The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Travel interrupted my playing time in May, but at the same time it afforded me a chance to build on my collection of vintage old-time records. While out of town for my job, I located a nearby record store that turned out to be a bit of an old-time music honey hole. I actually had to put back a couple albums because my wallet wouldn't allow them to come home with me. But I was very happy to snag three awesome records that have been on my want list for a number of years.   Wilson Douglas, The Right Hand Fork of Rush's Creek (1975, Rounder Records): The first album I found in the folk/bluegrass section of Electric Fetus in Minneapolis was this excellent collection of fiddle tunes by Clay County, West Virginia, fiddler Wilson Douglas. He is accompanied by Roy Tolliver on banjo and Douglas Meade on guitar. Douglas came from a musical family, which also had ties to the Carpenter and Morris families in the region. This album is jam packed with 24 tracks, including some brilliant re...

March has been a relatively quiet month. However, I've maintained my pace to achieve this year's playing time goal so far. Aided by a jam in January and a festival in February, I've actually managed to stay ahead of the curve. With a few days left in March, I have amassed a total of 42 hours of playing time (21.5 banjo, 20.5 fiddle). If I keep this up, I'll reach 168 hours, exceeding my stretch goal of 150 hours.  Of course, a lot can change between now and December, but it's encouraging that I've maintained such a steady pace of playing banjo and fiddle these past three months.  As a reminder, I played 41 hours on each instrument for a total of 82 hours last year, so my minimum goal is to reach 42 hours on each instrument (total: 84 hours) in 2024, and I'm already halfway to reaching that goal. However, my primary goal is to surpass my 2022 total by playing 62 hours on each instrument (total: 124 hours). As I already mentioned, I'm currently on pace to...

This past weekend brought sad news for the old-time music community. We lost Mac Benford on Saturday and Clyde Davenport on Sunday. I first saw a post on Facebook that Davenport, 98, seemed to be on his deathbed, so it was a bit of shock to learn later that day that Benford, 79, had died. Benford, of course, was the banjo player in the Highwoods Stringband. According to his website , Benford began playing banjo in 1960, when he was a student at Williams College. He sought out living masters of the time to learn from, including Wade Ward, Kyle Creed, Tom Ashley and Roscoe Holcomb. Benford moved from the East Coast to California’s Bay Area in 1967 and began his professional performing career with Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility Stringband and Medicine Show, which contributed a version of "Dubuque" on the 1985 compilation Young Fogies . The band specialized in recreating the old-time music found on 78-rpm records from the 1920s. The band played all up and down the West Coast...

Welcome back to our monthly series about the now-defunct Kent State Folk Festival. Click here if you missed the first installment. I was originally going to provide an early history of the festival this month, but figured I'd take a different approach and recall one specific year that was ... alarming . I finally got around to reading Walt Koken's enjoyable memoir, Fire on the Mountain: An American Odyssey , published in 2017. Here's a quick review: It's a fast and interesting read, but he could have used a better editor. There were a number of spelling and grammar mistakes that, as a professional language-type, were hard for me to ignore. I suppose that's the challenge with self-published books. However, the stories about Koken's early days as a musician, the forming of the Highwoods Stringband and their rambling career provided great insights and plenty of entertainment. I have to thank Lynn Frederick for passing along the book to me. But let's get ba...

I have good news for those of you who didn't get a copy of Dance All Night — The Highwoods Stringband Story . The new documentary on the band is available again for a limited time. As I mentioned in my recent review , the DVD sold out quickly, and there were some challenges to producing additional copies. However, it looks like those challenges were overcome. Here's a message I got from Walt Koken this morning: Folks, Due to popular demand, we have re-negotiated to produce another run of the Highwoods documentary in time for the holiday season. A great gift idea, we have set it up to go out via first class mail, as the media mail option was extremely slow. We've had a lot of positive comments and excitement about this production. Larry has done a wonderful job of capturing the flavor of the times, over forty years ago, when Highwoods was barnstorming three continents. Approximately 80 minutes long. Visit the Mudthumper Music website for more details about orderi...

