challenge, but let's take it on -- TOTW, 10/30/26, Old Dangerfield.