Howdy, and welcome. This is the Web page for the Thursday night jam that meets in the back room of the hardware store in Cane Ridge, among the seed bags and the bins of stove bolts. We have been picking back there since the winter of 1993, when the owner (who plays a little mandolin himself) said we could use the room if we swept it. We still sweep it. My name is Earl, I play the banjo and I got roped into doing the Web page because my grandson set up the computer and then went back to college.

Anybody is welcome. If you play a guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, dobro or upright bass, come on down. If you sing, come on down. If you just want to sit on a nail keg and listen, there's a nail keg with your name on it. No charge. Bring a dollar for the coffee can if you want a doughnut.

There aren't many, but the ones there are, we mean. Most of this is just manners, but every jam I ever sat in that fell apart, fell apart over one of these.

1. We go around the circle and everybody gets a turn to call a tune. When it's your turn, name the song and the key, loud enough for the bass player to hear. You kick it off, you sing it (or pick who does), and you nod at whoever's taking a break. If you don't want to call one, say "pass" and we move along, no hard feelings.
2. Play quiet behind the singer. This is the big one. When somebody is singing, the rest of us are the backup band, not the show. Chop your mandolin, vamp your banjo softly, let the words come through. Save the fireworks for your break.
3. Keep the key that was called. If somebody calls it in G, it's in G. Don't wander. If you don't know it in G, this is what capos are for, or this is a good tune to sit out and listen to.
4. One break at a time. Watch the person who called the tune. They'll point or nod. Don't jump in on top of somebody else's break.
5. Keep the tempo where it was kicked off. Bluegrass tends to speed up all by itself. If the bass and the guitar hold it steady, the rest of us will behave.
6. Tune up before you sit down. There's an electronic tuner on the shelf by the paint. Use it. Nobody wants to tune to the fiddle in the middle of "Wabash Cannonball."
7. Beginners are welcome, and we'll slow one down for you. Just say so when it's your turn. We've all been there. If you're learning, sit next to somebody who knows the tune and watch their left hand.
8. No amplifiers, no drums, no drinking in the store. The owner's rules, and good ones.
9. Sweep up. Last ones out take the broom to the floor. There's always somebody's pick under a chair.

Mostly the old standards that everybody knows, because a jam works best when everybody knows the tune. You won't go wrong learning these before you come. Common keys we do them in are in parentheses, but the person calling the tune gets the last word.

There's a gospel set that usually breaks out around 9 o'clock, and once a night somebody calls a waltz to give the banjo players a rest.

Anywhere from six to sixteen on a given Thursday, depending on weather and the ball game. The ones you'll usually find:

Since I call it every week, here's how we play it, so you can come in ready. It's an old traditional tune, nobody owns it, and there are a hundred ways to play it; this is ours. Key of A. Guitar players usually capo 2 and play out of G shapes. Each letter below is one measure (two beats, cut time). The A part and the B part each get played twice (AABB), then around again for as many times as there are people wanting a break, then Delbert kicks his foot up for the ending.

A part (play twice)
| A   | A   | D   | A   |
| A   | E   | A   | A   |

B part (play twice)
| A   | A   | A   | A   |
| A   | E   | A   | A   |

Some folks put a D in the B part too, and some don't. Watch Delbert's left hand and you won't be wrong. Bass: root and fifth, A and E, walk up into the D. Banjo: this is the tune every banjo book teaches first, so if you got a banjo for Christmas, this is where you start. Play it slow until it's clean, then let Curtis speed you up.

Purcell's Hardware is on the square in Cane Ridge, across from the bank. Come in the side door by the loading dock after 6:30 (the front's locked when the store closes), walk past the paint and turn left at the chain saws. You'll hear us. Parking behind the store or anywhere on the square.

My grandson says he'll put up a map and some pictures from the festival when he's home at Thanksgiving. Ruthie took a whole roll at the spring nursing home visit but the pictures came back with her thumb in most of them.

Friends on the Web: Songwriter's Corner (young fella named Travis who sat in with us in August and is a fine picker), Bluebird Guitar Repair & Setup (fixed the crack in Delbert's guitar), and the rest of the Stage Door WebRing.