November 7, 2014
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A Dose of Hank Snow

Sometimes I just need a double-shot of Hank Snow. Here he is performing Art Scammell’s masterpiece, Squid Jiggin’ Grounds. This one’s for my Newfie friends, you know who you are.

And I did say double-shot. Here’s Music Makin’ Mama from Memphis

November 7, 2014
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The Elmo lives!

I was very pleased to read that Michael Wekerle (new guy on Dragon’s Den) has bought the El Mocambo with the intention of keeping it running as a music venue. The very first time I went to a bar to hear live music it was at the El Mocambo.

I don’t recall exactly what year it was or how old we really were, but I remember the evening – it was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. As some of you know I was a teen-aged blues-freak and Sonny and Brownie were legends to me.  There we were, seated at the Elmo, not 20 feet from these guys, drinking the foulest draft beer you could imagine, and having the time of our lives.  Sonny Terry made sounds on his harmonica that were impossible and perfect, mixed in with whoops and hollers along the way, punctuated perfectly by Brownie’s Piedmont guitar.

At some point much later – in the 80s – some friends and I would go on Tuesday evenings to see Washboard Hank and the Honkers. Hank had an elaborate washboard – I think it included a tin hat and he did tunes like Polyester Polly lit a tire fire in my heart (all about a girl in Hagersville) and the Midnight Ride of Red-dog Ray about the great Ontario beer strike.

The Elmo was part of an older Spadina, from before the dedicated street car deal that sucked the character off the street. Those were the days when Downchild played Grossman’s across the street and Gwartzman’s was THE place to buy your art supplies – and let’s not forget Chinese food at that joint just south of Grossman’s – does anyone remember the place I’m thinking about? They had a special in the window for deep-fried gobi fish and I think there was a yellow sign….

Who knows what the future for this old joint holds, but it feels good to know it has been saved and will to continue to be a place for live music.

November 4, 2014
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Cumberland Gap

Wet evening around here. My walk with the Newfs this evening was shorter than usual. Neither the dogs nor I were interested in walking around outside for long. This seemed like a good evening to  sit back and learn a new tune on the banjo.

Perhaps I should say learn an old tune, because the one I decided to work on – Cumberland Gap – has been around for a while. It was first recorded in the 20s but it may have been played back in the late 1800s.  Cumberland Gap is a pass in the Appalachian Mountains.

There are many versions of the tune, and there is even a specialty banjo tuning known as Cumberland Gap tuning. I was working on a version in D – that is, with my banjo tuned to double C tuning, with a capo on the 2nd fret.

Here are some of the different takes on this tune I’ve selected from YouTube.

I really like this performance by Frank Fairfield…

Clifton Hicks does a great job on this tune too. He uses his thumb and index finger to pick the banjo rather than playing clawhammer…

Now for something completely different, check out Bad Bad Whiskey…

 

November 3, 2014
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Ottawa Valley Hoedown

It’s about time I featured a tune by Ottawa Valley fiddle great Reg Hill. Mr. Hill was known both as a great fiddler on his own and as the fiddle player for the Mac Beattie’s group, the Ottawa Valley Melodiers. Here he is playing the Buck Fever Rag.

November 1, 2014
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Train Wreck at Almonte

This tune by Mac Beattie and his Ottawa Valley Melodiers is all about the 1942 train wreck at Almonte Ontarie, when a train transporting Canadian troops drove into an Ottawa-bound passenger train that was waiting at the station.