The Glory-Beaming Banjo

S ince declaring this The Year of Ward Jarvis earlier this year, I have dedicated myself to learning some tunes from the repertoire of Ward Jarvis, a fiddler who lived in Athens County, Ohio, and was an influence on a number of old-time musicians in the state. Over the last couple months, I managed to track down the recordings of David Brose and digital copies of the two LPs he produced, thanks to some helpful folks at the Fiddle Hangout . The first tune on my list was "Head of the Creek," played in AEAE. My primary source was Jarvis's playing on the Field Recorder's Collective release FRC402 , with a transcription from the Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes . I also have Jeff Goehring's version on FRC601 . In addition, there are some recordings available on YouTube, such as Jimmy Triplet , Kerry Blech and others . Some of those versions are played in GDGD. A few of the videos mention Lester McCumbers as the source, as in the Blech video h...