Burl Hammons Tune

This tune comes from Lee Hammons of West Virginia.  I just recently learned it from a series of recordings generously shared by Jimmy Triplett.  Jimmy wrote:

“I learned these from field recordings made by Dwight Diller, Gerry Milnes, Wayne Howard, and others. Many were reconstructed from fragments, and some of the names are best guesses. Lee Hammons (1886-1980 I think) learned to play traditional tunes from family and community musicians, mostly before commercial music was available. He played in a style that’s often characterized as archaic and deceptively simple.”

Here’s the audio file that he shared of his fiddling Burl Hammons Tune:

Jimmy Triplett playing Burl Hammons Tune

Here’s some info about Jimmy from the Old-Time Herald  Volume 11 Issue #1.

“Jimmy Triplett is a fiddler’s fiddler. With consummate technique, attention to detail, and respect for the traditions of old-time fiddling, Jimmy Triplett has forged a unique style that is elegant yet rough-hewn, accessible yet complex. Best known for playing West Virginia tunes in a manner that taps into their most archaic qualities, Jimmy has also worked to bring attention to the older masters of West Virginia fiddling, having produced the CD reissue of Ernie Carpenter’s Old-Time Fiddle Tunes from the Elk River Country and co-produced the CD-ROM / DVD set One More Time: The Life and Music of Melvin Wine.” 

It’s hard to talk about the Hammons family without talking about Dwight Diller. Dwight spent time with Lee Hammons and other members of the family and learned much of the their music on a knee-to-knee basis.  Here’s a link to a Banjo Newsletter article:

https://banjonews.com/2016-09/lee_hammons.html

Here’s a short introduction video from West Virginia Public Broadcasting with some Hammons Family information:

Here’s  a tab that I arranged:

Burl Hammons Tune.pdf

Here’s a clawhammer banjo video of the above:

