pete_fiddle - Posted - 04/15/2022:  07:18:28

Ouch!, Nothing like the sound of a Bridge hitting the top of your fiddle.....Goes right through me, then i daren't look for a second or two, hope it's all ok,

NCnotes - Posted - 04/15/2022:  07:21:14

Hi Doug, Yes! Luthier said it was probably due to it (old bridge) leaning a lot.

I first noticed the leaning bridge issue after I got gut strings - which need a lot more tuning and are less "slippery". Bridge was always leaning and even falling out! Music store fixed the leaning for a long time, by putting graphite in the bridge grooves, but recently the leaning came back...I tried to fix it myself a few times, but never sure I got it right (not a luthier)...so yes, I think that was probably the issue. I now am using synthetic strings again ... gut was just too hard to manage! ( And thanks Pete! All is well. He took a look and knocked all over the body, it's ok (apparently sometimes when your bridge goes, your soundpost comes loose too).



Anyway, looking forward to Walking more with John when I get my violin/fiddle back!

Edited by - NCnotes on 04/15/2022 07:24:08

Earworm - Posted - 04/15/2022:  08:20:18

Walk Along John

Okey doke, here we go. This tune is new to me this month, and I'm am trying to shed my habit of "over thinking" these things. So, this is my shot at it - hope you find something good in it. There are a few wild moments to be had here, but I'm hoping that the overall fun-ness of it makes up for it. :)

I really fell in love with the Violet Hensley version of this tune in Cross G, so that's what I used as my model. Slippery Hill says she tuned this in GDAE (key of G), but think they made an error on this - I found it in GDGD, and believe that's what she must have used too.

Interesting to note that I looked up Violet Hensley as a musician and learned that as of last October, at least, she was still out there making music at the age of 105!! I surely hope she's still out there making her music today, but regardless I think that's so awesome. I don't know how I've missed her name as a musician in the past, but I think she is terrific.

Edited by - Earworm on 04/15/2022 08:32:33

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 04/15/2022:  19:31:51

Donna, that's a really cool version of Walk Along John. Nicely fiddled. I guess Violet Hensley's version might be pretty authentic, given how long she's been around to hear tunes over the decades and centuries, and how close she lives to Kansas! She is really cool. I just saw on a FB post about a week or two ago that she was attending a fiddle convention there in her area in Arkansas...it was a short clip of her playing something...I think it was Red Rooster, if i'm remembering right. So cool to be fiddling for a crowd at the convention at the age of 105...wow! Thanks for sharing that one with us!

NC, I'm sorry to hear about your fiddle. I know that kinda stuff is really upsetting. Hope it's all back together again and in fine fiddling shape soon, without breaking the bank too.

Earworm - Posted - 04/15/2022:  20:39:47

Thanks Peggy, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Hensley’s version is pretty similar to Bill Driver’s version of this tune too, which would have been an earlier version yet. I just kind of latched onto her recording though - there’s lots to dig into with it. I’m just scratching the surface I think.

Edited by - Earworm on 04/15/2022 20:45:47

alaskafiddler - Posted - 04/22/2022:  17:38:04

Walk Along John to Kansas, just sitting around playing with the neighbors... recorded on phone.

Walk Along John to Kansas

 

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 04/22/2022:  18:40:41

Nice fiddling...sounds like a fun time with super fun neighbors! Thanks, AlaskaF!

alaskafiddler - Posted - 04/23/2022:  00:28:01

quote:

---

Originally posted by Earworm

Walk Along John

Okey doke, here we go. This tune is new to me this month, and I'm am trying to shed my habit of "over thinking" these things. So, this is my shot at it - hope you find something good in it. There are a few wild moments to be had here, but I'm hoping that the overall fun-ness of it makes up for it. :)

I really fell in love with the Violet Hensley version of this tune in Cross G, so that's what I used as my model. Slippery Hill says she tuned this in GDAE (key of G), but think they made an error on this - I found it in GDGD, and believe that's what she must have used too.

Interesting to note that I looked up Violet Hensley as a musician and learned that as of last October, at least, she was still out there making music at the age of 105!! I surely hope she's still out there making her music today, but regardless I think that's so awesome. I don't know how I've missed her name as a musician in the past, but I think she is terrific.

---

Just to note, that's "Walk Along John" which is not a different version, but a different and unrelated tune than "Walk Along John to Kansas".

Both good tunes... just different.

 

Edited by - alaskafiddler on 04/23/2022 00:40:05

Earworm - Posted - 04/23/2022:  07:05:08

Well, alaskafiddler I hadn't been so sure - the river flows in many directions. Sometimes a very different version is hard to tell from a whole different tune.

But I think you might be right after looking at it. I think I have to spend a little time with the with "...to Kansas" maybe, to get the feel of that. And if it's a completely different tune, I'm okay with that. I learned a cool tune. :)

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 04/23/2022:  11:22:46

Donna...who knows? Lol...some of these tunes started out in one holler and got totally rearaanged in the next holler over the river...my theory is that's there's only one big fiddle tune, the mother of them all...and the rest just branch off because of cultural changes, geographical changes, etc., etc., etc.



But, regardless of all the chit-chat we could get into about it all...I sure do appreciate very much your submission and thanks for participating. Loved the tune, loved how you played it, and anything that anybody gets from Violet Hensley is sure to be a good ol' fun fiddle tune.

Edited by - groundhogpeggy on 04/23/2022 11:24:00

pete_fiddle - Posted - 04/23/2022:  12:55:06

Personally I hear the tune "Walk Along John To Kansas" as an "American War of Independence" March. Perhaps connected to John Jay in some way ??

If i don't have a background to a tune, i'll just go ahead and make one up. (The internet is great for that, and my research is sketchy to say the least!).

I just need to have a setting for a tune, even if it is dubious, or just outright wrong...Or i'll have nothing to hang the tune on..But that's just me maybe?...

Disclaimer: Take with huge pinch of salt...Just making idle conversation etc...

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 04/23/2022:  13:39:34

I hear ya, Pete. Usually I just pay a lot more attention to what the music is doing than words or titles or anything, but come to think of it, I usually feel that I do know, deep down, what the tune is all about, what the music refers to...whether I know of the actual history or not...lol...just inside my own head I guess I just come to my own conclusions about all of that. Not a great research method, but works for me. Besides what is real research into old folk music? It wasn't documented that I know of along with the politics and wars and economics of times in the past...at least not purposely documented...so...all we have is ancient old fiddlers who try to remember where THEY first heard whatever tune, how they remember hearing it played, etc. Some of them say their daddies wrote this or that tune, but honestly, I'd like to have gotten the opportunity to have actually heard from the daddies where THEY got the tune...I don't think we have a clear idea where lots of tunes actually spawned. I know Kentucky folk singer and dulcimer player, Jean Ritchie said many times when she went to Ireland or Scotland in search of tunes similar to what are known as original Kentucky tunes...she usually found out, in the old country, that the Kentucky tunes were a whole lot older than what she had been led to believe, growing up.