The Great North Strum

This is about the least flattering image of Mark from The Great North Strum that I could find. The reason for this is that he has the infuriating habit of coming up with new tunes effortlessly, and I feel he doesn't need any more ego boosting. (clearly this is envy and not a good thing, but hey, this is my blog!)

Here's one he introduced is to a few nights ago.

Flashback from the Archives

Just found some old, old audio which won't play on the earlier posts any more. Its good to record yourself, not just for narcissism, but to hear how you've progressed. This was the first time I'd played with anyone else and you can hear me being sh*t in the background. I went away and practiced like mad until I felt I was able to contribute anything, and the boys were very patient and generous with me.
This audio is an acquired taste, I guess you had to be there.
Camptown Races.

Shortnin Bread (sorta)

And a really, really, really old one...

FMB part 2

This version is so much better than the previous one I posted. Cool suits, cool hair, cool hats, plenty of Earl and no gurning!

FMF part 2

It's actually still the first break of Foggy Mountain but I've just practiced it a bit more and added in the opening tag.

Hotel Ukulele

I made a bit of a boo-boo on a recent post which included the chords for Hotel California. While playing along with the track I realised I'd got the chorus slightly wrong. The correct ones are: verse Bm F# A E G D Em F# twice, chorus G D F# Bm G D Em F#.

It also sounds better on the uke.

FMF Part 1

Here's my go at Patrick's Foggy Mountain Fakedown.

Earl Scruggs - FMB

Here's the man himself, surrounded by some dodgy perms I must say!

FMB (Foggy Mountain Fakedown)

Here's Patrick's workshop for Foggy Mountain Fakedown.

GuGug - Girl You Want

Haven't dropped into the GuGUg site on youtube for ages and its still great.
That reminds me whatever happened to my cigar box uke?

Foggy Mountain Fakedown

After Cripple Creek and Dueling Banjo's this is one of those songs which is seen to define banjo music.

This is Patrick Costello's tab for a frailing/clawhammer version of Earl Scruggs' bluegrass tune.

Audio to follow.

Sample Player from www.techknowl.com

Freeform was asking about the player I've been using recently. You can get the HTML for it at Techknowl.com. You just paste it into the HTML layer of your blog page and then paste in the url for your hosted mp3 file. Neat!... and free!

Hotel California

It seems like ages since I've posted any audio. While I was away I took my uke with me and I worked through some songs in a book of pop tunes. I find the uke easier to play with more modern stuff. Any way one of them was the Eagles song Hotel California, which has a nice chord change between Bm and F# which is very distinctive, and it was great to suddenly hear that tune coming out of the uke. Since I got back it's been all banjo though, and today I thought I'd have a go at it on banjo.

The F# and Bm change is tricky but with a bit of fiddling around it started to sound something like. If you want to know the chords they are verse Bm F# A E G D Em F# twice, chorus G D Em F# twice and repeat.

Let Me Smoke My Pipe by Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

Let Me Smoke My Pipe by Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

Uke in Hand

Back from my holidays and it's been a bit of a shock! Why is it if you get away for two weeks is always three weeks worth of work waiting when you get back? Anyway thought this would cheer me up and I also took my uke away with me.
Picking up from PB's Archie Bester track here's something from his best mate!