This week’s tune is called “Callahan”. This one is from the playing of William (Bill) Shelor. I first heard it on the LP recording on the Heritage label called “Eight Miles Apart” that features two of the families from our local area that were prolific players of our kind of music in their lifetimes, namely, the Kimbles and the Shelor families. I am always going back to their recordings for great listening music and to learn special versions and new ‘old’ tunes from.
Here’s the other tune known as Twin Sisters that is nothing like the D tune called Twin Sisters or Jennie Baker. Here’s old-time clawhammer banjo player Sidna Meyers of Carroll County playing Twin Sisters as a solo. He has some cool melodic right hand techniques not unlike his contemporaries on banjo Glen Smith and Wade Ward. This is not a dance tune in my opinion.
So I want to feature a local version in D of the tune “Twin Sisters”. This rendition was a part of the Old Originals LP that has so many great tune versions played by mostly unknown players who were found in their elderly years still able to remember tunes from their community. Thanks to the work of Blanton Owen and Tom Carter who collected these tunes in the early 1970s.
The Handmade Music School presents the 2021 Virtual Get Together on Saturday, March 27, 2021 from 2:00-6:00pm. Registration opens February 15 with a suggested donation of $50.* Workshops are taught via Zoom. An event schedule and passwords will be sent after registration.
Here’s a cut by one of my favorite true clawhammer masters, Glen Smith of Hillsville in Carroll County. Here he plays a fretless banjo in an energetic and very danceable style. He implements great slides and hard driving right hand technique in the cool g#BEBE tuning.
The Floyd Country Store & The Handmade Music School, in collaboration with our friends at Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD, are pleased to announce the 6th Annual Charm City Django Jazz Festival, a virtual music event on Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27, 2021. Beaming to you from Baltimore, the Charm City Django Jazz Fest returns with a tuned-in lineup from around the globe celebrating the music and legacy Django Reinhardt.
The Handmade Music School has been teaching these amazing students in Stanley, Idaho during the pandemic. This picture brings us so much joy! This has been a tough year, but let's reflect on the positive outcomes of hunkering down and figuring out innovative ways to teach music. In this case, we were connected through our great friends Hans & Terry Carstensen with Ashley Reese and her awesome teachers at The Stanley School in Stanley, Idaho! Look at these happy young musicians with their Handmade Music School shirts and hats! Music makes the world a better (and smaller) place!
Are you afraid you'll go stir-crazy this winter? Don't! Pull out the pots and pans and instruments you have at home and join Kari whenever you like, for 30+ minutes of musical fun for your 1 to 6 year old child. Music Fun with Kari at Home: Winter Edition was recorded live on January 22, 2021. The replay is available for purchase with unlimited viewing all winter season at a cost of $30.
Here’s a cut by one of my favorite true clawhammer masters, Glen Smith of Hillsville in Carroll County. Here he plays a fretless banjo in an energetic and very danceable style. He implements great slides and hard driving right hand technique in the cool g#BEBE tuning.
Here’s a solo fiddle piece by Floyd County fiddler, Sam Connor, who was from the Copper Hill section towards Roanoke, Virginia. I visited him in his home one time with Jay Griffin and Susie Crate back in the mid 1980s. He was not able to play any more, he said then, but we talked quite a bit and I think we may have played a few tunes for him.
Here’s a cut by one of my favorite true clawhammer masters, Glen Smith of Hillsville in Carroll County. Here he plays a fretless banjo in an energetic and very danceable style. He implements great slides and hard driving right hand technique in the cool g#BEBE tuning.
For this week’s tune I have decided to share a rare and unique tune called Old Tommy Kimpleton. It was recorded during the LP era, I think, by the long running group from Franklin County called the Original Orchard Grass band. I have never seen the LP and have tracks from it in my files with no information. I wonder if anyone has it.
