Banjo Hangout Newest 100 Clawhammer and Old-Time Songs

When I ordered a custom banjo from Carolina Banjo I asked Ryan Navey, an artistic luthier, to carve the dove on my necklace. It was so exciting that I wrote this tune, no less in a unique tuning gGGAD.

Tunaday #370 - In D variant tuning (aDACD).

On a Bart Reiter

I don't expect to become the next big vocalist, but I was just practising singing while playing.

I decided to make my version a bit more local by talking a bit about a now defunct railroad line in Northern New Brunswick, Canada. I also enjoy the supernatural...

I've been attempting to learn Mabel Kelly for a while and decided to enhance it with cello banjo accompaniment here. The chords give it a flavor that is just suggested in a clawhammer solo. The Garage Band recording quality isn't as good as I'd hoped, though I have a good Yeti microphone.

Mabel Kelly is one of O'Carolan's "planxties" written in honor of a patron where he would stay as he traveled, earning his living in Ireland as a blind harpist in the late 1600's and early 1700's. Miss Kelly was most likely the daughter and heiress of a castle, but died five years before her father. The best source for learning about O'Carolan's life is a biography by Donal O'Sullivan.

My Gold Tone cello banjo is equivalent to double C tuning but down four steps to double G.

Played on my Sagmoen Dobson 24 3/4" scale banjo with Nylgut strings and Renaissance head

Tunaday #371 - In D variant tuning (aDACD).

Played on a Mike Dawson fretless banjo with nylon strings.