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Jan 24, 2025 - 4:14:31 AM
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carlb

USA

2654 posts since 12/16/2007

            I met Melvin Wine in June of 1973, about the time I was beginning to learn clawhammer banjo. I loved how he played and so visited with him a few times a year and also during the West Virginia State Folk Festival in Glenville, WV in June so I could play with him.

            I don't remember when I first heard him play Charleston Girls but here's a recording of him playing the tune (2nd tune at 4:17) at Augusta Arts and Culture in AEAE.

https://augustaartsandculture.org/document/melvin-wine-fiddle-tunes-recorded-by-gerry-milnes/

There is another recorded source, as well, Augusta Heritage AHR-013, Melvin Wine - "Old Time Fiddling of Braxton County, vol 2" (1992). Learned from his brother Clarence.

Henry Reed also played the tune, first collected by Alan Jabbour under the title “Texas”, which was later corrected to “New Castle”.

https://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000134

            The tune has a history going back to the Phil Rice's Banjo Instructor (1858) appearing under the title "Hi! Ho! Charleston Gals". Even before that, it was apparently in the minstrel tradition and is reputed to have appeared in sheet music in mid-1840s. It is also included in “Slave Songs of the United States, The Classic 1867 Anthology” (Edited by William Fancis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison, p. 88).

Part of this information is from:

https://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/CHA_CHENY.htm

Phil Rice's Banjo Instructor is available as a pdf (other formats) and the notation appears on p. 50. A number of recordings of this minstrel version are available as well as a tab in D by Linda Littleton.

https://archive.org/details/phil-rices-method-for-the-banjo-with-or-without-a-master-1858/page/n1/mode/2up

https://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/video/video/search?q=charlestons

http://simplegiftsmusic.com/banjotab/charleston-gals-3.pdf

Other old time players of Charleston Girls/Gals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qytYlrsLwOI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL89hWAARjo

https://sites.google.com/view/old-time-frederick/tunes-abcd/charleston-gals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi6bgEFekc8

Here is my solo banjo version in aEAC#E.


Jan 24, 2025 - 6:38:43 AM
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dbrooks

USA

4831 posts since 3/11/2004

Nice choice, Carl.  "Texas" is one of 109 tabs that Tommy Thompson wrote for a visiting Frenchman, Patrick Couton in the mid-1970s. I have attached a PDF of Tommy's handwritten tab as well as my reformatting into an easy-to-read format.

Lew Stern came across these tabs while working on a book about Tommy for McFarland Publishing - 
Tommy Thompson: New-Timey String Band Musician (Contributions to Southern Appalachian Studies, 46): Stern, Lewis M.: 9781476675084: Amazon.com: Books

Lew and I work on the tabs with some accompanying background as a Kindle hardcopy book and an ebook with embedded MP3s:
"He Could Surely Make A Banjo Talk" - 109 Clawhammer Banjo Tabs by Tommy Thompson: Stern, Lew, Brooks, David: 9781093978827: Amazon.com: Books
Amazon.com: "He Could Surely Make A Banjo Talk" - 109 Clawhammer Banjo Tabs by Tommy Thompson eBook : Stern, Lew, Brooks, David: Kindle Store

David


Jan 24, 2025 - 6:57:10 AM

566 posts since 2/6/2011

Great tune, Carl! I loved the links to other players you gave us, especially those by the Haints and Rachel Eddy.
When I tried to play along I noticed that they are all playing in the key of "D". It sounds almost identical to the tune we play around these parts called "Texas" but we play that in the key of "A". Maybe that's the differentiating factor between the two tunes.

Jan 24, 2025 - 9:24:51 AM
Players Union Member

carlb

USA

2654 posts since 12/16/2007

quote:
Originally posted by banjukebox

Great tune, Carl! I loved the links to other players you gave us, especially those by the Haints and Rachel Eddy.
When I tried to play along I noticed that they are all playing in the key of "D". It sounds almost identical to the tune we play around these parts called "Texas" but we play that in the key of "A". Maybe that's the differentiating factor between the two tunes.


In going from cross A to D standard, you're really on moving over a string on the fiddle (i.e. in top strings in the tune being AE,  they are DA).

Jan 24, 2025 - 9:36:52 AM
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11465 posts since 4/23/2004

"Texas" is also on "Old Five String", Heritage Records...Ron Mullenex on banjo. https://youtu.be/jM1INC53T5Q?si=vZ-G1TfUlLbK5dsb starts at 22:18. Great album, great tune.

Jan 25, 2025 - 10:59:23 AM
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7245 posts since 6/27/2009

Your links and examples of the tune are fabulous, Carl!  I remember Paul Draper when he first began posting on BHO.  He has a beautiful banjo for his minstrel playing.  I like your take on it, too. Your playing had a light touch and was chordally full.  I didn't hear anyone singing the lyrics in these links, but Melvin Wine tried to remember them in the Milnes recording.

Listening to that recording with Melvin, he began on what we think of as the B part of Texas/New Castle, the lower part.  The tabs provided also began with the high part, unlike Melvin. In the other examples it was about half and half, as to where people start.  

Following Melvin is always a nice way to arrange a tune.  He plays a tune square and regular.  Did he play for many dances?  


Jan 25, 2025 - 3:11:53 PM

Wobba

USA

164 posts since 4/15/2020

Actually, Charleston Gals was originally published in the Briggs tutor book way back in the 1800s.

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