Old-Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo By Dan Levenson (Mel Bay, $29.95)  Book with 2 CDs

As reviewed in Banjo Newsletter – March 2007
Review by David  Brooks

Old-Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo” is a significant addition to the ever-expanding list of resources available to the aspiring clawhammer banjo player. The 117 tunes in the collection come mostly from the southern Appalachian string band tradition. The style here is melodic clawhammer intended for solo playing or as accompaniment to the fiddle.

The tune selection is based on tunes that Levenson has played at festivals over the past 20 years. It includes standards (e.g., Liberty, Red Haired Boy, Whiskey Before Breakfast) as well as tunes that may be new to readers (e.g., Cuffy, Green Willis, Rochester Schottische). There are also multiple versions of several tunes (e.g., Bonaparte’s Retreat, Sandy Boys—in this case, Burl Hammons’ and Edden Hammon’s versions) to reflect regional or artistic variations.
The format of the book is exceptionally player-friendly. The book is spiral bound and all tunes fit on two facing pages. So you can open the book, lay it flat and have the whole tune available to you. No awkward page-turning is required.

In the introduction, Levenson acknowledges that “Old-Time Festival Tunes” is not an instructional book, and he directs those looking for instruction to his “Clawhammer Banjo from Scratch” and similar books. But there is plenty of instruction available in the variety of tunes and the unique approach he has taken in his tab arrangements. Each tune includes three lines of music: standard notation, a basic tab line and an advanced tab line.

The standard notation line will be a welcome addition for those who read music (including fiddlers who may not know a particular tune) and also helpful for those who rely on tab but recognize they will benefit from improving their ability to read standard notation. The basic tab should be accessible to anyone who has mastered the basic clawhammer techniques. There are few drop-thumb licks or complex left-hand techniques. These are not dumbed-down versions, however; in that the tabs are quite musical and playable. The advanced tabs introduce drop thumb, syncopation, left hand positions up the neck, etc. Most clawhammer players will learn a new lick or two on many tunes as well as how to add interest by adding variations to a tune. This approach to tablature is light years beyond the clawhammer tabs available anywhere else.

While the basic tabs in “Old-Time Festival Tunes” will satisfy many players, the advanced tabs offer opportunities to work selected licks into a tune depending on your interest and ability. In the book’s introduction, Levenson encourages the player to use the written music as a guide and to avoid playing the tunes exactly as written. In his own concerts and on his CDs, Levenson’s playing is based on variation and improvisation. He never plays the A and B parts of tune the same way each time through.
I need to make a few additional comments about Dan Levenson’s tabs and arrangements. In all of his books, I have found his tabs to be economical, efficient, but, above all, musical. Much of his playing is within the first five frets and uses such basic techniques as hammer-ons, slides and double thumbs (alternating notes on the 5th string, not drop thumbs) to create a melody that fits naturally on the fretboard, is highly rhythmic, sounds great, and feels good to play. Most of his tab licks involve only one or two left-hand fingers at a time. He seldom asks the player to fret full chords or use closed chords up the neck. With these relatively simple techniques, Levenson manages to weave rich and varied melodies. That is why I used the terms “economical” and “efficient” earlier. And when he plays up the neck, the arrangements use largely the first and second strings and incorporate the scales appropriate to the chord, again provide models the student can use on other tunes.

The music files on the accompanying CD offer still another version of each tune since Levenson often combines variations and even adds licks that are not shown in the tabs. These CD versions are played at a medium speed that will allow most players to play along once they have gotten familiar with the tabs. Each section of each tune is played twice. Some early users have complained about the CD files, noting that the volume is low and that the recordings are short (most are about one minute long). But these files were not intended to be performance quality, and some limits had to be placed on recording samples of 117 tunes. Moreover, fiddle versions of the tunes in the book are also available on the Mel Bay site www.melbay.com/festivaltunes_fiddle.asp)

