Re: Stephen Foster on Mandolin & Tabs at a Jam?
I'm fond of The Glendy Burke as well. Also, Foster's Angelina Baker is related to, but hardly identical with, the Angeline the Baker tune that's a staple of old-time sessions. Foster's has the "Angelina Baker -- Angelina Baker's gone! Left me here to weep a tear and beat on the old jaw-bone" chorus, which the fiddle/banjo standard lacks.
So many of Foster's songs have stayed in our musical vocabulary! Remember, he never reached his 40th birthday. Also, perhaps the first in this country who considered his main profession to be "songwriter" -- not the first to write songs, but who before him considered songwriting a career?
And regarding the question re: bringing sheet music or tabs to a jam -- normally not the practice, but when you have a thematic get-together like this, probably defensible. Will you be singing Foster's songs as well as playing them? Passing out lyric sheets might even be OK. Just be careful regarding some of the language -- check out the never-sung third verse of Oh! Susannah, e.g.
Allen Hopkins
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