Banjo Hangout Top 100 Clawhammer and Old-Time Songs

Banjo plays Goin down to Cairo

Porch playing. One take. A few things to still work on, but I'm happy with the way it's coming along.

From Pete Seeger. More of a fragment than a song. Child Ballad 74. Jean Ritchie sings a more complete version of the story.

Sawmill tuning, down from G to F. Two-finger index-lead. Still learning this style.

AKA Red Rocking Chair, AKA Red Apple Juice. Sawmill tuning (gDGCD), played in D. Banjo is down two frets. Learned this from Dock Boggs. Also done by Roscoe Holcomb and one version from Charlie Monroe, which features a guitar and mandolin playing the melody in unison.

This style of clawhammer I really only use on stage. Very little melody is played except in the break. I got this song from my dad, who got it from my grandma, who probably got it from the Osborne Brothers.

It's interesting that William Sydney Mount, the famous painter of The Banjo Player, had in his notes and diary this version of Oh Susannah in 1848, the same year that Stephen Foster published the song, too. I'm enjoying studying the great painter who was also a dedicated fiddler.

Played clawhammer, fDGCD, tuned down to where it comes out in the key of E.

Played clawhammer, fDGCD, tuned down to where it comes out in the key of E.