Tune Notes for "Clifftop Notes Vol. 1":
Tunings are listed for fiddles (low string to high) and banjo (5th string to 1st). Jody’s tenor guitar is tuned to match the fiddle tuning, an octave below.
1. Because It’s There (2003)
(Mark GCGE, Rich GCGD, Brendan gCGCD)
One of several tunes written in a curious C tuning I believe I invented at Clifftop, while playing with my campground buddies the Cliffhangers (here en-Riched).
2. Breaking in the String (2002)
(AEAE, Brendan aEAC#E)
Written while playing with banjoist Susan Sterngold, after changing a pesky A string before the fiddle contest. I had recently returned from a trip to Sweden.
Notation for Breaking in the String
3. Don’t Know Where I’m Going (But I’m On My Way) (2003)
(ADAE, Brendan aDADE)
This one "popped out" in a session with the Cliffhangers. The title is from Brendan, who insists it begins with an "I." But it’s not about "I" is it?
Notation for Dont' Know Where I'm Going...
4. Well Into the Double Digits (1995)
(DDAD, Brendan aDADE)
After playing "Old Henry" with Pete and Ellen Vigour, one of their signature tunes in DDAD, someone, in the course of casual conversation, asked how much one usually makes playing for a contradance. The title of this tune was the informative reply.
5. Maggie in the Doldrums (2004)
(EDAE)
Written in sympathy on a hard day at Clifftop for West Coast banjoist Maggie Brunjes. But how could anyone stay blue hearing Rich’s thwunking guitar?
6. Little Asheville (1997)
(Fiddles AEAE, Maxine aEAC#E)
At Clifftop, little "villages" spring up in the campgrounds where people congregate, cook and play together. This tune, which popped out in a session with Phil Jamison, was written in honor of the kind denizens of Little Asheville, my home away from home that Clifftop; especially Gordy Hinners and Rebecca Keeter. It’s been called my most traditional-sounding fiddle tune; you can hear my version and Rich’s side by side at the start, before we go neck-to-neck.
7. Hogie in the Midst (1997)
(AEAD, Brendan aDADE)
It was a damp and foggy night… playing made-up-on-the-spot tunes with Hogie Siebert, who was playing the legendary fretless banjo she had just acquired from Anvil Smith. (The year is vague; Anvil says it was "the year it didn’t rain at Galax.") In this tune that remains from that night, you can hear both of us skidding.
8. Hel Amongst the Vetica (2001)
(GDAE, Brendan gDGBD)
Another tune first played with the Cliffhangers. From the font whence all fiddle tunes come.
9. John Bloom (2004)
(F#BAE, Maxine aDADE)
Written in memory of John Bloom, who passed away at Clifftop in 2004. The tune is a transformation of Emmett Lundy’s "Poor Little Johnny’s Gone to the War."
10. Dark of Hartness (2003)
(Fiddles AEAE, Maxine aEAC#E)
One night I left my own Clifftop "village" and wandered down an unfamiliar side road, where I listened for hours as Rich Hartness fiddled. Since then I’ve been privileged to get to know the man and his music and have been deeply inspired by both. This tune is a tribute to Rich’s "persistent light."
Notation for Dark of Hartness
11. Cliffhanger (2003)
(EDAE, Brendan aEAC#E)
Written in July of 2003 as a sort of cruel present for the Cliffhangers. An exercise in suspense, it is a tune in the key of A in which an A chord never appears. Dedicated, old-time Serbian overtones and all, to one of my early tunesmith heroes and influences — Hank Bradley, the original Poison Coyote Kid.