# Music by Genre > Old-Time, Roots, Early Country, Cajun, Tex-Mex >  Clyde Curley and the Portland Collection

## Cary Fagan

Many old time players know the CD "Old Time Mandolin Music"by Clyde Curley and the Oxymorons.

But I'm not sure how many know of Clyde's work co-editing two substantial and fine collections of "contra dance music in the Pacific Northwest"--old time, fiddle, and Irish music basically.  There are also three related CDs that have Clyde playing mandolin, octave mandolin, and tenor banjo.  Very good stuff. They have a web site, where the Oxymorons CD is also for sale.  No financial interest here, just passing it on.

http://www.theportlandcollection.com/index.htm

(I'm writing an article about the mandolin in old time for The Old Time Herald. I spent a fine hour on the phone with Clyde the other day. He had some very interesting and pointed thoughts on how the mandolin can best be part of the music.)

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## Spruce

Love Clyde's playing on that ol' F4....

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## Paul Kotapish

I just saw Clyde over the last weekend--he put on a concert for us (Open House with Kevin Burke, Mark Graham, Sandy Silva, and me) up in Bellingham, WA. 

We played some tunes after the show and after breakfast in the morning, and he's playing better than ever on guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. Clyde and I played a lot back in the '70s in the Highwater String Band and in a trio with our pal Ruthie Dornfeld on fiddle. We're working on doing do a few gigs with that trio in the spring. Should be fun.

He's not playing the F-4 these days, though. He has a dandy Stan Miller rosewood A-5 that sounds wonderful.

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## Spruce

> He's not playing the F-4 these days, though. He has a dandy Stan Miller rosewood A-5 that sounds wonderful.


Oh wow....
Kinda sorry to hear that one of the F4 torchbearers has moved on....  
At least I know where the wood from that Miller A5 came from....   :Wink:

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## Cary Fagan

Paul K,
In our talk Clyde spoke of you as one of his mandolin inspirations.  And so I was just listening to you here and there on the net.  So i'm pleased you've chimed in.

As for the F4 mandolin, Clyde still plays one (a 1918, not the one from the Oxymorons CD).  But the A5 Miller cuts through in a noisy situation better.  (If Clyde sees any of this, I hope he doesn't mind me representing him!)

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## RobP

I have gotten some of my favorite fiddle tunes from the Portland Collections.  Great Material!

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## Clyde Curley

Let me put in an oar here: First, thanks for all the kind words about my playing and projects. I do love the mandolin, but remain heavily conflicted about actually playing the damn thing! Having said that, I soldier on. Plinky, plinky!

Spruce, I still carry the torch, but Paul's right in a sense. The F-4 I own sits mostly up in the closet. But I am fond of it, and depending on mood and project, I do get it out now and then. Mostly, I'm hypnotized by the Miller A-5 I've had for a little more than a year. (I bought it new from Stan in Bellingham; it was finished in May '09.) The Honduran rosewood gives it a tone quality that tends toward the old Gibson oval-hole instruments while it projects like the f-hole animal that it is. Mike Schway here in Bellingham got me interested when he bought an A-5 from Stan (his is maple). Lord knows I've bought and sold enough mandos over the long haul, but this particular sweetie is mine for life (or what's left of it!).

Stan is a great guy and wonderful to work with. It's been a pleasure getting to know him personally. His mandolins are things of beauty and musical instruments par excellence. Check him out at http://millermandolins.com/

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## Paul Lucas

FYI... For your learning pleasure.

I've transcribed the Briarpicker Brown/Leake County Two-Step/Deer Walk medley from Clyde's Old Time Mandolin Music CD as three separate tunes.  You can find the three tunes scattered around the lessons section of my website -> http://www.oldtimemandolin.com.

The transcriptions are not note-for-note transcriptions of Clyde's playing, but they will give you a good sense of how to adapt an Old Time tune to the mandolin via the Clyde Curley method.   :Smile: 

I've also transcribed and posted the Cumberland Gap part of the Cumberland Gap/The Billy Church Memorial Breakdown medley.  The second half of the medley, Billy Church Memorial Breakdown (which is really named Cat on a Leash - ask Clyde for details), is copyrighted and I haven't ask the composer for permission to put the tab on my website.  You can find a more fiddle oriented version of Billy Church Memorial Breakdown AKA Cat on a Leash in one of the Portland Collection books.

