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I first heard this week’s song “Been All Around This World” (a.k.a. “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me”) off the Highwoods String Band album “Feed Your Babies Onions”.

If you’re not familiar with the legendary Highwoods, that needs to change. Everything they ever did is top notch, and Doug Dorschug’s vocal on this particular number is no exception.

It’s not entirely clear where this song originated. Sources (by that I mean Google) indicate the first recorded version was by Grandpa Jones in 1946, though it wasn’t an original composition.

The song also hit [semi] mainstream popularity once it became a staple of Grateful Dead performances.

It’s a terribly fun one to sing and perform. When else do you get the opportunity to sing while imagining your imminent demise from the gallows?

Been All Around This World

aDADE tuning, Brainjo level 3

Notes on the Tab

In the tab above, you’ll note I’ve tabbed out both a “lead break” (something to play in between verses) and the “vocal backup” (what I play while I’m singing).

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”

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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. Learn more about it here.

 

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

I love the songs that straddle the line between two worlds. Songs that clearly sound like they originated in another era, but still sound perfectly at home in the modern one.

Songs like “Hop High Lulu.”

As is the case with so many tunes in the old-time canon, “Hop High Lulu” has at least one musical doppelganger, known as “Roustabout.” Here’s a link to Fred Cockerham playing the latter tune (with its own distinct set of words) – the Southern mountains influence here is obvious.

In the rendition of “Hop High” Jules and I have recorded for the Song of the Week, on the other hand, you can almost hear how its mountain roots could be smoothed over to create a straight-outta-Nashville country number.

Not that we’d want to do such a thing!

You’ll note that my daughter Jules (along with her own virtual doppelganger) handles all the vocals on this one, which means I’m playing this in a key that’s friendlier to the female voice (less so to the post-pubscent male).

So if you find yourself in possession of a Y chromosome, you may wish to try out a few spots with the capo to find a key a bit more suitable to your vocal range.

Hop High Lulu

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

Notes on the Tab

In the tab above, you’ll note I’ve tabbed out both a “lead break” (something to play in between verses) and the “vocal backup” (what I play while I’m singing).

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”

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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. Learn more about it here.

 

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

The song Grandfather’s Clock, composed by Henry Clay Work and published in 1876 to widespread acclaim (selling over a million copies of the sheet music), has extra sentimental value for me.

It’s one my grandmother (and mother) used to sing it to me, and is the first “favorite” song I ever had.

It’s also the first music recording I ever made, a solo vocal track on cassette at the age of 2.

And not only does it sound great on the banjo, it also gives you the opportunity to practice your chimes (see measure 29 below)!

Also known as harmonics, these can be played by resting your fretting finger lightly over the string at the 12th fret. They’re not that unusual in the world of bluegrass banjo, but are seldom employed by the clawhammerist.

Grandfather’s Clock

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

Notes on the Tab

In the tab above, you’ll note I’ve tabbed out both a “lead break” (something to play in between verses) and the “vocal backup” (what I play while I’m singing).

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”

 

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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. Learn more about it here.

 

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

Here’s a story for you.

An African American girl, born in 1893 in the American South, buys a guitar at the age of 11 with money she scrapes together doing domestic work.

The girl is left handed. The only available guitar is for a right handed player.

No matter.

She teaches herself how to play, holding the instrument upside down (as she did with the banjo as well), in so doing inventing an entirely novel fingerpicking style.

She soon begins writing her own songs.

As she enters adulthood and starts her family, however, she gives up guitar playing.

Later on, she so happens to land a job as housekeeper for the Seeger’s, a family dedicated to the discovery and dissemination of folk music. They find out that she once played banjo and guitar.

On a reel to reel recorder in the bedroom of the Seeger home, Mike Seeger makes some recordings of the woman, now around 60 years of age, playing some of those songs she wrote long ago.

One of those is the song Freight Train, which she wrote at the age of 14.

Mike’s recording of it would be released by Folkways Records on the Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar album.

The song goes on to become one of the most beloved folks songs of all time, covered by artists including Peter, Paul, and Mary, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Joan Baez, Doc Watson, and Taj Mahal. Learning how to play it becomes a rite of passage for country blues guitarists the world over.

 

The story of Elizabeth (aka “Libba”) Cotten and the song “Freight Train” may be my favorite in all of folk music.

It’s a story so improbable that, had it not actually transpired, few would think it possible (and if that’s not inspiring enough, click here for a fantastic video of a 90+ year old Libba telling her story and playing Freight Train (and the banjo, too!))

It’s also one of my all time favorite songs. As you can hear, it translates quite well to the banjo.

Freight Train

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

Notes on the Tab

In the tab above, you’ll note I’ve tabbed out both a “lead break” (something to play in between verses) and the “vocal backup” (what I play while I’m singing).

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”

 

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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. Learn more about it here.