# Song and Tune Projects > Song and Tune Projects >  name for this Gm tune

## stevebenn

I recorded this tune off of a website where someone was demonstrating a couple of mandolins. I don't remember the name of the player and he never gave a name for the tune. If anyone can provide a name I would appreciate it. This is a Q&D tab of the A part.
Steve B.

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## stevebenn

Okay, I should have checked the tab a bit more closly before posting it. The open string D note, fourth note of first full measure, should actually be an open string A note.

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## EdHanrahan

Okay... I'll stick my neck out and guess that it's just some nice Gm noodling.  Note that the closing 2 measures are SO familiar, and so generic, that they're probably part of several hundred tunes and many thousand "improvised" breaks.  Or I could be missing the boat completely!

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## Steve Jeter

I just played it, neat feel.

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## stevebenn

I don't think it's Gm noodling, there is a definite structure to the tune and the guy who plays it does some nice variations on the A part the second time he plays it. It could be an original that he wrote and therefore somewhat obscure ... that's my guess from the lack of response. The B part is very nice, and it's crooked. 
Steve

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## Jim Garber

> I don't think it's Gm noodling, there is a definite structure to the tune and the guy who plays it does some nice variations on the A part the second time he plays it. It could be an original that he wrote and therefore somewhat obscure ... that's my guess from the lack of response. The B part is very nice, and it's crooked. 
> Steve


Can you post the video? That might help.

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## AlanN

I've picked it, per the tab, in a couple of grooves. It has a bit of a Ronnie M feel to it, but can't ID it as a tune I know/can name, sorry.

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## stevebenn

It definitely wasn't Ronnie playing it on the video, which I can't find anywhere on Youtube so I'm at a loss there. I have an MP3, that I recorded from the video but I'm reluctant to upload it to my Soundcloud account since it's someone else playing the tune.

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## stevebenn

Okay I bit the bullet and posted this Q&D version of me playing the mystery tune.

https://youtu.be/POUZlU-mXO4

SteveB

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## Drew Egerton

Not sure what tune that is, but a pretty nice sounding mandolin. Nice job Steve.

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## Ky Slim

I can't place it but it sounds like a Dawg tune.

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## sgarrity

It does sound familiar

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## Don Grieser

Sam Bush: "Poor Richard's Blues"

Did I win something?  :Mandosmiley: 

I learned it awhile back.

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Jess L., 

Ky Slim

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## sgarrity

I knew I'd heard it somewhere!  Now i can stop searching through iTunes!    :Grin:

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## stevebenn

Well dang ... or some other expletive ... thanks! It has become my favorite tune of late and knowing it has a name and it's a Sam tune makes it that much better. But also a little embarrassing ... I should have recognized the Samness of it, and I worked on his tune Diadem not too long ago, which is also in Gm and I knew there was something about this tune.

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## AlanN

Good on ya, Don! I think it's in one of Sam's Instructional books.

Yep, the Homespun book, 1974

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## Don Grieser

Steve, it's a great tune and needs to be played more. The Samness of it--that's a good one. Gm is such a great key on the mandolin. And your Gray mandolin sounds great.

Thanks Alan and Shaun!

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## stevebenn

Gmail is indeed a great mandolin key! Glad you like the Gray, I've had for a little over a year and it continues to open up and sound better. It is essentially identical to the one Randy Jones was playing with LRB ... carpathian spruce top, one piece back and 3 coats of French polish ... and he does a great job tap tuning the top and back.

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## AlanN

Gm, Bb are great keys for the mandolin. New Camptown Races, Done Gone, some Herschel Sizemore, Butch Baldassari tunes come to mind. And the tone of that Gray mandolin leaps out.

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## ralph johansson

> Gm, Bb are great keys for the mandolin. New Camptown Races, Done Gone, some Herschel Sizemore, Butch Baldassari tunes come to mind. And the tone of that Gray mandolin leaps out.


Indeed they are. Add Cheyenne and Crossing the Cumberlands to the list.

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## AlanN

Another one is Daley's Reel, tough to play it up to speed, as Adam Steffey does off a Tony Furtado record. And I went back to Bounce Away, Sizemore's most excellent 70's recording. On there is a fine tune he composed called Fiddler's Creek. Funny story about that: I recorded it off the radio, onto cassette, back when it came out. I sort of learned it, but in A chord, because my tape had slowed down, due to age or decomposition and that was the key, or so I thought. Many years later, I played it for Herschel, he said "Alan, you know that's in Bb, right?" I told him the story about the tape, we laughed...and I still can't pick it like he does, daggnabbitt.

Another Gm tune he wrote is Bluegrass Minor, off a Shenandoah Cutups record. Cool tune with a somewhat off kilter B part. Legend has it that Monroe heard it, liked it, stole it and came up with Kentucky Mandolin (at least the A part.)

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## terzinator

Reminds me a little of Maury River Blues.

It's not, but it's like it.

http://hillcountrystringworks.com/me...trumental_.mp3

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