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)

Miles Krassen: Clawhammer Banjo (Book/CD)

Just started working my way through this book which is full of great clawhammer tunes. The puff says 'Traditional Appalachian banjo tunes in tablature based on the music of Wade Ward, Fred Cockerham, Henry Reed and others. With tunings and all basic right and left hand techniques: drop-thumbing, the Galax lick, pull-offs, slide & plucking.'

Just giving Shortnin Bread a try out - good the practising drop-thumb. The book also gives a lot of context for clawhammer playing style to accompany a fiddle player. Also some interesting tabs for tunes in D tunings.

Little Log Cabin Round the Lane - Uncle John Scruggs (1928)

I've been reading 'Escaping the Delta' by Elijah Wald and in one chapter he mentions a piece of film about Uncle John Scruggs from 1928. Two minutes later there it is on Youtube, and its a fantastic clip.