Banjo Hangout Top 100 Old Time Songs

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

Based on Missouri fiddler Gene Goforth's version as played by John Hartford. Known as Sandy Boys elsewhere.

John Salyer of Kentucky is credited most with this song. Pete Sutherland's slow version on "Banjo Gathering" inspired me to learn it, listening both to his 3-finger picking and the original fiddle recording of Salyer in 1940. Thus I'm playing it slow first, then fast; picking, then clawhammer.

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 fiddler Ralph Roberts. Don Couchie is playing rhythm guitar, and I am following along with some three finger style old time banjo.

OT 3 finger (G modal) - based on Allen Hart's playing. Played on my Nechville Zeus.

OT 3 finger (G modal) - based on Allen Hart's playing. Played on my Nechville Zeus.

For the TOTW, the first time I've used Cumberland Gap tuning, and after listening to many, many, many versions offered here, this is a combination of what I heard.

For the TOTW, the first time I've used Cumberland Gap tuning, and after listening to many, many, many versions offered here, this is a combination of what I heard.

Another good tune from our jam with West Virginia fiddler Ralph Roberts, at his camp on Geezer Hill. Ralph plays this the real old time way, with the fifth below the tonic instead of the natural seventh in the B part, and so do I. I guess that's why we got along so well. I am playing three finger style banjo, and Don Couchie is playing rhythm guitar.

The first MP3 I ever did. In 2002, a student asked me to record this for him, and I shared it on BANJO-L.

The first MP3 I ever did. In 2002, a student asked me to record this for him, and I shared it on BANJO-L.

For the TOTW on a fretless gourd.

Amy & I playing Red Haired Boy in two-finger style.

The very best fiddle tunes are often the plain and simple ones that you just can't get out of your head. Weeks after the jam that Don Couchie and I had at Clifftop with fiddler Ralph Roberts, I find myself humming John's Tune, an old time melody that Ralph learned from his grandfather. Don and I both felt that the moment spent picking that tune with Ralph was for us the best two minutes of the whole festival. Don Couchie is backing up on guitar, I am picking three finger style on my semi-fretless Tubaphone in open G.

The very best fiddle tunes are often the plain and simple ones that you just can't get out of your head. Weeks after the jam that Don Couchie and I had at Clifftop with fiddler Ralph Roberts, I find myself humming John's Tune, an old time melody that Ralph learned from his grandfather. Don and I both felt that the moment spent picking that tune with Ralph was for us the best two minutes of the whole festival. Don Couchie is backing up on guitar, I am picking three finger style on my semi-fretless Tubaphone in open G.