Idaho Bluegrass Association
  • Home
    • About
    • Join Us
    • Donate
    • IBA Newsletter
    • Our Logo
  • Articles & Podcasts
    • Podcasts >
      • ​Jeremy Garrett Interview
      • Keith Reed Interview
      • Jason Homey Interview
      • Becky Smith Interview
      • Marv Quinton Interview
      • Rue Frisbee Interview
      • Donna and Mike Bond Interview
      • Honi Deaton Interview
      • Dennis Stokes Interview
      • Gary Eller Interview
    • Articles >
      • Glen Garrett - The Golden Years
      • Sammie Bush - came to Weiser
      • Mark O’Connor - My History at Weiser
      • Barbara Lamb - Fiddler Extraordinaire
      • Charlie Simmons -The Idaho Bluegrass Association from 1975 to 1985
      • Idaho's 19th century Fiddlers
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions ​ 1950s & 1960s
      • ​Byron Berline
      • Dave Frisbee
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions from 1970s and 80s
      • Megan Lynch Chowning
      • Fiddle Champion ​in 1990s and 2000s
      • Tashina and Tristan Clarridge
    • Snap Shot - Videos from IBA members
  • Events
    • Calendar (BCBB)
    • Open Mic
    • SpringGrass 2023 >
      • Springfest 2022
    • Winterfest
    • IBA Concert Series
    • Virtualgrass
    • Other Bluegrass Events
  • Jam
    • Idaho Jams
    • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • All of Jason's Songs
    • Old Blogs from Jason >
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Songs in 2016
  • Camps & Contests
    • Idaho Bluegrass and Banjo Camp
    • Banjo Contest
    • National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest
  • Idaho Bands
  • Teachers
  • Classified
  • Links
    • General
    • Learning
    • Specific Instruments

Little Darlin' Pal Of Mine

11/14/2014

0 Comments

 
Hi,
The song of the week is the old Carter Family classic 'Little Darlin' Pal Of Mine'.  This song - like many Carter Family songs - has been recorded many times over the years by Bluegrass artists.
 
The Stanley Brothers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjrzoqbaEBM 
 
 
Ralph Stanley II:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vfwAT87-Xc
 
The Carter Family:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1qz3CW5GE4
 
For those of you who may never have heard this song before, but find that the melody sounds familiar, I will point out that the melody for Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land' appears to have been based upon Little Darlin Pal Of Mine.  Indeed, many of Woody Guthrie's songs have melodies that are derived from songs originally recorded by the Carter Family.
 
Unfortunately, this tends to cause a bit of confusion at bluegrass jams when someone calls a Carter Family song that is similar - yet not identical - in its melody and chord progression to a Woody Guthrie song that people who are more familiar with the Guthrie song (either from a Woody Guthrie record itself, or more often, from covers of Guthrie's songs by folk artists from the 50s and 60s - e.g., The Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger)
 
Little Darlin Pal Of Mine is no exception here.  For, unlike This Land Is Your Land, the last 4 measures of the chord progression are 1511.  (This Land Is Your Land is: 5511)
 
The chord progression for Little Darlin Pal Of Mine is:
 
4411
5511
4411
1511
 
I sing it in the key of G: so in real chords it is:
CCGG
DDGG
CCGG
GDGG
 
Because Flatt and Scruggs recorded this song as an instrumental on the Foggy Mountain Banjo album (see attachment), this song is thought of by many bluegrass players as a banjo tune.  And, I have met some banjo players who play this song that didn't know it had lyrics.
 
Strictly speaking, the music of the Carter Family is not bluegrass, but rather 'Old Time'.  From a bluegrass perspective, one would call it 'pre-bluegrass'.  Many of the basic elements of bluegrass music are there in their music: the boom-chuck rhythm guitar style; heavy emphasis on the downbeat in the vocals; 2 and 3 part harmony on the choruses - albeit the harmonies are more primitive/less refined than what one tends to associate with bluegrass harmony - frequent instrumental breaks based upon the melody (though, no banjo, fiddle, or mandolin, and none of the 'licks' that one associates with bluegrass lead and back-up playing).
 
