After nearly 20 years of battling a low grade lymphoma - Waldenstrom's Macroglobunemia I now have two cancers. Iam optomisticthat I will go into remission The new one is T Cell Plasmoblastic Lymphoma. I will start an agressive chemotherapy in the local Kaiser Permanente Hospital. I may remain in the hospital for up to three weeks while they monitor my heart, immune system, low blood pressure and more. I am very lucky to have a loving and suportive wife,family and friends.

Bob Flesher Custom Banjos - Model "Mad Moon"

Up to date list of Juneberry78s visitors.

Over the last several years descendants of the following artists have visited the Juneberry78s.com website. In some cases we have provided original 78s from the era for a family treasure. In almost every case we have provided digital copies of the 1920s music that no one in the family had heard for many years.


Albertville Quartet
Ashley's Melody Men
Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band
Binkley Brothers Dixie Clodhoppers
Brammer Brothers (early bluegrass band)
Buffalo Ragged Five
Bush Brothers Quartet
Crowder Brothers
Deal Family
Grady Family
Happy Hayseeds
Haywire Mac's Orchestra
Bill Lamey (Cape Breton fiddler)
Fiddling Bob Larkan
Fiddling Sam Long
Emmett Lundy
Earl McCoy, Alfred Meng & Clem Garner
Moatsville String Ticklers
North Canton Quartet
Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers
Payne Family Quartet
Holland Puckett
Edd Rice
Jilson Setters (J.W. Day)
Luther Strong
Taylor-Griggs Louisiana Melody Makers
Tobbaco Tags
Walburn & Hethcox
Ira & Eugene Yates
Young Brothers
Jess Young

We were also contacted by the descendant by marriage of Gervis Bloodworth from the sensational Jones and Bloodworth Murder Case. Avoline Bloodworth wrote an excellent true crime book about the case- Murder At The County Line. Both Carl Conner and Vernon Dalhart made a record about the case.

It has been an honor and pleasure to be of service to these families.

Fiddlin' Bob Larkan

Fiddlin' Bob Larkan (1870-1942) recorded in early 1928 for the Okeh Label and then again in late 1928 for Vocalion.

The Okehs incorrectly spelled his name Larkin.

Clyde Snider contacted Juneberry78s.

I have all of Fiddlin' Bob Larkan's recordings except "Paddy Won't You Drink Some Good Old Cider". Larkin was my great-great-grandfather and I would like to have that recording. Can you help?

We were able to do so.
Clyde was able to provide the following information and all pictures.
Click on any of the items above or below for a better view

Yes, Fiddlin' Bob was born in New York City.

Both his parents were born in Ireland.

Bob and his wife, Harriet, had 13 children, two of whom played on his recordings, Forrest "Bob" Larkan and Alice Sherbs.

I would guess the photo was made during the late 1930s.

Bob Larkan was called Fiddlin' Bob and also Uncle Bob Larkan sometimes.

Fiddling Sam Long

We take great delight when contacted by descendants of  Artists of the Past.  Even more so when it's an artist of the stature of Fiddling Sam Long - always a favorite of mine.  If only he was able to record more and with the Electric Process a year or so after .... oh well we are thankful for the few wonderful recordings he did make.  Sam Long was the great uncle of Hugh Long who provided the above newspaper clippings and the following narrative.

Attached are the newspaper articles re Fiddling Sam Long. I know at least one of the articles was published in the Joplin Globe in 1926. The other could have been from the paper out of Commerce, Oklahoma.

Sam's niece had worked many years to complete a genealogy on the Long family, but she passed away in 1986. She had 3 daughters who I have contacted regarding the genealogy, but all deny they have it, so I (we) are in the process of obtaining the info on our own and hopefully get it recorded with Ancestory.

Sam died in 1935 at the home of his Uncle Ransom Long in Butler County, KS of lung problems as a result of working in the lead mines in Joplin, MO.

Hugh Long
Newton, KS

NOTE: Click on the above images or any image in our blog to see more detail.

Listen to Fiddling Sam Long and Ray Kastner playing Echoes of the Ozarks from a 1926 recording.

Banjo Review

First we have a Black Walnut Fretless made by R. K. Smith. These "Frank Proffitt" style banjos are offered on eBay and the seller is banjothunder. This banjo has a nice plunky sound for Old Time tunes. The workmanship is excellent. Strings are nylGut.

Next is a Chuck Lee Badger 6 String Banjo. This banjo-guitar or Guit-Jo is also constructed of Walnut with a 12 inch rim and integral tone ring. The peghead inlay of a Wizard with Staff is beautiful, there is backstrapping and the heel type is Dobson. Sounds great when finger picking ragtime guitar tunes. Chuck is truly an fine artist. Steel strings.

Finally we have a Prust Banjos Boucher 19th Century Replica Tensioning (Special Order). This Minstrel Banjo with highly figured maple has a 12 inch rim with oval holes for the brackets. It's nice to not have to flatten the bridge when you finish playing which is the case for tack-head banjos. The flush frets are helpful with intonation. NylGut strings. Great sounding banjo for Minstrel Tunes.

