Dark Horse Reel

Comment by John Masciale on April 25, 2010 at 4:20pm

Tim, that is an awesome piece!

Comment by Ian Bell on April 25, 2010 at 5:45pm

That sent me scurrying to the Converse book. Great stuff!

Comment by Tim Twiss on April 26, 2010 at 6:16pm

You know, we need to tip our hats to one Mr. Marc Smith for making the Converse Analytical available. Through him, and then putting it up on my site, a lot of folks have benefited from that book. Funny story...he beat me in an ebay auction for it, and I was totally bummed, but then he shared it. I thought that was awesome. I LOVE that book!

Comment by Ian Bell on April 27, 2010 at 7:33am

Merci to Mr. Smith indeed - and while we're on the topic...
Thanks to you for making all the others available. Where did they come from? Did you scan them all yourself? I'm sure others are curious as well. I started fooling around with old music back in the 70s when you had to go to a big reference library and then try to talk them into letting you copy things. The resources on the Banjo Hangout are sensational. As Captain Aubrey said in Master and Commander, "What a fascinating modern age we live in."

Comment by Trapdoor2 on April 27, 2010 at 5:44pm

Very cool tune there Tim, well played as usual...almost rock 'n' roll!

Y'all are very welcome. My philosophy has always been that this music deserves to be heard again. The only way I can see that happening is if it is made freely accessable to all. Anything and everything for which I own originals (that are pre-1923, ie., Public Domain) will be (eventually) made available online as a .pdf file...and as much as I can translate into TAB.

The Converse Analytical simply dropped out of the sky. I'd never heard of it and it was simply going to go into the "to do" pile. When Tim contacted me, I just moved it up to the top of the list. It is fortunate that the binding was in such crappy condition (falling apart). It made it very easy to disassemble and run across the big copier at work...one page at a time. Took me a couple of evenings. I don't think we would ever have gotten much out of this work if Mr. Twiss hadn't adopted it as his bible and started preaching from it. Hats off to Tim, for he has let Mr. Converse sing out again and breathed life into a stale old book of tunes.

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