Hi Mr. Finger and group,  Several days ago, I listened to the video
you posted of the your homemade banjo playing Encore roll 218:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah0R7O0zKls
 

... and I was able to get through three tunes before I had to leave
due to time requirements (so, I didn't hear tunes 4 and 5).  However,
I passed the video link on to Meredith Axelrod who showed it to Craig
Ventresco who apparently identified three of the tunes, which I think
is great.  They're really into those pre-1910 popular songs (among
others), especially ragtime songs, and they know many, many dozens or
hundreds of them.

1. "Dixie Blossoms" (Percy Wenrich, 1906)

I had actually identified tune #1 right off the bat, within a bar or
two of the introduction.  The tune is "Dixie Blossoms", a cakewalk
style rag composed by Percy Wenrich and published by Remick in 1906.
This tune was very popular in its day and the sheet music still turns
up.

Here's a MIDI reading of the published piano sheet music, from
Ragtime Dorian Henry, whose extensive channel of such ragtime and
novelty sheet music must be seen to be believed.  Literally thousands
of rags including some so obscure they're not listed in _any_ of the
standard ragtime reference books!  This one is, however:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3pmZIW2tes
 

Next, Dave Bourne's "Dawn of the Century Ragtime Orchestra" play
the tune, with Richard Zimmerman on piano, I think from an original
published stock orchestration of the tune.  This is the first place
I ever heard the tune (on the LP) and I liked it immediately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLEjzbvPEVQ
 

A third version of "Dixie Blossoms" is on a short (3 tune or 4 tune?)
red-paper Wurlitzer 150 band organ roll, made for the early short
roll frame.  (These rolls were only made from 1906 to 1925, and then
discontinued in favor of the long-frame rolls which usually had 10
tunes per roll).  I don't know the roll number, but Mikey Mills might
know.  This tune can be heard starting after about 3:06 in the video.
Apologies for the tracking in this video but it can be very hard to make
these early and extremely rare red-paper Wurlitzer rolls track properly.
They should all be scanned and hopefully recut:

https://youtu.be/sz9XSKEVqZo?t=186
 

I have no doubt this tune was also on all piano players and coin piano
and player reed organ rolls as well, that were being made in 1906.

This is likely the same tune given in Rick Crandall's Encore Banjo
rollography as "Blossums [sic] from Dixieland".  I don't know where or
how he got the titles.  The numbering of the tunes in this rollography
is currently a bit confusing.  Here is how #218 is currently presented
in this important resource:

https://www.rickcrandall.net/the-complete-catalog/ 

- 218 1 Somebody's Waiting For You
- 218 2 Old Rag Carpet Burtch
- 218 5 Abraham, Jefferson, Washington, Lee Von Tilzer, A.
- 218 6 Blossums from Dixieland
- [for some reason only 4 of the 5 tunes listed, and numbered 1, 2, 5,
and 6.

I'm assuming this is simply an editing or formatting glitch.  I hope
Rick chimes in here as to where he got the info on the tunes since this
wasn't included on the recuts.  Maybe he found an original tune card,
or identified them from other rolls he owned (like Peerless rolls?)
and/or phonograph records.

2. "Somebody's Waiting For You" (m: Albert Gumble, w: Vincent Bryan;
1906)

As for tune 2, that is certainly the waltz song "Somebody's Waiting for
You" composed by Albert Gumble, with lyrics by Vincent Bryan, published
by Remick in 1906.  This tune was also a hit in its day, I believe.

Here's the sheet music courtesy of the Connecticut College Digital Sheet
Music collection.  Click the blue "download" button to get a PDF of the
original public domain sheet music:

https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/1689/ 

Here's Harry Anthony singing it for Edison records in 1907:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B8egAwykr0
 

A more modern country-style cover by Jack Manischewitz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuMZb2mvy_o
 

Another country cover by Lee Anne and Peggy Sjostrom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUz8V4unTSE
 

3. "Abraham Washington Jefferson Lee" (m: Harry Von Tilzer, w: Andrew
B. Sterling; 1906)

As for tune 3, the ragtime song "Abraham Washington Jefferson Lee",
composed by Harry von Tilzer, with lyrics by Andrew B. Sterling, was
recorded by Arthur Collins at least three different times in 1906, for
all three of the 'big three' rival record companies: Victor, Edison,
_and_ Columbia!  Here are all three versions:

(1) Victor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nZPmfKCICA
 
(2) Edison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLCqYjPpEd0
 
(3) Columbia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCQHOEbsszc
 


4. (?) "The Old Rag Carpet" (m: Roy L. Burtch, 1897) (?)

As for tune #4. This sounds like a march song or march with a rondo
form, which keeps returning to the A theme (first theme or verse?),
together with its little introduction with nice bit of rubato right
before the start of the theme.

I am _guessing_ that this is the tune listed as "The Old Rag Carpet"
with the composer listed as "Burtch" in the rollography, since neither
Craig Ventresco nor I recognize it.

I don't know if records were made of this tune or not, nor who was the
publisher.  I did find a listing for where a copy of the original sheet
music is on file (not yet scanned or available to download), archived
in print in the "Wilhelmi Sheet Music Collection" at Loyola University
Chicago, if anyone wants to see it. That is from where I got the date
of the tune:

https://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/archives/pdfs/wilhelmi-ua2017.19.pdf 


5. "Love Me and the World is Mine" (m: Ernest R. Ball; w: Dave
Reed Jr.; 1906)

This ballad (song) was one of 'ballad king' Ernest Ball's biggest smash
hits and I believe one of the most successful songs of 1906.

Here is Albert Campbell singing it for Victor in 1906:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDJFQ7ws_WQ
 

and here is Henry Burr's version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpO8sQK_vr0
 

Finally, here is an amazing version of this by the Ringmasters
barbershop quartet, performed in 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r02Ind3cw7E
 

As a fun fact, this ballad (and the tune "Waltz Me Around Again,
Willie") were the only two tunes that Harpo Marx could play on the piano
(back before he took up the harp) and in order to get through a 'shift'
at his work (when a teenager) when he played piano, he would play these
two tunes loudly, softly, put them in different meters, (not sure about
different keys, etc.), etc, etc -- _anything_ to try to keep people from
catching on that he only knew _two_ tunes!

So, in conclusion, here is what we have for roll #218 so far:

1. "Dixie Blossoms" - march and two step (Percy Wenrich, 1906)

2. "Somebody's Waiting For You" - waltz song (Albert Gumble and Vincent
Bryan, 1906)

3. "Abraham Jefferson Washington Lee" - ragtime song (Harry Von Tilzer
and Andrew B. Sterling, 1906)

4. Uncertain, but _possibly_ "The Old Rag Carpet" - march song(?)
(Roy L. Burtch, 1897) (We won't know until we can get a copy of the
sheet music and/or a vintage recording or other roll of it.)

5. "Love Me and the World is Mine" - ballad (Ernest R. Ball and Dave
Reed Jr., 1906)

Thanks so much for Craig Ventresco and Rick Crandall for supplying
all(?) the titles except for "Dixie Blossoms" which was the easy one
for me.  If it wasn't for their work and knowledge, it would have taken
me much longer to identify and confirm these tunes, as several of them
I'd never heard of before.  I merely went online and looked and listened
to confirm the identity of all except tune #4 which is still a tentative
and not definite identity (until I can get ahold of a copy of the sheet
music).

Hope this helps!

Andrew Barrett
Southern California