Banjo tablatures for Old Joe Clark
Traditional
Recomended level: Beginner
Old Joe Clark is a folk song from the United States, a mountain ballad that was popular with East Kentucky soldiers during and after the First World War. His songs apply to a real person called Joseph Clark, a mountaineer from Kentucky who was born in 1839 and was killed in 1885. The "playful and sometimes outlandish verses" led to the assumption that it spread as a children's song for the first time and through play parties. Throughout different versions of the album, there are about 90 stanzas. The tune is in the mode of Mixolydian. While Old Joe Clark may have arisen in the nineteenth century, prior to 1900, no written documents were available. The early version, as sung in Virginia at the time, was published in 1918. Old Joe Clark has been labeled as "one of the most widely known of all Southern fiddle tunes [as of the late 20th century... It has, to some extent, become part of the national repertoire [of the United States]. It can be heard throughout the United States in bluegrass jam sessions, old-time fiddle sessions, and country dances." Old Joe Clark is a well-known American fiddle song across the U.S. and other parts of the world. The tune was sung in many different verses and choruses. The origins of the song is not really clear, as is Joe Clark's own identity, if the title actually came from a namesake. Various claims suggest that Joe Clark may have been a moonshiner in the hills of Virginia, a War veteran in 1812, or a Clay County, Kentucky, banjo player.
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Scruggs Style
- Difficulty
- Key G
- Tempo 100 bpm
- Tuning gDGBD
This arrangement of Old Joe Clark builds on the basic version by introducing roll patterns and making the melody sound more "bluegrassy."
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Scruggs Style
- Difficulty
- Key G
- Tempo 120 bpm
- Tuning gDGBD
This builds further on the intermediate version of Old Joe Clark, and is an example of what a professional banjo player would play.
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