Banjo Hangout Top 100 Old Time Songs

This is the last of three recordings I made with my friend Tim Rowell at Clifftop 2011. The tune comes from Art Stamper, who learned it from his father. His father reportedly learned it from a Civil War veteran, who said that it was composed at the end of the war to commemorate one of the last engagements, in Pike County, Kentucky. So to borrow on of my mother's favorite expressions, this tune is "old, old, old. Tim is playing clawhammer style, I am picking behind him in three-finger style.

This is the last of three recordings I made with my friend Tim Rowell at Clifftop 2011. The tune comes from Art Stamper, who learned it from his father. His father reportedly learned it from a Civil War veteran, who said that it was composed at the end of the war to commemorate one of the last engagements, in Pike County, Kentucky. So to borrow on of my mother's favorite expressions, this tune is "old, old, old. Tim is playing clawhammer style, I am picking behind him in three-finger style.

Darlin' Cora 2-finger style. Based on Pete Seeger's tab, which is based on the playing of B.F. Shelton. I start with Seeger's version, and then add some chokes and tuning with Keith tuners. Banjo: 1994 Gibson Mastertone RB-250. Tuning: f# D F# A D.

Darlin' Cora 2-finger style. Based on Pete Seeger's tab, which is based on the playing of B.F. Shelton. I start with Seeger's version, and then add some chokes and tuning with Keith tuners. Banjo: 1994 Gibson Mastertone RB-250. Tuning: f# D F# A D.

This is another recording made with Don Couchie on Sunday morning at Clifftop 2011, after we had packed our gear to leave. This is from the repertoire of the legendary West Virginia fiddler Edden Hammons. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the title of the tune refers to a baby being born. That would explain the lyric "Fine times at our house, Katie’s got a little one, bless its little soul, it’s another little pretty one." That's just how I always felt about it, I remember those moments like it was yesterday. Key of A, sort of mixolydian; Don is playing fiddle, I am playing three finger style banjo on my short-scale, semi-fretless Paramount.

This tune comes from fiddler Art Stamper. It feels like A Dorian, but it does not use the third degree of the scale, so it is hard to say for sure. My friend Tim Rowell recorded this tune with me at Clifftop 2011 one afternoon, at his campsite. He is playing clawhammer, while I am picking three-finger style. We both first heard this on Adam Hurt's inspiring Earthtones CD (engineered by BHO's own Paul Roberts), but ended up going back to Stamper to learn it.

I look forward all year to Clifftop, to be able to pick with my Banjo Hell friends and campmates Jim Reed and Don Couchie. This is a recording Don and I made on Sunday morning, after we had eaten the last of the biscuits and gravy at the Lodge, and packed up to head out in our separate directions. Don is playing some real lonesome fiddle, and I am playing three-finger style banjo, on my semi-fretless short scale Paramount.

I look forward all year to Clifftop, to be able to pick with my Banjo Hell friends and campmates Jim Reed and Don Couchie. This is a recording Don and I made on Sunday morning, after we had eaten the last of the biscuits and gravy at the Lodge, and packed up to head out in our separate directions. Don is playing some real lonesome fiddle, and I am playing three-finger style banjo, on my semi-fretless short scale Paramount.

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 fine twisty fiddle tune.

Kitchen Girl

Tom Berghan, Blind Blake's 1927 Hokum Rag "That'll Never Happen No More" played on a 2011 Godin 5Th Avenue Archtop

Another tune from my jam with mouth harp player Marty Lebenson, from the 2010 Harry Smith Frolic, an old time gathering in Greenfield, out in the hill country of western Massachusetts. Marty really rips it up on this one. I'm playing my Fairbanks Whyte Laydie in open D tuning, without picks.

Julie Ann Johnson on a Chuck Lee Ovilla with NylGut strings. aDADE

Another tune from my jam session with harmonica wizard Marty Lebenson, at the end of the 2011 Harry Smith Frolic, in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Saint Anne's Reel is undoubtedly the most popular French Canadian tune among fiddlers here in the lower 48. Marty, who has been playing harmonica since the early 60s, manifests his complete unity with the instrument. I am playing my 1902 Fairbanks Whyte Laydie, three-finger style without picks.

Another tune from my jam session with harmonica wizard Marty Lebenson, at the end of the 2011 Harry Smith Frolic, in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Saint Anne's Reel is undoubtedly the most popular French Canadian tune among fiddlers here in the lower 48. Marty, who has been playing harmonica since the early 60s, manifests his complete unity with the instrument. I am playing my 1902 Fairbanks Whyte Laydie, three-finger style without picks.