Little Rabbit

There are lots of folk tunes that have cute names and "Little Rabbit" is one of them. (The other name of this tune is something distinctly more subversive: "John Brown's Dream"). The tune is actually quite intriguing. Instead of having a verse-chorus structure, it is made up of five parts, each a melodic variation on the same basic chord structure. Anyway, I've decided to record this tune by using the multi-track function in Garage Band. What I've done is to play the tune once through, then overdubbed that with a second rendition of the tune, but starting it only eight measures later. It turned out pretty decently.


Here's the tune clawhammered and fiddled and played at a speed that I can only aspire to!

Angeline the Baker / Needle Case

Here are two banjo tunes that I've decided to post up here, even if the playing isn't as refined as I'd like it to be. The first, "Angeline the Baker", is especially appropriate as I've lately been experimenting with baking bread a lot. There's another song called "Angelina Baker" and I'm not sure about the relationship between the two. "Angelina Baker" seems to be a lot more complex and yet there seem to be some connections in the lyrics between the two. It might well be that "Angeline the Baker" is a modification of the chorus of "Angelina Baker".



Angeline, the baker, Angeline, the baker,
Angeline, the baker, I love you Angeline.

Angeline, the baker, she's so long and tall,
she sleeps out in the kitchen with her feet out in the hall.

Angeline the baker, her age is forty three,
She chases boys around the house, but she ain't gonna get me.

This second tune's just an instrumental. I've put it here because it's in the same "double C" tuning as "Angeline the Baker" and it's a really pretty tune. Adding to the authenticity of the "do-it-yourself" recording experience, there's a noticeable whirr in the background of this recording. That's my laptop protesting.


And here's a really inspiring rendition of "Angeline the Baker":

Quite Early Morning

I've decided to start up yet another blog to inflict (once again) my meandering experiments with words and music on the world. Here's what this blog's going to do. Each post will feature a song that I've been working on. This means there'll be a recording of me singing the song as well as the lyrics so that all and sundry can sing-along. It's part of the whole participatory thing, so we don't end up being bland consumers of music!

For my first entry, I've decided to post up a version of "Quite Early Morning". The song was written by Pete Seeger (who will feature on these pages a lot). I only learnt it recently, after viewing a masterful YouTube version by Pete Seeger himself. I'll put the video of him singing it: extremely powerful and moving. I was convinced that I had to learn how to play the banjo after watching Pete sing it, so here's my version, complete with banjo accompaniment. I actually had some trouble learning its deceptively simple melody, and sing the first two lines 'wrongly' because I tend to sing a "blues" note instead (which is just a nicer way of saying I can't keep the tune straight ...). Still, I like the song very much.



Don't you know it's darkest before the dawn
And it's this thought keeps me moving on
If we could heed these signs and warnings
The time is now quite early morning
If we could heed these signs and warnings
The time is now quite early morning

Some say that humankind won't long endure
But what makes them do doggone sure?
I know that you who hear my singing
Could make those freedom bells go ringing
I know that you who hear my singing
Could make those freedom bells go ringing

And so we keep on while we live
Until we have no, no more to give
And when these fingers can strum no longer
Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger
And when these fingers can strum no longer
Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger

So though it's darkest before the dawn
These thoughts keep us moving on
Through all this world of joy and sorrow
We still can have singing tomorrows
Through all this world of joy and sorrow
We still can have singing tomorrows