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Another classic murder ballad is on the docket for the latest installment of the Song of the Week.

Our protagonist this time is Willie Moore. Sweet Annie is his beloved, whose hand Willie has asked for in marriage.

Alas, Annie’s parents do not approve of Willie. What happens next?

Watch the video to find out!

Since Burnett and Rutherford first recorded in 1927 by Burnett and Rutherford, many a folk musician has fallen for Willie.

Amongst banjoists, the song seems to have become loosely affiliated with old time fingerpicking, perhaps on account of the fact that the aforementioned first recorded version featured some delightful plickety-plackety up-picked goodness from blind Dick Burnett.

(RELATED: To learn those great plickety-plackety old time fingerpicked sounds, click here to learn more about the Breakthrough Banjo course for fingerstyle banjo).

Take note of the tuning here – gDGAD, sometimes referred to as “Willie Moore” tuning.

And don’t let the tuning scare you – it’s an easy tune to pick up (Brainjo level 2), and a good one for those starting with playing and singing. There are no chords to learn, and a minimum of fretting to do.

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(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)

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Willie Moore

gDGAD tuning, Brainjo level 2

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

• Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
• Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
• Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
• Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
• Episode 5: “Freight Train”
• Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
• Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
• Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
• Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
• Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
• Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
• Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
• Episode 13: “Swanee River”
• Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
• Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
• Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
• Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
• Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
• Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
• Episode 20: “Way Out There”
• Episode 21: “New Slang”
• Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
• Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
• Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
• Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
• Episode 26: “Budapest”
• Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
• Episode 28: “Paradise”
• Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
• Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
• Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
• Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
• Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
• Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
• Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
• Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
• Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
• Episode 38: “Dixie”
• Episode 39: “Hard Times”
• Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
• Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”
• Episode 42: “Johnson Boys”
• Episode 43: “Bad Moon Rising”
• Episode 44: “Reuben’s Train”
• Episode 45: “Let the Mermaid’s Flirt With Me”
• Episode 46: “Rocky Top”
• Episode 47: “Groundhog”
• Episode 48: “Lazy John”
• Episode 49: “The Gambler”
• Episode 50: “8 More Miles To Louisville”
• Episode 51: “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
• Episode 52: “Pretty Polly”
• Episode 53: “You Are My Sunshine”
• Episode 54: “Old Molly Hare”
• Episode 55: “The Miller’s Will”
• Episode 56: “Walking Cane”
• Episode 57: “Feast Here Tonight”
• Episode 58 “Let Me Fall”
• Episode 59: “Little Birdie”
• Episode 60: “Train on the Island”
• Episode 61: “Handsome Molly”

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Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

 

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab

All of the various styles of banjo pickery each seem to have their own set of signature tunes.

Since any tune can essentially be rendered in any style, these associations are more a happenstance of history than anything else, typically a matter of which banjo player popularized it first.

Clawhammer banjo has its Snowdrops, Last Chances, and Sandy River Belles in its set.

Scruggs banjo has its Foggy Mountain Breakdowns and Ground-speeds in its set.

And 2 finger thumb lead has its set, which includes this week’s selection “Handsome Molly.”

I’ve loved 2 finger thumb lead since I first learned it years ago. In fact, I think what draws folks to 2 finger thumb lead are some of the same things that draws folks to clawhammer.

Like clawhammer, the rhythm is baked into the style, so it’s easier to play with good rhythm and timing, and, unlike Scruggs banjo, it’s great for solo playing or vocal accompaniment.

So it also makes for a nice and easy way for clawhammerists to dip their first toe into the world of up-picking.

You can hear those above described similarities by listening to the 2 finger version below (click here to check out the 2 finger thumb lead tab for “Handsome Molly.”)

