I stumbled across this wonderful video of Harvey “Pappy” Taylor playing Devil in the Haystack at age 90. Is it true to play the fiddle you have to make a pact with the devil?
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All posts tagged “Daily Dose”
Banjo Practice
Me attempting to play Shady Grove (major version)…
The Shining Birch Tree
I was thinking about Wade Hemsworth today. I was trying to concentrate on something else, from which my mind needed a little break, and old Wade came to the rescue. His music just kind of crept in when I wasn’t expecting it. A lot of… Read More
Major/Minor
I’ve known the tune Shady Grove for a long time. It’s well known, and has been recorded a zillion times. On the banjo, this is usually played in Sawmill tuning, or “mountain modal” tuning as it is also called. Here’s a fairly typical approach to… Read More
Canadian fiddle
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
Sunday morning story and song…
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
Banjo Practice
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
The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home
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
Not all train songs have lyrics…
….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
Music from Little Egypt
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
27th Street 