I hope to get around to putting a couple more tunes from the Old Time Mandolin Music CD on the site soon.

Clyde's Old Time Mandolin Music CD is one of my all time favorite OTM mandolin CDs.  The CD has been a huge influence on the way I approach playing OTM on the mando.  I've purchased and given away at least a dozen copies of the CD to other mando playing friends. 

My favorite tune on the CD is Indiana Breakdown, which is another tune I need to get the composer's permission to post on my website.

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## JeffD

> My favorite tune on the CD is Indiana Breakdown, which is another tune I need to get the composer's permission to post on my website.


My favorite is Hunting the Buffalo, where (as is not often the case) the harmonica actually adds to the overall wonder and beauty of the tune.

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## Paul Lucas

> My favorite is Hunting the Buffalo, where (as is not often the case) the harmonica actually adds to the overall wonder and beauty of the tune.


Also an excellent tune from OTMM.  I've never asked Clyde, but I'm guessing he crossed tuned the mandolin AEAE for that tune.  I figured it out in standard tuning, but I've been meaning to try the tune with mando crossed tune.

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## JeffD

> Also an excellent tune from OTMM.  I've never asked Clyde, but I'm guessing he crossed tuned the mandolin AEAE for that tune.  I figured it out in standard tuning, but I've been meaning to try the tune with mando crossed tune.


OTMM has been in my mp3 rotation of 3000 old time tunes. When Hunting the Buffalo comes up I have to hear it again. I finally looked it up in the Portland Collection. I play it pretty much as written, in standard tuning. I have to think through it a bit to see if it would be easier in cross.

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## Paul Lucas

The Portland Collection has Hunting the Buffalo notated as a single line melody.  On OTMM I always thought it sounded like Clyde was playing most of the tune with double stops (the Curley Old Time Mandolin treatment), hence my idea that Clyde crossed tuned his mandolin.  You don't have to cross tune the mando to play all the double stops, but the B part would a bit easier to play if the GD strings were crossed tuned to AE.

Maybe Clyde can chime in and let us know what he did/does on Hunting the Buffalo.

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## Paul Lucas

FYI... Just added tab to Grub Springs from CC & OMs OTMM CD to the lesson section of my Old Time Mandolin Music website (see link in signature).

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## JeffD

The Grub Springs I learned from Greg Canote differs significantly from that in Portland. Enough to make me think they are different tunes entirely. They are both good tunes, but Greg's is more OT sounding.

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## Paul Lucas

In my iTunes library I have a half dozen versions of Grub Springs.  The oldest version is one by a fiddler named W.E. Claunch from a Library of Congress recording.  His version is the farthest away, melody-wise, from Clyde's version.  

Molsky, Mando Mafia, Rhys Jones, and Tatiana Hargreaves' versions are much closer to Clyde's version of Grub Springs.

Unfortunately, I didn't see Greg Canote's version of Grub Springs available on one of his CDs.  Ask Greg if he'll post a version on YouTube.    :Smile:

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## Paul Lucas

JeffD -

I found Greg Canote's version of Grub Springs which is based on the W.E. Claunch version.  I found the website where all the Canote's class tunes are kept.  What a great treasure trove of music!  For Grub Springs click on the D Tunes link at the top of this page - http://www.stringband.mossyroof.com/

Thanks for pointing me to the Canote Brothers.  What great stuff.  If we can only get them out to Chicago!  Seems like all the best OTM stuff is happening on the West Coast or East Coast.   Maybe it's the weather here.   :Smile:

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## JeffD

The Canote Brothers are great. Musically they are superb of course, but equally important is the attitude with which they approach the music. Suddenly... its fun. 

I took a fiddle course with Greg at Swannanoa a bit ago. OK yea I am a bit better at fiddle. But mostly he screwed my head on right about how to approach playing old timey. Suddenly... its fun.



Then I found him playing fiddle in a Hank Williams tribute band in Ballard, near Seattle. OMG they were great.

See below, Greg on fiddle, Jere on guitar. Various folks between.

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## Paul Lucas

Jeff thanks for sharing the Youtube videos.  These are great!  Their playing is infectious.  You can tell they really enjoy playing OTM.

I decided to tab out the Grub Springs version that Greg taught at his OTM Stringband class in the Winter of '06.  I posted my mando version/interpretation on my website (see signature below) under the lessons section.  Let me know if you think it's close to what Greg taught you (minus some of the fiddling nuances).

