Thanks, Pete...yeah I think i went to the C by accident on the scratch track...thinking to do the A part again but the C part, the third section of the tune was somehow stuck in my head and I went there and then the scratch track fumbled from there, but I followed that along with the banjo so I decided I could make it sound like a meant to do a 4 to 1 chord thing at the end...lol...I'm just losing my mind, that's all...lol. But yeah I think I went to the C and then tried to find a good way back to the G to end the doggone thing.

Here tryin' to learn Old Mother Flanagan on Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there.

Peggy, sounds great! I actually like the er, unexpected, ending...you patched it so 'gracefully' that it seems totally like an Artistic Touch!  :-) 

I'm terrified of turning my fiddle pegs ever since my bridge broke, so I'm going to stay in standard...

Just wanted to share my latest find...
fun seeing her clogging to the tune (& fiddling by Paul, who posts here a lot :-):

youtube.com/watch?v=r8_Mc1k37vU

Thanks, NC. And I don't blame you if you get queasy about tuning your fiddle. If you had another bang around fiddle to tune up different might make you feel more comfortable. I like tuning to GDGD for A tunes and taking them in G moreso than going up to AEAE...besides possibly being additional stress on the bridge, strings, etc., to my ear, that AEAE can sound harsh I think. There were counties where just about everybody just played in one key and they all kept their instruments pretty much the same...I remember places where I had friends and we all played in C almost all the time...of course it was mainly guitar and banjo people...didn't know fiddlers except for a small handful in the over 90 group and didn't see them much.

Wow...that's pretty fast. Yes, FiddllerPaul is a good fiddler and some real nice cloggin' there too. Never heard singin with OMFlannagan before either...always fun to add the singin'.

Yeah good tune since Mother's Day falls in the month of the Mother Flannagan tune. Happy Mother's Day to all. Now...let's play the tune!

I tried just tuning my G string up to A to get some sympathetic resonance going on. It took 2 days to get it to settle back to standard tuning . Its not just the G string that had to settle, it's the whole fiddle, top, back, neck, bridge, sides and all the other strings etc that need to adjust, then settle back again to standard tuning.

My fiddle has been in standard tuning for at least 40 years and i think it has settled down to that, anything else upsets it's equilibrium. I reckon that may be one of the reasons that luthier's still use hide glue, it is not a fixed parameter and releases and resets, and  allows a fiddle to move around with the weather and humidity etc and settle to a happy medium with the string tension. I think if i did use a different tuning i would use a different fiddle and let it settle into it for however long it took.

Might be a good idea, Pete. I notice, especially in weird weather changes, my entire fiddle goes off when I mess with one string...but in my case, my fiddles all pretty much get tuned a lot so I think they must be used to it. Same with my banjo...mess with one string and the whole thing goes wacky.

Guitar is so different...tune one string, the rest just sit and wait where they are...lol.

Pete, despite what the OTJ might think, and how the Fuzzies recorded it, this is a G tune (see CarlB's post above). No need for retuning.

Thanks for that Doug, It sits a lot nicer in standard tuning in G.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsce2qH-QJo
 

Pete - You're right. I hadn't seen that Happy Hour video, but that's the way I play it too. I did listen to Lee Triplett at Slippery Hill and it seemed a little different but I'd never heard it before. Here's another good version, very similar: youtu.be/ERJRjyRZMTw That whole record is great, and came out about the same time as our first one. One of the roots of our band was a trio in the Bay area c. 1970, and there was always a lot of camaraderie in that bunch of people. Someone noted in the comments section that that record is a 1/2 step sharp - I doubt it was played or recorded that way, but I haven't tried to play along. If I wanted to I'd probably lower it and slow it down too.

...and of course here in the VFF we feel free to play 'em anyway we want...tune 'em anyway we want, play 'em anyway we want.

Not me. I once had a conversation with Walt Koken about learning tunes and he said he always tried to learn note for note from his source, and that's what I've always done too. Of course, by ear you'll never get it exactly, and then over time it will change to fit your style and skills, and you can make other changes as you wish - after you have some idea how the tune is supposed to go. I've known a lot of traditional musicians, and many if not most had a mentor they tried to emulate - a father, uncle, older brother or other family member, a neighbor, maybe even just somebody they heard and liked on the radio or on records. Nobody I've ever known started by just going down in their basement, retuning to some other pitch or string arrangement and just fooling around.
I've said this before but just because "folk" music isn't written down doesn't mean it doesn't have accepted structure and content that people try to preserve. That's what's meant by "tradition" and its true for all traditional arts I think. There's always room for people to put their own stamp on their work, but within a form they cherish because its been handed down to them by people they love and respect.
That's just my approach, and of course you're entitled to yours. I'm just not a fan of the "we'll make it our own - anything goes" approach, or (often) the results. I think the idea that that method is carrying on what people have always done is incorrect. For example, one of Tommy Jarrell's first teachers was his father Ben. I just can't imagine him one day saying "Hey Dad look at this way of playing 'Richmond' in F in this new tuning" yet Tommy didn't really sound like Ben - or anyone else either!

