Rachel
One of my first older musician friends growing up in Missouri was Boone County fiddler Taylor McBaine. He played a memorable version of "Rachel," also known as "Texas Quickstep."

Rocky Island
Thanks to John Cohen for capturing the energetic singing and playing of Martin Young and Corbett Grigsby for posterity (laughter and all) on "Mountain Music of Kentucky."

Rambling Hobo
"Rambling Hobo" is the first banjo tune Doc Watson remembers hearing his father play.

Missouri Borderland
My Grandfather Newberry was on a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas in the early 1900s when he and his crew ran into some bad men. While not the circumstances I write about in this song, Grandfather's story has always caused me to think about what can happen even with the best of intentions.

Roustabout
Hearing Fred Cockerham's music was life-changing. I'm sad we never met.

Swannanoa Tunnel
From Roscoe Holcomb and Bascom Lamar Lunsford.

Ida Red
Inspired by the playing of Kentucky fiddler Jim Bowles, who was (thankfully) recorded in the '50s by D.K. Wilgus, in the '70s by Bruce Greene, and in the '90s by Jim Nelson.

Lost Gander
I like to hear the goose and the gander calling to each other in this tune. From Tennessee's Dee Hicks, via Mike Seeger. The playing of both men is nothing short of inspirational.

Country Blues
This comes from banjo master and peerless singer Dock Boggs.

Sandy Boys
A slightly different take on the tune that made the festival rounds some years back. I learned this version from Jim Collier.

Midnight on the Water
Played in memory of the late Tennessee longbow fiddler Ralph Blizard. We sure do miss him.

The Train That Carried My Girl From Town
From a number of sources, including Wade Mainer and Doc Watson. It features the most understated yodel that I can muster.

Protect the Innocent
This tune goes by a number of names, most of them impolite. It is in "Dead Man's Tuning." I learned it from Dave Para while sitting on the wall outside the Chez Coffeehouse in Columbia, Mo.

I Know Whose Tears
Rudyard Kipling's poem "Mother 'O Mine" was read at Sara Carter's funeral in 1979. I adapted his words, wrote some of my own and made this song. You can also hear it stringband style on my band Big Medicine's CD "Fever in the South." (www.bigmedmusic.com). Done here in memory of my own dear mother, Virginia Dare Newberry. "Gone, But Not Forgotten."

Backstep Cindy
This is one of my favorite Round Peak tunes to play with a fiddler, but I still have a pretty good time with it all by myself.

Resurrection Day/The Dusty Miller
I wrote "Resurrection Day" to mark the passing of Patsy Warner of Asheville, N.C. "The Dusty Miller" blends versions from Kenny Jackson and Bob Herring.

Reuben
I certainly would hope that every banjo player has a version of "Reuben". At any rate, famous tunes are famous for a reason.

Christmas Eve
I have always played this piece from Jim and Zelma Bowles uptempo and in the key of "D." When I tuned down and slowed down, I found even more to like.

On This Christmas Day
I wrote this one December day before a performance in a beautiful old restored church in Cambridge, Mass. Pete Sutherland was a lifesaver with the chords.

Breaking Up Christmas
"Hooray Jake, hooray John, breaking up Christmas right straight along."  From Surry County, N.C.