The Glory-Beaming Banjo

-photo source- Ever since embarking on my Year of Ward Jarvis , I've made a concerted effort to collect as many recordings by him and by those who were influenced by him. I already owned the Field Recorders' Collective release ( FRC402 ) of tunes collected by the late Red Mule String Band fiddler Jeff Goehring in the 1970s. And as mentioned in a recent post , I received digital copies of the David Brose recordings from some charitable folks at the Fiddle Hangout . The files also included the associated albums Brose produced " Rats Won't Stay Where There's Music " (1979, Ohio Folklife OF-1003) and " Traditional Music of Central Ohio " (1979, Ohio Arts Council TALP-001). I'm still looking to acquire physical copies of these albums, as well as " Visits " (1981, Heritage Records), produced by Ray Alden. I believe that would complete my collection of the recordings made of Ward Jarvis. I have not heard of any others. In the meanti...

T hree months have passed since I provided my last update on my "Year of Ward Jarvis" project. As you may recall, I targeted six tunes to learn by Athens County, Ohio, resident and West Virginia native Ward Jarvis. The first one I learned was " Head of the Creek ." Next up is "Icy Mountain," another AEAE tune. My source recordings were from Jeff Goehring via the Field Recorders' Collective and from David Brose via some kind folks at the Fiddle Hangout. I also referred to the notation from the Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes and a YouTube video by David Bragger . I took my first crack at "Icy Mountain" back on April 22, but I didn't really focus too hard on learning it until mid-May. I struggled with it for weeks, but then my progress took a major leap on June 6. I feel like I finally have a handle on the full tune, though I’m still working out some kinks in the B parts. A quick banjo note: I have also figure...

Source