Some songs are just a natural fit for the banjo.

Sometimes that’s because the melody works out nicely on the banjo fretboard.

Sometimes it’s because the beats fall in all the right places.

Sometimes it’s just a combination of many factors, known and unknown, that make for that synergy of song and instrument.

“Gospel Plow” falls into that last category. One of those songs that, as soon as you hear it on the banjo, you know it was meant to be. 

It also happens to be in the key of C minor, which gives us a chance to use the super-cool-sounding G minor tuning.

I think you’re going to enjoy listening and learning this week’s song, “Wayfaring Stranger.”

It’s become a widely covered folk-classic for good reason, and sounds fantastic on the banjo, played in 2 finger thumb lead style out of G minor tuning.

I’ve also included a bonus for this edition in the video – a tutorial of how to play and sing it, and a step-by-step walkthrough of the tab for the banjo solos.

(RELATED: More song tutorials and tab walk-throughs like this are available in the Breakthrough Banjo course. Click here for a list of songs in The Breakthrough Banjo Vault.)

For double your pleasure this week we have two “crossover” banjo tunes, by which I mean ones beloved by banjo pickers of both the clawhammer and fingerstyle persuasion.

First up is “Mountain Dew,” an ode to the irresistible lure of white corn liquor, written by banjoist Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and popularized by both Grandpa Jones and Stringbean.  

And second up is “Redwing,” a wildly popular early 20th-century radio hit song turned fiddle tune that is surprisingly fun to play on the 5-string. 

More evidence that good music stands the test of time.