July 14, 2025

OTDL - New tunes, Good listening, and a Challenge

Hey friends,

This is Old Time Download – where I share what I know about Old Time music, what I'm working on, what I'm listening to, and more to inspire your playing.

As always, I love hearing from you all. Feel free to respond directly to this email and let me know if anything here resonates.

Tunes I Like #1 - Hometown Band. This is a current favorite of mine that I picked up from my buddy Ian Knepper in Cork City, Ireland. Check out his band, Grits & Gravy Stringband, on Bandcamp.

Do you have any favorite tunes you'd be interested in hearing me play? I'm always on the lookout for gems.

What I'm bringing to the jam

Come on Old Paint, Get up That Hill. (Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music) from Ethan Hawkins. Original tune by Bach Bui.

I listened to this for a literal hour straight the first time I found it (I had a timer going while I was on an exercise bike). Favorite things about this tune:

The bass. There's not a single alternating bass line in this whole thing. Just hammer dropping on the one of every chord the whole way 🤘
Solo buttery fiddle harmonies.
The fiddle(s) implying a minor under a four chord in both the A and B parts.
Guitar break. Rare to non-existent in most old time.
That moment at 3:09
Wonderfully wonky structure.

This tune makes me picture some codger and his old horse trying to make one last go of it.

What I'm listening to on repeat

Ida Red. (Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music) by Joseph Decosimo

So catchy and cozy. I love the way this tune builds. Also, more drums and electric guitar in fiddle tunes please.

What I'm working on

Tone. Intonation in particular.

This is something I neglected for years in lieu of bowing and now I'm trying to correct that error. I'm playing a lot of tunes slowly, checking my intonation often (by comparing to open strings), trying to find more efficient fingerings, using my pinky more, and learning to play in higher positions and obscure (by OT standards) keys.

I'll be sharing some YouTube videos on this soon.

A useful (but difficult) double-stop

I picked up this intermediate-level maneuver from my buddy, Scotty. Two finger octave unisons are common in Cajun fiddling but less so in Old Time. Let's change that. This creates a killer howling effect within the melody when it's played well.

Here's how to approach it:

The B under your pinky on the high E string (1st string) is a good place to start. If you find yourself playing that as a melody note, see if you can add the B an octave below to it on your A string (2nd string).

Longer duration notes will make it easier to pull this off.

Straight on view of violin B octave double-stop

Looking down the neck view of B octave double-stop — Sighting down the barrel

Try it on Crook Brother's Breakdown. You'll hear a big B note where it can fit about 4 seconds into this version from the Stuarts.

A Challenge...

See how you can integrate two finger octaves into your own playing. If you're game, make a recording and share it with me. I'd love to hear what you come up with. No need to keep it at B, every octave is fair game.

That's all for now. Thanks for being here and like I said, you can get in touch with me any time by replying to this email.

-Carter 🎻

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