Banjo Hangout Top 100 Old Time Songs

Played in the key of A using the &#34John Brown&#39s Dream&#34 or Low Bass tuning--a A(low) A C# E. Banjo is a Fairbanks Whyte Laydie #2.

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 12/14/18, this sentimental song plays out in clawhammer rather than the Scruggs picking style I originally learned it in.

For the old-time Tune of the Week, Sweet Nell is the title name of a CD by a Washington-based group who wrote the tunes. The tune is named for Nell, the daughter of Paul Newman, partners in a charity-based organic snack company. It&#39s a sweet tune.

Frosty Morn is the old-time Tune of the Week, 8/24/18. Related to Cold Frosty Morning in some of its melody and chordal movement, here&#39s a medley of the two. The first was learned from the guitar flat-picking of Doc Watson, who I idolize. The second was learned from Miles Krassen&#39s Clawhammer Banjo book. He used Henry Reed&#39s version which he had published previously in his Appalachia Fidd...

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!

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 6/8/18, Trouble on My Mind was recorded by Kentucky fiddler John Salyer&#39s 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.

In gCGce. I&#39ve 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

A multitrack recording using a Tascam multitrack recorder, a very slow, lazy and very simplified version of Larry Unger&#39s tune &#34Elkins.&#34 Enoch 12&#34 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...

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.

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!

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

Banjo tuned aDADE.

A good ol&#39 Oscar Wright tune that I first learned from Miles Krassen&#39s Clawhammer Banjo book, but I have set here in the Half Shaved tuning (f#DADE).

Clyde Davenport, Kentucky fiddler and banjo player from Kentucky, still must be alive today, in his 90&#39s because I can&#39t find anything otherwise. There&#39s 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.

CH take of Grub Springs in A tuning. Long.

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 - G tuning

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 6/2/17, this is R.D. Lunceford&#39s 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.

Jake Phelps was a Kentucky fiddler who is known for the &#34unusual tunes&#34 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....

For the old-time Tune of the Week, Green Willis is named for a fiddler from Willis, Virginia. It&#39s also called The Raw Recruit. When it&#39s played in slow jig time, it&#39s 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.

Ric Hollander - My arrangement of Kitchen Girl. Played on the Romero with Nylgut strings. Arrangement: Copyright 2012 Ric Hollander - All Rights Reserved

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 11/26/16, this old minstrel tune comes from Thomas F. Briggs&#39 Banjo Instructor of 1855. I&#39m 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&#39s Thanksgiving weekend and, though we didn&#39t &#34kick up the devil,&#34 we had a very pleasant holiday. Hope you did, too.