Are there any master players playing traditional Irish music on 5-string banjo available on CD?
I’ve got a beautiful open-back Bart Reiter 5-string banjo gathering dust in the closet. I play Scruggs style and a simple American old-timey frailing style, or I should say, “played", since I’ve hardly touched the instrument in the two years since I really started concentrating on fiddle. Every once in a while I tune it up to play Off to California or Temperance Reel in a Thompson/Keith/melodic style, but I was wondering if it could ever function as a rhythm instrument in the context of ITM.
Let’s get this out of the way, right now: I have absolutely no intention of walking into your session with a 5-string. Ever.
Uh, unless a miracle happens and I get really, really good. So you’re actually pretty safe.
This is mainly for my own amusement, and because I can’t bear to get rid of the banjo, so I’m hoping I can help justify its presence in my household.
I like the way Scruggs and frailing styles can hint at a melody and at the same time lay down a rhythmic foundation, Scruggs with its arpeggiated hum and the way frailing has its tick-a-toc loping run.
I’ve worked out a few simple song melodies in a quasi-Scruggs style, like Rising of the Moon, banjo tuned to open D (aDF#Ad). The results have been… unsatisfactory.
I’d love to hear a master in these styles. Are there any?
Bob, do you frail Mountain Road in standard G tuning?
Dafydd, forgive my ignorance, I think of Tony Sullivan as a tenor player - I've seen the Sully's Banjo tutorials, at least. What’s a good album to hear his 5 string work?
Sully IS a Tenor Player just because he can play both doesn't make him a 5 Stringer do not speak such hearesy. Sorry I play Mandolin and you should know how we Mando players feel about 5 Stringers. By the way Sully writes some great tunes.
Back in the 70's there were some folks experimenting with playing Irish tunes with clawhammer technique. When I heard it, I thought - why bother? Why not just play tenor banjo? Clawhammer technique lacks the drive and punch.
I've tried clawhammer banjo with ITM just a bit - mostly accompaniment with a little counterpoint. It can work sort of like Alec Finn's bouzouki style. I think it has real possibilities.
Kevin Burke's first album "Sweeney's Dream" has accompaniment from a number of American old-time players, which works very well to my ears, though I'm sure it's not to everyone's taste. There's at least one track where he's accompanied by frailing banjo on some modal reels, and I think it sounds great.
Some Irish (tenor) banjo players, like Enda Scahill, seem to emulate 5-string techniques when playing backup.
There are a couple of blokes round Aberdeen who do it, my friend Alan Smart for one. They are very welcome in sessions - the sound is gentle and meloodic/harmonic and not at all intrusive.
The late Ray Stewart of Aberdeen, a well-known old-timey frailer also played some Scottish and Irish tunes in this style, as I believe does Billy Connolly.
As for "why bother?" - Why not? - if that's your instrument. I'd bet at some point in the evolution of banjo in Irish music there were more 5-stringers than tenor players.
Didn't Pecker Dunne play one?
When I frail tunes on the banjer, I tend toward the drop-thumb melodic style, but I'd rather listen to an old-time master playing in the Appalachian style that accents the melody behind a fiddle rather than playing every single note of the melody.
Bob Carlin is a master of clawhammer technique, but I don't know if he's into playing Irish tunes.
Fidkid, the more I think about it, the more I believe you should get rid of that Bart Reiter banjo and stick to fiddle. Just send it to me and I'll see that it's properly disposed of.
The first time I visited Mandolin Bros. in Staten Island I spent a good deal of time playing a Bart Reiter White Laydie. It's been my dream banjo ever since.
It seems Bart has stopped making the White Laydie, so it's existing new stock or finding a used one.
Fidkid, having a Reiter gathering dust is as great a crime as having a Strad gathering dust (and many of them are). For God's sake man, play it or pass it on to someone who will.
The best thing I ever did was to sell my Gibson Mastertone to help finance the acquisition of a decent set of Uilleann pipes. Unless one is a very competent melodic player, I just can't see the point of using a 5 string banjo in ITM dance music. I grant that it has a place in song accompaniment, but that's as far as I'm able to appreciate it. Oh, and I love Kevin Burke's recordings - all except "Sweeney's Dream".
