“I like that ol’ Marchin’ Jaybird”
Etta Baker laughs and sets into her fluid, breezy fingerpicking style, with sister Cora Phillips backing up the easy chord changes on guitar. It’s a real pastoral sound, I can almost feel the country air. It’s Etta’s only appearance on the Black Banjo Songsters CD, but it certainly got my attention, and I knew I wanted to pick it for myself. I’m also a sucker for tunes about wildlife, and this Christmas I’ll hope to see a few mountain jays when I venture out to New Mexico to be with family.
http://i.imgur.com/QON0xUk.jpg
There’s really nothing to it. About the simplest 8 bars you could ever ask for melodically; two measures of the A-part seem to be just keeping time. The B-part’s even more straightforward. Etta finds bountiful expression in it though. You won’t find much about the tune in The Fiddler’s Companion, which helps to suggest this is more of a solo banjo tune than a fiddle tune. The only source it offers is Lacey Phillips’ 1956 snappy recording, a flurry of reverse three-finger rolls syncopated nicely. Lacey may have been Etta’s uncle or brother-in-law (y’all speak up if you know...sister-in-law?), so it seems the tune was in the family, though Peter Hoover first happened upon it when he met a fellow banjoman at a gas station in Maryland (from the liner notes in a Reed Martin CD).
But while the tune doesn’t get mentioned much in history, we are given some insight into its origin. The Traditional Tune Archive cites a book by Stephen Wade, in which the author asks Etta if she hears any resemblance to Spanish Fandango (the one Elizabeth Cotten wonderfully calls Spanish Flang Dang), to which Etta replies, “The chords in there are so much alike, it keeps you kindly on the go to keep them separated.” Which to an amateur like me could describe my experience with about 90% of all fiddle tunes (it all sounds the same, right??)! But listening to a few versions of Spanish Fandango (linked below), I definitely hear the resemblance. The B-part’s just about a mirror image! The obvious difference would of course be the Fandango’s in played in ol’ romantic 3/4, where our tune is rooted firmly in 4/4. I can easily imagine the evolution--a country boy comes to town, hears Spanish Fandango played on a parlor guitar, excitedly travels home, picks up the ‘jo, recalls faintly the melody but forgets the meter. That’s folk music, right?
Cece Conway in Black Banjo Songsters lists the tuning as dDF#AD (where the 5th string would be tuned down to match the 1st string in pitch). I’m not totally sure this is accurate, but BHO user Blake Bamford’s example below is convincing. Chip Arnold mentioned in an old thread that he’d worked up a version in the +same tuning -- hey Chip, I’d love to see a video! Chris Berry follows Lacey Phillips’ choice of tuning, gDGBD, and really nails the reverse three-finger style. After learning from his video, I’ve decided to play the tune in G as well, but in clawhammer style, and with another twist: I’ve tuned to Old G (fCFCD, capo II, so gDGDE). I really enjoy the drones in this tuning.
Let’s take it to Youtube:
Take some time outta your day to learn some 3-finger style from Chris Berry’s video, you’ll be better off for it. And if you’re into ol’ jug band and hokum 78’s (or if you’re not), the Sausage Grinder CD is a blast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3aIsJhEq8w
The Lacey Phillips original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aylEUHCITy0
Unfortunately, I can’t find full streaming audio of the Black Banjo Songsters version, but here’s Etta’s Marching Jaybird from One-Dime Blues. I don’t favor it, it’s a bit more subdued:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdIa-hvkHU4
Quite possibly my favorite one so far, very unique take by Adrienne Young & Little Sadie, with some nice Dobro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZmeVc18ukA
Great one by Dave Stacey and Frank Weston:
http://youtu.be/3EsujOgTaKg?t=2m21s
Another good one in D (f#DF#AD):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsnshbUdsl4
Pretty loose and crazy clawhammer one I like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OF6lnBJvHk
A full band version by Kansas City old-time band the Finsters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ebcQSSccaQ
A few BHO versions:
Here’s Blake Bamford’s Marching Jaybird in dDF#AD tuning:
http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/music.asp?id=2666
On BHO user Tor Hougen’s Music page, you’ll find an excellent version of the tune, with some great harmony work using partial chords: http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/music.asp?ID=21230
And finally, a few links to Spanish Fandango so you can compare (plus you can’t beat these two):
http://youtu.be/t-eM8_DwEQo?t=29m30s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsbq0gkHR0w
This last one, by John Dilleshaw & The String Marvel, I really dig, I just stumbled upon it. Happens to be in 4/4.,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztTG65KMQ58
Sources, info, etc:
Traditional Tune Archive:
http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Marching_Jaybird
Fiddler’s Companion:
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/MARA_MARO.htm
Some interesting BHO discussions on the subject:
http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/146171 (BHO user Don “whyteman” figures Marching Jaybird’s a bit like Flop-Eared Mule on quaaludes, I don’t disagree)
http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/136867
http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/203226
And Jan Olov, being the cool dude he is, tabbed ‘er out:
http://www.banjohangout.org/tab/browse.asp?m=detail&v=16115&ie6fix=1
Chime in, y’all -- please post your own takes on it and have an awesome weekend!
