Tip Jar Jam #4

Murphy Henry

We had another excellent group of jammers for our fourth Tip Jar Jam on the evening of 12-12-12! And, interestingly enough, we had 12 jammers, including me!

 

Attending were:

 

Janet–guitar

Suzi–fiddle

Bob V–guitar

Jon–banjo

Ben–banjo

Kasey–banjo

Mark–banjo

Kenney–bass

Barbara–bass

Logan–banjo

Bob Mc—banjo

Me—banjo, guitar, fiddle

 

Some might say we were a little banjo heavy, but can you really have too many banjos? Don’t answer that!

 

Logan

Logan was on break from his college studies and I was so happy that he wanted to join us! You don’t find many young men who are content to sit and play banjo SLOWLY with a group of folks who are clearly in their prime, just not in their young prime! (The teenage Kasey excluded! As is Jon!) Logan has turned into a fine banjo player and a wonderful person. His mom, Robyn (now in Alaska), had told him she missed hearing his banjo playing, so at the end of the jam he asked Bob V and me to stay and record a video version of Jingle Bells so he could post it on his Facebook page for her. Sweet boy! She texted me at 11:35 pm saying, “I loved the video…thanks so much!” (I was still up, relaxing and watching Family Feud. I love Steve Harvey!)

 

So what did we pick? In addition to the usual stuff from Volume One and Misfits (CC, BITH, FMB, John Hardy, I  Saw the Light, Cabbage) we also ventured into the key of A (capo second fret) to play Old Joe Clark, Somebody Touched Me, Cripple Creek (again), and Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms. My Casey had been working with her students Ben and his daughter Kasey on using the capo in A and they both caught on beautifully. When I asked Ben if they also knew how to vamp in A, he said, “Yes, you just move everything up 2 frets.” Ah, if only that made sense to everybody. It’s one of those things: if you get it, you get it; and if you don’t, you don’t–it’s like speaking Greek.

 

And I have to brag on Bob Mc. When we were lining up the breaks for Somebody Touched Me, he said he’d pass, but when he heard the song, he changed his mind. He got my attention and I told him he could play right after the fiddle. When his turn came, he jumped in and played an excellent break to a song he’d never heard before! I’m telling you, this improvising stuff works!

 

I had promised Suzi that if she came to the jam again, we’d do Cripple Creek in A so she could play the break she had learned off of Beginning Fiddle Vol. 1. She also took a great break on John Hardy, which I’d forgotten she had learned (Beginning Fiddle Vol. 2). And when I asked Logan to play When You and I Were Young, Maggie, (which Don Reno recorded) I heard Suzi sawing away on it so I gave her the nod and she took a perfectly good break to a tune she’d never played before! As she modestly said afterwards, “I knew the song in my head.” Still and yet…..! She and I also played twin versions of Silent Night (to which she had learned a harmony, or the alto as she calls it) and Amazing Grace. Fun, fun, fun!

 

Suzi wasn’t the only one out-doing herself. Janet took lead guitar breaks to 5 songs: I Saw the Light, Somebody Touched Me, When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, I’ll Fly Away, and Old Joe Clark. I was so proud of her. She’s really been working hard on all her lead picking, but especially Old Joe Clark.

 

Barbara was new to the jam. She came early to take a bass lesson (we worked on a walking-bass break to Mama Don’t Allow) and stayed to jam. She did a great job of “putting the bottom in the band,” as we say. Kenney, who was also playing bass, said he was copying some of her licks. Or maybe he said “stealing”. No matter. On the one song they both laid out of, I really missed the bass and realized how lucky we were to have such solid players.

 

And of course I have to mention this. For our last song, at John’s request, we did I’ll Fly Away (as an instrumental). Bob V was right in the middle of his perfectly good guitar break when he went into the chorus, took a sharp turn to the left and started playing the chorus of When The Roll is Called Up Yonder! (The song we’d played previously.) I followed him down that rabbit hole with the guitar, caught the eye of a confused-looking Suzi, who was up next, and yelled, “Play I’ll Fly Away!” Which she did. Bob Mc and Logan took their breaks, then we sang a verse and chorus and the fourth Tip Jar Jam was over. And a mighty fine jam it was!

 

We’ll be jamming again next Wednesday, December 19, but will skip the Wednesday after Christmas (December 26). But we’ll be back at it on January 2, 2013! We’d LOVE to have you join us! Shoot us an email (nmhenry@visuallink.com) or call (800-227-2357) if can come and want directions. We have so much fun! Be sure to call before you drive a long distance.

 

So get out the banjo, tighten up the hide

Tell all the young folks to come inside

We’ll make music till the rafters ring

With the students picking and a-sawing on the strings!

 

(Don Reno’s song Sawing on the Strings.)