Celeste

Back to Carroll County players Uncle Norm Edmonds and the Old-timers for this week’s tune. The name can’t be hardly any more common for a slew of different tunes that have the same name except for Sally Ann. So IDA RED means lots different tunes with the same name. This version is ‘cool’ for several reasons and I don’t think there’s another name associated with it. Please share if you know this tune and have a different name for it.

Here’s something different. I stumbled onto this today and really listened to it again. I have heard it several times in the past but today I listened with greater attention than ever and thought it would make a good choice for you all to hear as well and hopefully you’ll listen and realize you like it. I’d recommend all these tunes get listened to again and again and you’ll hopefully you’ll want to learn to play (or sing) them.

This version is most unique to the Blue Ridge area of Patrick County as far as I can tell. This beautiful tune is from the Shelor Family’s recordings. 'Callahan’ here is played here by Susan Shelor Deck (piano) and Jesse Shelor (on fiddle). I will send out the Uncle Norm Edmonds version of Callahan in a future post since it is NOT the same tune.

The tune of this week is called Sweet Little Julie. Here’s a really ‘cool’ banjo version played and sung by James Thompson. He was recorded by Peter Hoover in the early 60’s. My notes said he was from Ford County, an obvious typo meaning Floyd County. I don’t know anything else about him. I think James’ rendition show that he was a great player with a mixture of advanced right and left hand techniques. Mystery banjo man.

Our featured tune here is Old Cottoneyed Joe. This a cover of the ‘local’ Norman Edmonds version with improved guitar back-up. Its played on fiddle in cross-tuned G (GDGD). Banjo is in standard gDGBD. Two guitars. No bass. The player is Harold Hausenfluck whose one man band rendition from the 1990’s is pretty killer in my opinion. This a good example of the back-up making or breaking the appeal of a tune.

This week’s tune is from Ivan Weddle of Floyd, Virginia. He was the Old-Time fiddler who played at Mabry Mill along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the 1970's and 1980's. Every Sunday afternoon in season, the flatfoot dancers came mostly from the local area to dance to the music of Ivan’s string band known as the Korn Kutters. I got to play banjo with the band several times.

Here’s a curious tune in G called Western Union from the repertoire of Boone's Mill / Callaway area old-timer Sherman Wimmer. No kin to Dent Wimmer that I know of, but maybe somehow. Sherman was part of the Old Originals project that yielded two LP’s of samples collected from a couple dozen players from the local area who were still able to remember and play tunes in the early 1970’s.