Bruce gives you a “twofer” this month with a pair of tunes he learned from the Roan Mountain HIlltoppers, a hard-driving Tennessee string band that included Joe Birchfield on fiddle, Creed Birchfield on banjo, Bill Birchfield on guitar, Janice Birchfield on washtub bass. A collection of Hilltopper tunes, including the two Bruce covers in this lesson, is available via Bandcamp. And check out this YouTube video of the band playing three tunes, including the two Bruce teaches here. Both “Old Time Sally Ann” and “Rattletrap” are quirky variants of more common session tunes, and both feature lots of drone strings, slides, and stylistic details that give these relatively simple melodies plenty of character. First up is “Old-Time Sally Ann” in the key of A minor. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear echoes of the more common “Sally Ann,” which is typically played in the key of D. Although the tune has a nominal AABB format, fiddler Joe Birchfield was inconsistent on how many B parts he would play on any given repetition. In this video, Bruce shows you both parts of the tune and discusses how to incorporate drone strings and left-hand details into your playing.
