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Thread: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

  1. #1
    Registered User red7flag's Avatar
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    Default Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    While I love bluegrass, when playing with others I lean toward old time fiddle tunes, maybe with a bit of grass in style. Examples are:
    Liberty
    Eighth of January
    Grandfather's Clock
    The Girl I Left Behind Me
    Garry Owen
    Red Haired Boy
    St. Anne's Reel
    And the like.

    I like starting old timey and the adding grass licks.In jam situations, these can be really fun as the group usually join in and the music is upbeat.

    Any suggestions of old timey jam songs? Any videos?
    Tony Huber
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    Worlds ok-ist mando playr Zach Wilson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Salt Creek
    Blackberry Blossom
    Arkansas Traveler
    Chinquapin Hunting
    Old Joe Clark

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Are you actually playing in OT jams? In that case, make a list of the tunes folks are playing in those jams. The tunes you list above are either not strictly considered OT tunes (though they be fine to play in many jams) or are the old warhorse variety, which i find still fun to play whereas, at many of the OT jams, wuld be rarely resurrected.

    Check out and browse around Slippery Hill, for instance, for some great tunes.

    Old Time Fiddle Tunes has a bunch of various genres with notation and some sound files.

    Or Old Time Jam Machine for a good general list of tunes.
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Off to California ! Seneca Square Dance !

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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    In the old time jams here the appeal of the music is that everyone plays the melody together. Some better players may play more notes, but the melody all the same. Improvising from the melody is frowned upon and not well received. There are some old time players that do improvise during tunes, we are not of that bunch. Playing in California several years ago I played with both camps. When they said "mandolin" in the middle of a tune I said "what". I knew what they wanted, but that is not how I play old time music. The other group was playing for a dance, which I also do, and specifically said " we don't do solos". I am fully capable of improvising, but I do it with other music than old time. I look at old time as a music where no one shines, but all play together and there is a wonderful sound that happens when you have a bunch of good players all playing the same thing together, at times it can even get hypnotic.
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

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    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    The tunes you list above are either not strictly considered OT tunes (though they be fine to play in many jams) or are the old warhorse variety, which i find still fun to play whereas, at many of the OT jams, would be rarely resurrected.
    Perhaps, you're in the wrong country, red7Flag. You've provided a good beginning to a list of tunes played at Canadian Old-Time jams. We don't tend to play "The Eighth of January" much (we mostly associate it with the Hit Parade song, "The Battle of New Orleans," clearly not a battle that we celebrate -- catchy tune though). "My Grandfather's Clock" wouldn't be common, but most people know it and would join in if someone began it. "The Red-Haired Boy" is usually called "The Jolly Beggar Man" up here, except in highly America-influenced circles. And "St. Anne's Reel" is a French-Canadian fiddle tune, and one of the most popular fiddle tunes from coast to coast to coast. New Englanders often overlap with our ideas of Old Time.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes


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    I really look like that soliver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Great stuff! I'm going to have to check out some of those I don't recognize!... some of my fav's not mentioned:

    Big Sciota
    Cherokee Shuffle
    Bill Cheatham

    Or get Waltzy:

    Midnight on the Water (a personal favorite)
    Kentucky Waltz
    aka: Spencer
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    Soliver #001 & #002: A double stack of Pancakes.

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    to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous

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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Tristan Scroggins put together a cool little book of Good Old Time tunes with mando tabs. It's got some good ones.

    I've taken some lessons from Caleb Klauder and he showed me Old Gray Mare and Lost Girl. Both goodns

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    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Go modal, Pretty Little Dog, Kitchen Girl, Cold Frosty Morning, etc,etc.
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    Perhaps, you're in the wrong country, red7Flag.
    His signature says "Dickson, TN." That sounds like the right country to me.
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Red7Flag,
    Here is a list of some of our favorite old time jam tunes. Enjoy!! Almost all of these are available on YouTube in one version or another.

    Favorites (Nov. 2020)

    Angelina Baker D
    Arkansas Traveler
    Buck Mountain
    Camp Meeting on the 4th of July
    Chinese Breakdown
    Chinquapin Hunting
    Gilsaw
    Golden Slippers
    Green Willis
    John Ryan’s Polka
    Johnny Don’t Get Drunk
    Julianna Johnson
    Liberty
    Maggots in the Sheep Hide
    Mississippi Sawyer
    Morpeth’s Rant
    New Five Cent Piece
    Old Grimes
    Over the Waterfall
    Petronella
    Pumpkin Rock
    Sarah Armstrong
    Soldier’s Joy
    Spotted Pony
    Staten Island Hornpipe
    St. Anne’s Reel
    Whiskey Before Breakfast

    Barlow Knife G
    Big Sciota
    Dixie Hoedown
    Flowers of Edinburgh
    Flying Indian
    Girl with the Blue Dress On
    John Brown’s March
    Little Dutch Girl
    Magpie
    Miss McLeod’s Reel
    Possum Up a Gum Stump
    Sally Ann
    Sandy River Belle
    Seneca Square Dance
    Shoes and Stockings
    Shove the Pig’s Foot
    Southern Aristocracy

