interesting or favorite medleys

Subject: interesting or favorite medleys
From: Rosebrook
Date: 04 Jan 98 - 01:01 PM

I thought about posting this answer in the "If I could perform 1 song" thread, but then realized I'd enjoy hearing what other people like to do.

One of my favorite songs to perform currently is a "medley" that my band does with Van Dieman's Land and The Water is Wide. (Although there are 2 Van Deiman's Lands in the DT, I don't recognize either one.) We alternate the verses of both songs, and overlap the choruses. The song allows for lots of harmonizing, and plenty of instrumental breaks.

Another fun "medley" we're currently working on is something we call our "whiskey set" -- several songs, obviously, which are about or refer to whiskey! We start with Farewell to Whiskey, go into Mountain Tea, then do Juice of Barley and Have a Drink With Me, and take that into Riser Up (Whiskey-O, Johnny-O)! This has been a particularly fun set.

What songs do other folks here like to play/song together?

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 04 Jan 98 - 05:04 PM

Rosebrook-- If you have a third Van Dieman's Land, why not post it? I, for one, am interested. Also, I don't think we have Mountain Tea.

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: Will
Date: 04 Jan 98 - 07:15 PM

"Midnight Special", "Careless Love", and "Bottle Up and Go" work well together, in E.

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From:
Date: 04 Jan 98 - 10:22 PM

To your Whisky or Whiskey set you might add, Welcome Whisky Back Again. Doesn't have lyrics, but neither does Farewell to Whisky as far as I know. I assume that you mean the Niel Gow piece.

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jan 98 - 11:43 AM

And one of the best Whiskey songs ever written is in the DB...."Bottle o' the Best" it requires a lot of practice and needs to be sung half-again as fast as the tune plays, but it is great...though it is a 'medley' all by it's self!!

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: DrWord
Date: 05 Jan 98 - 01:39 PM

My friend Dave & I do our "18 string medley" [my mando is a 10-string) of Steel Guitar Rag|Wildwood Flower|Redwing

Dennis

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: rich r
Date: 05 Jan 98 - 08:40 PM

Not that all medleys are alcohol induced, but the 2 mountain dew songs fit together quite nicely (Real Old Mountain Dew, and Mountain Dew in the DT).

Medleys are fun, not the least of which is that if you are asked or have the opportunity to one song, you can take advantage of the situation. Some that I have done at one time or another:

Brave Wolf (trad) and McDonnel On The Heights (Stan Rogers) This combination gets all the glorious battles on Canadian soil into one song.

For Bobbie (John Deutchendorf) and Violets of Dawn (Eric Anderson)

Simple Gifts (trad), Lord of The Dance (S. Carter - not to be confused with LOTD MIchael Flatley), and Crucifixtion (Phil Ochs - chorus only unles you really want to be at it all night)

I Ride An Old Paint and I'm Leaving Cheyenne both cowboy songs.

There is a related? category of songs where the words of 2 songs are intermingled but only one tune is used. Is there a technical term for that group. I would exclude "zipper" verses some of which end up in a whole lot of songs. And example of this would be "Green Back Dollar" and "We Are All A-dodging" for which I use the Greenback Dollar tune. Interspersion of the sorrowful "Johnny I Hardly Knew You" verses with the upbeat "When Johhny Comes Marching Home" also works (ref. Chad Mitchell Trio)

rich r

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: Bob Landry
Date: 05 Jan 98 - 10:34 PM

25 years after first taking up the guitar, I decided to learn to flat pick. The first medley I strung together begins with St. Anne's Reel, proceeds to Staten Island Hornpipe and concludes with Liberty - all in D.

Stinging medleys together is a mainstay of Cape Breton fiddle music, Celtic and otherwise. Listen to anything by Ashley MacIssac, Natalie McMaster, Richard Wood, Jerry Holland, Scotty Fitzgerald, Lee Cremo, The Cape Breton Symphony, etc., and you'll hear what I mean. Typically, they'll start with a march or strathsphey, and speed up incrementally as they proceed through, jigs, reels, hornpipes, etc.

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 06 Jan 98 - 02:19 AM

An old roommate of mine used to combine Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'" with Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave."

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: Gloria Tham
Date: 06 Jan 98 - 03:03 AM

I'm a member of a choir. Once we did 'There's a long,long trail' followed by 'She'll be comin' round the mountain'. It was nice. We sang it for a competition. Yes, The Water Is Wide is one of my favourite songs but I've not heard the other one (Land) before. Anyway I can get hold of it? Thanks

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 06 Jan 98 - 04:47 PM

A long time ago (in another galaxy) I used to like to perform songs that shared a theme, but used vastly different styles. ie:

Infidelity (Gypsy Davy, Westport)

Heroism (John Henry, Lucky Lindy)

I always thought that the combinations were fun. But what do I know?

Subject: RE: interesting or favorite medleys
From: digger
Date: 02 Jun 00 - 09:17 AM

I just heard a 1974 recording (on scratchy LP) of Sally Rogers singing "Roving Gambler" with a wonderful downpicking banjo style. Does anyone do this on banjo? What tuning do you recommend? I think Sally does it in G but I haven't worked it out yet. thanks for any suggestions, david shea in spain