Frailing old-time banjo isn't common but if its played well it is beautiful. If you get a chance listen to Cathy Fink's "Banjo Haiku" - Miss McLeods never sounded so good.
Ray Stewart was indeed a great player on the 5-string. He used to make an excellent job of "Kitty's Wedding" and the "Home Ruler", and in fact had transcriptions of them both published in a banjo magazine.
The trio "Any Old Time", used to use "frailed" 5-string to great effect on polkas. Check out any of their 3 recordings. I think the player's name was Mick Daly.
Also yer man who was the flute player with "Touchstone" used to play a mean 5-string.
I’ll have to check out these leads. I love Kevin Burke, of course, and I’m a little embarrassed that I’ve never listened to Sweeney’s Dream. Any Old Time sounds intriguing, I’ll keep an eye peeled (ouch). I’ve heard a bit of Grotwewohl, and he’s amazing in what sounds to me like an Eddie Adcock single string style – but it’s not melody I’m really after.
I use the basic downstroke style of clawhammer/frailing (or, as I like to call it “flailing”), quite serviceable when playing Purty Polly or Po’ Ellen Smiff. In this situation the banjo’s s a wonderful accompaniment/rhythm instrument for voice and voice instruments. Bob himself is spot on – I love the way a melody is merely suggested, leaving lots of room for a fiddle, whistle etc.
In the back of my mind, I’m thinking multi-track recording at fidkid’s lavish Spare Bedroom Studios.
Hey Bren, I'm not sure Ray would have been flattered to have been mentioned in the same breath as Billy Connolly. At least in a musical context.
Billy C gets by OK but Ray was a wonderful player!!
'Any Old Time' - Excellent Group, Brilliant Music!!
Sorry Bren, I bow to your more intimate knowledge.
However, I just don't rate BC since I learned that he was an out and out erse hull!
Guess that's what happens to you, when you go to live on Knob Hill, in L. A.!!
Although I suspect that it's just his true colours are showing now & he doesn't give a feck who sees them!!
Sadly, I must admit though, he is still a very funny man on stage!
Hi Bren, Kenny, Ptarmigan, I'll have to agree re how good a player Ray was - & very much missed by many. There are some recordings of Ray around - Kenny, could you list the recordings that Ray made that you're aware of - fidkid may be interested in hearing of these? I know of the anniversary tape made by Aberdeen folk club - as do yourself and Ptarmigan! But, wasn't there a posthumous release by the folk club as well?
okay here's my input...I'm a clawhammer player for about thirty years now and it seems that the best traditional Irish players would be Ken Perlman and Bob Solosko, I myself save the 5 string for old time music and opted to play the octave mandolin or tenor mandola for the Irish sound. Good luck with it anyhow by the way Reiter still makes the white laydie or at least Elderly has them listed. are you interested in parting with it?
Bob
I'd never have guessed you were an old time plucker with a name like that!!
Think you hit the nail on the head there C - horses for courses etc.
Reminds me of that craze in the West Highlands, of Fiddlers trying very hard to make their instruments sound like Bagpipes!!
Maybe I'm simple (don't answer that folks!!) but I remember thinking, why don't they just take up the Pipes!!
Surely a Fiddle sounds best when it's being played, & made to sound, like a Fiddle?
One of the finest sounds in the world must be that of old time music on a clawhammer banjo. Like turning on a tap & liquid gold pouring out!
When I was a wee lad I loved Campbell’s soup chili bean flavor. And I also loved malted milk powder, the kind you’d mix a spoonful of in a glass of milk. One day after school I mixed them– two great tastes – together. Tasted like sh**t.
I had to pour out the bowl in the bushes outside, for fear of my mom getting angry at me for wasting food.
"RonP, there is a posthumous CD of Ray Stewart, I think the folk club or his family have copies."
Hi Bren, I thought so and, I'm sure I've a copy of it myself SOMEWHERE, but since we moved, lots of things are STILL in boxes. For fidkid's information, can you remember if it has any of the Irish Traditional Tunes he used to play on it. Kenny would likely know too.
By the way Bren, in case you didn't realise, I used to stay in Aberdeen up until about 3 years ago - were you around then - I don't recall meeting any players from Oz?
I am not a big fan of banjo accompaniment for session tunes. It takes the music too far from its roots for my taste, and when added on top of other accompanists (say a guitar and zouk), it creates too much clutter. But done right, even though it is not to my taste, it can be interesting. I prefer it when the banjo is used as a melody instrument.
