Banjo Hangout Top 100 Old Time Songs

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.

This tune comes originally from North Carolina fiddler Martin Marcus (1881-1974), who recorded it for the Library of Congress in the early 40s. The rather obtuse title makes sense once you know that a pig's foot is a blacksmithing tool. Another recording from one of our campsite jams on Geezer Hill. Don Couchie is doing the fiddling, I am three finger picking in open G tuning on my semi-fretless Tubaphone.

This recording was made in my living room in 1998; we called our trio Wry Whiskey. I'm picking banjo and singing, such as it is. The guitar player was Brian Clancey, who now plays in a duet with fiddler Robin Warren as Spirit Fiddle. Brian is the best back-up guitar player I ever heard, bar none. Here he is fingerpicking; we experimented a lot with the mixing together of finger style banjo and guitar. Tom Speth was the bass player; his knees have given out, and so he doesn't play much music anymore, but we've gone fishing together a few times over the last several years, which is almost as much fun.

The recording was made around 1975, at a concert at the First Unitarian Church in Harvard Square. We called ourselves the Beaumont String Band. The mandolin player was Rose Zak, a young lady from Buffalo who had learned mandolin, guitar, and classic banjo from an old Vaudeville circuit string man. The guitar player was Merrill "Mickey" Levine, who now lives out on the West Coast and plays keyboard. The lap steel player was the late Robert Gear, who could play like Sol Hoopi, and was also a great country blues guitar player.

This fantastic little tune comes from Illinois fiddler Mel Durham, and his family got the tune from an ex-slave named Alonzo Janes. The original name of the tune eluded Mel, so it's now named after the man who taught it to him. This is just a quick short recording to demonstrate the sound of my fretless slothead banjo made by Dan Pennington.

Learned from a Mike Compton mandolin lesson. Its minor key makes it sound different from other versions.

This is my contribution to the Old Time Tune of the Week for October 28, 2011. This is a recording I made at Clifftop with my pal Don Couchie. Don is on fiddle, leaning on those double stops just the way I like it; I am three-finger picking on my short scale, semi-fretless Paramount, in open A tuning.

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.

A happy song, fun to play, with images of little Appaloosas kicking up their heels. Mine was named Cookie. When I sold her, I was able to buy my Bart Reiter Whyte Laydie, so my banjo is named Cookie, too. Honestly.

Probably another one of the very first tunes I learned from John Corzine in So. Cal. My friend and I still can't resist the affectionate name "Sally in the Garbage."

By Peter David Quinn Boettcher. This is another on the 1850's Jacobs banjo.

A Missouri tie-hacker tune learned from Hugh Strawn...thanks Hugh!!

BHO member Don Couchie came to Boston for a visit, and we sat right down and started picking. This is the first thing we recorded, with my little Tascam DR-1. I am playing my Tubaphone, and the other Don is on the fiddle. This is a pretty Kentucky fiddle tune attributed to John Sayler. My arrangement is inspired by Adam Hurt's wonderful version.

My submission 12/4/09 for Tuna the Week. A Texas waltz written around the turn of the 20th Century.

Little Rabbit in Double C tuning on a Wildwood.