Banjo Hangout Newest 100 Clawhammer and Old-Time Songs

Ray Shepherd

This is the one of the versions for the old-time Tune of the Week, differing from the famous Uncle Dave Macon song. My arrangement comes from Erich Schroeder (BHO's vrteach). I wish he was still active here and I really enjoyed learning a tune from his recording. The title, as we learn in the discussion thread, is probably not the real one. But if it were to be, I'm reminded of Old Sacramento where you walk on the historic old plank road as you visit the shops and museums and go on the old Delta King steamboat on the Sacramento River. At least, I nostalgically hope we can still do that....

Tunaday #153 - In D Variant Sawmill tuning - (fDADE)

Learned from the fiddling of WV Jimmy Triplett who learned from Burl Hammons. It's one of those crooked West Virginia tunes in modal tuning, symbolic to me of this special enclave of engaging old-time music. It was hard to tab because I didn't know which measures to make crooked. In the end, it's like a winding river -- it should have no measures or divisions. It just flows the way it flows...The cello banjo ended up tuned to a sawmill tuning with a raised 5th string to play along with Jimmy's recording (the whole album happily and cheaply available on Bandcamp).

Down in the Willow Garden / Kansas City Reel with Casy Meikle on fiddle, Daniel Bohlman on banjo, Jerry James on bass fiddle, and Stuart Mason on guitar. First track on the new album "All the Good Times" available at Bandcamp.com.

With genuine, sincere apologies to J.D. Crowe, perhaps my favorite Bluegrass banjo player, this is a clawhammer/frailing (!) version my favorite Bluegrass tune, "Blackjack," and in the key of G no less (!). Multitrack recording where I'm playing clawhammer banjo (Pisgah Woodchuck standard G tuning), guitar, bass (marimbula), and a few fiddle chops. All the instruments "kick in" after the first go round.

Multitrack recording: Fiddle (GDGD), Clawhammer Banjo (Pisgah Woodchuck, gDGBD), Martin HD-28 Guitar, Cloud NIne Marimbula (bass). Not certain which version of Grey Eagle this is, a version played by fiddler Rayna Gellert (though hers is much faster and in the key of A).

Hobart Smith, the amazing musician we old-time players much admire, learned from sources that placed some of his tunes pre-civil war. Wabash Blues is a tune whose age I don't know, but it's only known to have been recorded by him, which happened in 1963 when Fleming Brown befriended him. Stephen Wade released those recordings of Smith in 2005, "In Sacred Trust," and still enjoys playing this very tune to this day.