Thanks again for pointing me to the Canote brothers.

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## gus garelick

Nice to see all the comments about Clyde Curley's mandolin playing and the Portland Collection.  I did a radio interview with Clyde and co-author Susan Songer for my "Fiddlin Zone" program, on KRCB-FM in Santa Rosa, California, and published a transcription of that interview in The Fiddler Magazine, Winter 2009; the article was called "The Making of the Portland Collection."  It was a very easy interview to do, since Clyde and I were graduate students about a million years ago at San Francisco State University.  He says I turned him on to the New Lost City Ramblers back then, but I really don't remember.  (It was in the 60s, so of course I don't remember!)  I also don't remember if he had that old Gibson F-4 in those days;  I think he was more of a guitar player back then.  Since our student days, he moved to Vancouver, then Astoria, then Portland-- so we sort of lost touch.  It's great to hear his mandolin tunes.  He sent me a cassette copy of his recording (Tunes of the Gods) years ago.  I sent him a recent CD of one of my recordings with my Italian band, The Hot Frittatas.  I don't think he's likely to change his style, but he said he liked it, and that says a lot!  Happy holidays, Clyde, if you're reading this.

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## Clyde Curley

I just stumbled back into these pages almost by accident only to discover that there's been considerable further chat about the Oxymoron mandolin album. I'm thrilled, delighted and humbled that so many folks like that music! Thanks for your generous comments. Now, about the cross-tuning: Yes, the F-4 is cross-tuned for both Hunting the Buffalo and Grub Springs. I tuned the E strings down to D and the A strings down to G, thus ending with GDGD tuning (bottom up). Then I put a banjo capo on the second fret to bring the sucker up to A. (I wouldn't dream of tuning those heavy bottom strings up a whole pitch for fear of hearing my instrument shrieking in pain and distress!) I have three mandolins around the house, and I keep one always in GDGD tuning. It sounds great, and I encourage all pickers out there to try it. Here's an interesting story: One year I was a mandolin tutor at the Port Townsend Fiddle Tunes Festival, and I had my class go into cross tuning (as per above, but without the capo). John Hatton, who was running the camp store, thanked me at the end of the week for helping him sell so many E and A mandolin strings. Seems the participants were coming to my sessions, tuning down, then tuning back up again after leaving. A few days of this, and snap! Pop! I can hear 'em now!

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## Charles E.

What in the heck is up with the Mando-Bass bodied Kalimba!?

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## John Flynn

> What in the heck is up with the Mando-Bass bodied Kalimba!?


What? You don't have one in your stringband?

I got curious about that too. I found the link below, where a guy built his own bass kalimba, just using a box-type body. He has a link to build instructions and I'm sure you could go to the extra effort to do a mando-bass body shape if you wanted to. At the second link, a kalimba recording artist took a cheap cello, cut the neck off of it and put bass kalimba "twangers" on the body. It's at the bottom of the page. Not suggesting you would want to do any of that, just that I found it interesting.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f147/n...player-680580/

http://www.bobdanziger.com/musicandsound.html

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## JeffD

> I have three mandolins around the house, and I keep one always in GDGD tuning. It sounds great, and I encourage all pickers out there to try it.


I have messed about with cross tuning, AEAE mostly, (well GDGD with capo as you point out), and it can be a lot of fun. I have also experimented with Calico tuning, AEAC#. And yes, I find it much easier to keep one instrument in cross all the time.

But Hunting the Buffalo in cross, wow. I have played it regular tuning for a while now and developed all kinds of kookie double stops for it, especially to get that F#m chord in there. I am not sure I would be able to play it in cross.

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## efriedman

My husband and I have enjoyed playing music from Portland Collection almost nightly. In fact, we've enjoyed it so much that I've put together a page describing our experience with the collection:

http://www.squidoo.com/portland-coll...mandolin-music

We were pleased when Clyde Curley contacted us to say that he liked the page very much.   :Mandosmiley:

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## Eddie Sheehy

I've just bought The Portland Collection One and Two (and their CD's) to build a repertoire of Contra Dance music.  I'm looking forward to working on them...

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## Eddie Sheehy

There's a cool intro (double-stops/chords on Octave Mandolin?) on Round The Horn... Anyone know what the chord/double-stop sequence is?

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