TOTW (OT) 8/14/2015 - Dull Chisel

TOTW (OT) 8/14/2015 - Dull Chisel

Key: A major

Hi all, 

This week's tune is "Dull Chisel," composed by the late Garry Harrison and appearing on his ca. 2000 CD Red Prairie Dawn. 

Not sure when I first became aware of this tune, but I've heard it in a lot of jams and at festivals for at least the past few years.

The CD went out of print some years ago, after which Garry made it available for free download on the web. Those links seem to be gone, but I think it would be OK to point out that someone still has it posted and downloadable here (some sort of registration is required). 

One thing to note is that I think a lot of people play it differently from the original in one (or both) of two ways:

1. The high part was the A part in Garry's recording - I think I often hear the low part played first
    
2. In Garry's recording the first measure of the A part contains first a D arpeggio, then an A arpeggio. The backing instruments also play 2 beats of D (the IV chord) and then 2 beats of A in the first measure. I mostly hear this played with the D arpeggio releated and a full measure of D among the backing instruments. 

Neither of these is necessarily a bad thing, but I wanted to start by pointing out that the way the tune is getting socialized is perhaps somewhat different from how the author wrote it. 

There is a wonderful video of "Dull Chisel" performed by Hopping Jenny here: 

While I love this performance, they are playing it with both the variations I mentioned above. 

Here is a recording of Mary Jane Epps and Michele Lanan playing it, closer to the orginal recording (though they do a lot of harmonizing). 

I found a few transcriptions and banjo tabs online. Here is one by Ken Torke that I thought was good. By the time I saw this one I had already done my own take on notating the fiddle melody and creating a basic banjo tab, Both are attached to this post. 

Hope you all enjoy this wonderful tune, and play it in your next A jam, perhaps in Garry's memory. 

John