Dusty Miller - Fretless Banjo - Clawhammer

Dusty Miller, from the playing of fiddler John Alexander Brown, who was recorded in 1939 around Iuka, Mississippi. Brown learned the tune from his father sometime before 1900 in Itawamba County, where he was born in 1872. On "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi", a great album, unfortunately out of print. But, thanks to Gadaya at Times Ain't Like They Used to Be, downloadable:
http://timesaintliketheyusedtobe.blogspot.com/2010/01/great-big-yam-potatoes-...

Played on my trusty bakelite banjo, a semi-fretless Harmony, tuned to the equivalent of aAEAE/gGDGD but down a semitone or two.

More of my videos, as well as CDs, instructional stuff, and random thoughts on banjo playing on my website: http://www.hunterrobertson.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fretless
• clawhammer
• banjo
• frailing
• dusty
• miller
• john
• brown
• fiddle
• tune
• mississippi
• hunter
• robertson
• robinson

[sazji]

Great sound as always. Are you using different gauges of strings to make that tuning work better?

[HunterRobertson]

@sazji I just tried it on a fretted banjo, with normal medium gauge strings, and it seems to work fine in fact.

Hunter

[sazji]

@HunterRobertson Me too, though I did have the problem with tuning slipping. I've been in a Bassett Creek jag. :)

[HunterRobertson]

@sazji I hadn't heard that tune but found a video here on youtube, nice.

[briscott99]

Wow, very unusual sounding and just plain awesome tune! Great playing. Thanks for sharing.

[HunterRobertson]

@briscott99 Thanks. I love Brown's playing and all the tunes he plays on that album!

[nightfrailer]

So cool to see where you are slowly burning through the copper. So good. Always inspires me to get going to the next level.

[derwoodblues]

Deadly

[HunterRobertson]

@sazji No, though heavier gauge strings would help. I don't think that they would work at all being so slack on a fretted banjo but without the frets to bend over it's not too bad. The main problem is the strings get pulled out of tune easily and the bridge moves... As that banjo is spending more and more time in that tuning I'm starting to think seriously about restringing it.

[vesternor]

god damn Good