Bill Keith plays "potatoes" to set the time for Cherokee Shuffle. From about 0:08 to 0:12

I suppose taters serve the same purpose as a kickoff: a musical intro of sorts. But as Ira said, taters is not necessarily or literally the same thing as a kickoff to a vocal song. I think vocal song kickoffs or intros are usually more musically specific. But this is not a rule. And if you want to intro a vocal song with potatoes, that's your call.

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Originally posted by Ira Gitlin

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Originally posted by The Eclectic Banjo

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Originally posted by Ira Gitlin

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Originally posted by mmuussiiccaall

Fiddlers usually call this “potatoes “

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In my experience, "potatoes" is something quite different: a rhythmic pattern played to establish the tempo and key of a fiddle tune. It's almost never done for vocal songs, and only occurs at the very beginning of the tune, not after breaks in the middle of the tune.

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Is a kickoff a different thing then than these "potatoes"? Also can you use potatoes in a contextual sentence? 

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In my experience (several decades'worth), a "kickoff" is an instrumental solo that starts of a song. Most often its a verse played instrumentally, though occasionally it'll be some other part of the song . "Potatoes" are a separate add-on--NOT a part of the tune per se. Here it is in a sentence: "Let's start off 'Bill Cheatham' with eight potatoes."

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So eight potatoes would be 8 measures of a non-verse "kickoff"? 

8 beats, not 8 measures. 
 

One potato, two potato, three potato, four,

five potato, six potato, seven potato more. 

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Originally posted by Alex Z

8 beats, not 8 measures. 
 

One potato, two potato, three potato, four,

five potato, six potato, seven potato more. 

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Yeah.

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Originally posted by Old Hickory

And if you want to intro a vocal song with potatoes, that's your call.

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I've heard that done, and to me it always seems wrong, like when a foreigner tries to use English slang but doesn't quite get it right.

YMMV.

A follow up question if I may continue my post... whatever measure the banjo player ends his multi extra measure break on, would the "pickup measure" vocals start at the last measure of that break? E.G. "There's a..." portion of the first verse "There's a well beaten path..." would begin during the soloists final bar?

This question will help me come in on time, as that might be part of my problem on being able to successfully lead this song that I love so much.

On your posted TAB in your initial post the words “There’s a” would fall on the last 2 beats of the last measure,, the open 2nd string followed by the pinch.

Right, assuming a measure has 4 beats.

    . . . Moun-tain   |   Home    2    3     Pick - up   |  note   note   note    and-a   |  note  note note and-a 

The music on the original post is in 2/2, so each measure would have 2 beats -- two "boom-chicks".  So the pick-up notes would start on the 2nd beat of the second G measure at the end of the chorus, labeled measure 17. 

The soloist's final measure would be measure 16.

I never even noticed the 2/2 time signature,, I’m so used to 4/4 , esp. the way the TAB is written.

This happens on plenty of tunes. For me, this often happens with Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere" where sometimes there is an extra measure between verse-chorus and again chorus-verse. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. The best advice found above IMHO is Follow The Singer.

Edit to add a MSG to Dan -- I received your private IM, but apparently you are not receiving mine or my reply to yours. Check your email spam folder.

When the singer ends the chorus and so stops singing to make room for a instrumental break, have to understand the normal timing to get into the break.

Counting the beats can help, until the rhythm is internalized.

 '' , , , Blue Ridge mountain | home  "

"Home" is on the first beat of the measure.   "Blue" and "mount" are on the last two beats of the previous measure.

The break will start on the first beat of a measure also, with the pick-up notes on the last beat of the previous measure.

So can count either:

    "  home"    2   |   1    pick-up  |  

or

    " home"   2   3   pick-up  |   

Same pace,  same beat pace, just a matter of whether 2 beats or 4 beats are put into a measure.  And by "beat,"  that means the pulse of the music no matter what time signature is used.   "Boom-chick"  is one pulse beat.  4-note banjo roll is one pulse beat.  

Don't want:

    "home" pick-up   |   1

   although experienced players playing by ear (not by tab or music notation) will hear this and be able to follow along.

As Kahlil Gibran said about marriage, which applies to large jam sessions too:  "Let there be space in your togetherness."  

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Originally posted by The Eclectic Banjo

A follow up question if I may continue my post... whatever measure the banjo player ends his multi extra measure break on, would the "pickup measure" vocals start at the last measure of that break? E.G. "There's a..." portion of the first verse "There's a well beaten path..." would begin during the soloists final bar?

This question will help me come in on time, as that might be part of my problem on being able to successfully lead this song that I love so much.

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In the 70s I was attending a drum workshop with a world famous drummer and one thing he said suck with me since then. "All you have to do is know where the one is the rest is just whatever you wanna do." I would advise you to put down the banjo and work on your rhythm by counting 12 etc. or 1234 etc. until you're locked in like a metronome. This will answer your questions for every song you ever do instead of just one in question .

I think adding a measure or two at the end of a normal break that "plays the words", happens quite frequently in bluegrass. I always got the feeling that JD did it more often than most, often with a string of those hammer-pulls that were one of his trademarks. The break just goes on a bit longer than you'd expect. Someone once told me that the original purpose of the extra measure or two was to give a bit of additional time for the band to re-arrange themselves around a single mike, ready for the next instrumental break or vocal. Don't know if this is true or not, but I that's what I was told.   With practice, you can hear it coming.   A common indication that there's going to be an extra measure of doodling, is that the break doesn't resolve to the root note or melody note when you feel like it should.  The resolution of the break - the hitting of that final melody note - gets delayed.   The musical effect is to add a little bit of suspense at the end of the break.  Not hitting that final note when it's expected sends out the message "wait a moment.... I'm not done yet!".