Banjo Hangout Top 100 Old Time Songs

A banjo tune dedicated to my longtime friend, Dale Whiteside.

Learned from Alabama fiddler James Bryan. Anything he plays is golden melody in my ears.

Learned from Yigal Zan's video with David Margolin's fiddling, Yigal attributes this version to Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. I've wanted to learn this ever since hearing Bill Monroe's instrumental. The title makes me think of Irish immigrants working on the railroad, but I don't know if that's the case.

I was listening to an old TOTW called Arkansas Hoosier, and was reminded of Durang's Hornpipe. I don't think I had ever played it solo before so I listened to a few versions on BHO (there are many). Here is a version I just recorded to help me remember the tune.

This pretty tune comes from the scratchy recordings of the blind fiddler originally from West Virginia. Ed Haley's son, Ralph, recorded him in the 1940's, but Ed resisted commercial recordings. There are three volumes available on amazon.com of these home recordings. I first heard of Ed Haley through John Hartford when the soundmen were blasting a CD at a bluegrass festival intermission--my reaction was: "Who is that? That's the music I've been looking for!"

John Hardy

Cold Frosty Morn

For the TOTW 5/16/14, played on a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie openback. I first heard clawhammer banjo by Mac Benford playing this Ed Haley fiddle piece, then listened to both recordings to learn it.

Saint Anne's Reel from "Old Time Fiddle Tunes for 5 String Banjo" by Nick Hornbuckle

One of my favorites by Lynn Morris. I'm playing clawhammer banjo and guitar in this clip.

One of my favorites by Lynn Morris. I'm playing clawhammer banjo and guitar in this clip.

For the TOTW, 5-9-14, from Christian Wig and Mark Ward's fiddling. Played in modal tuning on a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie openback.

Samuel Bayard collected this tune from fiddler and fifer Isaac Newton Morris. It's tune #45 in his book Dance to the Fiddle and March to the Fife. I learned it from the excellent recording by Mark Tamsula and Richard Withers in their CD Up in the Batten House. It's one of these tunes where the melody is embedded within some wandering passages. I'm playing in SRB tuning with tab in the BHO archive.

This is derived from the repertoire of Lily May Ledford who learned it from her father in Powell County, Kentucky.

Just fooling around with the voice memo recorder on my IPhone to see if I could get from there to here. Played on WL-250 in double C as I recall, outside on the patio swing.