Matthew Govig - Wild Goose Chase (Lost Gander)

Wild Goose Chase or “Lost Gander” as Dee Hicks called it, this is a tune from the Cumberland plateau around the TN/KY line. I come up with this version from hearing the playing of Clifton Hicks (no relation to Dee Hicks), Virgil Anderson of Wayne county KY, and Dee Hicks of Fentress county TN.
The tuning is f# dead - the tuning used by both Virgil and Dee.

[@Easternkyoutdoors781]

I can’t hardly quit listening to this, it’s such a complex and unique version of this tune, and that Gibson banjo makes it sound so much better, great picking on this piece bud.

[@digitaldemocracyai-rob]

How good is this!

[@PaulCamarillo-k5s]

Man…unreal. Great take on a great tune!

[@CliftonHicksbanjo]

Damn nice. And different. I never heard it this way before.

[@matthewgovig]

Thank you buddy, I come up with it a while back kindly basing it off your version/Virgil Anderson's and, throwing in my own stuff of course.

[@rufushornejr.465]

String bean & uncle Dave, would be proud. Great job Matthew. !

[@shadowmanNI]

Such a great driving/rolling sound

[@bobroberts4294]

Very well done - like the variations in the B part a lot!👍

[@easternkentuckyoutdoors8092]

Your one of the few banjo pickers (including myself) that tries to makes a song their own. I was raised a couple counties northeast of Wayne county and I’ve heard a lot of people play lost gander in old east Virginia tuning as well as that one but I’ve never heard it picked as masterfully as you have besides Virgil. Best picking I’ve heard in a while

[@matthewgovig]

you ever hear anyone play it having learned it traditionally (not through the recordings)? Ive been on the search for old recordings of it/if it was played elsewhere also.

[@Popcorn_Kernel]

I learn most of the songs I know from Clifton Hicks and I always make it unique to me through my own licks and older recordings of that song

[@easternkentuckyoutdoors8092]

@@matthewgovig I heard my cousin Jay Hammons pick it once a couple of years back. He did the twelfth fret part two finger and the second fret part stroke style

[@easternkentuckyoutdoors8092]

@@Popcorn_Kernel music has always been natural to me. I learned by listening then picking it out until I got it. My papaw says you’ve got it in you or you don’t.

[@matthewgovig]

@@easternkentuckyoutdoors8092 Musics something that either gets in your blood or don’t, I think to get real good you’ve got to be crazy about it, can’t force yourself into it you know.

[@whistlingbirds]

Excellent!! Thanks for sharing! :)

[@ZacSokolow]

Sounds really great, man. Really nice version!

[@MarkWYoung-ky4uc]

Sounding great Matthew!

[@PHIL-ts8si]

amazing

[@TreeSawTTV]

Yeah!

[@KHbanjo]

Sweet!

[@noahcartermusic2546]

Sounds like a real “old timer” to me