Michael Hauver Barbecue Bob 12 String Guitar for sale on Ebay

I said goodbye to my Michael Hauver Barbecue Bob 12 String Guitar which sold on eBay Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 22:30:13 EDT. The buyer communicated that the guitar was even more than he expected. I am pleased that it has found a happy home.

I have owned and enjoyed playing this guitar since 2006. This guitar sounds so good just doing some of the simple Lead Belly runs like the start of Leaving Blues. I later changed the 3rd string pairs to play in unison but the guitar in the auction has them back in octaves after the new setup. I have also experimented setting it as a 10 string, a 9 string and a 6 string. Barbecue Bob himself probably used his Stella as a 9 or 10 string - this seems the only way he could do those wonderful snaps on the bass strings. I prefer to finger pick without picks and the 9 string setup is great for that. I read Skip James used a Stella 12 string strung as a 6 stringer for his 1931 Paramount session.

With the 26 1/2 scale I tune it to B E A D F# B
To play with others use the C F G7 shaped chords to play in the actual key of G
Use A D E7 shaped chords to play in the actual key of E
Also D G A7 to play key for the actual key of A.
And G C D7 to play key actual key of D.
Use a capo on the first fret and use E A B7 to play actual key of C

I have read on other blog postings that modern "Stella" guitars like those made by Mike Hauver sound "new" and don't have the old vibe of a real Stella. Of course on a real Stella from that period the wood will have aged quite a bit. However, I would guess nearly all of the Stellas on the 78s from the 1920s & early 1930s were fairly new at the time of the recordings so those would have to also sound new.

Finally, the Stellas from that period were cheap factory made instruments and the modern Stella "Clones" like this guitar are made with great care and expertize and not sold for Cheap Prices when new. Mike Hauver does the repairs, neck resets etc for Neil Harpe's Stella Guitars and he probably knows as much as anyone about the construction of original Stellas.

Here's the link to the auction on eBay

Here's a link to the Michael Hauver Blues Guitars website

Here's a link to Neil Harpe's Stella Guitars


More on the 12 string guitar.

I has captivated by Lead Belly and bought my first 12 string in 1966 or 1967. It was a Contessa Acoustic (Japanese) costing $99 from the local music store. I'm sure it was constructed with laminated woods but it sounded mighty good to my ears at the time. I bought the Leadbelly 12 String book by Pete Seeger & Julius Lester for $2.95 and was soon walking the basses and learing many great songs like They Hung Him On A Cross and Down In New Orleans. I also learned to play Mississippi John Hurt's Casey Jones (his only 12 string performance that I know of. First Issued on a Piedmont LP). Blind Willie McTell was beyond my grasp at the time (not that I could play like he does today). Later I began learning to play harmonica, banjo, dulcimer and fiddle. I'm not sure what happened to the Contessa - probably traded it in on another instrument like a cheap Japanese Blue Grass banjo I used for learning clawhammer banjo at Lundberg's in Berkeley.

Forwarding to the 1990s the next 12 String Guitar I bought was a Sigma modeled after the Martin D-28 Herringbone that was never available as a 12 String. The Sigma 12 was a decent sounding & playing 12 string guitar. Then a few years later I purchased a Rickenbacker 330 Electric Guitar. This was actually a birthday present from my wife Amy. One interesting thing about the Rickenbacker is that the string courses with octaves have the low note first and then the higher note. The 330 was hard to play as the neck is too narrow - the same width as their 6 string. They actually use the same neck for both models. It is interesting the way their 12 sring tuners are designed and installed. I bought the Roger McGuinn 12 string video and he revealed how he plays his Rickenbacker using 1 finger to cover two courses (or 4 strings). I still could not make a clean C chord (with 1st & 3rd Strings open and 2nd strings at the first fret). I sold that guitar on eBay at a slight profit 10 years later.

I bought the Hauver in 2006 and an electric Danelectro 12 String around 2007 or 2008. I sold the Sigma on eBay for about 60% of what I paid for it 12 years later - imports don't usually hold their value. The Dano 12 string is an inexpensive clone of a guitar that never existed. The neck is wider making it easier to play and the one I have has the string pairs like the Rickenbacker. The Dano 6 string and bass guitars available now are copies of the early cheapies that people like Jimi Hendrix and John Fogerty learned to play with as kids. Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin still uses a cheap vintage Dano for some recordings. Duane Eddy has a picture of a Dano Longhorn Bass on the jacket of one of his LPs.

In addition to the Roger McGuinn video there is a video by Ernie Hawkins covering some McTell items and the late Harry Lewman has a Lead Belly video. Harry Lewman also put out a fine Lead Belly Book with words and tabs to many Lead Belly songs. I believe No Stranger To the Blues is the book title.

I never really got the hang of playing electric guitars but I'll posts some photos of my collection of Electric Cheapies in the future.