I've been going to the Wednesday night jams at Avogadro's Number restaurant in Fort Collins for about 14 years now (2007). Recently, I bought an Edirol R-09 Mp3 recorder, about the size of a pack of cigarettes (no offense), and started recording the jams. I edit the songs down with Audacity, listen to 'em on my IPod and recut the parts I hate, then hand out CDs to all the players. The recorder works wonders. And the folks are all pretty good. We get folks from various bands such as the T-Band, The Horsetooth Mountain Rangers, Whitewater Ramble, and Lonesome Traveller Bluegrass Band. My favorite is all the students from CSU who start picking here and get dramatically better in just a couple semesters.
Here are some of the best examples of public domain songs that we do. We also do a lot of other tunes.
Bluegrass : Instrumentals : Blues : Old Time
| Cold Rain and Snow | Jan sings this one with Robin. Oct 2006 | |
| Comin Round the Mountain | Kelly likes to sing this one with me. Her dad's on fiddle. He plays in Whitewater Ramble. Nov 2006 | |
| Do Lord | I frail this with Jan harmonizing. March 2007 | |
| Down in the Arkansas | I frail and sing. BobZ adds some nice fiddle. March 2007 | |
| Down in the Arkansas | Here is the same song w/o the dancing girls. Feb 2007 | |
| New River Train | Ron leads a classic jam. March 2007 | |
| Mama Don't Allow | My own special arrangement via musical styles. | |
| Mountain Dew | I frail and sing with Anne et al harmonizing. | |
| Nine Pound Hammer | EricE (mandolin) sings this with Jan's (bass) awesome harmony. Dec 2006 | |
| Nine Pound Hammer | EricE (mandolin/lead) and Jan (bass/harmony) do a slower version. Me on banjo; Rick and Matt on guitar. Nov 2006 | |
| Nine Pound Hammer | Me (frailed banjo/lead) with Jan (bass) and Katie singing harmony. Nov 2006 | |
| Nine Pound Hammer | I get a little wild on banjo singing this one with Jan and Katie. Jan 2007 | |
| Oh Mary Don't You Weep | Me singing lead and picking banjo with Jodi et al singing harmony. Dec 2006 | |
| Oh Mary Don't You Weep | Eric's mandolin chop keeps my picking/singing on course. Nov 2006 | |
| Pallet On Your Floor | Me picking banjo and singing this bluegrass style. Rick and Matt do fine guitar breaks. Oct 2006 | |
| Pallet On Your Floor | Me picking and singing blues style with Rick and Matt on guitar and Anne harmonizing. Nov 2006 | |
| Study War No More | I frail and sing with Jan harmonizing and playing bass. Mar 2007 | |
| Swing Low | One of my favorites, especially when everyone sings along. March 2007 | |
| Swing Low | Jan 2007 | |
| Two Dollar Bill | Me frailing and singing with Anne harmonizing. Nov 2006 | |
| Two Dollar Bill | Me, Eric, and Anne. Nov 2006 | |
| Walking Cane | Me frailing and singing with Jan and Anne. Matt on guitar. Nov 2006 | |
| Bluegrass : (many standards are copyrighted) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow | March 2007 | |
| Dark Hollow | Ansel on dobro sings this with Jan and Anne harmonizing. Feb 2007 | |
| Dark Hollow | EricE on mandolin sings. This is more up tempo as Eric is wont to do. March 2007. | |
| I Know You Rider | Phil sings this traditional tune with lots of help from the jammers, esp. Jan and Anne harmonizing. Feb 2007 | |
| I Know You Rider | Ron sings the same song with Anne harmonizing again. Jan 2007 | |
| I Know You Rider | Antonio sings this version with Anne. Feb 2007 | |
| John Hardy | Mike (gtr) sings this well with Aaron taking main banjo. March 2007 | |
| Salty Dog | Brian on the banjo leads off the singing, then I come in and then Jan. Feb 2007 | |
| Instrumentals | ||
|---|---|---|
| Big Sandy | March 2007 | |
| Blackberry Blossom | EricE on mandolin goes a little wild. Oct 2006 | |
| BlackberryBlossom | Lots of guitar. Rick,Me,Doug,Rick. Feb 2007 | |
