Banjo Hangout Top 100 Clawhammer and Old-Time Songs

Me on a Reiter A Flat with goatskin head and Aquila Super Nylguts playing with my friend, Mitch, on the fiddle

CH take on a Trad jig. vega 2, G tuning.

TOTW (OT) for 01/13/2016. An Ozarkian fiddle tune. Key of G. Banjo tuned gDGBD.

I'm attempting to record and upload via my iPhone, as my computer is in the shop.

I first heard Red Prairie Dawn by Don Huber's enjoyable band who was playing at an outdoor event. Next I heard it on Adam Hurt's lovely new CD "Artifacts." I worked it out in an odd tuning -- aDGBE, tuned down four steps for cello banjo.

I'd like to know more about Garry Harrison who recorded the Dear Old Illinois anthology. He wrote a few tunes, like this one, and seems to have played fast and energetically.

Please let me know what you think about the recording quality. Thanks for listening G.

I posted tunes the last two holiday seasons so I thought I'd do another this year. Wishing all the best to my BHO friends for the season and the new year. In Double C.

Epic Kentucky bluegrass fiddler Kenny Baker played Make a Little Boat with his buddies after learning it from Howdy Forrester. I think of Mr. Baker as a swing-type of fiddler with Bill Monroe, but his family background was as an old-time fiddler. I can just see a little guy growing up in the country sailing his hand-made boat in a little creek....

This tune comes from the repertoire of Bluegrass boy Kenny Baker. He learned it from his father, Thaddeus, and said he only heard it played by his family. I used Garage Band to combine my Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie openback with my Gold Tone cello banjo.

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 12/9/16, Snow Deer was a popular song written in 1913 by the same composer of Moonlight Bay, and inspired by the success of Redwing in 1907. The Stanley Brothers did an instrumental of it in 1963 and Bob Wills' band performed it, amongst many others. I added a Native American bridge to it to go along with the lyric's theme of a cowboy and Indian maiden's romance. Played on a Gold Tone cello banjo and learned from Ken Torke's tab. See the current TOTW for more info. I'll be surprised if people have heard of this song before -- I hadn't.

Inspired by Wade Ward, four examples each two times through. Which do you like best? There is no right answer; it's all subjective.

My banjo is tuned up so pitches are g#EG#BE

The banjos are my Bacon Professional (11") and my Bruno (10 1/2"), which has no tone ring (top of the pot is thinned to the outer edge). Both banjos have skin heads though the Bacon's head is thinner then the Bruno's. The two configurations are slightly different, with about a 4 inch difference where the hand is striking the strings. In one configuration, my hand was at the edge of the pot and as I played my other fingers would strike the head with a bit of a drumming effect. The other configuration was with my hand just over the end of the neck, near the pot, so no drumming effect. Both banjos have a Tally Tone Enhancer (see picture on my home page; cork between dowel stick and head near the neck end).

1. Bacon with hand over the head

2. Bruno with hand over the neck

3. Bacon with hand over the neck

4. Bruno with hand over the head

Inspired from Art Rosenbaum and Pete Seeger. I'm studying Art Rosenbaum's material, especially 2-finger style from Pete Steele's playing. Though his tab was for that style, I found that it worked equally well for clawhammer and was easier. :( Oh well, please don't call me lazy. :)