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Thread: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

  1. #1
    Registered User mbruno's Avatar
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    Default Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    I just started getting into this tune as a recommendation from a jam. Oddly enough, I don't think I've heard it before - but I can't stop listening to it.

    I've listened to a bunch of different versions of this tune including John Hartford's, Special Consensus, Tyler Childers, and Molly Tuttle - and there's some differences in them all. I'm really liking how the Special Consensus version from the Rivers and Roads album starts with the chords in A major, then moving to E minor.

    Anyway - what's your favorite version of this tune? Artist and ideally an album please
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    Registered User danielpatrick's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    That version of Special Cs is actually the Hartford version that transitions into their version. Pretty cool.

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  4. #3
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    I think that the John Hartford version is the one that comes to mind for most people. I learned it from this video of Sharon Gilchrist and Darrol Anger and it sounds almost identical in the beginning.


    Charley

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    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Oh that tune… had to wade through quite a few poor dead animals to find this.
    Here’s the version that almost got me to replace my mandolin with a fiddle.
    This is a CLASSIC!


    https://youtu.be/4K_1uk1YHac

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    Registered User Bob Buckingham's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Interestingly enough, the tune is a fife tune collected by the late Samuel Bayard a professor from Penn State who amassed two books worth of tunes from Pennsylvania. Fife's and fiddles were popular as they were very portable. You can find Hill Country Tunes on line, the other book is Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife which is a little more illusive. The fun thing with this tune is how you harmonize it. Some folks play it with an A and G chord, but you get a great motion from moving from Em to G and A in the first part and using G and A in the second part. The tune is unusual as it ends on the A chord. As with many fiddle tunes it is all in how you frame it with the chords.

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    Registered User Ky Slim's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Squirrel Hunters is definitely an earworm. The John Hartford version is the first that I heard. Here's a killer BG take on it.


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    NY Naturalist BradKlein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Here's a nice close up of Mike Compton's playing. And of course you can slow it down to learn.

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    Registered User lowtone2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?


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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Adam Steffey off his album New Primitive: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_nmO-awmQ

    Steffey playing old-time music? Pure bliss

    There was also a transcription book for this album sold online at one point.

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    Registered User lowtone2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?


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  17. #11
    bass player gone mando
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Special Consensus from Rivers and Roads. Love the modulation from the A part to the B part once the whole band joins in. The Mike Compton version is great because it's Mike but those aren't my preferred chords. The Gilchrist version is really good too.

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  19. #12
    Dave Berry
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    +1 on this one Charles. I musta played it 100X and still never tire of it.
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  20. #13
    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Quote Originally Posted by joh View Post
    Adam Steffey off his album New Primitive: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_nmO-awmQ

    Steffey playing old-time music? Pure bliss

    There was also a transcription book for this album sold online at one point.
    Its listed available from hayesgriffin.com. NFI, bought my copy when first published.
    Not all the clams are at the beach

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  21. #14
    Economandolinist Amanda Gregg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Buckingham View Post
    Interestingly enough, the tune is a fife tune collected by the late Samuel Bayard a professor from Penn State who amassed two books worth of tunes from Pennsylvania. Fife's and fiddles were popular as they were very portable. You can find Hill Country Tunes on line, the other book is Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife which is a little more illusive. The fun thing with this tune is how you harmonize it. Some folks play it with an A and G chord, but you get a great motion from moving from Em to G and A in the first part and using G and A in the second part. The tune is unusual as it ends on the A chord. As with many fiddle tunes it is all in how you frame it with the chords.
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  23. #15
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Apple/Apricot sauce. (The mandolin is just out of the picture).
    This is the beginning with the apricots, juice of four lemons and lemon rind. The apples, cinnamon and coconut flakes are added afterwards.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Getting there…
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Have to admit it.
    I can’t simultaneously play jazz and think about food.
    On the other hand, when I play OldTime I can’t stop myself:
    'Mmmmhum, what’s cooking?'!
    Last edited by Simon DS; Jun-06-2022 at 11:17am.

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  25. #16
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Quote Originally Posted by mbruno View Post
    Anyway - what's your favorite version of this tune? Artist and ideally an album please
    It is a fun tune. I had never heard a recorded version before.

    We play it very close to the way it is in Bayard, not for any reason except that is how we heard it.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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  26. #17
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Um, is there squirrel in there? If not, what does it have to do with the tune "Squirrel Hunters"?

    This was directed to Simon in post #15
    Charley

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  27. #18
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Double post.
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

  28. #19
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Quote Originally Posted by Charles E. View Post
    Um, is there squirrel in there? If not, what does it have to do with the tune "Squirrel Hunters"?

    This was directed to Simon in post #15
    No, no squirrels hunted. Though sometimes just the tune title itself can inspire people to play to the best of their abilities.
    But it’s the rhythm and the double stop runs.
    Apple sauce! Bon appétit les amis!!



  29. #20
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Well, since we are discussing cooking, after a successful day of squirrel hunting you have to eat them. So you could play a medley of "Squirrel Hunters" and "Squirrel Heads And Gravy".....


    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

  30. #21

    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Quote Originally Posted by BradKlein View Post
    Here's a nice close up of Mike Compton's playing. And of course you can slow it down to learn.

    Beat me to it. This is the one I was gonna rec too. David Benedict has a good lesson about the basics of the tune too.

  31. #22
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Whenever I am looking for the "historically true" version of a tune I check out the Library of Congress. Sometimes they are there, sometimes not but always interesting to see what Lomax or Lunsford found during their songcatching years.

  32. #23
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Mead View Post
    ... always interesting to see what Lomax or Lunsford found during their songcatching years.
    The quotation marks on "historically true" are appropriate. IMO. Collected versions of tunes are more like the version in common play at the time these collectors wandered by. Likely lots of development and evolution way before the tunes were "discovered" by a wider audience. Many folks I know try and "collect" the first version ever recorded, which makes some sense, keeping in mind that recording was a relatively recent event in the history of some of the tunes we play.

    It is easy to see that a tune is always changing. What I found somewhat disconcerting to realize was that these tunes have always been always changing.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

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  34. #24
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Simon, thanks for posting that Wilders version. Love it!

  35. #25
    NY Naturalist BradKlein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Squirrel Hunters - Which version?

    Quote Originally Posted by thesecretmandolinist View Post
    Beat me to it. This is the one I was gonna rec too. David Benedict has a good lesson about the basics of the tune too.
    Listening more carefully, it's kind of wild how different the melodies are even among the versions that connect directly to John Hartford. For example, Hartford in the second measure goes up to F#, and that's how Benedict teaches it. But Compton goes up to G in that measure. And in the last measure of Part A, Compton lands on a C# over A double stop, when I'd expect a D over A, to go with the D chord.
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