    Big Sandy River A
    Billy Wilson
    Booth Shot Lincoln
    Cherokee Shuffle
    Devil’s Dream
    John Brown’s Dream
    Red Haired Boy

    East Tennessee Blues C
    Billy in the Low Ground
    Richard

    Eastman 305
    Gibson A1 (1919)
    Martin D16 guitar
    Great Divide Guitar (Two-Old-Hippies)
    OME 11" banjo (1973)
    Pisgah 12" banjo

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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Quote Originally Posted by Pappyrich View Post
    Red7Flag,
    Here is a list of some of our favorite old time jam tunes. Enjoy!! Almost all of these are available on YouTube in one version or another.

    Favorites (Nov. 2020)

    Angelina Baker D
    Arkansas Traveler
    Buck Mountain
    Camp Meeting on the 4th of July
    Chinese Breakdown
    Chinquapin Hunting
    Gilsaw
    Golden Slippers
    Green Willis
    John Ryan’s Polka
    Johnny Don’t Get Drunk
    Julianna Johnson
    Liberty
    Maggots in the Sheep Hide
    Mississippi Sawyer
    Morpeth’s Rant
    New Five Cent Piece
    Old Grimes
    Over the Waterfall
    Petronella
    Pumpkin Rock
    Sarah Armstrong
    Soldier’s Joy
    Spotted Pony
    Staten Island Hornpipe
    St. Anne’s Reel
    Whiskey Before Breakfast

    Barlow Knife G
    Big Sciota
    Dixie Hoedown
    Flowers of Edinburgh
    Flying Indian
    Girl with the Blue Dress On
    John Brown’s March
    Little Dutch Girl
    Magpie
    Miss McLeod’s Reel
    Possum Up a Gum Stump
    Sally Ann
    Sandy River Belle
    Seneca Square Dance
    Shoes and Stockings
    Shove the Pig’s Foot
    Southern Aristocracy

    Big Sandy River A
    Billy Wilson
    Booth Shot Lincoln
    Cherokee Shuffle
    Devil’s Dream
    John Brown’s Dream
    Red Haired Boy

    East Tennessee Blues C
    Billy in the Low Ground
    Is that all ?????????????

  24. #14
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Up until this current Covid era we had two regular monthly OT jams near us, one I ran and another lead by my friend Harry. Here is a combined tune list compiled over the years from those two jams.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails MasterTuneListBeaconYorktownJams.pdf  
    Jim

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    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    His signature says "Dickson, TN." That sounds like the right country to me.
    I'm not getting nationalistic here, just commenting on the fact that the choices would fit just fine in a a Canadian old time jam. Still, I get your point that they are "not strictly considered OT tunes." I guess that would be true here too, some would not be out of place at Celtic or Bluegrass jams around Ottawa.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Crossover tunes are at home in a lot of jams.
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

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  30. #17
    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    you learn the G tune, the A tune and the D tune. You learn the model tunes too. Then advance to the crooked tunes.

    Just in Virginia, for example you'd learn, Cumberland Gap, Waynesboro and the Falls of Richmond!

    They're just too much fun!

    f-d
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  32. #18
    Registered User red7flag's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    I want to thank all of you for clarifying a subject that was obviously pretty muddy in my mind. In Pegram, TN there is a wonderful place called Fiddle and Pick, run by a great Nashville fiddler, Gretchen Priest-May (wife of guitar and mandolin great, Tim May). She has regular old time jams (pre Covid) and a yearly event on January 8, Called, yep, you guessed it the Eighth of January. It is a great event with jams that are strictly old time and others with more crossover. Being more from the bluegrass side, I tend to lump the whole group together. But, as many of you pointed out, they often have very different roots. I have really enjoyed the suggestions that you all have provided and plan to work on as many as I can. On a related issue, my wife and I started watching Little House on the Prairie. There is Mr. Edward's song, otherwise known as Ol' Dan Tucker. That has been added to my repertoire. There is a fun version on video by Bruce Springsteen taped in Dublin Ireland. I would post it but am a bit technology restricted.
    Tony Huber
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes

    Quote Originally Posted by red7flag View Post
    While I love bluegrass, when playing with others I lean toward old time fiddle tunes, maybe with a bit of grass in style. Examples are:
    ...
    ...
    I like starting old timey and the adding grass licks.In jam situations, these can be really fun as the group usually join in and the music is upbeat.

    Any suggestions of old timey jam songs? Any videos?
    Just be sure that when you add grass licks you are playing in a bluegrass jam. An old time jam don't want no grass licks.

    Actually I play in a few jams that would not turn away a bluegrass treatment of a traditional old time tune. We just enjoy playing together and are pretty much not orthodox anything. Wait till we get off into Broadway musicals. Yikes! I also do attend some old time jams that are more orthodox and would not want a grassy version. Sounds like like you play in a jam that is flexible.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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