Traditional, arranged by
John Baldry

THIS FIDDLE TUNE was first recorded by Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys in 1967, and has since become a bluegrass standard. While Bill is credited with the composition, it is arguable that Byron Berline had something to do with the arrangement, as he was Bill’s fiddle player at the time. I had known The Gold Rush for years, but was reminded of it again recently, when the September 1996 issue of Banjo Newsletter arrived, featuring Vic Jordan’s banjo solo on the Monroe recording. Vic had commented, “Bill and Byron set the tempo and they were both in agreement that a lot of tunes were being played too fast... There were certain tones that Bill wanted to get out of this tune, saying ‘Don’t play too fast, because the tone of one note gets away too fast before the next one hits,’ you know, his kind of explanation!”

So there we have it - don’t play The Gold Rush too fast! The title is a misnomer: think of prospectors jogging along on mules, rather than racing to win the Kentucky Derby. The Monroe recording swings along at a metronome speed of somewhere between 116 and 120, though it can sound nice even slower, say crotchet d = 112. The arrangement here is my own, and is an attempt to create a tuneful melody rather than to slide, slur and improvise all over the chord sequence. The latter can be a great temptation, particularly as much of the tune stays on an A chord but, as with Sally Goodin, I think it’s important to stay with a recognisable melody. The alternative B Part involves considerable use of the 3rd position (1st finger at the fifth fret), but shouldn’t present too much difficulty providing you follow the fingerings carefully.

The original recording of The Gold Rush was on the LP Bill Monroe’s Country Music Hall of Fame, Decca DL7-5281/MCA-140. It should be available currently on the Bear Family 4-CD set, Bill Monroe, Bluegrass 1959-69, though you will need a bank loan for this! A really nice banjo version, entitled Claim Jumper, is on the LP Johnnie Whisnant, by the artist of the same name, Rounder 0038. This may still be available on cassette, and is a real gem of an album. Johnnie played banjo for years with Bennie and Vallie Cain, and his solo album is in the same down-home style, a mixture of vocals and instrumentals, and with some attractive melodic mandolin playing by Charlie Taylor. You can also find a nice arrangement of The Gold Rush in the instruction package Merlin’s Magical Mandolin Method by Joe Carr (of Country Gazette fame). This is a tablature and cassette package of 20 tunes, mostly fiddle-style, and is currently available for £15.95 + £1.25 p&p from Dave Bresnen at Frets Old and New (Tel 0151 474 6343). Merlin’s Method has been around for about 20 years, and is a good value package for the intermediate-level player, with lots of licks and repertoire-expanding material.

As usual, if you have any questions or comments about the tab, please call me on 01293 523597 (weekends best).

John Baldry, Crawley, E.Sussex

PS: Other recorded references, which Chris Moreton will refer to in his forthcoming tab, include Dan Crary, Guitar, SHCD 3730 and David Grier, Freewheelin’, Rounder 0250.

Arkansas Traveller for Banjo in D
Traditional, arranged By David Cotton

ARKANSAS TRAVELLER IS the archetypal old-time American fiddle tune. It has been performed not only as an instrumental, but as a miniature folk opera, in which the fiddle player, between verses, tells the story of a verbal sparring match between an old-timer and a visitor from the city. Not surprisingly, the old-timer wins!

The tune was originally in the key of D, but many banjo players, for ease, transpose it to G. My version retains the original key of D, with no re-tuning of the banjo. This not only makes it more fun to play, but allows the luxury of the open fourth to emphasise the key.

Take a little care in the second section in bars three and four, in which the right hand fingering is slightly tricky. Apart from those bars, the tune is very straightforward. Don’t learn this arrangement slavishly. Treat it as a starting point, and develop your own ideas around it.

David Cotton, Hale, Cheshire.

President Garfield’s Hornpipe in B flat, Standard G tuning
Guitar tablature, arranged by Martin Peters ©

This is a wonderful tune with quite a bit of cross-picking in this arrangement. The first two bars of the B part are particularly tricky - well they are for me, at any rate!

There is a version in the Guitar Pickers Fakebook, to be played without a capo, which I think is even harder. According to ‘The Fakebook’ it is also known as Garfield’s Hornpipe and as Bluewater Hornpipe. Norman Blake has released a version on the Rounder compilation album Rounder Guitar, Rounder 11541. There are other recorded sources listed in ‘The Fakebook’ but I imagine that they’d be very hard to come by. All these sources play the tune in the key of B-flat, but I have tabbed it to be played using ‘G’ shapes with the capo at the 3rd fret.

If anyone wants to contact me to discuss the arrangement presented here, or anything else come to that, then please ’phone me on 01384-370605 or write to me at 1, Unwin Crescent, Stourbridge, W.Midlands, DY8-3UY.

Martin Peters, Stourbridge.

Updated 23rd Jan 1999