For this week's tune of the week, I have chosen "Garfield's Blackberry Blossom". This tune is related to the tune "Blackberry Blossom" that most of you will have heard and played, and it may be the source that tune developed from.
History
It's mentioned in the terrific exploration of the tune "Emma Lee Dickerson's Blackberry Blossom" from 2020. Janet included a selection of versions of other "Blackberry Blossom" tunes in her reply to the original post, and also included a link to the history of the "elusive" "Garfield's" tune, including key source recordings.
Summarising the early history presented in that article here:
I was introduced to this tune by the version recently released by Joseph DeCosimo, Luke Richardson and Cleek Schrey on the album "Beehive Cathedral". This is titled "Blackberry Blossoms", inspired by Dick Burnett's version, and also influenced by hearing Clyde Davenport playing a similar version locally.
There is also a video on YouTube of Joseph De Cosimo playing the tune on fiddle. In the notes to the video, he says the following
"This is my favorite version of Blackberry Blossoms / Blackberry Blossom, inspired by Dick Burnett's 1930 Columbia recording. I love the subtlety that Burnett brought to it, especially compared to the more dramatic versions out there. His version came from Ed Haley's but tempered itself as it worked its way from Eastern Kentucky to Monticello."
Joseph gives an extended commentary on Dick Burnett's playing of this tune here.
Clawhammer Banjo versions
There are several YouTube videos available:
Brad Kolodner’s version. Brad plays it in Gm tuning giving it a really minor key character
Evie Ladin's version appears in this video advertising a Peghead Nation lesson of the tune.
Hilarie Burhans playing a slow version for her students.
Gerhard Saller's version based on Lukas Pool's version.
Other online versions
There's a great band version by The Wildman's on YouTube, featuring Victor Furtado on banjo, which sets the tune close to the earlier modal versions.
Bruce Molsky teaches a similar modal version on fiddle.
Adam Steffey plays another modal version on Mandolin.
The tune
I thought it would be good to look at both the "sour" modal versions and the "sweet" major key Burnett/DeCosimo versions. Both are great in their own ways. They're both in G but I set the modal version in G modal (Sawmill) tuning. I love the way that Bruce Molsky's version digs into the microtones between the regular notes, and I also thought it would sound nice to try the modal version on a fretless, which came out really bluesy. Recordings of all three are attached, plus tabs.
Edited by - gentrixuk on 09/30/2024 01:10:39
A great idea for a TOTW, Mark, and your contributions warrant the A+ spontaneously given to such high effort.
I once had private Skype lessons with Adam Hurt and we studied Ed Haley tunes, including Garfield's Blackberry Blossom. Adam's Ed Haley arrangement is "exquisite", as his style has often been described. Here's what is probably an early version of his, having appeared on his first CD "Insight" in 2006.
What Adam taught me years later echoes what he expressed at that lesson: "Let me tell you a little bit about my philosophy of interpreting Ed Haley's tunes on the banjo. It's different from how I interpret a lot of other fiddlers' work. His music was so complicated and so packed with eighth notes, leaving very little space and also so full of variations,...he rarely played the same phrase the same way more than once....With more of his tunes I try to come up with a sort of approximation of what he's doing, sort of synthesizing all the variations of what I believe to be a part of the melody and also leaving some space for some other banjo-y elements...If you'd like to use what I teach you as a springboard into working out more of what you hear him doing, I welcome you to do that."
That's what I did today -- used that lesson years later as a springboard -- but on this first day of arranging I haven't done much "synthesizing." It's mostly eighth notes and I haven't opted yet to leave many of them out. I'm reminded, looking at the clock, that today he and Beth Hartness are hosting an on-line jam. They're worth tuning in, right now in fact!
Edited by - JanetB on 09/29/2024 16:59:30
quote:
Originally posted by JanetBA great idea for a TOTW, Mark, and your contributions warrant the A+ spontaneously given to such high effort.
I once had private Skype lessons with Adam Hurt and we studied Ed Haley tunes, including Garfield's Blackberry Blossom. Adam's Ed Haley arrangement is "exquisite", as his style has often been described. Here's what is probably an early version of his, having appeared on his first CD "Insight" in 2006.
What Adam taught me years later echoes what he expressed at that lesson: "Let me tell you a little bit about my philosophy of interpreting Ed Haley's tunes on the banjo. It's different from how I interpret a lot of other fiddlers' work. His music was so complicated and so packed with eighth notes, leaving very little space and also so full of variations,...he rarely played the same phrase the same way more than once....With more of his tunes I try to come up with a sort of approximation of what he's doing, sort of synthesizing all the variations of what I believe to be a part of the melody and also leaving some space for some other banjo-y elements...If you'd like to use what I teach you as a springboard into working out more of what you hear him doing, I welcome you to do that."
That's what I did today -- used that lesson years later as a springboard -- but on this first day of arranging I haven't done much "synthesizing." It's mostly eighth notes and I haven't opted yet to leave many of them out. I'm reminded, looking at the clock, that today he and Beth Hartness are hosting an on-line jam. They're worth tuning in, right now in fact!
Thanks Janet. I meant to include Adam's version, but it just completely slipped my mind! Your arrangement is great - I'm going to go back and listen to the Ed Haley version again.
Newest Posts