I was scuttering around Ptarmi but better at talking about it than playing it.
Never been one for Folk Clubs though. I did play at the "memorial" thingy with Lorraine.
It's very nice when banjo is the *only* accompaniment though Al, and not too busy. That modal "mountain sound" sounds true to the idea of Irish or Highland music, if not strictly "in the style"
A tangent for guitarists: If you like the musical possibilities of standard banjo tuning, you can tune your guitar to DADF#AD to get the same intervalic relationship between the strings - with a twist. Now, just cross your eyes (or your brain) and you can play straight from banjo tab! What I mean is, in DADF#AD tuning, the intervalic relationship between strings 2 - 5 is the same as standard banjo tuning, strings 1 - 4, only a 4th lower. DADF#AD string # 1is the same (only a 4th lower) as standard banjo tuning string # 5. The 6th string (low D) is a freebie bass bonus. So, just mentally move the bottom line on banjo tab to the top (which you now have to play with your ring finger, whereas banjo players are picking up this string with their thumb).
1 - Mississippi Sawyer
2 - Seneca Square Dance
3 - Chilly Winds
4 - Whisky Before Breakfast
5 - Billy In The Lowground
6 - Coal Creek March
7 - Cumberland Gap
8 - Dry And Dusty
9 - Far From Home
10 - Frosty Morning
11 - Wild Hog In The Wood
12 - The Birks O' Invermay
That 's all that's on the sleeve notes. The CD is dated 2002, so I don't know how much of this is current.
Johnny Keenan is another 5-string banjo player and guitarist who was at school with me - not the guy you maybe first thought it was.
Incidentally, Ray met and played with Billy Connolly on more than one occasion, and the 2 of them got on very well together.
Well, I finally got a copy of Sweeny’s Dream. I like it, but I know what tedium means by saying that the fiddle/frailing might not be everyone’s cup of tea. The frailing banjo (played by Alan Podber? Sorry, don’t have the CD with me right now) is such a strong flavor it overwhelms everything with it, stylistically speaking – it makes even Kevin Burke sound old-timey. Interesting in a way, and underscores the close relationship of the genres. Which, Kevin says in his liner notes, is why they recorded together in the first place. It made me get out the Bart Reiter and start plunking in f#DF#Ad (D tuning), but just old-timey stuff.
A recent thread about the traditionality (zatawurd?) of the banjo http://thesession.org/discussions/display/12698 made me think about this old thread, so with the strange-time-travel made possible by this site and the way these discussions take place, I’ve popped back to have the final word!
Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Are there any master players playing traditional Irish music on 5-string banjo available on CD?
I’ve got a beautiful open-back Bart Reiter 5-string banjo gathering dust in the closet. I play Scruggs style and a simple American old-timey frailing style, or I should say, “played", since I’ve hardly touched the instrument in the two years since I really started concentrating on fiddle. Every once in a while I tune it up to play Off to California or Temperance Reel in a Thompson/Keith/melodic style, but I was wondering if it could ever function as a rhythm instrument in the context of ITM.
Let’s get this out of the way, right now: I have absolutely no intention of walking into your session with a 5-string. Ever.
Uh, unless a miracle happens and I get really, really good. So you’re actually pretty safe.
This is mainly for my own amusement, and because I can’t bear to get rid of the banjo, so I’m hoping I can help justify its presence in my household.
I like the way Scruggs and frailing styles can hint at a melody and at the same time lay down a rhythmic foundation, Scruggs with its arpeggiated hum and the way frailing has its tick-a-toc loping run.
I’ve worked out a few simple song melodies in a quasi-Scruggs style, like Rising of the Moon, banjo tuned to open D (aDF#Ad). The results have been… unsatisfactory.
I’d love to hear a master in these styles. Are there any?
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by fidkid
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
I have worked out a nice Mountain Road in a clawhammer style. Banjo is ok in the living room, it is a great rhythm instrument.
But I take my flute to sessions. I daren't offend the masses.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by bt
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Tony Sullivan.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by dafydd
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Bob, do you frail Mountain Road in standard G tuning?