It is worth pointing out that Dan Levenson’s available recordings also make excellent supporting material for “Old-Time Festival Tunes.” Most of the tunes on “Traveling Home” and “Barenaked Banjos,” for example, can be found in the book. His earlier CDs with the Boiled Buzzards (“Salt and Grease,” “Eat at Joe’s,” “Fine Dining”) also contain many tunes from the book. These recordings provide examples of performance-level playing (addressing some of the criticism noted above) as well as fine examples of fine old tunes freshly interpreted. (Information about these CDs and other materials is available at www.oldtimemusic.us/

“Old-Time Festival Tunes” may is a must-have for any clawhammer player interested in the Appalachian melodic style of playing. It will expand your repertoire of tunes while helping you to improve your playing.

Used with permission - Visit Banjo Newsletter!

As reviewed in Old Time Herald February/March 2007
Review by R.D. Lunceford

We have followed Dan’s progress for many years now, and can state that there are few banjoists that can rival his dedication to the instrument, or his contributions to the furtherance of the clawhammer style. Dan combines the unique qualities of a consummate musician with those of a gifted teacher and prolific author.
Dan describes this as a tune repertoire book rather than an instructional manual. He does provide the reader with a few pages of information that include notes on the format of the book, the CDs, the tunes themselves, a primer on tablature reading, and his views on written music, and creativity. Additionally, two subjects that will be of interest to many readers are directions on how to play the “Galax Lick,” and how to achieve the “chucking” sound that has become so popular among today’s clawhammerers.

The most outstanding feature of this book and CD set is the innovative format that Dan has adopted. Each of the 117 tunes is presented in three ways: a basic clawhammer banjo version readily accessible to players who have mastered the basics of the style, an advanced version that includes additional technique that will be playable for the banjoist at the intermediate level, and lastly, musical notation for the basic melody line. The presentation of the tune’s basic melody in standard musical notation makes the tunes accessible to players of other musical instruments (for whom banjo tablature is meaningless), giving them the basis of a version that will mesh perfectly with the banjo tablature Dan has provided.

The book consists of 248 pages in an 8-3/4” x 11-3/4” wirebound format that lays flat on a tabletop and is strategically designed so as to require no page turning mid-tune. The tablature and musical notation are immaculate. All-in-all, this is a very handsome volume.

Listening is and has always been the most important part of learning traditional music, and two CD recordings are included with the book. Together they contain all 117 tunes. Dan introduces each tune and plays it once through. The playing is crystal-clear, precise, and at a moderate tempo. Now we all know that certain tunes often sound better on certain banjos. To this end, Dan has spared no trouble, using five different banjos to insure that the listener gets the clearest, most highly articulated sound possible for each and every tune.

With a collection of this magnitude, Dan had some choices to make concerning the recordings. He recognizes this and explains his logic in the introduction to the book. Given that there are well over 100 tunes, it would have been impractical for him to have played through each A and B part exactly as written, both fast and slow for both basic and advanced versions. Had he included the often-requested fiddle version of each tune as well, the recording would contain upwards of 585 tracks! So, the best possible course lay in providing a composite version of each tune played at a moderate speed. Though the recorded tunes are not exact renderings of the tabs, they are so close as to serve as good examples of either the basic or the advanced version. Additionally, this approach has the advantage of offering the reader yet another version of the tunes. As an added bonus, there will be fiddle versions available online at the Mel Bay website.
Sadly, the days of the regionally-defined repertoire is in decline and the context in which most players will learn their banjo-playing is no longer the community dance or house-party. Old-Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo is a fabulous resource—a book that is bound to be a classic that will be in print for decades to come. Written by one of today’s best players and teachers, the book contains an incredible amount of material selected by a veteran of the festival scene, and it comes in a form that will prove invaluable to all levels of players. If there is any such thing as an indispensable tune book for clawhammer banjo, this is it.

Old-Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo should be available at any music store that sells Mel Bay publications or from www.clawhammerbanjo.us.

Used with permission - Visit The Old Time Herald