Calloway by Lee Hammons, banjo

[@atawolobongo]

Well here's a gem!

[@eytonshalomsandiego]

thanks for sharing this absolute gem!

[@mhandle6025]

Lovely wee tune. Good man to record it.

[@dorindacontreras1094]

Mr Leftwich….. what key is this lovely tune?

[@bradleftwich]

Well, I would call it double C tuning, with the fifth string tuned low. Double C is normally gCGCD, but this is eCGCD, and actually he's tuned a little bit lower than that, maybe a half-step low, but I'm not sure that's intentional.

[@dorindacontreras1094]

@@bradleftwich thank you so much! This is helpful! He was one of my good friend’s favorite people. I’d love to learn this tune. Nice to be able to hear the old timers play these tunes.

[@bradleftwich]

@@dorindacontreras1094 My pleasure! He was a delightful man. I treasure my memories of visiting him, and I'm just glad I can share the recordings to give people a little sense of what it was like.

[@dorindacontreras1094]

Mr Leftwich could you explain the differences between round peak and this WV style? Is it just the repertoire or is there more? It’s okay if you don’t care to explain it. Perhaps it’s a different sense or pulse.

[@bradleftwich]

That's a good question, but the answer is pretty complicated. It's both style and repertoire. The Round Peak style was for the most part intended to go along with the fiddle and provide fast-paced music for dancing, whereas Lee's style was more of a solo style, slower, delicate, maybe introspective if that makes any sense. There are any number of differences in technique between them, but that's practically a book in itself.