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Thread: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

  1. #1
    Registered User chris.burcher's Avatar
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    Default Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    I apologize for the lack of mandolin content, but figured this group might be able to help.

    I feel in love with all things bluegrass in the '90s and spent most of the next 15 years in a bluegrass bubble, playing mandolin in a traditional band, hitting multiple festivals each year, and consuming every recording I could get my hands on. Though my tastes moved away from bluegrass and into jazz and, well all other music, really, I still feel rooted in bluegrass, Americana, and the mando, guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, sometimes resonator world.

    As my life and tastes moved away from 'that world of bluegrass', I found myself pining for good old fiddle and banjo. Looking back, it seems this was a fairly rare occurrence. Maybe one cut on every tenth album and maybe one brief stint on stage at a festival. For example, I have probably seen the Del McCoury band 25 times but only recall seeing Jason Carter and Rob M doing a duet once. But something about a fiddle and a banjo - with no other instrumentation or vocals - playing a traditional, and often basic, tune really creates something magical. The interplay of finger picking vs bowing, the staccato vs droning. . . The cognitive dissonance that somehow seems so. . . perfect.

    And now that I am searching the streaming services and the YouTube, I struggle to find a few definitive recordings that feature the fiddle banjo duets. And I ask, what have ye for me to consume? I realize a lot of it is probably old time and not bluegrass, and maybe this is a sign from the universe that I need to spend more time there?

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience,

    Chris

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    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Bruce molsky and Tony trischka : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=103EvssaPIw
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

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    Administrator Mandolin Cafe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Big fan of anything Jake Blount does. Here's a great track from his album Spider Tales from a few years ago. He's also a talented fiddle player as well as old-time style banjo.


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  5. #4
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Jane Rothfield...



    In 2008 Jane did an entire recording of fiddle and banjo duets with different banjo players called "I Fiddle-They Banjo"

    Her website is www.janerothfield.com


    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...y_WDsWTG1FwL78
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    The fiddle & banjo combination is all over Old Time music. You could spend a lifetime down that rabbit hole. Not so much in Bluegrass, which is a large (by comparison) ensemble form.


  7. #6
    Registered User chris.burcher's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Great stuff and thanks everyone so far for providing me with exploration material!

  8. #7

    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Chris,
    Here are a couple I am involved with:

    https://www.youtube.com/@fiddleandbanjo837

    https://www.youtube.com/@jimwoodonlineacousticmusic2854

    Many John Harford tunes on the second one. Check the playlist - All the Bullies have Gone to Rest.

    Hope you enjoy,

    Michael

  9. #8
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    I really like George Jackson's album Hair & Hide

    https://georgejacksonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/hair-hide

    +1 on Jake Blount
    "To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are." Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Johnny Warren and Charlie Cushman! Sounds just for the world like Earl and Johnny's daddy, Paul, back in the good ol' days.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXe3WbIggu0

    They have an album or two as well.

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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Also, Gerald Evans and Joe Mullins have a pretty great BG fiddle and banjo recording from a few years back: Five String and a Fiddle, I think.

    Then there's Michael Cleveland and Tom Adams' Live At The Ragged Edge CD, if you want your tradition with a little wilder edge on it.
    Barry

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    Pavel Sucek F-5 w/Skip Kelly top
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    A bunch of fiddles and a couple D-28s

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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings


  13. #12
    Registered User chris.burcher's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Man, this is great! How did I miss all this stuff?

  14. #13
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Lukas and Eden Pool. Here’s one example of many.

    Jim

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  15. #14
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle and Banjo recordings

    Bob Carlin, Banging and Sawing… some cuts have guitar added but great fiddlers— James Bryan, Bruce Molsky, Judy Hyman and Brad Leftwich—playing with Bob.

    Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OL...sVnkrQ7d_6ptSQ
    Jim

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    1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1

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