Had a different song I was going to post this week, but jammed my index and middle finger of my right hand changing an alternator on the old F250 when a ratchet slipped this past Tuesday, so not playing a lot of banjo with a swollen hand and a couple busted knuckles. Decided to post a tune I recorded a while ago, but which has never been a TOTW.
The tune comes from Art Rosenbaum via J.T. Adams and the Indianapolis blues scene going way, way back. I first heard the tune on Art's outstanding Kicking Mule Clawhammer banjo LP "The Art Of The Mountain Banjo" that I've had for well over 50 years. Ed Denson & 's Kicking Mule Records was a great label that featured artists playing tunes that you could mail order tabs for and then learn the tunes. I got the book, but ended up learning most of the tunes by ear; still a couple I need to work out one of these days. The tabs have been reprinted by Mel Bay, but I don't think the LP has ever been re-issued.
My dad George Hocutt distributed Kicking Mule records in the 70"s, among a 50+ year career in the music industry that included working with legends like Otis Redding, Tony Joe White, CCR, John Fahey and James Brown to name a tiny few, so I was able to wear a couple copies of the LP out without going broke in the process. As a further aside, Art was a HUGE influence on my early banjo playing. His field recordings (he released 2 box sets of a portion of them, winning a grammy for Vol 1) and work while living in Indianapolis as a young man were instrumental in rediscovering "lost" blues artist's like Scrapper Blackwell, Pete Franklin, Brooks Berry, Shirley Griffith and of course J.T. Adams. Art's first, and subsequent field recordings, preserved the repertoire's of these, and many more influential early recording and hitherto unknown folk artists through a lifetime of superb musicology. I was extremely fortunate enough to have met and jammed with Art on several occasions over the last 5 decades, and even was able to record several tracks with him in early 2022 with business partner David Bragger for our Tiki Parlour Recordings label. Art unfortunately passed away shortly thereafter. Incidentally, Scrapper Blackwell, playing guitar with pianist/vocalist Leroy Carr, were 2 of the earliest stars of the blues, their 1928 Vocalion 78 "How Long, How Long Blues" was a huge hit and later became a blues standard. But I digress...
J.T. Adams was a local Indianapolis bluesman, who according to Art, had a large catalog of jigs and medicine show banjo pieces he played that pre-staged the "modern" blues of the 1920's, "Sweet Nora Lee" being one of them, J.T. learning it from his father when he was little. Art had played the tune on his LP as an up-picking piece, but I've always rapped the tune.
J.T. had grown up in Morganfield KY, born there in 1911, but moved to Indianapolis in the early 40's where he quickly fell into the local blues scene, playing frequently with Scrapper Blackwell and mostly with Shirley Grifftih who had been mentored by blues legend Tommy Johnson. Adams and Griffith's version of "Big Road Blues" is a masterpiece in it's own right. Adam's and Griffith recorded a couple of LP's for the Prestige/Bluesville label, but Adams faded from the public eye and died in relative obscurity of heart disease in Indianapolis in 1982.
Okay, I REALLY went down the rabbit hole; back to "(Sweet) Nora Lee." It's a black banjo tune i play in standard "gDGBD" that predates "modern" blues. A lot of people play this tune slow, like Mike Iverson and most of the other versions on YouTube, but I always heard this as a "frolic" tune rather than a slow love song, something that track gangs or miners might have danced to on a moonshine filled night up the holler, so I kick up the tempo a little and let 'er rip. Hope you like it and give it a go no matter how you play it. There are lyrics, I think Art sings 2 verses on the Kicking Mule album, the only ones I remember are...
Five miles away from town, rooster calls for day
Pretty little gal sittin' in my lap, got me all carried away.
Sweet Nora Lee my love, sweet Nora Lee
Sweet Nora Lee my love, sitting in the apple tree.
Again, hope you like this little tune...
Edited by - RG on 09/10/2026 22:08:08
RG, Great write up. I thoroughly enjoyed the history lesson.
I got to spend some time with Art on a couple of occasions. He was a great story teller and, while playing sessions with him were fun, I found his reminisces about collecting the tunes and the characters he met during his trips more entertaining.
quote:
Originally posted by MtngoatRG, Great write up. I thoroughly enjoyed the history lesson.
I got to spend some time with Art on a couple of occasions. He was a great story teller and, while playing sessions with him were fun, I found his reminisces about collecting the tunes and the characters he met during his trips more entertaining.
