I recently began transcribing some old-time fiddle tunes for fingerstyle banjo. I happened upon Luther Strong and really liked his versions of these tunes. So I adapted them for banjo (no picks). I’m playing my 1978 Gibson RB-250 in these videos. The darker sound of mahogany seemed suitable.
Hog Eyed Man
This first song is entitled “Hog Eyed Man.” I found a version of Dan Gellert playing it on the fiddle and then stumbled down the Luther Strong path in my research. I love Dan’s playing if you haven’t checked him out, you should!
I did this in G, although it seems it’s commonly done in A. I liked the lower G key for this one a bit better myself.
Hickory Jack
Luther Strong‘s version is really a great example of why you can’t learn mountain music from written notation. In the first pass, he adds two and half measures to the B section. The next time they don’t appear and he repeats the A section three times instead of two.
It shows how these ‘”tunes” were a bit in flux as folk music. Often a musician just plays by feel, not worried about beats/measures and things only conveyed on a page.
For this Hickory Jack arrangement, I tuned my fourth string down to low A and the fifth string to A. I originally had put the part up an octave but decided I wanted some low growl; I had never done this tuning before.
If I was going to work up songs in this tuning, I’d probably get different strings (a thicker one) to better accommodate the lower tuning. It can get a bit floppy with a lighter string.
I did this in A without a capo and I added my own ‘crooked-ness to the tune. I had a version where I took it out, but I kind of liked it and kept it. If anything, I’m continuing the tradition of playing the tune by feel, haha.
