Banjo Hangout Top 100 Old Time Songs

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

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 good a version as Jason White's on YouTube (which is outstanding as he compares it being played on five different banjos), but I have attempted to capture much of the essence of the tune as I hear it.

We had a fun jam with Dan Levenson this past weekend, here in Colorado. Sarah Armstrong's Tune got plenty of play time, and I got motivated to learn it rather than always faking it. Really fun to play this one on the banjo. My rendition is roughly based on playing along with the Red Mountain White Trash on the "Chickens Don't Roost Too High" album. Banjo tuned aDADE.

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.

A multitrack recording of my slow and simple version of this Lynn Morris tune, where I'm playing clawhammer banjo (Enoch 12" Tradesman with Rickard Dobson tone ring, Double D), fiddle (low G tuned up to A), guitar (Martin HD-28), and bass. This version is more Old Time. As is always the case, better headphones/earbuds/speakers will do a better job of picking up the bass.

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.

A medley of civil war tunes played in double C tuning on a new black walnut and curly maple 11" 5 string banjo

Played in the key of E with banjo tuned f#(low), A(low), E, A, E. New River Train usually is played in the key of D. Played on a 1903 Fairbanks Whyte Laydie #2.

Little Billy Wilson

Banjo tuned aDADE.

This archaic tune has more than one related version, but this week's old-time Tune of the Week for 12/1/17 focuses on West Virginian fiddler French Carpenter (1905 -1965). I now know why January 6 is also celebrated as Christmas, or "Old Christmas," as the English calendar was changed in 1752 and 12 days were left out, bringing December 25th to January 6th. Learn something new every day....

Another one of Tony Ellis' lovely 3/4 time original tunes. The cascading notes remind me of falling water. Though Tony plays 3-finger picking, I play it clawhammer style. The sound of Tony's music is that of old-time, though he was an excellent Bluegrass Boy banjo player for Bill Monroe in 1960 - 1962. His grandmother frailed a banjo and Tony says his re-tuning the banjo to double C reminded him of what he heard her play when he was young.

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 11/24/17, Ida Red is also known as Down the Road. This is Tommy Jarrell's version. When I learned Down the Road it was Earl Scrugg's version. It's neat to have these two icons linked through this song. I'm playing on a brand new Randy Shelton "The Ironsides Banjo Co." mountain banjo--quite fun!

Foggy Foggy Dew