A great tune with a lot of different versions. This one has 3 parts and is played out of double D tuning. I don’t remember where I learned it but a good 2 part version can be found on Bob Carlin and Bruce Molsky’s album “Take Me As I Am”. A really nice fretless rendition of the 2 parter can be found on Riley Baugus’ album “Life of Riley”. The banjo is tuned aDADE.
Tag: banjo
Chinquapin Pie
I learned this tune from the playing of Bruce Molsky, We do a lot of playing in JP’s living room. We played it in the key of A and my banjo was tuned aEAC#E. Tim Baldanzi is playing mandolin and Ren Price is playing the bodhran. The tune is a tad crooked.
Shaving A Dead Man or Protect the Innocent
A cool tune that I learned from the playing of David Holt and John Herrmann. The banjo is tuned to f#BEBE. I’m playing this on a fretless banjo. A good recording of John Herrmann playing this can be found on the excellent CD entitled “Banjo Gathering”. John plays it together with the Leadbelly tune “Old Man Can Your Dog Catch a Rabbit” and instead of “Shaving a Dead Man” he calls it “Protect the Innocent”.
Angeline the Baker
I love this tune. I think it is one of the first tunes that I learned to play on the banjo about 30 years ago. I’ve played it probably a thousand times and I still find beauty in it. The “B” part sounds like water flowing over rocks somewhere in the woods on the side of a mountain. This tune is played out of the Double D tuning – aDADE. The banjo used is an open-backed copy of a Vega style banjo with a tubaphone tone ring. The typically longer sustain of a tubaphone I think really serves this tune well.
Forked Deer
Here is a favorite tune, Forked Deer, played relatively slowly and simply. One thing that makes this tune fun to play is the “A” part is in the key of D and the “B” part is in the key of A. When playing this tune with other musicians the A part really drives you to the B part and then the B part drives you back to the A part. Tunes that do that I find really fun to play. One full time through the tune and your want to play it again with more abandon and after 5 or 6 times through the tune you really start to hit the “old-time music groove. Some people call it the original American trance music.