The Highwoods Stringband have been revived in a brilliant new documentary film produced by Larry Edelman. Featuring narration from Paul Brown, extensive interviews and plenty of archival footage of the Highwoods in action, Dance All Night — The Highwoods Stringband Story gives a straightforward account of the band's history and their influence on the old-time scene then and now. In addition to interviews with bandmembers Walt Koken, Bob Potts, Mac Benford, Jenny Cleland and Doug Dorchug, the film includes commentary from a number of other notable musicians, such as John Cohen, Richie Stearns, Sammy Lind and others. The film chronicles how the Highwoods got together, their extensive festival performances, their discography and diverts into amusing tales from the road, such as the time one member hitched a ride with the New Jersey State Highway Police after being left behind at a rest stop. Produced by Piggysnout Productions and Mudthumper Music , the idea for the documentary ...

S o, once upon a time, I tried to drum up support for a crowdfunded documentary project about the Highwoods Stringband. I donated money to help out, and more than a year later I provided an update on the slow progress . Last I heard, there was some old footage of the Highwoods they were trying to acquire. It's been three and a half years now that I first heard about the project, and I still haven't received my DVD. I figured that's the risk you take with these crowdfunded, Kickstarter-type projects. I had all but given up the documentary as a lost cause. Until today. If I managed to convince any of you to help fund the project, I felt it my duty to pass along this update directly from Highwoods mainstay Walt Koken . " After several delays and setbacks, we, the members of the Highwoods Stringband and Mudthumper Music have procured the vintage footage and photos in cooperation with the original producers and put them into the hands of another videographer, Larry ...

Mining the depths of experience for a solution to my lack of banjo-related posts, I remembered my last hair cut. As it is nigh time for another, this was a couple months ago. My barber, a short walk from my house, had closed his shop for his lunch break. Not wanting to give up and go home, I killed time at my local record store . I only had a $20, and my hair cut would take up most of that, so I wasn't expecting to purchase anything. Flipping through the "Folk/Misc." section, though, something changed my mind. It is pointless to resist. The cover was a wreck, held together with yellowed tape. But the sleeve had done its job, keeping the vinyl clean. For $2, I couldn't resist the lure of Mike Seeger, leaning against an old GMC truck parked inside the pitch black confines of a red barn, wearing jeans and a blue work shirt, above the words " The Second Annual Farewell Reunion " and featuring such old-time luminaries as the Highwoods, Roscoe Holcomb, Kil...

Remember back a year and a half ago when we talked about an upcoming documentary about the Highwoods String Band? At the time, the film was slated to be released in the spring of 2013. However, here we are in the summer of 2014 and still no movie. This is not to disparage the filmmakers in any way. As a reminder, "Touched With Fire: The Highwoods String Band Story" is being produced by Horse Archer Productions , a two-person, self-funded company that relies on fundraising to complete its projects. This will be the third film by the company that focuses on old-time music, joining "Why Old Time?" and "The Henry Reed Legacy," which are still available for $20 each. As one of the people who pre-ordered the Highwoods documentary, I was curious what was going on with the project. And having possibly led some of you to invest in the film, it seemed like my duty to provide an update. According to the company's website whyoldtime.com , the company was t...

L ike a brush fire spreading across a mountainside, the Highwoods String Band stoked a burning enthusiasm for old-time music and sparked legions of new converts to the sound of fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. The band, which featured fiddlers Walt Koken and Bob Potts, banjoist Mac Benford, guitarist Doug Dorschug and bassist Jennifer Cleland, first played together in 1972 at the Old-Time Fiddler's Convention in Union Grove, N.C. The Highwoods recorded three LPs with Rounder Records ("Fire on the Mountain," "Dance All Night" and "No. 3 Special") before breaking up by the end of the decade. Although their tenure may have been short, there influence continues today. Horse Archer Productions , which has produced two previous films related to old-time music, is developing a documentary on the Highwoods, titled "Touched With Fire: the Highwoods String Band Story," which is slated for release this spring. These films are self-funded projects t...