I am preparing to present a "Tune of the week" over on Banjo Hangout, and am going to use this song as my entry.

Rolling Hills Are Burning Down

I first recorded it in 2006 and posted it here, but that was on a fretted banjo tuned to double C tuning. Since then I've obtained a fretless mountain banjo and have been dabbling in an alternate D tuning known as "dead" tuning (f#DEAD). Since the fretless has minstrel strings right now, it is tuned down about 3 half-steps, so the tuning is closer to eBC#F#B, which fits my voice much better.

I have only heard 3 other renditions of this song, my brother's, George's, and another BHO member's. I have found no background information on the song, and it appears that the original source must be George Landers. If you know anything about it, I would appreciate you contacting me with it.

It's been a while since I posted anything to this blog, and in the meantime, I have added two new videos to my YouTube account:

Buffalo Gals: a fiddle tune, and

Mole In The Ground: a song (with vocal) on my new fretless Mountain Banjo from Bisbee Banjo Works.

Hope you enjoy them.

I've just added a new clawhammer banjo tune to my music page.

Trouble on My Mind is from the Kentucky fiddler John Salyer. Usually played as a fiddle tune today, it is consider a banjo tune.

Recorded on my patio on my Chuck Lee Lone Star banjo to an Olympus DVR WS-300M and processed through Audacity.

I've added the Old-Time fiddle tune Dry and Dusty to my music catalog.

Dry and Dusty

This take is slower than the tune is usually played, but it was still almost too fast for my fiddle prowess.

I added the guitar track and thus discovered how slow I had actually played the tune.