Well, here I am again, squeezing in at the final hour. I've liked this song ever since I learned it in fith-grade chorus, and I've really enjoyed all the versions posted this week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od5qr_3fMdw
Nice crosspicking there Marcelyn, giving it just a little bit of polyphonic complexity and reminds me of those musical boxes you could wind up back in the old days.
Marcelyn, that was lovely! I'm going to try to embed your video, so it shows up here!
Yes, lovely, Marcelyn. As such loveliness is a hard act to follow, I have called in David Hansen as a reinforcement and played my mando over his tenor guitar version. Thanks, David. Hope I haven't butchered your great playing too much.
On my new Irish tenor!
So many good takes on this lovely song. Love your harp-like sounding mandolin version Marcelyn. Nice duet Manfred (and David). Martin, what make is that tenor? It sounds really good...
Well done Manfred - yes, playing along with David is always a refreshing experience and an honor. Wow Martin - that banjo looks so... so NEW! All shiny and clean. That makes me imgine what my old banjo could look like if I had not distressed the white head with my grimy planted pinky. Funny how you emerge from your own cartoon at the beginning. Sounds like running water in the background - rainy day inside the shack?
Stuche, that's a Gold Tone IT-250-F, like the standard 250 but "designed to be a more up front instrument," which means it's really loud. Bertram, the water is my son's fish tank in the background! I should re-record Over the Waterfall I guess.
Martin, that sounds like it could have come from a campsite in the civil war , and I mean that in a GOOD way, beautiful & authentic sounding Steve
Great tremelo, Manfred. It sounded so natural. I like the song on a banjo, Martin. The pull offs make it sound especially nice. Is that one brand new? I thought I remembered you playing a nice banjo a while ago. Maybe I'm thinking of a different instrument or a different player. These weeks run together after a while.
This is a brand new one Marcelyn. 17 fret Gold Tone tenor. The other one I had was a no-name plectrum (22 frets) I got off of Craig's list. I sold it as it was not appropriate for what I wanted and the neck was so long it was killing my shoulder. Thanks Steve. Next weekend it WILL be coming from a CW campsite. I'm going to a battle reenactment in SE MO.
Just found a version of this made for the movie Black Hawk Down. Has that same marching rhythm going throughout. What caught my eye first is it was done by Joe Strummer [of The Clash] and The Mescaleros. The Mescaleros was his backing band started in 1999 up to his death in 2002. http://www.amazon.com/Minstrel-Boy/d...5246698&sr=8-1
Oops, I posted my recording of this tune yesterday as a separate thread, not realising that it had been an official song of the week -- I searched the "Other Tunes" list before posting but not the official tunes. So, here it is again in its correct place: Harmonies on my arrangement are by The Ottawa Fiddle Ensemble: http://www.alfwarnock.info/ofe/pdf/52.pdf I'm playing it as an instrumental trio of mandolin, octave mandolin and tenor guitar. 1921 Gibson Ajr mandolin Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin Ozark tenor guitar Martin
Here it suddenly sounds perfectly right Martin Could march to that if I would, at all.
Very nice, Martin. Well done!
An unusual arrangment in that the middle section seems to lose the tune entirely. But very well played.
Maudlin said: "An unusual arrangment in that the middle section seems to lose the tune entirely. But very well played." Thanks, Maudlin. In the middle section, the tune is played by the OM an octave down, with the mandolin taking over the harmony part from the OM. I've tried to play softer when playing harmony than when playing melody but I didn't want to manipulate volume levels in post-recording mixing which is why the melody gets buried in the mix somewhat in the middle, especially if you listen through computer or laptop speakers. But, the tune is there in all three sections. The mandolin plays in the middle section precisely what the OM plays in the first and last section. Martin
When I loaded my video up on Youtube, I noticed that this tune is also played as a march in London. But with the temperatures being as high as they are currently here in Europe, marching is much to exhaustive. So I played The Minstrel Boy as a relaxed swing tune: Nice contributions, I especially like Michaels solo mandolin version and Barbara's tenor guitar playing. But there are many great other versions...
Well done crisscross. I have always liked this tune but never played it.
Very pretty crisscross. The tempo suggests a jaunty stroll to me, I like it.
I had completely forgotten, that I already had made a recording of this song, probably I had filed it under Minstrel Boy leaving out the artucle. Anyway, this recording is a bit different than the one from almost two years ago...
Nice and relaxing tune Christian, many thanks.
Ah, Christian, another sign of the years creeping up on us. I too regularly forget I have recorded tunes before, and I also forget the tunes I have recorded! Or actually, it just shows what prolific posters we have in our group here. Lovely tone especially in your higher octave section.
My take on this tune - played as a march on my Paris Swing "Macaferri" mandolin.
Here's my new version of The Minstrel Boy, the old one is long gone, I'm afraid.
Thanks, David, for this nice video. Did you play a drone with your concertina? Sounds like this in the first part. The video footage is a great choice, too. Mandolin solo by Aidan and mandolin accompanied with guitar by Christian are also fine offerings. (Have to listen to the other submissions later.)
Good ear!!! There is a drone on the 1st time through played on concertina and bass, the bass part is high and quiet at the beginning.
Here we are, all on the same page... and lo and behold a new video from David! Terrific playing on this one!
So many fine and diverse offerings here, and all so well done.
