Banjo Hangout Newest 100 Clawhammer And Old-time Songs

From the fiddling of Alabama fiddler James Bryan in 1983, he learned from Mack Blalock, a Georgia fiddler, and the tune is older yet. I tuned to an open C tuning, something only done occasionally, so it changed the fingering from the better-known ways.

A tune I wrote and decided should be named after my wife, as a reward for putting up with my banjo playing!

Arranged from the O'Neill's Music of Ireland source. My son is a farrier and does blacksmithing ALL the time. Sometimes he's merry!

Lucy Farr (1911-2003) was Irish, but lived in England. She played the tune in the key of D, but here in jam sessions it's being played in the key of G. Lucy recorded an album at the age of 80!

Thanks to Brendan Doyle for uploading the source recording for this week's Tune of the Week, Grey-Haired Dancin' Gal. I gave the tune another try. This version has a more Cajun swing flavor than the one I learned from, and Brendan shared with us the composer's background, so I thought it was worth another try. It's played slowly here and wants to be speeded up, but, oh well....

Jumahl, fiddle; Maxine Gerber, banjo; Dan Warrick, guitar. Recorded by Brendan Doyle in Oakland, CA in November 2001.

Learned from the fiddling of Mark Tamsula, a fiddler I respect a lot. Grey Haired Dancing Girl, however, is not one Mark learned from the collections of Pennsylvania's Samuel Bayard. The original source of the tune is still a mystery, but a 1990's jam in Maryland was Mark's source.

The source recording is from a 1930 recording of Seven Foot Dilly and His Dill Pickles. I learned from a modern recording of the Old Yeller Dog Band because I liked how the fiddle filled in the held notes.

Here's a Henry Reed version of Red Fox, recorded in the enormous collection of this West Virginia fiddler by the great Alan Jabbour. I went to gCGCE tuning for ease of playing down the neck.

My friend Doug's version gDGbd

Passed to us from Henry Reed Banjo gDGde

This version of Portsmouth Airs is based on Buddy Thomas' fiddling. He'd visit Jimmy Wheeler, leaving Kentucky to go to the neighboring town of Portsmouth in Ohio.

A Tune of the Week written in the late 1800's, considered a ragtime or tin pan alley tune. It's a tough one to play, especially having just learned it today, but it was also an unusual tune to figure out.

What I worked out in gEADE tuning for playing clawhammer with piano at a contra dance. (it's for a dancing, so it's fairly long) From a couple of years ago, first dance from long break of Covid. Was a bit rough.

Playing around with gDGDE tuning. Also experimenting using BandLab app and some of built in fx and processing for mastering... to demo what it does (it is a bit much)

This was an experiment using iPhone and BandLab app for quick multitrack in kitchen.

Old Kentucky crooked fiddle tunes are intriguing and Hiram Stamper is an authentic learning resource in my book. Bruce Greene recorded this one and it was tricky to arrange. I got some help listening to George Jackson, the New Zealander old-time player that's a pleasure to hear.