Besides all these things, it is the types of melodies, chord progressions, and perhaps, most significantly, the subject matter of the songs (home and family; sacred songs; murder songs; unrequited love; heart-wrenching songs about the death of loved ones - mothers, fathers, children) that has made the large recorded repertoire of the Carter Family so adaptable to bluegrass, that of all 'pre-bluegrass' artists, there is no band that has been covered more frequently than the Carter Family by first generation bluegrass artists.  Furthermore, many of the songs in question have become so closely associated with bluegrass as to be thought of as being just simply 'bluegrass songs', despite their pre-bluegrass origin.  For bluegrass artists have had much more of a tendency to perpetuate the recorded repertoire of the Carter Family than what 'country' and 'folk', or even modern 'old time' artists have tended to do.   Besides, Little Darlin Pal Of Mine, other examples of 'bluegrass songs' originally recorded by the Carter Family include:
Bury Me Beneath The Willow (the very first song the Carters recorded - 1927),
Foggy Mountain Top,
Wildwood Flower,
Cryin' Holy (a.k.a., On The Rock Where Moses Stood),
Workin' On A Building,
The Storms Are On The Ocean,
Keep On The Sunnyside,
Homestead On The Farm,
John Hardy, 
Gold Watch And Chain,
East Virginia Blues,
Will The Circle Be Unbroken (in the version of the lyrics and melody that is used by bluegrassers),
Little Joe, 
My Clinch Mountain Home, 
Are You Tired Of Me My Darlin',
I Can't Feel At Home In This World Anymore,
No Hidin' Place, 
Little Annie,
Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone, and
​Bring Back To Me My Wandering Boy.
 
Hope to see you all on Wednesday,
 
Happy Pickin',
Jason
Little Darlin' Pal Of Mine - melody in G
File Size: 258 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Little Darlin' Pal Of Mine - Tab Conversion Chart
File Size: 265 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Past
    ​Bluegrass ​Jam
    ​Song posts

    with Jason Homey

    Songs

    All
    Angeline The Baker
    Auld Lang Syne
    Away In A Manger
    Bury Me Beneath The Willow
    Can't You Hear Me Calling
    Columbus Stockade Blues
    Foggy Mountain Top
    Get In Line Brother
    Gold Rush
    Good King Wenceslas
    In The Pines
    I Saw The Light
    I Still Write Your Name
    Keep On The Sunny Side
    Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
    Little Birdie
    Little Darlin' Pal Of Mine
    Liza Jane
    Lonesome Road Blues
    Long Journey Home
    Mother's Only Sleeping
    Mountain Dew
    New River Train
    Old Home Place
    Old Joe Clark
    Red Haired Boy
    Reuben
    Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms
    Shady Grove
    Silent Night
    Suggested Jam Songs
    Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong
    Swing Low Sweet Chariot
    The Crawdad Song
    Turkey In The Straw
    Wabash Cannonball
    When The Saints Go Marching In
    Wildwood Flower
    Will The Circle Be Unbroken
    Will You Be Loving Another Man
    Worried Man Blues
    X Playing A Break
    X Playing In Bb

    RSS Feed

ConTACT US!


ADDRESS:
​Idaho Bluegrass Association
PO Box 6074
Boise, ID 83707

Email

idahobluegrassassociation@gmail.com
Copyright © 2021 IBA.
  • Home
    • About
    • Join Us
    • Donate
    • IBA Newsletter
    • Our Logo
  • Articles & Podcasts
    • Podcasts >
      • ​Jeremy Garrett Interview
      • Keith Reed Interview
      • Jason Homey Interview
      • Becky Smith Interview
      • Marv Quinton Interview
      • Rue Frisbee Interview
      • Donna and Mike Bond Interview
      • Honi Deaton Interview
      • Dennis Stokes Interview
      • Gary Eller Interview
    • Articles >
      • Glen Garrett - The Golden Years
      • Sammie Bush - came to Weiser
      • Mark O’Connor - My History at Weiser
      • Barbara Lamb - Fiddler Extraordinaire
      • Charlie Simmons -The Idaho Bluegrass Association from 1975 to 1985
      • Idaho's 19th century Fiddlers
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions ​ 1950s & 1960s
      • ​Byron Berline
      • Dave Frisbee
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions from 1970s and 80s
      • Megan Lynch Chowning
      • Fiddle Champion ​in 1990s and 2000s
      • Tashina and Tristan Clarridge
    • Snap Shot - Videos from IBA members
  • Events
    • Calendar (BCBB)
    • Open Mic
    • SpringGrass 2023 >
      • Springfest 2022
    • Winterfest
    • IBA Concert Series
    • Virtualgrass
    • Other Bluegrass Events
  • Jam
    • Idaho Jams
    • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • All of Jason's Songs
    • Old Blogs from Jason >
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Songs in 2016
  • Camps & Contests
    • Idaho Bluegrass and Banjo Camp
    • Banjo Contest
    • National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest
  • Idaho Bands
  • Teachers
  • Classified
  • Links
    • General
    • Learning
    • Specific Instruments