Banjo Hangout Top 100 Clawhammer and Old-Time Songs

The old-time Tune of the Week for 9/9/16 is Green Corn, also heard commonly as Hot Corn, Cold Corn. Lena Hughes, an elderly and beloved 2-finger style picker from Missouri recorded this and I've taken the opportunity to try something for the first time with the 2-finger style. She uses thumb-lead and I also tried index-lead the third time through while "playing the melody."

This is my first effort using Garage Band which comes with the Mac computer. I played an openback banjo in modal tuning and a cello banjo in open C tuning. Meadows of Dan is a beautiful little town in the mountains of Virginia where Alice Gerrard did lots and lots of field work collecting music.

I don't really know what I'm doing with Garage Band, but it seems to have turned out okay today. Send any feedback my way so I can continue learning.

This is my first effort using Garage Band which comes with the Mac computer. I played an openback banjo in modal tuning and a cello banjo in open C tuning. Meadows of Dan is a beautiful little town in the mountains of Virginia where Alice Gerrard did lots and lots of field work collecting music.

I don't really know what I'm doing with Garage Band, but it seems to have turned out okay today. Send any feedback my way so I can continue learning.

This is my first effort using Garage Band which comes with the Mac computer. I played an openback banjo in modal tuning and a cello banjo in open C tuning. Meadows of Dan is a beautiful little town in the mountains of Virginia where Alice Gerrard did lots and lots of field work collecting music.

I don't really know what I'm doing with Garage Band, but it seems to have turned out okay today. Send any feedback my way so I can continue learning.

This is my first effort using Garage Band which comes with the Mac computer. I played an openback banjo in modal tuning and a cello banjo in open C tuning. Meadows of Dan is a beautiful little town in the mountains of Virginia where Alice Gerrard did lots and lots of field work collecting music.

I don't really know what I'm doing with Garage Band, but it seems to have turned out okay today. Send any feedback my way so I can continue learning.

This old tune was in the well-known fiddle tune book Knauff's Virginia Reels, published in 1839. I've heard good "source recordings" from Burl Hammons and Henry Reed. My arrangement is from listening to Alan Jabbour with Tommy Thompson on banjo on The Hollow Rock String Band CD, recently re-released as a 2-CD set called The Hollow Rock Legacy. The Route is one of those tunes that has a familiar feeling, even the first time you hear it.

From a late night Clifftop 2016 session with Rhys Jones and Tashina Clarridge, fiddles; Brendan Doyle, banjo; Erica Weiss, guitar; Simon Chrisman, bass. Recorded by Keith Stubbs.

Here's an arrangement for the old-time Tune of the Week, 8-12-16, based on John Herrmann, Dirk Powell and Tom Sauber. I like learning the repertoire from Snake Chapman and remember BHO member Jim Reed of Pike County, KY reminiscing about him. Snake and Paul David Smith visited the Reed household often when Jim was very young and encouraged him in his music until Snake passed away. This is a tune that Snake probably heard and learned without knowing its actual name. See the TOTW and learn a lot more!

When I heard BHO members bd and David Colgan play the minstrel version of Money Musk it sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. It's actually an old Scottish dance tune, notated in a publication dated around 1800. Then I consulted James Buckley's minstrel notation of 1868. Next I discovered it's also a contemporary fiddle tune. With many versions to hear, I chose to play it minstrel-style, then old-time. There's lots more to know about this tune!

This tune comes from the repertoire of famed Kentucky fiddler Ed Haley (1883-1951). Ed Britt and I recorded this back in November, 2014. Ed is picking clawhammer style on his OME Columbine, in open G tuning, capoed on the second fret. I am three finger picking my semi-fretless short scale Paramount, in an A variant tuning (aEABE).