I don’t know who Big John McNeil was or anything about the origin of the tune. I’m mostly familiar with it from listening to some Canadian fiddle music. Recently I stumbled across a clawhammer arrangement for this tune, so I’ve been re-familiarizing myself with it to get the right feel for it in my head and I’m going to try learning this one on the banjo.

Here’s the late great Ottawa Valley fiddler Ward Allen performing it…

It seems pretty straight ahead as a banjo tune, but it’s played pretty fast and that’s going to take some practice.