Banjo Hangout Top 100 Clawhammer and Old-Time Songs

Sail Away Ladies

This is the Luther Davis version of Sail Away Ladies, or at least my interpretation of it. Presented for Tune Of The Week for August 2nd, 2018. In any case a fine tune!

Trouble on My Mind (TOTW)

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 6/8/18, Trouble on My Mind was recorded by Kentucky fiddler John Salyer's sons at home. Salyer never recorded commercially, but was an excellent fiddler. This tune is crooked in the last measure when it repeats and is unusual in having six measures in the A part and eight in the B part.

Last Shot Got Him

In gCGce. I've been obsessed with this tune played on the banjo, since playing with my friend Barbara last summer. I have played the tune on the fiddle, for years, but not on the banjo. Influenced by the recording of the Mississippi Possum Hunters https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/last-shot-got-him

Elkins

A multitrack recording using a Tascam multitrack recorder, a very slow, lazy and very simplified version of Larry Unger's tune "Elkins." Enoch 12" Tradesman (stuffed with a small towel at neck joint) playing lead in Double D, Martin HD-28 guitar on rhythm, Cloud Nine Marimbula on bass (use headphones/earbuds/other good speakers to pick up the sound), H. Luger CV-300 fiddle also playing some lead. This is certainly not a note-for-note accurate banjo version of Larry Unger's excellent tune, nor as...

Mad as a Hornet

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 4/13/18, Snake wrote this tune during a recording session and it was was recorded and kept for posterity with this title that was reminiscent of his experience as a child of being knocked down by an angry hornet.

Susannah Gal (TOTW)

For the old-time Tune of the Week, March 23, 2018. Susannah Gal goes by other titles. This one comes from the duet CD of Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham, both from the Round Peak, NC region. Their B part is unique, but they play it together and so it sounds great. Fred adds slides which I attempted to include, too. They must have had lots of fun playing together!

Sandy River Belle with Ed Britt

Made this banjo duet recording with Ed Britt back in November, 2014. We still play it when we go busking in Harvard Square.

Humpback Mule

Banjo tuned aDADE.

Foggy Foggy Dew

Old Jake Gillie

A good ol' Oscar Wright tune that I first learned from Miles Krassen's Clawhammer Banjo book, but I have set here in the Half Shaved tuning (f#DADE).

Flatwoods

Clyde Davenport, Kentucky fiddler and banjo player from Kentucky, still must be alive today, in his 90's because I can't find anything otherwise. There's a youtube of him playing at his birthday concert at 91 years old six years ago. I think the tune he plays like this one are enchanting and engaging.

The Mountain Road

CH take on Irish Reel composed by Michael Gorman. AB AB. Wildwood. D tuning

Grub Springs

CH take of Grub Springs in A tuning. Long.

Chinquapin Hunting

My Long Journey Home (TOTW)

This old-time Tune of the Week for 8/11/17 reminds us in melody of some other traditional songs, such as Gotta Travel On and even Worried Man Blues. The Monroe Brothers recorded this as their first ever recording in 1936 and Bill said that it was commonly sung in Kentucky at the time.

My Long Journey Home

My Long Journey Home - G tuning

Jackson's Hornpipe

I posted another Tommy Jackson tune unknowingly the other day..."Snowflake Reel". JanetB was kind enough to give me some background on the tune and add a very nice clawhammer arrangement. This led to us trading messages about a collaberation of another Jackson tune. It was a bit different for us both. Not too bad for a first time collab...she plays the cello banjo and gracefully states the melody and I come in later like an overexcited 2nd time beginner ('cause it's what I am!) and barrel throug...

R.D. Lunceford's Wolves A-Howlin' (TOTW)

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 6/2/17, this is R.D. Lunceford's recording from his seminal CD Drop-Thumb, 21 Clawhammer Banjo Solos. He graciously gave permission to upload it here and his tab will be included in the discussion forum for TOTW.

Step Around Johnny

Across the Plains

Jake Phelps was a Kentucky fiddler who is known for the "unusual tunes" he played. This recording is multi-tracked with cello banjo accompaniment. I find Across the Plains enchanting and think of the Westward Ho pioneers beginning their journey, before the problems set in....

Green Willis (TOTW)

For the old-time Tune of the Week, Green Willis is named for a fiddler from Willis, Virginia. It's also called The Raw Recruit. When it's played in slow jig time, it's called Chapel Hill March. Go back far enough to Scotland and it was called Da New Rigged Ship. Lots to think about here on this cheerful tune that reminds me of a new soldier marching enthusiastically.

Cowboy Jig

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

Kick Up the Devil on a Holiday (CB) (TOTW)

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 11/26/16, this old minstrel tune comes from Thomas F. Briggs' Banjo Instructor of 1855. I'm playing on a Gold Tone cello banjo in order to play in the key of G, but tuned down five steps to put it in the key of D. It's Thanksgiving weekend and, though we didn't "kick up the devil," we had a very pleasant holiday. Hope you did, too.

Josie Girl

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 6/24/16, Josie Girl was learned by Tennessee fiddler Charlie Acuff (b. 1919) from his grandfather. A josie is said to be a lady's overcoat with a cape. Art Stamper called the tune Josie-O.

Heading Downstream

Another rearrangement of the handful of notes I know how to play. In Double C.

Shaking Down the Acorns

Edden Hammons

Opera Reel

From an excellent jam in Tucson. Dan Levenson on fiddle, Dave Firestine on mandolin, Jerry Weinert on bass, George Flink on banjo uke, Greg Smith and Jennifer Levenson on banjo, Pete Bowers and me on guitar.

Camp Chase (TOTW)

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 11/20/15, this version comes from West Virginia fiddler French Carpenter, grandson of Solomon Carpenter who played a tune he called Camp Chase when he was a prisoner-of-war at that location in Ohio during the Civil War. It's said that by playing the tune best Sol actually won his freedom. Check out the TOTW for more info.

Scolding Wife (CB)

As played by North Carolina fiddler Marion Reece (1874 - 1941). I can hear the scolding in the A part very clearly!

Ben's Cabin

Original tune on cigar box banjo and guitar.