Smoot’s Good Foot

Here’s a funky tune from my recent collaboration with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis. We’ve been working for the last year on a group of new old-time tunes. We’ve performed them in a series of concerts beginning in Spring 2024, and we plan to release a recording of them soon. Here’s a performance of my tune “Smoot’s Good Foot” from our concert at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega.

YouTube player
Smoot’s Good Foot; Esther Morgan-Ellis, fiddle; Holland Hopson, banjo

Here’s the tablature for the banjo part and a representative melody line.

Notes About This Tune

  • “Smoot’s Good Foot” is in D, played in Double D tuning (aDADE) using the clawhammer style.
  • This is a deeply crooked tune that nonetheless has a great groove.
  • I usually play the quieter, groovier, unpredictable A part as many times as I like, before signaling to move to the louder, straighter B part.
  • Esther and I have been playing “Smoot’s Good Foot” as the closing tune for a set.
  • The tune gets its name from MIT student Oliver R. Smoot, for whom the smoot unit of measure was named. See Robert Tavernor’s Smoot’s Ear: The Measure of Humanity for more.

Give the tune a try, and add a comment to let me know what you think!

Taking Wilbur Home

I’m headed to Florence, Alabama, today for a performance with poet Hank Lazer. We’ll perform sections from his newest book, As We Vanish from Public View and a variety of other material with banjo and electronics.

I’ll also play a few tunes on acoustic banjo using Wilbur, my Dobson-style banjo. Wilbur was my very first banjo–it was a gift from Margaret Darby. She had kept it for many years in the attic or garage of her beautiful Victorian home in Florence. I named the banjo after her late husband, Wilbur, who she claimed was a friendly ghost in the house.

Friday, October 4, 2024 6-8pm
As We Vanish from Public View
Abraham Rowe Photography
204 Cypress Mill Road
Florence, Alabama 35630

Banned Books Exhibition

Two of my artworks were juried into the Banned Books Exhibition at The W Galleries in Columbus, Mississippi. The show is in Summer Hall on the campus of Mississippi University for Women, and it runs from September 23 – October 25, 2024.

If I Hate Fairyland, Feelings….Fruits Basket, Plural: Detail

If I Hate Fairyland, Feelings….Fruits Basket, Plural (2024) is a generative computer image plotter print that shows a speculative list of banned book titles generated from PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023).

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Rated PG-13 For (2022) displays an ever changing list of reasons films were rated PG-13. The words slowly fade in and then dissipate even more slowly. The rating descriptions are pulled at random from a database that includes every PG-13 film released as of 2021.

September 23 – October 25, 2024
Banned Books Exhibition
The W Galleries
Summer Hall
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS

Pale Blue Dot Blues

Pale Blue Dot photo of Earth taken from the Voyager space probe (source: Wikipedia)

This is a fun finger-picked tune from my recent collaboration with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis. The video is of our performance at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, of my tune “Pale Blue Dot Blues.”

YouTube player
Pale Blue Dot Blues; Esther Morgan-Ellis, fiddle; Holland Hopson, banjo

And here’s the banjo tablature:

Notes About This Tune

  • “Pale Blue Dot Blues” is in C, played in an open C tuning (eCEGC) using the two-finger, thumb lead up picking style.
  • I like the way this tune sounds on a fretless banjo with Nylgut strings–a low, mellow tone with some nice slides thrown in for color.
  • The piece isn’t really a blues. It’s not in a blues style or blues form, though its ABABC structure could be a nod to the typical AAB phrases of a 12-bar blues.
  • The title comes from the Pale Blue Dot photo (above) of earth taken by the Voyager I explorer.

Stay Local

This is another clawhammer banjo tune from my recent collaboration with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis. We’ve been working for the last year on a group of new old-time tunes. We began performing them in a series of concerts beginning in Spring 2024, and we plan to release a recording of them soon. Here’s a performance of my tune “Stay Local” from our concert at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega.

YouTube player
Stay Local; Esther Morgan-Ellis, fiddle; Holland Hopson, banjo

Here’s the tablature for the banjo part and a representative melody line.

Notes About This Tune

  • “Stay Local” is a fast tune in A Dorian, played in Sawmill tuning (aEADE) using the clawhammer style.
  • This is a slightly crooked tune. There’s no mixed meter, but the phrase lengths are a bit wonky: 11-bar phrases in the A section and 9-bar phrases in the B section.
  • The A part phrases begin with the Galax Lick, a brush across the top four strings that lands on the 5th string played with the thumb.
  • There’s an alternate string pull-off on in the second ending of the A part. This is a common technique in the Round Peak Banjo style and could be sprinkled throughout other parts of this tune.
  • The drop thumb figures in the B part provide a nice rhythmic drive.
  • The title of the tune refers to the stationary left hand position used throughout the tune. One thing I love about playing the banjo is the wide variety note choices available without having to move your fretting hand much. This is especially true given the many possible tunings for the instrument. You can do a lot on the instrument just by staying “home,” not traveling too far up the neck. Hence, “Stay Local.”

Give the tune a try, and let me know how you like it!