Topic: Banjo on guitar

[Slack]

Welcome Jeff - glad you de-lurked!  You get the lurking longevity prize! 

I understand the Freight Hoppers are back together again and doing a tour (you can google their myspace page for tour dates.)

Cheers,

[unezrider]

hello friend,
i had read this post yesterday, & thought nothing of it. but last night while i was listening to the county records disc, 'old time music from southwest virginia' it occurred to me - no one mentioned emry arthur's fine version of 'reuben oh reuben'!
last summer i was trying to get into playing those types of songs on my guitar, but alas, never got terribly far with it. wasn't sure if i should be playing in a particular tuning, or what not.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
unezrider, you're right, Emry Arthur's version of "Reuben" is great.  Go to Vestapol tuned low, around C, and you should have it pretty quick.
On "Shake Sugaree", Libba Cotten does "Mama, Nobody's Here but the Baby" in a banjo style on the guitar.  I have the feeling she could have done this kind of material until the cows came home but didn't get asked for it that often.
Henry Townsend's "Jack of Diamonds/Georgia Rub" sounds pretty banjoey to me; certainly much more than anything else I ever heard him do.  I also think the way that Henry Thomas played time, not when he was doing more intricate melodic stuff like "Texas Easy Street", but just keeping time, like "Charming Betsy", sounds banjo-influenced in the right hand and the way he lifts his left hand periodically and keeps rapping with his right hand.
All best,
Johnm 

[jeffdelfield]

Welcome Jeff - glad you de-lurked!  You get the lurking longevity prize! 

I understand the Freight Hoppers are back together again and doing a tour (you can google their myspace page for tour dates.)

Cheers,

Thanks for the warm welcome, Slack.  

I actually live in Bryson City, where the Freighthoppers call home.  I'm the town librarian and the Freighthoppers dubuted their new line-up at my library last December.  Anyway, I know Frank well enough to call him and ask if he did indeed come up with the "Skillet" arrangement.  Here he is with Isaac Deal, also of the Freighthoppers, playing about a month ago at the library (at 2:17 "Skillet" begins).

http://www.youtube.com/v/N1nvxH6ncfI&hl

[Slack]

Ha!  Thanks for posting the clip Jeff, love the NuGrape ditty!

Great vocals, Freight Hoppers are coming to Sante Fe, which is about 5 hours away from here, I know some folks that are going -- I may try, but August is shaping up to be a tough one, time-off wise (I just need to prematurely retire!)

Cheers,

[unezrider]

hi john,
thanks for the tuning tip on 'reuben'.
chris

[Mike McLaren]

Unfortunately, I'm also a banjo picker, and I find a lot of my banjo style slipping into my dobro blues. One instrument can't help affecting another.

 

[Parlor Picker]

Unfortunately, I'm also a banjo picker, and I find a lot of my banjo style slipping into my dobro blues. One instrument can't help affecting another.

 

Surely they have medication for that kind of thing these days?!?! 

[Mike McLaren]

Hey Parlor.

What I shouldn't admit is that I sometimes toss in kazoo over the whole mess. I'm in counseling!

 

[Slack]

Mike, we need to get you to Port Townsend - you'll fit right in.    (Although, it is mostly the guitjo) 

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Henry Townsend's version of "Poor Man Blues", recorded at his first session, has a very banjoey sort of right hand approach with a thumb lead in the right hand.  It's an exceptionally pretty tune, too, that, for whatever reason, you never hear mentioned.
All best,
Johnm

[Baird]

Virgil Anderson does some really nice banjo influenced guitar playing.
There are a bunch of his songs on the Digital Library of Appalachia.
Most are banjo except for these two that he plays on guitar.

alabama water

http://www.aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/Berea43&CISOPTR=3010&filename=3011.mp3

poor boy

http://www.aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/Berea43&CISOPTR=3011&filename=3012.mp3

[uncle bud]

Albert Macon plays "Simon Joe", a mishearing of Diamond Joe, on guitar but very much in a banjo style. He was recorded by George Mitchell, and this is one of the solo songs by him not included on the Fat Possum boxed set but that is available through emusic. I haven't checked with an instrument, but it sounds like he's playing in Vestapol tuned low.

[Rivers]

Doc Watson migrated a lot of old time banjo stuff to the guitar while playing with Clarence Ashley, best example I can think of right now is Little Sadie which falls so naturally to hand on clawhammer banjo in sawmill tuning you'd have to conclude that Doc's admittedly classic flatpick guitar rendering was inspired by Clarence's banjo playing. Tough to back up old time banjo so brilliantly and effortlessly, trust me I've tried, and so far failed.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I've been listening to the Flyright album "Orange County Special" (thanks, Peter B.), and Wilbert Atwater does a beautiful job of playing banjo on guitar on "Long-Tailed Bird" there.  He plays it with a thumb lead out of C in standard tuning in an approach very akin to what Frank Hutchison used for his version of "Cumberland Gap".
All best,
Johnm