Well I also kinda agree with that, Doug...you need some type of direction to know what it is you're going for. I guess I sorta grew up in a musical desert...I mean, there was music all around, but my family wasn't around it much...then when i got bigger i found people to play with...but I'd already learned a lot just all alone with it...still...yeah you do have to have some path to follow, on your own or with others.

I just made the point though that I hope everyone who joins us here feels ok with what they are doing, not pressured to sound like somebody who is considered great and all that.

It's heading toward the end of May...do you know where your fiddle is?

Well after long delay I finally have a version of Old Ma Flanagn to run up the flag pole. In the meantime Luke Abbot, creator of Strum Machine, has come up with a bunch of strum pattern variations which makes this great fiddle accompaniment app even better. So I decided to plug in something he calls a "Canadian" strum variation. Not sure foot tapping is something all Canadian fiddlers use, I always associated it with more of less of a Quebecois style. Anyhow I kinda' like the way it worked with this tune.

Forgot to mention I recorded this in G. As a few others have already mentioned, I think this tune sounds and plays better in this key... if for no other reason than a nice little F# - G slide you can throw in for both the A and B parts.

Hey, pretty cool. That strum machine gets better all the time…the Canadian clopping sure gave it a clawhammer-like feel, to me. Nice fiddling, Rich, and I really like the way your B part sorta combines elements from common B and C parts…neat. Interesting chord progression to go with that B part too. 

Just a fun tune played in a fun way!

Don't have recording stuff out, but this was about 6 years go. That counts?  (GDgd)

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

Pete - You're right. I hadn't seen that Happy Hour video, but that's the way I play it too. I did listen to Lee Triplett at Slippery Hill and it seemed a little different but I'd never heard it before. Here's another good version, very similar: youtu.be/ERJRjyRZMTw That whole record is great, and came out about the same time as our first one. One of the roots of our band was a trio in the Bay area c. 1970, and there was always a lot of camaraderie in that bunch of people. Someone noted in the comments section that that record is a 1/2 step sharp - I doubt it was played or recorded that way, but I haven't tried to play along. If I wanted to I'd probably lower it and slow it down too.

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That was Angeline the Baker. I couldn't find Old Mother Flanagan. Love to hear it.

quote:

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Originally posted by tonyelder

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

Pete - You're right. I hadn't seen that Happy Hour video, but that's the way I play it too. I did listen to Lee Triplett at Slippery Hill and it seemed a little different but I'd never heard it before. Here's another good version, very similar: youtu.be/ERJRjyRZMTw That whole record is great, and came out about the same time as our first one. One of the roots of our band was a trio in the Bay area c. 1970, and there was always a lot of camaraderie in that bunch of people. Someone noted in the comments section that that record is a 1/2 step sharp - I doubt it was played or recorded that way, but I haven't tried to play along. If I wanted to I'd probably lower it and slow it down too.

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That was Angeline the Baker. I couldn't find Old Mother Flanagan. Love to hear it.

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Go to the link Doug posted.

Click on the " Show More"  button underneath the main video window

Then you get a list of tracks on the album, "Mother Flanagan" is listed there.

Click on that, and Bob's your Uncle.

Thanks, Tony. Nice fiddling and a cool version of OMFlannagan. Hey the way I see VFF...use whatever ya got if you can't do a recording at the moment. Thanks for particiapting...nicely fiddled!

Came up with this version in cross D years ago... rough version messing around with multitrack recorder.

Sounds great, Alaska! Nice playin' all around and nice version. Thanks for participating!

quote:

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Originally posted by pete_fiddle

quote:

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Originally posted by tonyelder

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

Pete - You're right. I hadn't seen that Happy Hour video, but that's the way I play it too. I did listen to Lee Triplett at Slippery Hill and it seemed a little different but I'd never heard it before. Here's another good version, very similar: youtu.be/ERJRjyRZMTw That whole record is great, and came out about the same time as our first one. One of the roots of our band was a trio in the Bay area c. 1970, and there was always a lot of camaraderie in that bunch of people. Someone noted in the comments section that that record is a 1/2 step sharp - I doubt it was played or recorded that way, but I haven't tried to play along. If I wanted to I'd probably lower it and slow it down too.

---

That was Angeline the Baker. I couldn't find Old Mother Flanagan. Love to hear it.

---

Go to the link Doug posted.

Click on the " Show More"  button underneath the main video window

Then you get a list of tracks on the album, "Mother Flanagan" is listed there.

Click on that, and Bob's your Uncle.

---

Thanks.  Learned something. Didn't know that sort of thing was done on YouTube.  (sheltered life)

Thanks, Pete.
Tony, glad you learned something new to start your retirement. That is Take's Bluegrass Album channel, which is a treasure trove of out-of-print and often obscure LP's. Not all are divided into "chapters" like that one. Here's another one you might enjoy by a group of young old timers pushing the envelope a bit: youtu.be/YXEVmItHIwU

May is coming to a close already. Thanks to everybody who participated either by chiming in with links or info about Old Mother Flannagan, and especially to the fiddling we got to hear. Still a few days left...tick tock, tick tock. June is approaching fast.