Hi, as I improve my 90s rock songs for our GrrrlBands showcase, I also have been working on my Old Joe Clark. It’s a classic fiddle tune that we bluegrassers learn early on.
Rhiannon plays this clawhammer style with a fiddle to accompany. I learned this clawhammer style as well, but I completely forgot about it when I was recording. Luckily, it’s pretty simple and the melodic bit is cooler.
Here’s what’s in my version:
Scruggs style banjo
Melodic style banjo
Guitar in 2 parts
Guitar backup
Banjo vamping backup
I’m pretty happy with this production. Unlike the Cripple Creek recording, I actually managed to align the beats of my backups with the breaks. Awesome!
I’m still noticing that the speed at which I can play melodic style limits the tempo I can record at. Maybe I’ll work on speed for a week or two in the future.
Also of note, I spent some time reflecting on the use of the F note/chord in this song. (In this recording, I play in the key of G, but like most fiddle tunes, this normally would be played in A at a jam). In the major G scale, the 7 should be F#. However, using the F means that we lowered the 7th a half step, putting this song in Mixolydian mode. I can’t say more about it, just that it is unusual for a song I learned on banjo. Normally, I play out of C and G shapes in Ionian mode.