252 Banjo Tabs In 5 books

book key Title Source
1 A Hangmans Reel Albert Hash
1 A Old Mother Flanagan Dwight Diller
1 A Sandy Boys Edden Hammons
1 A Cookhouse Joe Estill Bingham
1 A Little Billy Wilson festival mashup
1 A Long Steel Rail Fred Cockerham
1 A Hog Eyed Man Hiram Stamper
1 A Road to Malvern Jim Childress
1 A Red Steer John Dykes
1 A Mike in the Wilderness John Salyer
1 A Cripple Creek Kyle Creed
1 A Jim Shank Sam Dyer
1 A Blackest Crow Tommy Jarrell
1 A June Apple Tommy Jarrell
1 Am John Riley the Shepherd Art Stamper
1 Am Abe’s Retreat Burl Hammons
1 Am Highlander’s Farewell Emmett Lundy
1 Am Shady Grove Gaither Carlton
1 Am Ducks on the Pond Henry Reed
1 Am Kitchen Girl Henry Reed
1 Am New Orleans Melvin Wine
1 C Billy in the Low Ground Burnett & Rutherford
1 C Say Darling Say Sweet Brothers
1 D Valley Forge Absie Morrison
1 D Arkansas Traveler Doc Roberts
1 D Ducks on the Millpond Emmett Lundy
1 D Julie Ann Johnson Emmett Lundy
1 D Old Molly Hare Ernest Claunch
1 D Folding Down the Sheets Henry Reed
1 D Fisher’s Hornpipe Hill Billies
1 D Liberty Jimmy Wheeler
1 D Cowboy’s Dream John Hutchinson
1 D Ways of the World  Luther Strong
1 D Possum’s Tail Is Bare Melvin Wine
1 D Whiskey Before Breakfast Melvin Wine
1 D Spotted Pony Paul David Smith
1 D Doctor Doctor Phillips
1 D Sally in the Garden Steve Mote
1 D Soldier’s Joy Steve Mote
1 G Polly’s Mountain Kettle Byard Ray
1 G Sail Away Ladies Dave Macon
1 G Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom Ed Haley
1 G Magpie Harlan Coble
1 G Shoes and Stockings Henry Reed
1 G Lost Girl John Salyer
1 G Roscoe Kyle Creed
1 G Mother Flanagan Lee Triplett
1 G Devil Ate the Groundhog Paul David Smith
1 G Old Yeller Dog Came Trottin’ public domain song
1 G Turkey in the Straw Ward Jarvis
2 A Shades of Death Creek Chirps Smith
2 A Big Hoedown Edden Hammons
2 A Old Bunch of Keys Fred Cockerham
2 A Sugar in the Gourd John Ashby
2 A Buffalo Gals John Hatcher
2 A Tippin’ Back the Corn Jordon Wankoff
2 A Little Liza Jane JP Fraley
2 A Hog Went Through the Fence Yoke and All Luther Strong
2 A Up Jumped Joe in the Middle of It Mark Tamsula
2 A Richmond Roscoe Parrish
2 A Christmas Time in the Morning Stephen Tucker
2 A Icy Mountain Ward Jarvis
2 Am Brushy Forks of John’s Creek Art Stamper
2 Am Davy Come Back and Act Like You Oughta Delbert Hughes
2 Am Shakin’ Down the Acorns Edden Hammons
2 Am Frosty Morn Henry Reed
2 Am Jeff Sturgeon John Salyer
2 Am Haning’s Farewell JS Price
2 Am Ways of the World William Stepp
2 C Cranberry Rock Burl Hammons
2 C Hell Up Coal Holler Henry Reed
2 C Farewell Trion James Bryan
2 C Cumberland Blues John Hannah
2 C Katy Did Lowe Stokes
2 C Colored Aristocracy Taj Mahal
2 D Lost Hornpipe Charlie Kinney
2 D Martha Campbell Doc Roberts
2 D Jimmy Sutton Fred Cockerham
2 D Rocky Mountain Goat Henry Reed
2 D Durang’s Hornpipe Jake Phelps
2 D Johnny Don’t Get Drunk John Ashby
2 D Sharp’s Tune John Sharp
2 D Black Eyed Susie Luther Strong
2 D Gilsaw Pete McMahon
2 D Pete’s High D Tune Pete Vigour
2 D Snake River Reel Peter Lippincott
2 D Needlecase Sam McGee
2 D Half Irish Snake Chapman
2 D Spring In the Valley Tom McCreesh
2 D Polly Put the Kettle On Tommy Jarrell
2 D Sugar Hill Tommy Jarrell
2 D Fair Morning Hornpipe Wilson Douglas
2 G Jimmy in the Swamp Bob Walters
2 G Snakewinder Buddy Thomas
2 G Mississippi Palisades Chirps Smith
2 G Ebenezer Henry Reed
2 G Cauliflower Jimmy Wheeler
2 G Stumptailed Dolly John Salyer
2 G Old Time Billy in the Lowground Kelly Gilbert
2 G Roaring River Monte Sano Crowder
3 A Breaking Up Christmas Benton Flippen
3 A Salt River Clark Kessinger
3 A Grub Springs Ernest Claunch
3 A Dinah Henry Reed
3 A Hell and Scissors JW Day
3 A Hog Went Through the Fence Luther Strong
3 A Last of Callahan Luther Strong
3 A Red Haired Boy mash-up
3 A Railroad Runs Through Georgia Max Collins
3 A Ida Red Tommy Jarrell
3 A Icy Mountain Ward Jarvis
3 Am Squirrel Hunters Bayard
3 Am Grub Springs (2) Grub Springs (2)
3 Am Cousin Sally Brown Marcus Martin
3 Am Pretty Polly Steve Mote
3 C L & N Rag Alex Hood
3 C Big Rock Candy Mountain Harry McClintock
3 C Birdie Henry Reed
3 C Texas Gals Hill Billies
3 C Oh! Susannah Stephen Foster
3 C O Come,  All Ye Faithful Traditional
3 C Silent Night Traditional
3 D Shades Of Death Creek Chirps Smith
3 D Farewell Princeton Clyde Davenport
3 D Mississippi Sawyers Edden Hammons