Dafydd, forgive my ignorance, I think of Tony Sullivan as a tenor player - I've seen the Sully's Banjo tutorials, at least. What’s a good album to hear his 5 string work?
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by fidkid
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Sully IS a Tenor Player just because he can play both doesn't make him a 5 Stringer do not speak such hearesy. Sorry I play Mandolin and you should know how we Mando players feel about 5 Stringers. By the way Sully writes some great tunes.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Why Bother?
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Back in the 70's there were some folks experimenting with playing Irish tunes with clawhammer technique. When I heard it, I thought - why bother? Why not just play tenor banjo? Clawhammer technique lacks the drive and punch.
I've tried clawhammer banjo with ITM just a bit - mostly accompaniment with a little counterpoint. It can work sort of like Alec Finn's bouzouki style. I think it has real possibilities.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Kevin Burke's first album "Sweeney's Dream" has accompaniment from a number of American old-time players, which works very well to my ears, though I'm sure it's not to everyone's taste. There's at least one track where he's accompanied by frailing banjo on some modal reels, and I think it sounds great.
Some Irish (tenor) banjo players, like Enda Scahill, seem to emulate 5-string techniques when playing backup.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by tedium
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
There are a couple of blokes round Aberdeen who do it, my friend Alan Smart for one. They are very welcome in sessions - the sound is gentle and meloodic/harmonic and not at all intrusive.
The late Ray Stewart of Aberdeen, a well-known old-timey frailer also played some Scottish and Irish tunes in this style, as I believe does Billy Connolly.
As for "why bother?" - Why not? - if that's your instrument. I'd bet at some point in the evolution of banjo in Irish music there were more 5-stringers than tenor players.
Didn't Pecker Dunne play one?
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Bren
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
When I frail tunes on the banjer, I tend toward the drop-thumb melodic style, but I'd rather listen to an old-time master playing in the Appalachian style that accents the melody behind a fiddle rather than playing every single note of the melody.
Bob Carlin is a master of clawhammer technique, but I don't know if he's into playing Irish tunes.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Fidkid, the more I think about it, the more I believe you should get rid of that Bart Reiter banjo and stick to fiddle. Just send it to me and I'll see that it's properly disposed of.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Ah, Bob, you beat me to that particular solution.
The first time I visited Mandolin Bros. in Staten Island I spent a good deal of time playing a Bart Reiter White Laydie. It's been my dream banjo ever since.
It seems Bart has stopped making the White Laydie, so it's existing new stock or finding a used one.
Fidkid, having a Reiter gathering dust is as great a crime as having a Strad gathering dust (and many of them are). For God's sake man, play it or pass it on to someone who will.
KFG
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by KFG
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
The best thing I ever did was to sell my Gibson Mastertone to help finance the acquisition of a decent set of Uilleann pipes. Unless one is a very competent melodic player, I just can't see the point of using a 5 string banjo in ITM dance music. I grant that it has a place in song accompaniment, but that's as far as I'm able to appreciate it. Oh, and I love Kevin Burke's recordings - all except "Sweeney's Dream".
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Bill Reeder
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Frailing old-time banjo isn't common but if its played well it is beautiful. If you get a chance listen to Cathy Fink's "Banjo Haiku" - Miss McLeods never sounded so good.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Cuso
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Ray Stewart was indeed a great player on the 5-string. He used to make an excellent job of "Kitty's Wedding" and the "Home Ruler", and in fact had transcriptions of them both published in a banjo magazine.
The trio "Any Old Time", used to use "frailed" 5-string to great effect on polkas. Check out any of their 3 recordings. I think the player's name was Mick Daly.
Also yer man who was the flute player with "Touchstone" used to play a mean 5-string.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by Kenny
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
I don't play 5-string, but here are a few citations:
Ken Perlman plays very sophisticated clawhammer-style Irish and Cape Breton tunes. Several solo recordings, and an instructional book.
Joel Bernstein has done some nice clawhammer Irish tunes--especially his backup on the duo disc (with Randal Bays) "Pigtown Fling."
Chris Grotewohl plays beautiful, very idiomatic Keith-style 5-string on Irish tunes. He's got his own solo release.
Clawhammer, esp for backup, seems to work with the modal, cross-rhythmed Irish idiom very well.
chris smith
ps: None of them sound like "hearesy."
