St Louis dots

[Jody Stecher]

Here's a hand-written banjo arrangement for St Louis Rag. I got this from ABF and the anonymous transcriber has indicated that the arrangement is by "F. VE". I guess that's Fred Van Eps. I'm not aware of a recording of F.VE playing this solo but there's a good rendition by Vess Ossman on the cylinder preservation website.

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr%201=21...

there's also a slower home-recorded duet rendition from 1910 by John Cunninghame and Richard Tarrant Bailey Snr. on the out-of-print Tarrant Bailey Collection CD.

[thereallyniceman]

Thanks Jody! That is perfect. It will be my next piece to struggle through!

My arrangements of Smiler rag and Maple Leaf rag are handwritten and have the almost identical ARR F.VE at the top. I assumed they were copies of copies of Van Eps originals.. but who knows? I will produce a better copy on my music software... and send a copy to you if you want. I suppose that I will come up with my own fingering, just to confuse matters!! :-)

Thank you again, and thanks to Mark for his performance and the link.

Marc. I one owned a CE Regal, but was disappointed so sold it... I wish that I had kept it now!

Ian

[Jody Stecher]

Thanks Ian, a more readily readable copy would be great. A friend of mine in Tennessee has a great CE Regal. A few years ago I had one for 10 minutes. It was mess, with shoe polish hiding the rejoining of the neck and peghead which had been engaged in continental drift. When I tuned it up the tailpiece flew off, the screws having broken in half. Everywhere you looked something was flying apart on this instrument. I didn't wait for the 5th string peg to turn into a missile and penetrate a wall or a family member. I put it back in the box and returned it to the seller. But good CE Regals, especially the ones that are intact, are very responsive instruments.

[marc dalmasso]

The C_ intro is quite the same that in '" the smiler rag " ' s one ; it should give some confusion the first times ; Since Joel buyed his beautiful SSS on the banjo hangout ' site , i look at the adds sometimes and a guy sold me this regal with originals , case , wrench & guarantee for a few $ because the neck was cut ( ? why ? ) from the dowel ; i fixed myself the banjo with an exaggerated angle ; so i could set a high bridge . I knew by experience there are always 2 big screws in the CE Bj ' neck heel ; needs to take off before to extract the piece of dowell ....

[Carl Anderton]

Many thanks Jody. This one is a meaty son-of-a-gun ;^}