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I used to do this in G tuning, but in the clawhammer forum on BanjoHangout someone mentioned that they always did it in double C (capoed to D). I tried it out, and I like it much more. I decided I'd try singing, although I don't remember the verses very well. My voice sounds nothing like I think it should.

Sort of combined Dock Boggs and Jody Streicher versions. I never figured out what Boggs did with three fingers, so I sort of imitate it with two. In my method of 2-finger thumb-lead (which I think is standard), the melody is all played with the thumb, and the index finger always plays the first string making an extra drone. Oh, and I sing, too.

This is the Stephen Foster song. I learned this from Michael Miles' The Magic Banjo album, but it doesn't sound anything like his, which is played on a fretless, probably gourd, banjo. He plays it an octive lower, but after figuring that out I found I was happy up on the higher strings. Replaced version from 2006-04-16

Medley of Rock the Cradle Joe, West Fork Girls, something that I learned from a contra dance record but can't remember the name, and my version of Ragtime Annie. I can still picture in my mind the first time I heard and saw West Fork Girls being played. It was at a party in Seattle in 1977, and there were three banjo players besides me. I had no idea of the tune, but just watched their left hands all going dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum down the neck in the B part.

This version is based on the version on the 5 Strings Attached With No Backing, available at Merriwether Records as well as elsewhere. Buy it, it's great. This is also my first use of my new Reagan 5th string capo (I'm capoed up to the 5th fret). I think I like it, but it sure will be easy to lose.

Learned from Art Rosenbaum record and book. Oops, for about 3 years I've had this mis-titled as "Sally in the Garden". Right now the file still has the wrong name and title. I'll do a redo sometime.

I learned this from a John Roberts, Tony Barrand LP. Usually I play this forever, and do some variations. Then when I stop I start over again. Replaced version from 2006-04-13.

A melding of versions by Debbie McClatchy and Robin & Linda Williams. This is the first the world has heard a recording of my bicentennial banjo, which I bought new in 1976. It is also the last recording of the banjo with steel strings and the amazingly poor action that had kept me from playing for year. This version replaces one I recorded in March of 2006.

Learned this from Art Rosenbaum's LP "The Five String Banjo" Kicking Mule 108. Fun to play because the left hand fingering is just the middle finger going back and forth between the 1st and 3rd string at the second fret. Bores guitar players silly.

My interpretation of a 1936 Lomax recording of Jimmie Strothers, issued on Folk Music in America Vol 11, Songs of Humor & hilarity Library of Congress 1978. Strothers sang and accompanied himself on a strummed banjo, I think probably a plectrum. This file replaces a poorly recorded one from 2006-02-26. Also, Mike Seeger has recorded a nice version, which includes a Henry Thomas-like panpipe solo. Also, this recording is done on an Olympus WS-310--my first try at it.