3 D Belle Of Lexington Emmett Lundy
3 D Julianne Johnson Emmett Lundy
3 D Arkansas Hoosier George Mert Reeves
3 D Rally ‘Round The Flag GF Root
3 D Over The Waterfall Henry Reed
3 D Quince Dillion’s High D Tune Henry Reed
3 D Forked Deer John Salyer
3 D Storming Banks Of The Black River Lee Stoneking
3 D Cumberland Gap mash-up
3 D Angeline The Baker Steve Mote
3 F Wildwood Flower Carter Family
3 F Wiley Laws Tune Manco Sneed
3 F Wild Horse Posey Rorer
3 F Frankie Baker Tommy Jarrell
3 G Josie-O Art Stamper
3 G Sandy River Belle Blue Ridge Highballers
3 G Big Scioty Burl Hammons
3 G Marching Jaybird Dave Macon
3 G Wild Goose Chase Dave Reiner
3 G Ida Red Ed Haley
3 G Poor Little Mary Sitting In A Corner Enos Canoy
3 G Dandy Lusk fernando Lusk
3 G The Girl I Left Behind Me Irish Folk Song
3 G Miller’s Reel JP Fraley
3 G Old Joe Clark Kentucky Folk Song
3 G Shove The Pigs Foot Marcus Martin
3 G Buffalo Girls Paisley Hagood
3 G Gum Tree Canoe SS Steele
3 G Bell’s March Tom Sauber
4 A Old Dangerfield Bill Monroe
4 A Cuckoo’s Nest Ed Haley
4 A Devlish Mary Fate Morrison
4 A Devil In The Haystack Harvey Taylor
4 A Chicken In The Snowbank James Bryan
4 A Little Birdie John Hammond
4 A Far In The Mountain Red Headed Fiddlers
4 A John Henry Steve Mote
4 Am Rocky Road To Dublin Allen Sisson
4 Am Jeff Davis Bert Layne
4 Am Biddy Edden Hammons
4 Am Boatin’ Up Sandy George Hawkins
4 Am Santa Anna’s Retreat Henry Reed
4 Am Adeline Luther Strong
4 Am All Young Melvin Wine
4 Am Karabouchka traditional
4 Bb Polly Put The Kettle On Marcus Martin
4 C Rocky Mountain Goat.tef Dwight Diller
4 C Spider Bit The Baby Kenny Baker
4 C Hogskin Paul Goodman
4 C Rocky Pallet The Skillet Lickers
4 D Morpeth Rant Allan Block
4 D Snouts and Ears of America Bayard #58
4 D St. Anne’s Reel Buddy Thomas
4 D Chicken Reel Ed Haley
4 D Indian Ate The Woodchuck Ed Haley
4 D Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine.tef festival maship
4 D Mole in the Ground.tef Green Baley
4 D Willott’s Hornpipe Lee Stoneking
4 D Chinese Breakdown Lyman Enloe
4 D Dry And Dusty Morrison Twin Bros.
4 D Swannanoa Waltz Rayna Gellert
4 D Goin’ Uptown Sam Dyer
4 D Old Time Sally Ann Tommy Jarrell
4 D Mulqueen’s Reel traditional
4 D Buck Mountain Uncle Nip Chisolm
4 Em Glory In The Meeting House Luther Strong
4 G Flowers Of Edinburgh Art Galbraith
4 G Home Town Band Bayard #391A
4 G McMichen’s Reel Clayton McMichen
4 G Big Scioti festival maship
4 G Waldorf Reel Gus Meade
4 G Ora Lee James Bryan
4 G Oyster River Hornpipe James Bryan
4 G Moon Behind The Hill Melvin Wine
4 G Undone In Sorrow Ola Bella Reed
4 G Miss McLeod’s Reel The Skillet Lickers
4 G Leather Britches Wilson Douglas
5 A Salty River Reel Cyril Stinnett
5 A Half Past Four Ed Haley
5 A Fine Times At Our House Edden Hammons
5 A Camp Chase French Carpenter
5 A Ol’ Bob Garry Harrison
5 A Red Prairie Dawn Garry Harrison
5 A Jenny Get Around John Morgan Salyer
5 A Lacy Brown John Morgan Salyer
5 A Speed Of The Plow John Morgan Salyer
5 A Grey Haired Dancing Girl Jumahl
5 A Chinquapin Hunting Norman Edmonds
5 Am Cattle In The Cane Bill Northcutt
5 Am Jenny On The Railroad Carter Bros. & Son
5 Am Pride of America David R. Hamblon
5 Am No Corn On Tygart Ed Haley
5 Am Falls Of Richmond Edden Hammons
5 Am Jake’s Got The Bellyache Edden Hammons
5 Am Twenty-Eighth Of January Franklin George
5 Am Rock Andy Snake Chapman
5 C Old Melinda Bob Walters
5 C Catlettsburg Ed Haley
5 C Dunbar Ed Haley
5 C Old Mose Howard Sims
5 C Altamont John Lusk
5 C Monkey In The Dogcart Leake County Revelers
5 C Wes Muir’s Tune Nile Wilson
5 C Pike’s Peak Ted sharp
5 D Chinquapin Hunting Art Stamper
5 D Coleman’s March Bruce Greene
5 D Big Powwow Claude Parker
5 D Washington’s March Edden Hammons
5 D Bonaparte’s Retreat Festival Mashup
5 D Rush And The Pepper Jesse James Abbott
5 D Grand Picnic Joe Politte
5 D Indians Over The Hill John Hannah
5 D Jaybird John Summers
5 D Rosetree Reed Martin
5 D Green Willis Taylor Kimball
5 D Texas Quickstep 2 The Red Headed Fiddlers
5 G North Carolina Breakdown Arthur Smith
5 G Old Gray Cat Bayard
5 G High Up On Tug Edden Hammons
5 G Waynesboro Edden Hammons
5 G Sunny Home In Dixie Frank Jenkins
5 G Sail Away Ladies JP JP Fraley
5 G High Dad In The Morning Kenny Baker
5 G Girl I Left Behind Me Rayna Gellert
5 G Seneca Square Dance Sam Long
5 G Hooker’s Hornpipe Tylor McBaine
5 G Rebel’s Raid William Stepp

