Now this is a really interesting tune/playing project in G tuning by Jan Sundqvist. I am still trying to get a grip on playing this tune 'cause it's really tricky to catch the timing as Billy Faier intended. Jan is my favorite tabber on BHO I have to admit--He thinks outside the Box...Jack p.s. listen to how Jan accents the melody, yet keeps the bass notes moving in this really interesting tune...
Bill Faier played many of his tunes in this manner. I knew Billy way back when He lived near Woodstock NY. He was a really interesting Man to know and play with...But! Tack så mycket Jan for putting this Monster into Tabledit... pps. Good Grief! I just realized that Billy not only plays an incredible banjo song but he also sings on the entire Green Corn recording....
Edited by - Jack Baker on 04/29/2025 09:10:01
Gonna have to wait until my next reincarnation to attempt this tab cuz it sure ain't gonna happen in THIS lifetime! Yeesh!!!
It is one thing to tab out a tune, and another thing to play it according to the tab.....
In this thread there are some discussion and analyses of the tune: https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/398442
Yes,
I am listening to the video right now. Incredible playing by Billy....J Would it be accurate to say that Billy got some of his ideas from Pete Seeger?
Edited by - Jack Baker on 04/28/2025 08:32:56
Dean,
Ha! I'm with you. This is Black Magic by Billy and Jan
Originally posted by Stu D Baker-HawkGonna have to wait until my next reincarnation to attempt this tab cuz it sure ain't gonna happen in THIS lifetime! Yeesh!!!
Edited by - Jack Baker on 04/28/2025 08:37:30
My "cool" Aunt Helen gave me Billy's "Art of the 5 String Banjo" album when I was in high school in 1960. I love this tune (Green Corn) but have never mastered it. Billy is one of my all time banjo heroes, and I finally got to meet him in 2011. He was in Saugerties NY and I drove over from Maine to spend the afternoon with him, just talkin' and pickin'. He passed a couple of years later. I took this photo of him playing my homemade longneck, that I had made a couple of years before, as a tribute to Pete Seeger's "lignum vitae."
Hi John,
You were lucky to be able to get near Billy for the last 20 years. He's was a fussy Devil everyone that met Billy loved him. I knew and played with Billy way back in the very early 70s as I remember...Jack p.s. we're almost the same young years in age. You are a couple of years older is all....
Edited by - Jack Baker on 04/28/2025 13:58:40
quote:
Originally posted by Jack BakerHi John,
You were lucky to be able to get near Billy for the last 20 years. He's was a fussy Devil everyone that met Billy loved him. I knew and played with Billy way back in the very early 70s as I remember...Jack p.s. we're almost the same young years in age. You are a couple of years older is all....
Hi Jack...yes, I was lucky, because for half a century I had been listening to his music before I made contact with him. I recall in about 1973, walking into the Denver Folklore Center and this wonderful banjo music was playing over their intercom, a style that immediately captured my attention. I had owned "Art of the 5 String Banjo" for years but when I asked the guy behind the counter (Dave Ferreta) who the banjo player was he said it was Billy's new album "Banjo" (I have the vinyl playing as I type). It must have been been around the early 2000's when I had a resurgence of interest in longneck banjo that I bought a new Deering/Vega then eventually sold it and made my own, the one in the photo, which is still my "go to", that I reached out to Billy. I guess I struck a chord with him and we would chat on the phone every few months and when he said he was making a trek to Saugerties at age 85 or whatever I knew I had to get over there, which I did. I have a number of banjo heroes (Pete, Dave Guard, Bob Gibson, Tommy Makem, Barney McKenna, Eric W, Alex Hassliev, and so on, but Billy is the only one I ever met in person. When we got together I took out my banjo and put on some fingerpicks, and his reaction was "oh...you use use picks?" Then he proceeded to play "pickless" with those long, extremely nimble 85 year old fingers so I put away the picks for good. His biggest (and only) compliment came when I played "The Darby Ram" and his comment was "that's exactly how I play it." Enough rambling that's most likely boring anyone else that's gotten this far and I apologize for going "off topic" but thank you for this thread. Billy is a very under-appreciated and underrated artist who had given me years of pleasure. Cheers...John
Edited by - mainejohn on 04/28/2025 16:50:58
Yes,
I agree John, Billy never cared much about publicity just excellence in his work...High integrity always by Billy...Jack
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