Banjo Hangout Top 100 Songs

Original Cello Banjo 3-finger picking Tuning: A C# A B E

Known as the Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers (1897 - 1933) songs are fun to sing, but lyrically a bit sad. His yodel is famous!

Messing around with this English Ballad tonight.

Clawhammer take on Trad march. Double D tuning. Wildwood.

I've got an old Skillet Licker's 78 with this piece recorded. Riley sings...Cabbage in the garden , bees in the gum, Sal Let me chew your rozen some.

"Meg Gray" from the fiddle playing of George Hawkins. Played by Bob Lanham on a Vega Tubaphone banjo.

Another rearrangement of the handful of notes I know how to play. In Double C.

Learned from the fiddling of well-known Missourian Lonnie Robertson (1908 - 1981). I'm just becoming familiar with some of his work and am impressed by his smooth, clear, fast playing.

CH take on a Trad jig. vega 2, G tuning.

Played on a Nechville Phantom. Yup.. tonering, resonator...

imagining Earl and Jimi at some blues dive in Clarksdale

Grassabilly version of a Monroe sonf that transcends genre

A tune collected by Tom Sauber & recorded on the Banjo Gathering album produced by Steve Baughman as a fundraiser for the Swannanoa Gathering. Tom learned it from Peter Tomlinson Bell, who learned it from his father during the Civil War. It's a version of 'Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine.' I play it here out of A modal. Thanks to my wife Lucy for backing me up on guitar.

Original tune on cigar box banjo

jazz classic

American The Beautiful, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and God Bless America. I really enjoy playing this and seems people enjoying hearing it. I recorded it in the Key of 'C'. Hope you enjoy it also

From the fiddling of Bruce Greene who learned it from Uncle George Nicholson (born in Laurel Co., KY in 1854). This tune reminds me of another I've heard before. For some reason the tune gives me a deep sense of deja vu when Bruce plays it. It's on his solo fiddle CD Five Miles of Ellum Wood.

This arrangement of Big Mon mixes melodic, Scruggs, and single-string approaches.

Clawhammer take on a Reel from the Shetland Islands written by Ian Burns. G tuning but way low.

The date hasn't rung any bells yet, but the minor key sure gives it a rather melancholy feel. I listened to some vintage Piney Creek Weasels to arrange this one and used a rare Am tuning rare -- aEACE.

I thought I would try my hand at this old Hank Williams song with a bluesy feel.

Tunaday #106 - In G Modal-f (fDGCD).

Original tune on cigar box banjo and guitar

Made this banjo duet recording with Ed Britt back in November, 2014. We still play it when we go busking in Harvard Square.

From the CD "The Old Texas Fiddle, Vol. II", with Howard Rains and Tricia Spencer, fiddles; Brendan Doyle, banjo; Nancy Hartness, guitar; Charlie Hartness, ukulele; Virginia Musser, bass. Recorded in December, 2014 by Mike West at the 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor, Lawrence, KS.

This old-time Tune of the Week for 8/11/17 reminds us in melody of some other traditional songs, such as Gotta Travel On and even Worried Man Blues. The Monroe Brothers recorded this as their first ever recording in 1936 and Bill said that it was commonly sung in Kentucky at the time.

A happy song, fun to play, with images of little Appaloosas kicking up their heels. Mine was named Cookie. When I sold her, I was able to buy my Bart Reiter Whyte Laydie, so my banjo is named Cookie, too. Honestly.

My abbreviated version of Seeger's classic anti-war anthem with a I/vi/IV/V bridge added for color.

grassabilly blues

D-Tuners... etc

My stab at this good ole fiddle tune.

R.E.M. alternative rock song

J. J. Cale's classic blues song set in A minor

Grateful Dead classic built on a descending G scale

my attempt at a Townes Van Zandt classic...it's in the key of G...backing musicians compliments of Band In A Box...

CH take on Irish Reel composed by Michael Gorman. AB AB. Wildwood. D tuning

This is the Luther Davis version of Sail Away Ladies, or at least my interpretation of it. Presented for Tune Of The Week for August 2nd, 2018. In any case a fine tune!

A tune from Alan Munde's Banjo Sandwich album. Key of F.

Rose for Polly is a pretty, 3-part song in a minor key. Perhaps it makes for a good love story -- a hopeful suitor gives her a rose, she responds sweetly, but with a bit of reservation, though continuing to offer hope.