5 Years of Banjo Tablature

I’ve recently realized that I’ve just completed five consecutive years of writing at least one banjo tab per week. I’ve published 200 of them in four books and am about to put out Book #5. It prompted me to wonder just why I was doing it and am seemingly unable to stop. There are just so many great tunes… At first they were tunes I knew from having learned them at festivals, jams, camps and so on. For a while i was really listening to recordings of banjo players -both commercial recordings and my own hand-held collections. Somewhere along the line I started only listening to fiddlers. I realized that was because it seemed to be the purest form of the melody. Mostly I’ve been listening to source recordings because for this giant repertoire of tunes the older recordings somehow revealed the real idiosyncrasies of what makes each tune or rendition unique. For a brief period I was writing tabs that had almost every note that the fiddle was playing. Big mistake- fun but big mistake. One long time student threatened to quit because the tabs were too difficult to play and even if you learned them they just had no groove. I’ve since shifted my approach to that of trying to imagine what I would play if I could climb into Mr. Peabody’s Time Machine and sit down with Ed Haley, John Salyer, Emmett Lundy, Luther Strong, Edden Hammons and on and on. So I’m now trying still to understand these tunes better (a process which I’m sure is unending). I’ve found a relational database that I can put on my phone that can aggregate some of the info that swirls around the creation and promulgation of these wonderful melodies. I’ve found that so many tunes are icebergs of information- just the tip peeks out of the water with the name of the tune. Below the waterline lurks a mountain of information consisting of facts, rumors, tall tales, historical references, alternate titles, family history, urban legends, travelogues and the like. The next thing I’m looking at is how the mountain geography and the direction of the rivers help determine how a tune (or parts of a tune) travels.

Ida Red with Jamie Ferguson

One of the great things about playing old-time music is developing musical relationship with people from all over the country.  I think I first met Jamie in Pennsylvania at the Lake Genero Fiddling’ Bear festival.  Had an absolutely great late-night jam with her and a few other folks.  We played together at Clifftop in West Virginia a few years later as well.  This week she was traveling in the area and stopped by the school.  She’s a very talented fiddler- very musical and easy to follow.  We had never played this tune together before today.  The tune is Ida Red and was inspired by the fiddling of Ed Haley. Here’s some great info from the excellent musician Craig Edwards: “Started as an African American cargo loading song on the Ohio/Misssissippi Rivers. See Mary Wheeler’s “Steamboatin’ Days”, one of the great underutilized collections of American music. Long out of print, but you can find copies on Amazon for practically nothing. You’ll find a lot of old time and blues lyrics in their original forms- very cool material.”

How I Learn a New Tune


Melody is king.  If there’s a tune I want to learn on the banjo, I start by listening to multiple recordings of fiddlers.  I find at least ten recordings and listen to a couple of minutes worth of each- almost like scanning an article.  This takes about half an hour.  At the end of this time I hope to have a good idea of the shape of the tune, the key and the chord structure. I then take out my banjo and try to play along with my favorite recordings.  After woodshedding for a while, I then try to write tablature of the tune.

Finding Recordings

There are tons of great online resources.  I usually start with Larry Warren’s excellent site Slippery Hill. Within that site I start with  the equally awesome collection assembled by Walt Koken and Claire Milliner. Use the Find feature of your browser and search a word in the title of the tune.  Another great source is the Digital Library of Appalachia. Here’s an exhaustive page of links from David Lynch’s site Old-Time Music.

