03 Intro to The Banjo and "Sweet Betsy From Pike"

A very humorous introduction to the banjo, (a lot of Victor Borge and Steve Martin inspired schtick from me) including a (barely) Scruggs-style, melodic finger-picking original instrumental. This intro also includes the opening licks to my song "Food, Food, Food" from a 50-minute original satirical video entitled "Feast or Famine." Ultimately, the whole piece serves as an intro to the humorous song, "Sweet Betsy from Pike."

This is Video #3 from the musical lecture "Songs of the West" by Tim McMullen: A folk music odyssey, presenting story songs, work songs, travel songs, love songs, protest songs, and comedy songs performed on the 6-string and 12-string guitar, 6-string banjo, mountain dulcimer, harmonica, and a cappella, culled from the playing of Patrick Sky; Pete Seeger, Mike Nesmith, The Smothers Brothers; Woody Guthrie; Koerner, Ray, and Glover; Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly); Biff Rose, Mark Spoelstra; Gene Autry; The Firesign Theatre; Ramblin' Jack Elliott; Tom Paxton; and Pat Paulsen. The text for many of the songs began with THE SONGS OF MAN by Norman Luboff and Win Stracke published in 1965. Variations from the aforementioned performers were included in new arrangements by Tim McMullen.

Recorded in 1993, this historical, folk music lecture was created by Tim McMullen in 1980 and performed annually for his American Studies Junior Honors English/Social Studies Team class at El Rancho HIgh School in Pico Rivera. It was performed each year as the class completed Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.This lecture is a companion to the Woody Guthrie "Grapes of Wrath/Dust Bowl" musical lecture found at http://www.youtube.com/TimMcMullen and on the lyrics pages of Manfred Helfert's Woody Guthrie site at http://www.woodyguthrie.de/lyrics.html.

Tim McMullen, ©1993, 2007 All Rights Reserved

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Tim
• McMullen
• Scruggs
• Bob
• Dylan
• tuning
• six-string
• Banjo
• frailing
• strum
• finger-pick
• humor
• Sweet
• Betsy
• Pike
• women
• feminism

[wolih]

hah, what is the name of the song he plays first?

[TimMcMullen]

The two instrumental pieces are originals that I wrote in the late 1970's. The melodic picking is an unnamed piece that I also performed on the 6-string guitar. The frailing piece is actually the accompaniment to a song I wrote called "Food, Food, Food" from my 50-minute comedy sketch collection entitled "Feast or Famine." Thanks for asking!

[wolih]

Oh, nice. You are very funny at stage, let me tell you ha ha. I guess that you already know it for the laughs that can be heard on the video. Keep up the good work!

[TimMcMullen]

Thanks for your generous comment. This performance was given to about seventy of my eleventh grade American Studies High School students. Getting them to laugh out loud is sometimes a task, but this was a very receptive group. I thank them for making me look good on tape...