Banjo Hangout Top 100 Old Time Songs

Tippin' Back the Corn

For a ToTW post. Dan Levenson on fiddle, Jerry Weinert on bass, me on guitar. No banjo.

Cora Dye

A G tune from the playing of fiddler Jim Reed. Played on my Menzies tackhead in standard tuning, but tuned down to C.

Towards Serenity

Been awhile since I've posted something. Composed this in CH but liked the way it sounded fingerpicked better. In Double C.

Wake Up Sal and Blow Out the Light

Twin Sisters

aDAde - derived from Melvin Wine's fiddling. Not exactly as in my Banjo Newsletter tab of 31 years ago (February, 1984).

Lonesome Polly Ann

Learned from the fiddling of well-known Missourian Lonnie Robertson (1908 - 1981). I'm just becoming familiar with some of his work and am impressed by his smooth, clear, fast playing.

Columbus Stockade Blues

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.

I Wish I Was a Single Girl, Again

Sad song. From Cousin Emmy, Roscoe Holcomb, and Frank Proffitt. G tuning, two-finger thumb lead. Rose Maddox recorded a lighthearted version.

Polly Put the Kettle On (TOTW)

The old-time Tune of the Week for 1/16/15 allowed me to look at many sources. I ended up learning from Kentucky fiddler Emmett Lundy, Virginia banjo player Wade Ward, and traditional children's nursery songs. Check out more information on the tune: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/297815

Sourwood Mountain

I've played this one for a few years now and it has evolved into this. Good ol tune, fune to play and I like it where it is.

Portent

Unleashing the latest wanderings of my mind and fingers on the unsuspecting banjo public. In Double C.

Old Blue Bonnet

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.

Meg Gray

"Meg Gray" from the fiddle playing of George Hawkins. Played by Bob Lanham on a Vega Tubaphone banjo.

Little Billy Wilson

aEAC#E with autoharp

Rock Andy

Rock the Cradle Joe

Played on a Nechville Phantom. Yup.. tonering, resonator...

Wild Bill Jones

a quick recording I made to demonstrate some of the techniques I use to create variations of a tune. A tab and lesson are available on my website, dropthumb.com played in open D tuning (f#DF#AD) on my Fielding Catamount banjo (12" rolled brass ring up on risers)

Pretty POLLY (Hobart Smith/fiddle - clawhammer)

Old English ballad... but here i'm playing behind Hobart's high-octane fiddle... lot's o' fun! Playin' a Romero in G modal tuning... and thanks for listening.

Bonaparte's March

This tune comes from fiddler Harvey "Pappy" Taylor (1894-1987), of Effingham, Illinois, collected by the late Gary Harrison. I made this practice tape in 2011, playing my 1964 Ode Model 42, in a G variant tuning (gDGAD), capoed on the 2nd fret.

kitchen girl

Tradesman fretless~

Sally Ann

Enoch tradesman fretless..played in the key of D.

Home Sweet Home from Clifftop 2012

For a region that has seen generations of young people move away to find work in far away auto plants and steel mills, and in uniform, the song Home Sweet Home has a deep meaning lost on most of us today. The song has been around since before the Civil War, and you will find it in the repertoire of most musicians whose roots are in Appalachia. It is most often played as an instrumental; the song is so familiar, the singing of it is unnecessary. This is from our Clifftop jam with West Virginia fi...

Shove That Pig's Foot a Little Further Into the Fire from Clifftop 2012

This tune comes originally from North Carolina fiddler Martin Marcus (1881-1974), who recorded it for the Library of Congress in the early 40s. The rather obtuse title makes sense once you know that a pig's foot is a blacksmithing tool. Another recording from one of our campsite jams on Geezer Hill. Don Couchie is doing the fiddling, I am three finger picking in open G tuning on my semi-fretless Tubaphone.

Sitting on Top of the World with Wry Whiskey

This recording was made in my living room in 1998; we called our trio Wry Whiskey. I'm picking banjo and singing, such as it is. The guitar player was Brian Clancey, who now plays in a duet with fiddler Robin Warren as Spirit Fiddle. Brian is the best back-up guitar player I ever heard, bar none. Here he is fingerpicking; we experimented a lot with the mixing together of finger style banjo and guitar. Tom Speth was the bass player; his knees have given out, and so he doesn't play much music anym...

Beaumont Rag

The recording was made around 1975, at a concert at the First Unitarian Church in Harvard Square. We called ourselves the Beaumont String Band. The mandolin player was Rose Zak, a young lady from Buffalo who had learned mandolin, guitar, and classic banjo from an old Vaudeville circuit string man. The guitar player was Merrill "Mickey" Levine, who now lives out on the West Coast and plays keyboard. The lap steel player was the late Robert Gear, who could play like Sol Hoopi, and was also a great...

Alonzo Janes

This fantastic little tune comes from Illinois fiddler Mel Durham, and his family got the tune from an ex-slave named Alonzo Janes. The original name of the tune eluded Mel, so it's now named after the man who taught it to him. This is just a quick short recording to demonstrate the sound of my fretless slothead banjo made by Dan Pennington.

Grub Springs

Learned from a Mike Compton mandolin lesson. Its minor key makes it sound different from other versions.

Sugar in the Gourd from Clifftop 2009

This is my contribution to the Old Time Tune of the Week for October 28, 2011. This is a recording I made at Clifftop with my pal Don Couchie. Don is on fiddle, leaning on those double stops just the way I like it; I am three-finger picking on my short scale, semi-fretless Paramount, in open A tuning.

Boys, Them Buzzards Are Flyin' from Clifftop 2011

I had a nice jam session early on at Clifftop this year with my good friend Tim Rowell (clawhammertim here on the Hangout and on YouTube). Tim has established and now runs the Traditional Music Program at the Real School of Music in Burlington, Massachusetts. We see each other a lot at jams around the Boston area, but had to travel 800 miles to West Virginia to find some quiet time to do play some nice double banjo togrther, clawhammer and three-finger style. This is our take on Gary Harrison's ...

Spotted Pony

A happy song, fun to play, with images of little Appaloosas kicking up their heels. Mine was named Cookie. When I sold her, I was able to buy my Bart Reiter Whyte Laydie, so my banjo is named Cookie, too. Honestly.