Shape of the Tune

I then load the tune into Capo, a program that slows the tune down without changing the pitch and let’s you set multiple loop points for listening to specific phrases. Other good programs are The Amazing Slow Downer and Song Surgeon.  Choose a phrase.  I think phrases seem to predominantly fall into four beat segments.  Four quarter-note taps of your foot will generally give you a good starting point.  Try to sing this phrase to yourself and notice the starting note and the ending note.  Once you’ve sung the starting note, what happens at the next pitch? Does it rise in pitch? Does it fall? Does it stay the same? Is it a hill that climbs upward?  What does it turn to head back downhill?  This process  takes repetition and lots of practice.  Like anything, the more you do it the easier it gets.

What Key Is It?

Old-time music recordings are often in one of four keys.  A major, G major, D major and C major.  There’s also a fairly common modal key that sounds like A major but is somehow darker.  Try to find and sing the note at the beginning or at the end of a tune.  Once you’ve sung this note, does the music feel “at rest”?  Do you feel that it could be the final note and that your ear is satisfied?  Musical phrases are often defined by tension and resolution.  The note that feels the most resolved is generally the same as the name of the key.  Once identified and I can sing this note, I then try to find it on my banjo.  Another good way is to sing into your chromatic tuner if it has a built in microphone and see the name of the note you’re singing.

Chords, Chords, Chords

In general when two notes happen in succession it is considered melody.  When two notes happen at the same time it is considered harmony.  When three notes happen at the same time it is often called a chord or a triad.  Each key has a handful of chords associated with it and these three-note chords are assembled from notes from the seven-note scale of the key.  In the key of G major I look for the chords G, C and D.  In the key of A major common chords are A, D and E.  In the key of D major the chords are D, G and A.  In C major the chords are C, F and G.  Other chords occasionally make appearances but the above chord sets are a good starting place when trying to understand how a tune works.  When listening to a repeating loop of a section of the tune I try chords from the key until they sound right.

Sing the Phrases

In many fiddle tunes the melodic ideas are organized into four-beat phrases that I like to think of as questions and answers.  These ideas or phrases show up multiple times in the tune.  I start by trying to sing one phrase.  Once I can sing it then I try to find those same notes on the banjo.  I look for two groups of eight or so notes that make up a single phrase.  At this point I also start to write tablature of the tune.  This helps me to understand the tune.  Phrase by phrase I follow this process and then play the notes on the banjo while listening to the looped phrase from the fiddle recording.  When finished I play the tune against several different recordings and make adjustments as needed.

Make the Tune Your Own

At the end of this several hour-long (sometimes days-long) process I hope to have a personalized, customized arrangement somehow rooted in the performance of several fiddlers that have come from earlier times.  A friend of mine the excellent fiddler Andy Reiner wisely said something to the effect that a piece of sheet music (or single arrangement) is not something to be held frozen in time as if behind a piece of glass in a museum.  Tunes are living entities that grow and change with time.

The process of listening to a series of source-recordings and then developing an understanding of the melody that you can then share with others I think is a time-honored and important process.  I think of it as a small adventure.  Enjoy the trip!

Tim Rowell           BostonBanjoTeacher.com

 

Bed Bug Blues CD Review

written by Linda Werbner

Hi-Tone Ramblers new CD
Hi-Tone Ramblers new CD

As Llewelyn Davis wryly mused about folk music, it’s never old and it’s never new. But the Hi-Tone Ramblers, a Boston-based string band, manage to make the 14 chestnuts on their stellar sophomore offering, Bed Bug Blues, sound alternately fresh and modern without losing that old-time charm. The minute the warm, honeyed notes of Little Sam come joyfully hurtling out of the speakers, you know you have found one of those desert island discs.

In addition to its pristine production, memorable arrangements, soaring harmonies, and top-rate picking by this quintet, what makes this such a winning recording is its protean array of styles from every corner of the old, weird America.

There are irresistible toe-tapping reels like Half Irish with breathtakingly bright fiddle work by Cathy Mason, a healthy dollop of country gospel (Sinner You’d Better Get Ready, The Soul of Man Never Dies), a dash of Cajun (Jolie Blonde), and a riot of Kentucky fiddle tunes (Hog-Eyed Man, Can You Dance A Tobacco Hill?). A spine-tingling Roundpeak tune (Chilly Winds) rounds things out. Some standout cuts include Chased Old Satan with Tim Fitzpatrick’s winning vocals which are witty and playful without being hammy and Bethany Weiman’s cello brings a full and rich undercurrent to every tune in this collection.

Even the packaging is perfect. Just try to resist the winsome and enchanting cover art—a transporting painting by Kim ParkhurstBed Bug Blues Cover of a moonlit hootenanny of fairies dancing with woodland creatures. Bed Bug Blues is one hootenanny you won’t want to miss!