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by coyotebanjo
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Try this link
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/pages.html?cart=33341165461752711&target=smp_detail.html%26sku%3DMB.95759BCD&s=pages-www.google.be/search&e=/sheetmusic/detail/MB.95759BCD.html&t=&k=&r=wwws-err5
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by dafydd
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
I’ll have to check out these leads. I love Kevin Burke, of course, and I’m a little embarrassed that I’ve never listened to Sweeney’s Dream. Any Old Time sounds intriguing, I’ll keep an eye peeled (ouch). I’ve heard a bit of Grotwewohl, and he’s amazing in what sounds to me like an Eddie Adcock single string style – but it’s not melody I’m really after.
I use the basic downstroke style of clawhammer/frailing (or, as I like to call it “flailing”), quite serviceable when playing Purty Polly or Po’ Ellen Smiff. In this situation the banjo’s s a wonderful accompaniment/rhythm instrument for voice and voice instruments. Bob himself is spot on – I love the way a melody is merely suggested, leaving lots of room for a fiddle, whistle etc.
In the back of my mind, I’m thinking multi-track recording at fidkid’s lavish Spare Bedroom Studios.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by fidkid
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
fidkid,
I use an open C tuning and capo up a whole step for Mountain Road.
Old Molly Hare is another goodurn, it sounds like the Fairy Dance (reel?) to me.
I use a dropthumb style.
# Posted on August 27th 2005 by bt
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Hey Bren, I'm not sure Ray would have been flattered to have been mentioned in the same breath as Billy Connolly. At least in a musical context.
Billy C gets by OK but Ray was a wonderful player!!
'Any Old Time' - Excellent Group, Brilliant Music!!
# Posted on August 28th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Ray played with BC on at least one occasion in the 1990s, at a festival session or something. He said Connolly was a decent enough frailer.
# Posted on August 28th 2005 by Bren
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
... and quite serious about his playing
# Posted on August 28th 2005 by Bren
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
I used to play Hangman's Reel with a fiddler. I had forgotten about it. That's a really fun one.
# Posted on August 28th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Sorry Bren, I bow to your more intimate knowledge.
However, I just don't rate BC since I learned that he was an out and out erse hull!
Guess that's what happens to you, when you go to live on Knob Hill, in L. A.!!
Although I suspect that it's just his true colours are showing now & he doesn't give a feck who sees them!!
Sadly, I must admit though, he is still a very funny man on stage!
# Posted on August 28th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Sorry fidkid, I'll let you get back to the Banjo talk now!!
# Posted on August 28th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Hi Bren, Kenny, Ptarmigan, I'll have to agree re how good a player Ray was - & very much missed by many. There are some recordings of Ray around - Kenny, could you list the recordings that Ray made that you're aware of - fidkid may be interested in hearing of these? I know of the anniversary tape made by Aberdeen folk club - as do yourself and Ptarmigan! But, wasn't there a posthumous release by the folk club as well?
# Posted on August 28th 2005 by On Sabbatical
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
okay here's my input...I'm a clawhammer player for about thirty years now and it seems that the best traditional Irish players would be Ken Perlman and Bob Solosko, I myself save the 5 string for old time music and opted to play the octave mandolin or tenor mandola for the Irish sound. Good luck with it anyhow by the way Reiter still makes the white laydie or at least Elderly has them listed. are you interested in parting with it?
Bob
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by clawhammerbanjo
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
I'd never have guessed you were an old time plucker with a name like that!!
Think you hit the nail on the head there C - horses for courses etc.
Reminds me of that craze in the West Highlands, of Fiddlers trying very hard to make their instruments sound like Bagpipes!!
Maybe I'm simple (don't answer that folks!!) but I remember thinking, why don't they just take up the Pipes!!
Surely a Fiddle sounds best when it's being played, & made to sound, like a Fiddle?
One of the finest sounds in the world must be that of old time music on a clawhammer banjo. Like turning on a tap & liquid gold pouring out!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
When I was a wee lad I loved Campbell’s soup chili bean flavor. And I also loved malted milk powder, the kind you’d mix a spoonful of in a glass of milk. One day after school I mixed them– two great tastes – together. Tasted like sh**t.
I had to pour out the bowl in the bushes outside, for fear of my mom getting angry at me for wasting food.