Handsome Molly, 2 finger thumb lead style

(RELATED: Should you get bitten by the 2 finger bug, the fingerstyle course is waiting. It’s the first style taught as part of the learning progression (because it makes learning of Scruggs style way easier), and because of the level of interest, Im continuing to add a large library of 2 finger tune tutorials. Click here to learn more.)

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(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)

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Handsome Molly

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 2

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

• Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
• Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
• Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
• Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
• Episode 5: “Freight Train”
• Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
• Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
• Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
• Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
• Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
• Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
• Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
• Episode 13: “Swanee River”
• Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
• Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
• Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
• Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
• Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
• Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
• Episode 20: “Way Out There”
• Episode 21: “New Slang”
• Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
• Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
• Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
• Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
• Episode 26: “Budapest”
• Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
• Episode 28: “Paradise”
• Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
• Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
• Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
• Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
• Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
• Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
• Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
• Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
• Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
• Episode 38: “Dixie”
• Episode 39: “Hard Times”
• Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
• Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”
• Episode 42: “Johnson Boys”
• Episode 43: “Bad Moon Rising”
• Episode 44: “Reuben’s Train”
• Episode 45: “Let the Mermaid’s Flirt With Me”
• Episode 46: “Rocky Top”
• Episode 47: “Groundhog”
• Episode 48: “Lazy John”
• Episode 49: “The Gambler”
• Episode 50: “8 More Miles To Louisville”
• Episode 51: “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
• Episode 52: “Pretty Polly”
• Episode 53: “You Are My Sunshine”
• Episode 54: “Old Molly Hare”
• Episode 55: “The Miller’s Will”
• Episode 56: “Walking Cane”
• Episode 57: “Feast Here Tonight”
• Episode 58 “Let Me Fall”
• Episode 59: “Little Birdie”
• Episode 60: “Train on the Island”

---

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

 

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab

“Train on the Island” was first recorded in 1927 by Ralph Peer for Victor Records during the famous Bristol sessions with Virginia musicians J.P. Nestor on the banjo, and Norman Edmonds on fiddle.

On paper, it doesn’t seem like much.

Its another in a long line of songs about trains. It covers familiar terrain of tragic love lost.

It’s short and simple, with just one simple repeating phrase.

And yet, it has become a classic, recorded countless times in the intervening years since it the original was cut.

Once again, simplicity for the win.

While the pulsating pace of the original recording provides a contrast to the tragic story, here the melancholy mood is enhanced by the relaxed tempo of the brooding gourd.

Train on the Island 

gDGBD (dADF#A on the gourd) tuning, Brainjo level 3

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

• Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
• Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
• Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
• Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
• Episode 5: “Freight Train”
• Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
• Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
• Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
• Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
• Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
• Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
• Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
• Episode 13: “Swanee River”
• Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
• Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
• Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
• Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
• Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
• Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
• Episode 20: “Way Out There”
• Episode 21: “New Slang”
• Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
• Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
• Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
• Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
• Episode 26: “Budapest”
• Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
• Episode 28: “Paradise”
• Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
• Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
• Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
• Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
• Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
• Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
• Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
• Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
• Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
• Episode 38: “Dixie”
• Episode 39: “Hard Times”
• Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
• Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”
• Episode 42: “Johnson Boys”
• Episode 43: “Bad Moon Rising”
• Episode 44: “Reuben’s Train”
• Episode 45: “Let the Mermaid’s Flirt With Me”
• Episode 46: “Rocky Top”
• Episode 47: “Groundhog”
• Episode 48: “Lazy John”
• Episode 49: “The Gambler”
• Episode 50: “8 More Miles To Louisville”
• Episode 51: “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
• Episode 52: “Pretty Polly”
• Episode 53: “You Are My Sunshine”
• Episode 54: “Old Molly Hare”
• Episode 55: “The Miller’s Will”
• Episode 56: “Walking Cane”
• Episode 57: “Feast Here Tonight”
• Episode 58 “Let Me Fall”
• Episode 59: “Little Birdie”

---

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault