The Glory-Beaming Banjo

First of all, all apologies for the monthlong gap between this post and the last one . Things got a bit heavy with my professional workload and general seasonal affectation demotivation. But I'm back, and I have some ideas for my next couple posts. But first, let's get this one out of the way.  As I'm wont to do , here's my review of my old-time music activities for the First Quarter 2019. My navalgazing blogger version of a corporate earnings report shows that I logged 47.5 hours on fiddle and 12.5 hours on banjo, attended two jams and one festival. My fiddle tune for this quarter was "Arkansas Traveler." I learned a very basic version that I figured I could eventually work into something more interesting later on. The main thing was to use the tune as a means to improve my basic rhythm, and I think I've achieved that.  On the banjo, I successfully learned to sing (that's a relative term) and play "Mole in the Ground." That went ...

The fourth annual  Lake Erie Folk Festival is coming up this weekend, and there’s plenty to enjoy for us banjo nerds.  First and foremost is the Old-Time Banjo Summit at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23, featuring such five-string luminaries as Mark Olitsky, Doug Unger, Richie Stearns and Lukas Pool. These four banjo masters will compare their banjo playing styles. Longtime readers of the Glory-Beaming Banjo may already be familiar with Olitsky, who was featured in a two-part feature on this site in 2011. Click the links to check out Part 1 and Part 2 . Unger is known for his brilliant banjo building , but he is also an accomplished player with a sparse style. I once heard him describe his style as a series of runs, and hearing that opened up my thinking on how to play in a jam when I don’t necessarily know the tunes. Stearns is a virtuoso based in Ithaca, New York, known for his playing in the Horse Flies, the Evil City String Band and many others. Currently, he tours wi...