But I keep trying, never learning!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by fidkid
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
RonP, there is a posthumous CD of Ray Stewart, I think the folk club or his family have copies.
If you're interested, I'll track it down when I get back to Aberdeen and let you know. I might have a copy myself.
He also did some nice recordings with singer Lorraine Jackson - I'm not sure if they're on anything but tape.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Bren
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Liked the story & it's message fidkid, but I'm still trying to work out what sh**t is!!
Is it:
sheet
shift
sh*tt
shoot
shpit
shkit
shcit
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
"RonP, there is a posthumous CD of Ray Stewart, I think the folk club or his family have copies."
Hi Bren, I thought so and, I'm sure I've a copy of it myself SOMEWHERE, but since we moved, lots of things are STILL in boxes. For fidkid's information, can you remember if it has any of the Irish Traditional Tunes he used to play on it. Kenny would likely know too.
By the way Bren, in case you didn't realise, I used to stay in Aberdeen up until about 3 years ago - were you around then - I don't recall meeting any players from Oz?
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by On Sabbatical
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
I am not a big fan of banjo accompaniment for session tunes. It takes the music too far from its roots for my taste, and when added on top of other accompanists (say a guitar and zouk), it creates too much clutter. But done right, even though it is not to my taste, it can be interesting. I prefer it when the banjo is used as a melody instrument.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
I was scuttering around Ptarmi but better at talking about it than playing it.
Never been one for Folk Clubs though. I did play at the "memorial" thingy with Lorraine.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Bren
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
It's very nice when banjo is the *only* accompaniment though Al, and not too busy. That modal "mountain sound" sounds true to the idea of Irish or Highland music, if not strictly "in the style"
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Bren
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
A tangent for guitarists: If you like the musical possibilities of standard banjo tuning, you can tune your guitar to DADF#AD to get the same intervalic relationship between the strings - with a twist. Now, just cross your eyes (or your brain) and you can play straight from banjo tab!
What I mean is, in DADF#AD tuning, the intervalic relationship between strings 2 - 5 is the same as standard banjo tuning, strings 1 - 4, only a 4th lower. DADF#AD string # 1is the same (only a 4th lower) as standard banjo tuning string # 5. The 6th string (low D) is a freebie bass bonus. So, just mentally move the bottom line on banjo tab to the top (which you now have to play with your ring finger, whereas banjo players are picking up this string with their thumb).
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by ceciltguitar
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
RAY STEWART - 1940-2000
1 - Mississippi Sawyer
2 - Seneca Square Dance
3 - Chilly Winds
4 - Whisky Before Breakfast
5 - Billy In The Lowground
6 - Coal Creek March
7 - Cumberland Gap
8 - Dry And Dusty
9 - Far From Home
10 - Frosty Morning
11 - Wild Hog In The Wood
12 - The Birks O' Invermay
Audio restoration & mastering - Johnny Keenan
e-mail jkeenan@bigquestions.co.uk
website - www.bigquestions.co.uk/raystewart
That 's all that's on the sleeve notes. The CD is dated 2002, so I don't know how much of this is current.
Johnny Keenan is another 5-string banjo player and guitarist who was at school with me - not the guy you maybe first thought it was.
Incidentally, Ray met and played with Billy Connolly on more than one occasion, and the 2 of them got on very well together.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Kenny
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Thanks Kenny. Must dig in those bloody boxes we have piled up in the house & garage.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by On Sabbatical
Re: Frailing 5-string banjo in this music
Well, I finally got a copy of Sweeny’s Dream. I like it, but I know what tedium means by saying that the fiddle/frailing might not be everyone’s cup of tea. The frailing banjo (played by Alan Podber? Sorry, don’t have the CD with me right now) is such a strong flavor it overwhelms everything with it, stylistically speaking – it makes even Kevin Burke sound old-timey. Interesting in a way, and underscores the close relationship of the genres. Which, Kevin says in his liner notes, is why they recorded together in the first place. It made me get out the Bart Reiter and start plunking in f#DF#Ad (D tuning), but just old-timey stuff.
A recent thread about the traditionality (zatawurd?) of the banjo http://thesession.org/discussions/display/12698 made me think about this old thread, so with the strange-time-travel made possible by this site and the way these discussions take place, I’ve popped back to have the final word!
# Posted on February 15th 2007 by fidkid