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I first learned this tune as a song about Utah. In the chorus it said "and all are talking of Utah!" instead of "as we were marching through Georgia!" It may have been from an LP by the Deseret String Band.

Ok, this is not too good, but it is a first recording of me on fiddle. I figure--gotta start somewhere.

This has been eluding me for close to a year, but with the help of Dan Levenson's book of Festival Tunes this is pretty close.

Ok, this is another of the new-to-me tunes that my hammered dulcimer friend has me learning. I can see why she knows it because the Fiddler's Companion says that it was popularized in the US by Grey Larsen & Malcolm Dalglish. (come to think of it, I must have heard it there too. It was on Banish Misfortune and I had that LP) That site further states: Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, was formerly a spa town where Victorian society partook of the mineral waters that were thought to have healing properties.

Boy, this is new to me on all sorts of levels. I recorded this three days after I started working on it. It took a few trys before I could make it through 3 times with just some cosmetic problems. Here is some info from the Fiddlers Companion: “Willafjord,” or “Wullafjord,” is known by fiddlers throughout the Shetland Islands. The tune originally came from Greenland, imported to Shetland at the end of the 19th century and disseminated in the age of arctic whaling expeditions. It is sometimes described as having originated as a ‘whaling reel’. It's alot of fun to play.

I'm practicing this in preparation for a performance.

I learned this medley from Len and Su MacEachron, who were the owners of the musical kit company that I used to hang out at when I was in college. They played this on lap and hammered dulcimer, as do I usually. I put this up hoping to have someone identify the first tune for me, and the banjo hangout crowd came through. It all became clear once it was cleared for me.

After I tried this on the tackhead, I thought I'd also give a try on a banjo that sounds like a banjo. The lryrics are ones that were published in 1931.

The actual tuning is cGCEG, down a further step from the high base tuning, but still just standard G tuned down. There was a discussion of slow songs in clawhammer, and Shenandoah came up. I had this tuned very low for Muskrat, and I tried it and thought it interesting.

This is from Art Rosenbaum. Actually, I don't know what tuning I'm in, it's just double-c tuned really low. You know? I never know what this tackhead is going to sound like--it's different every time.