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Andy Rattle & the Snakes
The shameless self promotion page
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You will find here a good old fashioned 70s style medley of things ive created mainly whilst noodling about on the 5 String but theres some guitar stuff here too.
Bluegrass invades norfolk pub shock video!
That openback banjo i've been building has finally been finished. The rattlesnake paintjob turned out really well.
If youre a Banjo picker try this banjo chord chart i've designed showing where the root of each chord lies. As long as you know the notes on the strings you can find any chord without having to search through a chord book. I've also included a few more unusual chord forms that you dont always find in books but often occur in more jazzy standards. Let me know what you think! |
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Ballad of Jed Clampett
939KB MP3 |
Another Flatt and Scruggs tune, apparently reached no44 in the charts in 1962. Which in 1962 was probably a fair achievement. |
Earls Breakdown
1.93MB MP3 |
Difficult one this. Theres one note that can only be got by retuning the 2nd string during the song, makes it great fun to play though. From the Hendrix of Banjo, Earl Scruggs. |
Foggy Mountain Breakdown
1.48MB MP3 |
If 100,000 monkeys were given 100,000 Banjos they would eventually play Foggy Mountain Breakdown. But imagine 100,000 monkeys and only 99,000 Banjos, what a terrible waste of monkey-power. |
Goldrush
1.26MB MP3 |
Solo banjo in open A tuning. Goldrush was written by Byron Berline, Thanks to Guy Rogers of Salmagundi for the info. |
John Hardy
1.87MB MP3 |
It is thought John Hardy killed a man during a crap game over 25 cents. He composed this tune, which he sang on the scaffold. John Hardy was hanged near the courthouse in McDowell County, January 19, 1894. |
Soldiers Joy
1.41MB MP3 |
Clawhammer songs such as Soldiers Joy, and Lost Indian are old fiddle tunes. Soldiers joy can be traced back to the year 1779 in the British Isles, where it was called The Kings Head. |
Lost Indian
1.32MB MP3 |
For lost indian the banjo is tuned to Double C, capo'd up two frets and played using just the thumb and middle finger. See just below the tunes for the story of the Lost Indian. |
Angeline The Baker
1.26MB MP3 |
A solo banjo plunky type thing. |
Blackberry Blossom
1.69MB MP3 |
Theres a really cool version of this on the Michelle Shocked CD Arkansas Traveller |
Old Joe Clarke
1.41MB MP3 |
Joe Clark, b.1839, lived in Kentucky. A shiftless and rough mountaineer of that day his enemies were legion. He was murdered in 1885. In the moonshining days of 1870's, he ran a government-supervised still. |
Cripple Creek
1.22MB MP3 |
Cripple Creek is kind of your Banjo driving licence. Its usually the first tune to learn. This one is heavily influenced by Tony Trischka. |
Boiling Cabbages
1.34MB MP3 |
Larn yarself Norfolk: MAWTHER.."Theres a fire at my house" FIREMAN.."How do we get there?" MAWTHER.. "Dont you still have those big red trucks?" |
Whales
2.41MB MP3 |
I've been thinking about whales a lot recently. What are they for? How come they don't sink? Heres a tune for the whales. |
Cruisin'
1.63MB MP3 |
My old 1982 XV750SE has covered around 50,000 now. |
Compulsed
2.13MB MP3 |
Written after the passing of Spike Milligan, Compulsed is not as jolly as my usual stuff. RIP Spike, Wherever you are I hope theres comedy, Jazz and peace and quiet. |
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Compulsed is also available on the ZOOMILATION compilation CD |
Bouncin'
1.45MB MP3 |
There was a Baboon who, one afternoon, said "I think I will fly to the sun" so, with two great palms strapped to his arms he started his take off run... |
Rattlin'
906KB MP3 |
Well you have to give the Telecaster an outing once in a while. |
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The Legend of the Lost Indian:
There is a story about the tune "Lost Indian" that goes back to the early days of the riverboats on the Mississippi River. Legend has it that there was a fiddler who used to play for dances on a riverboat. For a time during the spring, the river flooded and the water became filled with debris. One day as the fiddler was playing a tune, he saw an Indian struggling to survive by clinging to a log in the raging torrent. The Indian knew he was losing his fight against the river and gave his death wail, a high-pitched scream punctuated with a series of whoops. The only tune the fiddler would play afterwards was the one he'd been playing as he witnessed the untimely death, but when he played the tune he added the Indian's death wail. Today the tune is known as Lost Indian. A prominent part of the tune is the addition of the high-pitched wail and whoops which is accomplished by sliding up high on the E string at certain points. As varied and many as there are tribes of Indians and fiddlers of tunes, there are variations on this melody, but all include the death wail of the lost Indian. |
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What? Not interested? Bugger off and carry on surfing then, heres my suggestions:
Banjo hangout Useful banjo site.
Harmonica lessons Useful harp site.
R Points Get free amazon vouchers for shopping online.
Zoom Recording Info on Zoom Recording Studios.
Ian Patton Canadian Clawhammer Banjo.
Noble Poker Good online poker room.
Webhosting Worth a look if you need a domain name.
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All MP3s on this page are either originals written by me or my own arrangements of traditionals. Guitars, harmonica, keyboards, banjo, jews harp and anything else that happened to be lying around played by Andy. Drum and bass by the Snakes.
You can e-mail me at andyrattle@ntlworld.com (Put Guitar or Banjo in the subject line, I get a lot of spam!). This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer at 1024 x 768. If you use something else "HELLO, IS THERE SOMEONE WHO LOOKS AFTER YOU?" |