Art could spin a tale for sure, completely agree with you. His stories about Mabel Cawthorn were cinema worthy alone-haha!
Edited by - RG on 09/12/2026 10:57:50
Thanks for choosing a tune to remind us of Art Rosenbaum, whose musicality and writing contributions are appreciated in several past Tune of the Weeks, not to mention he was a professor emeritus of art and taught painting. I like both your rollicking version and Mike Iverson's sweet one. Both of you play nice slides. I ended up getting a Kindle version of The Art of the Mountain Banjo and arranging his up-picking tab for clawhammer, which was fairly easily adapted. Interestingly, I discovered that the only copy on amazon of Old-Time Mountain Banjo is selling for $268.87 (on Kindle for only $9.99). Fortunately, I already have that book!
(Note: I added a tab with notation, but don't know how much it helps when transcribed from clawhammer tab.)
Edited by - JanetB on 09/12/2026 12:20:18
Art was, along with Mike Seeger, a master of many banjo styles and tunings, and was a fine writer and great visual artist as well.
As did many others, I learned a lot from Art's books and recordings; and I purchased a Wildwood based on his endorsement.
I got to hear him perform once, when he gave a back-room concert to promote his field-recording box set at the library in the small town of Norwell, Massachusetts,
a well-known hot bed of old-time banjo music.(?)
quote:
Originally posted by JanetBThanks for choosing a tune to remind us of Art Rosenbaum, whose musicality and writing contributions are appreciated in several past Tune of the Weeks, not to mention he was a professor emeritus of art and taught painting. I like both your rollicking version and Mike Iverson's sweet one. Both of you play nice slides. I ended up getting a Kindle version of The Art of the Mountain Banjo and arranging his up-picking tab for clawhammer, which was fairly easily adapted. Interestingly, I discovered that the only copy on amazon of Old-Time Mountain Banjo is selling for $268.87 (on Kindle for only $9.99). Fortunately, I already have that book!
(Note: I added a tab with notation, but don't know how much it helps when transcribed from clawhammer tab.)
Thanks for the kind words. That's a real nice version you play Janet!!!!
Good stuff RG. Thanks for contributing it.
I have a couple Art Rosenbaum LP's boxed up somewhere.
Takes me back!
RG- you are and have been one of my heroes!
Thanks to yourself and David for all you guys do through the Tiki Parlor as well.
RD
Edited by - R.D. Lunceford on 09/12/2026 17:59:45
quote:
Originally posted by R.D. Lunceford
Good stuff RG. Thanks for contributing it.
I have a couple Art Rosenbaum LP's boxed up somewhere.
Takes me back!
RG- you are and have been one of my heroes!
Thanks to yourself and David for all you guys do through the Tiki Parlor as well.
RD
Thanks R.D.. sure appreciate the kind words. I think all of us who love and play this music are just continuing a centuries old tradition and glad I can contribute in any small way to it's preservation.
I would add, and I wrote this on the forum a long time ago, even though I learned to play some 50+ years ago, there was a period of about 20 years where I didn't play at all. Both of your CD's, Cotton Blossom and Drop Thumb, encouraged me to pick up the banjo again, so I owe a huge debt of gratitude to you brother for providing the spark that reignited the fire. Without me hearing your amazong playing two decades ago, we wouldn't be having this digital conversation now haha! So thahk you and SF my friend!
Hope your hand is healing, RG. I found the Kicking Mule tab in the book I just bought by Art Rosenbaum. Then I listened to the namesake tune of your father's place of work, a which Art also recorded. Here is a different sample, perhaps the source recording: Raymond Fairchild. And here's the amazing John Apfelthaler. Now I really wonder how Art played it. Hopefully the purchase of the Kindle version of the book lets me get the on-line audio.
@RG
Thank you for YOUR kind words, RG. I am humbled that I was of some encouragement to you. That is by far the greatest pay-off I could receive for my efforts. YOU have also been a great encouragement to me as well.
We've both been at it a long time, and we know that over the long haul there are ups and downs.
I can relate to being in a spot where flagging interest gets you to the point where you are not playing much. I was at the point where I hadn't touched the banjo for some time. It was John Bowlin and the ensuing 1865 Bowlin Fretless project that got me going again. In a real sense, John saved my playing.
Thanks to you for what you've done for the music, the community, and yours truly.
SF Sir!
Echo Five Lima
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