This weeks TOTW is Sam Hill from Sand Mountain, Alabama fiddler Ralph Whited. Ralph composed several tunes popular in the state, several of which you can hear on his Slippery Hill page. He was also recorded for a Field Recorders Collective album, which I dearly love.
Here's the Slippery Hill link for Sam Hill.
As well as versions by...
The inimitable James Bryan and Carl Jones
Local string band The Red Mountain Yellowhammers (formerly Red Mountain White Trash)
Our other local string band, the Whistlebees
And for solo versions...
A solo version from James Bryan
A solo banjo version from Chris Coole
And my own recording of the tune for banjo
I've also written a tab for the tune, which you can find here. (This is for standard G tuning — sorry I didn't mention that in the actual tab itself!)
It's a pretty straightforward tune. The A part has an extra measure, and we play the part three times instead of the standard two before moving on to the B part. It's a little crooked in the B part (having two extra beats at the end), but easy enough once you get an ear for it.
If you have any questions or anything just leave them as a comment below — I'll be happy to answer anything I can. I look forward to hearing y'all's versions of this great Alabama standard!
Edited by - PorterBranch on 10/25/2024 10:15:30
It might be good to give the banjo tuning for your tab.
quote:
Originally posted by Bob BuckinghamIt might be good to give the banjo tuning for your tab.
I marked the tuning on the tab upload page, but putting it on the tab itself totally slipped my mind! It's in standard G, for what it's worth. Sorry about that!
I'll put a note about that next to the link and try to update the tab later on. Thanks for catching it!
Edited by - PorterBranch on 10/25/2024 10:16:16
Great choice, Porter, and nice playing in your video. From the Slippery Hill page for Ralph Whited: "The story behind the tune name is that Ralph's friend Roy Sanders, who was a fiddler as was Roy's father, had the habit of saying, when he saw someone coming, 'Who in the Sam Hill is that?' - Joyce Cauthen"
When James Bryan's CD "Cricket's Lullaby" came out, the tune Sam Hill was intriguing with its crooked A part (five measures repeated three times) and I recorded it back in 2012. Today, after listening to Ralph Whited and also to James, I've made a couple of changes to my tab. Funny, when I listened to my older mp3, it sounded like a 3-finger style, but it's really clawhammer.
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