Somehow, I cannot post a .pdf file to the ongoing discussion, so I'll post it here.

This is the US Census record for Sylvester Ossman, Musician, for 1910. It shows the full family at the time, including Sylvester Jr.

They were living in Palisades Park, New Jersey.

Ossman Census record 1910

Here's the MIDI and TAB for "Carry On", complete with Mike's "Intro".

"Carry On" MIDI

"Carry On" TAB

Ian, please put these in their proper place...should you be inclined to do so.

===Marc

I nicked a box full of crumbly old sheet music offa ebay a week or so ago. Paid about $0.80 ea with shipping. See attached list for the titles, etc.

All of this stuff is American, pre 1900 and in A notation. Amazingly, not many duplicates (whew!) for me. Sure, some obvious ones like Darkey's Awakening, On The Mill Dam, Queen of the Forest, etc. However, there are a couple of previously unknown publishers (two female!) and nearly the entire output of a previously unknown (to me) New…

Jumbo Rag TAB.pdf

Yesterday, I drove 2.5 hrs up to the Nashville, TN area for BUW (Breaking Up Winter). BUW is an Old-Time festival that has been held the first weekend in March for the past 15 or so years at a small State Park in Lebanon, TN (Cedars Of Lebanon State Park, no less).

This "festival" (it is really just an excuse to gather OT players and have an extended jam) is one of those places where you meet old friends, play a lot of music and unwind. I usually take a pile of banjos and spend a bit…

I saw this title in the random view in the new Music Library here...and knew exactly what it referenced...and knew I had to hear it.

Here's the cover art from the original piano score:

"Scorchers" were bicyclists of the 1880-1900 period who rode as fast as possible and without regard to either personal or public safety. They…

Well, I had a few moments today to sit down and clean out my binder of tunes. This is a three-ring binder that carries all the Classic Banjo tunes I either routinely practice, play thru or wish to work on. It has gotten to where it is overstuffed and hard to carry without dropping out loose pages or whatever.

So, I took it all apart and cleaned out all the junk I never play and then decided to arrange it by tuning, that is, all the gCGBD tunes and then all the 'raised bass' tunes. I…

Here's a tune I brought back from the Nashville Gathering. Eli Kaufman played it for me and I actually remembered the title. This is an early Morley piece, probably from when he was still playing fretless. Easy and fun!

Cannon Jig all.pdf

Well...



I had a ball at the gathering. Got to visit with old friends meet new friends and see (and pick) a helluva lot of great banjos, teach, learn, yak (lots of that!) and generally eat-breathe-sleep collector banjo stuff for two days.

So much fun to hang out with Joel and Carl. Those guys went non-stop the entire time...every time I walked past their room, there was banjo music ringing thru the door. I'm amazed that hotel security didn't put 'em both in chains.…

By request:

The Darkey's Dream dots.pdf

Somewhere In Dixie dots.pdf

I'll try and get "Somewhere In Dixie" scanned tomorrow night. Done!

===Marc

Well, I decided today to do a little experiment. I was cutting my nails and simply cut my usual picking nails back to the quick. I generally leave about 1/16” to 3/32” nail exposed on both index and middle finger (a bit more on the thumb, maybe 1/8”) and rarely cut those, rather filing them back occasionally.…

Hi y'all!

I was selected to be on the faculty this year for the Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy (SMBA), acting as "Banjo Historian" and teacher of just about everything other than Bluegrass. The Academy ran from Thursday evening thru Sunday afternoon and although the size was low (less than 30 students for the full 4 days, though there were more 'walk ins' for…

Just thought I'd let y'all know what I got in the mail today from the estate of Z.M.Bickford. The seller seems to either enjoy classifying by publisher or perhaps Mr. Bickford simply had them filed that way. Anyway, the first set are published by Stephen Shepard, Patterson NJ (I had never heard of him). The first is 2 collections of "choice" banjo solos, all of which are 'single page' and all from ~1904-1914:

Book 1

Mazie Waltz (Shepard)

Three Star Schottische…

I just wanted to thank everybody for the nice e-birthday gifts, etc. I don't usually celebrate such things any more (I get a card from my wife and one from my favorite niece) but it was nice of y'all to think of me!

On another note...I have been buying some sheet music from a peculiar seller on ebay. This seller seems to have a wide variety of unusual Classic Banjo sheets including songbooks and tutors I've never heard of. He keeps saying he's got a large storage unit filled…