Hi All,
Since I just received a Clyde Davenport Action Figure as a gift last weekend (you can read about that and see a photo over on R.D.’s Are we losing the human element? topic), I thought I’d pick a Clyde Davenport tune for my TOTW this time.
I first learned Big Sweet Taters in Sandy Land from my fiddle buddy Clint Gorthy. He picked it up in the string band class led here in Portland by Sophie Vitells and Maggie and Patrick Lind. It comes from the playing of Clyde Davenport as recorded by Jeff Todd Titon in his book Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes. You can hear Clyde playing it over at Larry Warren’s newish Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes page on his slippery-hill.com web site.
I made a quick recording tonight of me playing it on banjo and posted it to my BHO music page. I didn’t have time to write out a tab for it, but there’s a good YouTube video by FukadaBanjo that should be easy to follow if you need a little help learning it. One of my favorite recordings of this tune is by Beverly Smith and Carl Jones on their Somewhere Over Yonder CD.
This tune is crooked, but it’s a really great jam tune. You definitely want to get all your fiddle buddy’s to learn it!
Cheers, Scott