This month's challenge is "Paddy on the Turnpike". This seems to be one of those tunes that has undergone transformation over the ages, from Celtic to Bluegrass. Choose your favorite flavor and chime in. There are versions of the tune at mandozine.com, thesession.org, Pete Martin's Old Time Fiddle Tunes volume 2, http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/ir...n_turnpike.htm, etc.
I see Monroe and Bush arrangements in G, but my old time jam group has the tune in Gm and I find that key common as I look at "old time" arrangements vs bluegrass arrangements. Now I'm torn. I like to learn the version my jam group uses, but G is sooooo much easier than Gm I could tackle a harder technical arrangement like Bush's in G.
Kevin, learn both. Problem solved! You're welcome.
I see why Sam Bush's instrument is so scuffed up now - he really goes after it!! Thanks for posting these, @Kevin, very inspiring.
In the mid '60's I bought an Elektra LP called "Old Time Banjo Project", recorded by a bunch of different folks. This was back in my banjo days, folks, so no crossover aspirations are in force here. There are a bunch of really good tunes on it. Paddy on the Turnpike is there -- I had never heard the tune before, so that version really stuck in my mind as the 'definitive' version. I never figured out how to play it (I tried). In the last two weeks I have been working on POTT using a TEF from mandozine that seemed to come closer to my memory of how it "ought" to sound than others. But it just kept clashing with what I wanted to be able to play. So yesterday, I found the CD I made from the LP and grabbed the POTT track. Loaded it into Transcribe! and went to work. Here is an excerpt from the track and following that is a version of the tune transcribed into a TEF. mp3 excerpt: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1If...35E6xAKWf_Edi2 POTT tef: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UO...NakBcBO0P4aF1Y I plan to work from that TEF now. Maybe find an easier key (this is C dorian, key signature is Bb). Maybe embellish a bit. I bring all this up because I was really surprised at how easy it was to make the transcription using Transcribe! There is definitely a bit of a learning curve, but after some exploring around the menus and a few trips to the help file, I was off to the races. One thing that really helped was the built-in EQ. I filtered out all frequencies above and below the range of where I thought the melody was running. This pretty much chopped out the dulcimer and all the overtones and focused right on the banjo, making it much easier to hear what exactly was going on. And of course I use the slowdown feature. Mark recommended this software to me a few months ago but this is the first real use I have made of it. I was very pleasantly surprised. You can download a free 30-day trial here: https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/download.html , $39 if you buy a license. I give it my official honkety hank stamp of approval.
I like the sound of your TEF file, have to learn that. Great low voice to it!
This has got to be one of those chameleon tunes that changes depending on the context. I've never heard a version anything like the excerpt. I like it, but don't recognize it there.
Maybe this is the dulcimer version, adapted for banjo.
Re the very different versions of POTT Still polishing 'my' version of POTT, ie, the one I remember from the Elektra LP. But in the above I mentioned that I had been working on another version the first couple of weeks of this month. I said it came from mandozine, but actually ... A few minutes ago I was digging around at thesession.org and saw a new post regarding The Teetotallers Reel. Listened to the midi version of the tune and thought Wow, that sounds familiar. Scrolled down throught the comments and found a post from one HonketyHank about a year ago claiming that Paddy on the Turnpike, version 1A, from the Fiddlers Fakebook was a very similiar tune. Said HonketyHank also claimed that the settings of POTT to be found at thesession.org did not include a version like the Teetotallers. I kinda vaguely remember posting that comment, now that I see the evidence. So, my guess now is that the Fiddlers Fakebook version 1A is actually The Teetotallers Reel but misidentified. And the version I am now working on? Probably something else, too, but too late to start over again again. ps: Imagonna have a surprise in the POTT vid, when I eventually get it done. Don't touch that dial.
OK, July is drawing to a close and this is the best recording of several takes. That darn video camera just forces my fingers into new and unusual configurations. But the big deal is that a mandolin I have had my eye on for several weeks as the owner gradually brought his ask down is now mine. It got down to a point where I could make my best offer without offending the seller and we made a deal. I am surprised it didn't go for more. Anyway, it is a Weber Yellowstone, made in Bend, Oregon, in 2015, signed by Bruce Weber. It is in very good condition and sounds wonderful. What is really interesting to me is that I have played quite a few Webers and they all have sounded great -- yet different. This one seems to have a throaty bass with a lot of punch. I am going to have to release a mandolin or two back into the wild. My habits are unsustainable and my wonderful wife was giving me a very hairy eyeball over this one. This is tough - which baby do you sacrifice on the alter of MAS?
Happy NMD, Henry! That's really cool. I've only ever played one, belonged to one of those Nashville cats who came to a local jam here, it was nice. Dang, try not to mourn too much after you say goodbye to one of your babies. Off to watch your video now ...
Good job Henry, also I like the shirt that says pick pick pick pick pick, etc. But I just caught a glimpse of it, it took a while to get my eyeballs back in, that Weber knocked my eyeballs out. Wow!
Nice mando Henry, I have always admired 2 points and you can't go wrong with Weber (at least the Montana ones)
Mark, here's the shirt without the eye candy distraction: I have gotten a few stares and smiles when I wear out in public. I think it is available from Cafe Press. Kevin, I am really impressed with the sound and 'fit and finish' even as I admit that I was a bit apprehensive about its non-Montana provenance. I think Bruce W must have built a good team while he was in Bend. I don't plan on going out of my way to do it, but I am curious to play a recent non-Weber Weber. I am hoping some day to visit the Webers' new digs, just to shake his hand and say thanks for his contribution to my and many others' enjoyment of mandolinnin'. I laid some preliminary plans to do it a few months ago, but I had some other things come up that interfered.
Lots to like there, Henry—a new shirt, a very pretty new mandolin, some good playing. And even a short history lesson; I was wondering about the use of the word "turnpike." Didn't know it was that old. That version sounds absolutely nothing like either of the ones I have found, not even close.
Congratulations on the Weber, Henry. Sorry that it requires you to thin the herd. I've never been good at "catch and release", just the catch part. Your version of the tune seems to merge the versions I know. It's hard to know what the relationship between the versions is without a paternity test, but I begin to see how they might have come from a common root. Thanks for that contribution.
