On the eve of Canada Day I’d like to feature a video I’ve shared before (it’s one of my faves!) – The Old Tyme Fiddler’s Dream by Mac Beattie and his Melodiers, featuring the great Reg Hill on fiddle. Canada has a great fiddle tradition… Read More
I was thinking about the old cowboy song, Diamond Joe so I searched around YouTube and found this performance by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, in which he talks about how he learned it from a cowboy at a rodeo in Brussels of all places. Jack struggles… Read More
This is me, practicing an Old Time standard known as Lost Indian. There are lots of different versions of this one, and even some very different tunes that use the same title. I’m playing my Bart Reiter Standard banjo in open G tuning, with a… Read More
I posted a train tune the other day and that’s dangerous business around here – once I start posting train songs it’s just hard to stop. Here’s Iris DeMent singing The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodger Home. Strange as it may seem, I know there are… Read More
I’ve been familiar with the old time tune Chinquapin Hunting for some time, but I didn’t know what a chinquapin was until I attended Midwest Banjo Camp. I figured it was a critter in the possum family, but no, no, no. A chinquapin tree is… Read More
….although many recount stories of famous train wrecks and engineers and so on. I found a great version of Railroading through the Rocky Mountains – a wonderful fiddle tune – on the YouTube machine. Here are Hopping Jenny. Of course if you’re not into Old… Read More
I don’t know anything about Southern Illinois. I drove through it once on the way to or from somewhere else and I did it too fast and I failed to pay attention (not fair I know). Only recently I’ve learned it’s known by the nickname… Read More
Tonight I’d like to feature a remarkable Old Time musician named Kilby Snow. Mr. Snow lived from 1905 to 1980. He was a master of the autoharp. I first became aware of him when I saw a banjo tab for a non-modal version of Shady… Read More
I thought tonight I would feature Joe Newberry here on 27th Street. I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Newberry at the Midwest Banjo Camp. I took one of his classes, all about a maneuver called the Galax Lick, along with its applications. Joe… Read More
27th Street 