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Recently I learned something: Creedence Clearwater Revival songs adapt really well to clawhammer banjo. Upon making this discovery, I had great fun running through my catalog of CCR favorites.

The primary challenge here is in resisting the urge to emulate the vocal stylings of John Fogerty, a near impossible task for mortal vocal cords.

Choosing which one to present first as a Song of the Week selection was also a tough task. In the end, the smile that would inevitably creep up on my face every time I played “Down on the Corner” sealed the deal.

There’s plenty of syncopation going on in this one, as is true of the source material, and so it presents an excellent opportunity to practice those syncopated skip notes.

(RELATED: click here for a complete video lesson on how to play skips and syncopated skips).

Down on the Corner

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

 

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

 

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”

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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 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

“He loved the women and he hated the law, and he just wouldn’t take nobody’s jaw.”

Yep.

We love to celebrate the outlaw. We love to watch movies, read books, and sing songs about them. Including this week’s song of the week about outlaw Otto Wood.

Just what is the fascination, anyhow?

Maybe it’s because we love rooting for the underdog. One man against the might of the government, who, using his guile and wits, comes out on top against all odds (it’s reported that Otto successfully managed no fewer than 14 jailbreaks)

Maybe it’s because, every once in a while, we like to imagine life in their shoes, living by our own code of ethics and virtues, unshackled from the conventions of culture or the laws of the land. (Otto was a moonshiner and a gambler).

Not that my fellow peace loving, law abiding banjo brethren would act upon such fantasies, of course…

Otto’s life ultimately ended in a blaze of glory, by way of a shootout following his final escape.

It was only a year later that the “Carolina Buddies” memorialized Otto in song.

Otto Wood

aDADE tuning, Brainjo level 3

 

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

 

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”

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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 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

It’s interesting how so many works of art and music seem to change in meaning as we get older. New layers, once hidden from us, suddenly leap out through the filters of age and experience.

In my early life, this week’s selection – the “Blue Tail Fly” (aka “Jimmy Crack Corn”) – was a song with a pleasing melody and some silly lyrics about Jimmy cracking corn and not caring about it, whatever the heck that was supposed to mean. And something about a fly with a blue tail.

The words were just a vehicle for the melody, nothing more.

Of course, as some of you may know, there actually is more to it than that.

The song originates in the Minstrel era, a breakout hit of Dan Emmett and the Virginia Minstrels, later to be repurposed in the folk revival era by Pete Seeger, as a children’s song.  As with much of the material from this period in American musical history, it covers some delicate territory.

On the surface, it appears to be a slave’s telling of his master’s death in a horse-riding accident.

Closer inspection reveals that, not surprisingly, our narrator isn’t too broken up about his master’s demise. Moreover, he may have even had a hand in it, if by nothing more than deliberate negligence.

Though the blame, after investigation, is ultimately placed on the aforementioned fly with the blue tail.

And so while its words may tell of a tragic accident, they should be delivered with at least a hint of celebratory fervor.

It’s said that the song became popular amongst slaves, and was a favorite of one Abraham Lincoln.

As I said, it’s a song with several layers of meaning and interpretation (including the meaning of the phrase “jim crack corn” – for a thorough run down of the many hypotheses, check out this entry in Wikipedia).

Blue Tail Fly

gDGBD (dADF#A) tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

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”

---

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 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

Let’s see, thus far in the Song of the Week series we’ve covered death, hangin‘, romance, murder, locomotives, unrequited love, homesickness, occupational truancy, and infidelity.

Something feels like it’s missing, don’t it? Ah yes…

Corn liquor! Aka moonshine, panther’s breath, white lightning…mountain dew.

Lest we have our banjo player’s club cards revoked, let’s remedy this situation immediately!

This particular sonic ode to un-aged corn spirits distilled by the cloak of darkness in the remote corners of the Appalachian mountains was originally penned by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, further popularized by two of the great rough and rowdy banjoists, Grandpa Jones and Stringbean.

Mountain Dew

aEAC#E 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”

---

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 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

If you’ve ever had the experience of being a parent trying to comfort a colicky baby, you know that you’ll just about anything to soothe them.

That’s the situation my wife and I found ourselves when we had our first child. For the first 6 months or so of her life, she wasn’t a happy camper.

We tried everything we could think of to ease her woes. And when we hit on something that worked, we milked it for all it was worth.

Many a song was auditioned as part of this effort. Only the tiniest fraction made the cut.

Today’s selection, John Prine’s nostalgic lament about the effects of strip mining on his father’s hometown of Paradise, KY, was one of them.

And so many and hour was passed with either my guitar or banjo in hand, singing it to my daughter. The song was already a favorite of mine, but it’s baby whispering properties propelled it to rarefied heights.

Paradise

g#C#G#C#D# (gCGCD, capo 1) 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”

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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.