Give Me Whiskey Till I Die - The Alice Charmers

Stan Gee - Gospel Ship on Cello Banjo

Looking back at the blog it strikes me just how much of the hosted audio I've posted over the years is no longer available, and it goes to show that digital can be as fragile as analogue recordings. I thought this bit of audio was lost but I've manged to download the original mp3 of Master Stan Gee playing Gospel Ship which was posted to the now defunct Audio Boo. Stan is playing his original 1909 cello banjo pre-Gibson Goldtone. There's more info about Stan's instruments on his website http://www.picknstrum.com/instruments
 Maybe I'll lift a bit of the content form his site and post it here, to preserve a piece of the true cross.

Old Jake Gillie

First go at Old Jake Gillie and just getting into the A and B parts. Its very much about the groove and rhythm with this tune. Still gotta have a go at a few elaborations but give it time.

My Banjo Bible

 The Banjo Player's Songbook: Over 200 great songs arranged for the five-string banjo by Tim Jumper (Author), Peter Pickow (Editor)

In actual fact I've got two banjo bibles and they are both by Tim Jumper. The other is How to Play Banjo which was the first tutor book I got and it covers the basics of both fingerpicking and frailing. The Banjo Players Songbook though is my go to for basic versions of most of the popular banjo songs in a frailing style. It gives you the bare bones of the tune and a bit of background over which you can elaborate as you wish. Recommended.

Soldier's Joy

I picked up the basics of this old fiddle tune from my banjo bible and then trawled Youtube for variations and a sense of the tune. It seems like it's the Cripple Creek of C tuning and once you have the bouncy nature of the fingering its a great and relatively simple tune to relax into and enjoy to play. It follows the AA BB stucture of many banjo tunes derived from fiddle music and I play it capoed at the second fret raising the C tuning (gCGCD) to play in the the key of D (aDADE)

Jesse James

Here's a bit of audio of a post Boxing Day jam that my brother and I managed to squeeze in amidst the festivities. Jesse James was one of the first tunes that I learned on the banjo and recently i'd stopped playing it, but my brother is getting keen on the mandolin and recently we've started playing a few old tunes that suit the two instruments.

2016 and all that...

I've been pretty absent from the blog on the last few years, not because I've not been playing banjo, but mostly because life has gotten in the way recently. 2016 has been a bit of a pig of a year for lots of reasons and as a consequence I've not been playing with the band quite as much as I'd like. Playing with the Charmers has been one of the highlights of the last 12 months, getting together and jamming with a bunch of good friends is one of the best feelings - just waiting for that moment when it all comes together for a few brief bars. After losing a couple of members we decided to use some gig money left in the kitty and book a band weekend in a bunk barn in the Yorkshire dales, and alongside drunken walks back form the pub in the pitch black and un-interupted hours of playing, this little bit of video of us playing an impromptu tune in the open air captures the great time we had. So here's to better times ahead.

Grandpa Jones Mountain Dew