| Billy in the Lowground | Jan 2007 | |
| Cherokee Shuffle | Durl doing a fine mandolin here. Jan 2007 | |
| Chicken Reel | This is a fun, I say, a fun song. Feb 2007. | |
| Chicken Reel | Me on banjo again. Joe on fiddle. March 2007 | |
| Devil's Dream | Nov 2006 | |
| Devil's Dream | JoeT fiddles this fine. March 2007 | |
| Fishers Hornpipe | JoeT fiddles this and duets with Durl on mandolin. March 2007 | |
| Fishers Hornpipe | Lots of mandolin. Jan 2007 | |
| Forked Deer | Nov 2006 | |
| Forked Deer | Jan 2007 | |
| Forked Deer | BobZ kicks this off with Rick on guitar, too. Feb 2007. | |
| Home Sweet Home | Durl (mando) and Jim (banjo) from Drop of the Hat band do a fine job with Dan from Seattle on accordian. Jan 2007 | |
| Leather Britches | JodiB leads this off on mandolin. | |
| Old Joe Clark | Rick and Bob are main guitars. Jan 2007 | |
| Old Joe Clark | Feb 2007 | |
| Red-Haired Boy | Sep 2006 | |
| Red-Haired Boy | Bob fiddles this for a rowdy group of dancers. Feb 2007 | |
| St. Anne's Reel | St. Anne was Jesus' grandma. We learned from this from Anne, a Catholic school graduate. Nov 2006. | |
| Temperance Reel | Eric on banjo. Rick,Bob on guitars. Nov 2006 | |
| Turkey in the Straw | Patrick, one of the new college students, leads this and I help end it. Nov 2006 | |
| Waterbound | Bob fiddles and I frail. Feb 2007 | |
| Whiskey Before Breakfast | Nov 2006 | |
| Redwing | Laura leads this off on guitar. I frail. Feb 2007 | |
| Whiskey Before Breakfast | Joe kicks this off on fiddle. Feb 2007 | |
| Whiskey Before Breakfast | Jan 2007 | |
| Medley | Old Joe/Salt Creek/Red-Haired Boy March 2007 | |
| The Blues | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cocaine Habit Blues | Eric sings and plays banjo on this one, with lots of leads by lots of other folks. Oct 2006. | |
| Columbus Stockade Blues | Eric on mandolin goes a little wild singing with Jan's harmony. Dec 2006 | |
| ColumbusStockadeBlues | Jake from South Dakota sings this. The first and only time we ever heard him do it in a different key with a different chord progression. Jamming at its very best. Feb 2007 | |
| Deep Elem Blues | I pick this on banjo and sing with lots of harmonic help from Anne. Dec 2006. | |
| Deep Elem Blues | Me again, this time with lots of harmonic help from JanP on bass. Nov 2006. | |
| Deep Elem Blues | Here is another banjoist, Pete, picking and singing. I do the final harp break. Nov 2006 | |
| Deep River Blues | RickS gets fired up singing and picking guitar with some very drunk 21-year-olds dancing all around him. I cut the extra special sound effects from his break to the intro. It just seemed to fit the 1st verse. Feb 2007 | |
| Pallet On Your Floor | Me picking and singing blues style with Rick and Matt on guitar and Anne harmonizing. Nov 2006 | |
| Stealin | Me picking and singing this classic blues. Dec 2006 | |
| Old Time : (many instrumentals are from the old-time genre and played in that style, also) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Angeline The Bakegirl | March 2007 | |
| Shady Grove | DustinS and JodiB sing this very well. Dec 2006 | |
| Cluck Old Hen | Here's a classic Old-Time tune done in old-time style with me singing and frailing, and
JoeT adding lots of fiddle while Jan thumps the bass. Oct 2006 Often done as an instrumental (and probably should have in this instance, too). | |
| Cripple Creek | Usu. done as an instrumental, I sing it here. Feb 2007 | |
| Goin Down the Road Feelin Bad | Tony singing and fiddling show the old-time roots to this tune. Jan 2007 | |
| Raleigh and Spencer | Tony singing and fiddling does another song in classic old-time style. Again, the first and only time Jan and I heard the song | |
| Shady Grove | Dustin and Jodi sing this. Swallow-Tail Jig ends it. Jan 2007 | |