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Summertime Stridulations

by Jeff Curtis

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Professionally-duplicated archival cd-r in printed cardstock sleeve. Limited edition of 50.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Summertime Stridulations via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 30 days
    edition of 50 

      $6 USD or more 

     

  • Get both the Summertime Stridulations CD and the brand new second issue of "Cat Parade," a 40-page, full color comic-book-sized collection of cartoon cat drawings by Jeff Curtis for one low price! Both the CDs and "Cat Parade"s are limited to 50 copies.

    (If you *only* want to purchase the Cat Parade book, please message me!)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Summertime Stridulations via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 30 days
    edition of 50 

      $12 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Get BOTH the new Beaver Creek cd and my first banjo cd from 2020, Summertime Stridulations (limited quantities still available!) for one low bargain price

    Includes unlimited streaming of Summertime Stridulations via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

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about

I started teaching myself clawhammer banjo right around the same time the COVID-19 pandemic struck, with the intention of learning a bunch of old-timey traditional folk songs.. While I did learn a few, I mostly became enamored with the oddity of the instrument compared to anything else I've ever played -- it seemed completely alien to me -- and became enthralled with discovering all the different kinds of sounds, melodies, drones, chords, and rhythms I found while exploring it.

The songs in this collection were recorded from June through August of 2020. Just during that time period, I could notice my playing ability greatly improving, or at least changing, as I became more comfortable and used to it. I fully acknowledge that much of my playing here is flat-out atrocious, and not always completely in tune; but it all feels natural to me -- this is about the sounds, not about being an amazing technical player.

All but one of the songs here are original compositions; the song "Dinah" is an old traditional folk song that I learned from a recording of it by Sheila Kay Adams -- you can find her beautiful rendition of it with a quick YouTube search. I tried not to mangle it *too* much.

Some of the songs are my attempts at working up "trad"-sounding tunes; most of them are completely non-traditional. In fact, the phrase I keep coming back to for this is "Nontraditional Inept Gothic Clawhammer Banjo," so, if you're looking for a bunch of "Cripple Creek" variations or whatever, you should probably look elsewhere. This was recorded in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area.

All of these songs were played in the "Double C" tuning (gCGCD), for extra droniness.

credits

released September 4, 2020

Jeff Curtis: 5-string banjo, mandolin, Magnus chord organ, drum programming.
Gaia: cicadas, crickets, rain.
Next-door neighbor: car door, horn.

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COFFEE-HUT PRESENTS! Lakewood, Ohio

Jeff Curtis is an experimental clawhammer banjo and bass player, and cat cartoonist, in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

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