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We have been receiving requests
for some standard jam session fiddle tune tabs in our monthly on-line
lessons. Jim Nunally and Dix Bruce put several of these tunes together
in a medley they call the “Flat Seven Medley.” The medley
appears on their highly acclaimed Fathers To Sons CD, and we have provided
a complete transcription of their cut in this lesson. Within the contents
of this tab, you will get breaks to all of the following fiddle tunes:
“Red Haired Boy,” “Paddy On The Turnpike,” “June
Apple,” “Salt Creek,” “Old Joe Clark,”
and “Big Mon.”
When Dix and Jim first conceived of putting out a project together,
their first idea was to have an instrumental album which highlighted
their flatpicking skills. They later made a decision to include vocals
and thus the focus of the album shifted. However, they had already worked
up some mighty great breaks to fiddle tunes and didn’t want that
work to go to waste, so they decided to put the fiddle tunes together
in a medley.
Jim and Dix noticed that many of the tunes they had worked up had a
flat seventh. Perceiving a theme here, they choose to play only the
tunes that featured the flat seventh and then appropriately titled the
medley “Flat Seven Medley.”
Another consideration for song selection and performance was a historical
aspect. Dix said that they wanted to provide tunes that were representative
of fiddle music from a historical perspective. Tunes like “Red
Haired Boy” and “Paddy On the Turnpike” are old tunes
which came to America from Ireland. The droning back up Jim plays on
“Red Haired Boy” could be representative of the bagpipes.
“Salt Creek” and “Old Joe Clark” are more representative
of Appalachian music and since Doc Watson made “Salt Creek”
one of the first great flatpicking standards, you will notice that the
tempo picks up when this tunes comes along in the medley. The medley
ends with “Big Mon” which is the newest composition and
represents the transition from old-time mountain tunes to bluegrass
music. Jim Nunally plays a great break in the guitar’s lowest
registers to add a nice twist to his rendition of this tune.
For those readers who have been asking for more fiddle tune standards—here
you are! You now have six tunes and six pages of material to sink your
teeth into! If you would like to check out more from Dix and Jim, please
check out their FGM Records release “Brother at Heart,”
or check out FGM Records newest CD release, Jim Nunally’s “Gloria’s
Waltz.” Download MP3
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