Pansy Blossoms - Rag

A sweet rag composed by Charles L. Johnson in 1909, played on soprano ukulele. I heard this on a cassette of the Etcetera String band. They played it in the key of G. I learned it in the key of Bb from original piano sheet music I downloaded from
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/sheetmusic.pl?RagPansy&Rag&main

I like the way it sounds and plays on the ukulele in the key of Bb.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ukulele
• martin
• 3K
• ragtime
• rag

[KawhackitaRag]

Very nice! I'm glad people are playing this fine rag. Since Charles L. Johnson was a string musician first (guitar, mandolin, violin, banjo etc) and pianist second, and led a fine string band, his rags are a natural for strings.

[heftone]

Did Charles L. Johnson ever record? I've read that he was musically active until 1950. What is know about what his string band sounded like? Is anyone alive who remembers hearing them? I'm curious.

[otterwench]

Cool lighting effect!

Diana

[heftone]

Thanks. I suppose I ought to clean my camera lens ;->

[KawhackitaRag]

Hello, I really have no idea. Johnson was interviewed at least once in 1949 for the book "They All Played Ragtime". Only a few sentences from what must have been at least a page or two interview made it into the book. The field research notes and some interviews survive; I could see what he said. From what I understand, he was still writing songs up until when he died in 1950, but I'm not sure he was still playing music in public. I'll pass your question along to ragtime friends, & let you know.

[UkeeDreamer]

Really super to watch and listen..as my grandma Benson use to say, "If ya goin' do that much pickin', ya need to do more grinnin'". Thanks for a nice video.

[MrMikeEdie]

Sublime :-)

[vzereeys]

one of my favorites!

[mbwanderer]

Sweet tune. Good use of dynamics.

[wininboy]

Marvellous!(as per usual) A ray of sunlight!

And that uke sounds soo good in your hands. Keep it up, I'm enjoying it immensely. I play the uke a little myself and for me this is inspiring and disheartening at the same time.