Banjo Hangout Top 100 Clawhammer and Old-Time Songs

Tubaphone banjo tuned gDGDE, with guitar overdubbed

I like the way the modes change in this tune--from minor in the A part to mixolydian in the B part. It was also interesting to play the minor sound out of open G tuning--I had to avoid hitting the second string unless it was fretted.

Messing around with this English Ballad tonight.

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 8-8-14. I learned this from Adam Hurt who learned it from Jarred Nutter, who learned it from Bobby Taylor, who learned it from Clark Kessinger. Adam calls this the "folk process in action." It's the only 3-part Durang's Hornpipe I've heard and Adam plays it with lots more intricate variations.

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 8-8-14, the first version is from Bruce Molsky, the second from Kentucky fiddler Jake Phelps (1885 - 1977), and the third from Donald Zepp.

From the fiddling of Bruce Greene who learned it from Uncle George Nicholson (born in Laurel Co., KY in 1854). This tune reminds me of another I've heard before. For some reason the tune gives me a deep sense of deja vu when Bruce plays it. It's on his solo fiddle CD Five Miles of Ellum Wood.

Learned from Bruce Greene's CD of this title. I recently "discovered" his fiddling and the significance it had in our knowledge of Kentucky fiddlers, though he first heard this from a banjo player in western Kentucky named James Dickison. It's in the Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes, which I'm happy to also discover.

Two source fiddlers--Jake Phelps and James Bryan. This is a tune I learned listening to Bob Carlin's CD "Banging and Sawing," where its title is Hosses in the Canebrake. James Bryan has since become my favorite fiddler. It's listed as Wild Horses in the Canebrake in the Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes, but Bruce Greene, who recorded west Kentucky fiddler Jake Phelps (1875-1977), says it's called Horses in the Canebrake. Farmers liked to have their livestock "fenced-in" by the tall canes.