Tradesman fretless~

Frosty Morn is the old-time Tune of the Week, 8/24/18. Related to Cold Frosty Morning in some of its melody and chordal movement, here's a medley of the two. The first was learned from the guitar flat-picking of Doc Watson, who I idolize. The second was learned from Miles Krassen's Clawhammer Banjo book. He used Henry Reed's version which he had published previously in his Appalachia Fiddle book. Sawmill tuning, playing on my Doc's Banjo.

I learned this C tune from a 1931 Okeh recording of the Mississippi old time string bad the Newton County Hillbillies, featuring Alvis Massengale on fiddle. It's a practice recording from a few years ago, uploaded for the 11/11/22 Old Time TOTW. I am three finger picking my 1928 Vega Tubaphone with a semi-fretless conversion neck, in double C tuning (gCGCD)

Ric Hollander - My arrangement of Kitchen Girl. Played on the Romero with Nylgut strings. Arrangement: Copyright 2012 Ric Hollander - All Rights Reserved

Probably another one of the very first tunes I learned from John Corzine in So. Cal. My friend and I still can't resist the affectionate name "Sally in the Garbage."

I posted another Tommy Jackson tune unknowingly the other day..."Snowflake Reel". JanetB was kind enough to give me some background on the tune and add a very nice clawhammer arrangement. This led to us trading messages about a collaberation of another Jackson tune. It was a bit different for us both. Not too bad for a first time collab...she plays the cello banjo and gracefully states the melody and I come in later like an overexcited 2nd time beginner ('cause it's what I am!) and barrel through the changes again with Janet's accompaniment. My ending is a little exaggerated, but it was good fun, and I hope to do another soon. Thanks Janet for your nice playing and your use of the garage band software.

TOTW 03/11/23: Waltz written by James Scott Skinner, also known as "The Rose Of Sharon Waltz" and "Rosebud Of Avonmore"

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 4/13/18, Snake wrote this tune during a recording session and it was was recorded and kept for posterity with this title that was reminiscent of his experience as a child of being knocked down by an angry hornet.

For the old-time Tune of the Week, March 23, 2018. Susannah Gal goes by other titles. This one comes from the duet CD of Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham, both from the Round Peak, NC region. Their B part is unique, but they play it together and so it sounds great. Fred adds slides which I attempted to include, too. They must have had lots of fun playing together!

Original tune on cigar box banjo and guitar

For the old-time Tune of the Week, Green Willis is named for a fiddler from Willis, Virginia. It's also called The Raw Recruit. When it's played in slow jig time, it's called Chapel Hill March. Go back far enough to Scotland and it was called Da New Rigged Ship. Lots to think about here on this cheerful tune that reminds me of a new soldier marching enthusiastically.

This is the arrangement from my new Mel Bay book "The Best of Jack Hatfield"

my arrangement and adaptation of a Merle Travis guitar instrumental to banjo...it's in Dm and shifts to Dmaj for the bridge...

this Johnny Cash song has been covered by a lot of folks including Flatt & Scruggs..I used to do it a lot at dance gigs because it makes a pretty good 2-step dance song...

a tune i played a few years back

This year I have recorded a simple version of Frosty the Snowman. It was written for Gene Autry in 1950 by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson. It became a hit for many others as well and also became the centerpiece of a television special. One of my favorite uses of the song is as the ironic background that it provides in the "Don’t Buy Anything” scene (R rated) in Goodfellas. That version was sung by the Ronettes. This song has no mention of any holidays, so please accept my holiday wishes for kindness, compassion, and generosity in this season and for the new year.

Ok, heres a second take. I shorted the backing track to about 2:50 instead of the original 5 minutes (haha). I used a mute on the banjo this time, added some reveb and EQ'd to get more 'snap'.

Just holding the banjo and fooling around, sometimes you come up with a sound you like.

another with some fine players

Hope ya'll enjoy this ''Skeeter Davis'' country hit from 1962. ''Chet Atkins'' stamped his arranging polish on this one, as he did with so many other legends, back then. ... Thanks for tunin' in. ... Don. ... Key, Eb - tuning CGBD.

An old pop tune from McGuire and Andrews sisters and from Les Paul and Mary Ford. Travis picking.

Me and Ivan Rosenberg (Dobro)...from our album Farewell Trion