Gilsaw

I learned this tune after hearing and playing it a bunch down at Clifftop. Every year it seems as if a tune that was never on my radar pops up.  I go somewhere and it seems as if everyone is playing and what’s more, the say they’ve always known it.

A few years back on the Saturday before the “official” start of Clifftop it was raining and I ducked under the awning of Andy and Toni Williams.  We got to playing and this tune came up and Andy was ripping it on the fiddle and Toni was playing bass.  I made them play it twice.  The next day I stumbled into the camp of Marynell and Gene Young from Texas and then they started playing it, and yes, I made them play it twice.

A year or so later I awoke with it playing in my head so I finally did a little research, listened to a bunch of recordings then tabbed out a version myself.  This comes from Missouri fiddler Pete McMahan. He learned it from his uncle (the Sheriff) who learned it from an itinerant fiddler at a railroad station. Here’s a great link to the story:
http://fiddlingmissouri.blogspot.com/2013/03/gilsaw-fiddler-from-hard-times-and-his.html

Thank you Amy for playing guitar and thank you Chad for recording us at your excellent studio Juniper Sound.

Tallulah Gorge

Composed by Amy Colburn.    …”I wrote this tune a couple winters ago after a hike through Tallulah Gorge in northern Georgia. Tallulah falls used to be called the Niagra of the South, until 1912 when the Georgia Railway and Power Company built a dam there. The gorge is the setting for several legends and many epic adventures. What is left is a deep gorge that gave me a real sense of being a guest of nature. The namesake of the gorge, Tallulah, was a Cherokee maiden, the daughter of Chief Grey Eagle. She fell in love with a white hunter. Her father ordered the stranger thrown off the cliff, now called Lover’s Leap, and into the gorge. Much to the chief’s dismay, Tallulah leaped in after him.

In the evening, after the hike, I didn’t sit down to write a tune. I sat down to learn Sally in the Garden. Though I like the tune, I was having trouble and so I let it go and just started to play whatever came out of my banjo in that same tuning. What the banjo and I came out with was this tune. The low A part of the tune represents the deep shadows that the tall cliffs cast over the canyon most of the day. The high B part represents the rushing cold whitewater that winds through the gorge. I play the tune in double C tuning, which puts it in C minor. I like the low bass of C as opposed to capoed up to D. Guitar players seem to prefer C as well.”

Snake River Reel

I first heard this tune after being in an old-time music desert for about twenty years.  I’d lived in Los Angeles for thirteen years where the only place that even sold banjos was McCabes guitar shop. Cut to 1995 Western Massachusetts- I visited  the Fretted Instrument Workshop in Amherst.  They had about twenty spectacular banjos on the wall.  I played them all.  Lyn Hardy was very patient- she even pulled down a guitar and played a few tunes with me.  Before I left she directed me to a wall racked filled with old-time music on cassette tapes- I think I said “Sell my clothes I’m going to heaven!”

I bought two cassettes- one by Mac Benford I think called “First Half Century” and the other by the Ill-Mo Boys called “Fine As Frogs Hair”.  Mac’s tape has the best rendition of Hangman’s Reel I’ve ever heard.  The Ill-Mo boys recording has a ton of great songs.

I listened to these two cassettes till they wore out.  I was so caught up in the Frogs Hair that it was about six months before I realized that there was no banjo on the recording.  One of my favorite tunes Snake River Reel by Peter Lippincott….

Silver Belle

contributed by Amy Colburn

Silver Bell, also called Silver Belle, was composed in 1910 by Percy Wenrich, and was published with words by Edward Madden. Wenrich was from Joplin, Missouri but went to music school in Chicago and then on to New York. His biggest hit was probably “Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet” in 1909, though he composed many tunes and scored stage productions as well. You can read more about Percy and see the cover of the sheet music for this tune, featuring a beautiful Native American maiden and her suitor, in the article found here:
Here is the chorus:
“Your voice is ringing,
My Silver Bell.
Under its spell,
I’ve come to tell
You of the love I am bringing,
O’er hill and dell.
Happy we’ll dwell,
My Silver Bell.”
I first became acquainted with this tune by hearing Chip Arnold play the Will Keys two- finger index-lead version of the tune in double D tuning. I learned the three finger version in this video from Pete Peterson of the Orpheus Supertones. I like both versions very much. Bluegrass people also play this tune, and change keys somewhere along the line. I’m playing this one in the key of D with the banjo tuned in Drop D (aDAC#E).
Many thanks to Tim Rowell for his supportive guitar playing!