The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Despite the proliferation of local music festivals, my banjo and fiddle playing time always seems to drop off during the summer. Perhaps it's having my son around all the time during the break or just the general glut of increased family activities, but I barely played music at all from May to July, and that includes attending a festival last month .  However, as August is coming to an end and as school has started back up, this month's tally exceeds my playing time for the last three months combined. Hopefully, that trend will continue as autumn approaches.  I'm happy to report that I did get to attend the Raccoon County Music Festival earlier this month in Burton, Ohio. Long-time readers likely know that this annual festival is one of my favorite events of the year. The Century Village is just a great place to host various pickup jams, as well as stage performances and workshops.  This year's event had to battle some serious thunderstorms in the area, but they were a...

T his seems like an especially fertile time for new old-time music being released. In addition to the Mark Olitsky and Cary Moskovitz album we featured recently, here are a few other new or upcoming notable albums. Trevor Hammons & Benjamin Davis, "The West Virginia Way" I recently received a copy of this album as a prize for answering a trivia question on the Banjo Hangout. It's a stunner. Trevor Hammons is the great-grandson of legendary banjo player Lee Hammons. Benjamin Davis has been playing fiddle for five years and has studied under Pam Lund and Jake Krack. Both grew up in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. They're playing fits together so well that you might be shocked to learn that both Hammons and Davis were 15 years old when they were recorded for this album. Fifteen! If I had a time machine ... The 16 tunes include rousing renditions of "Juliann Johnson," "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps," "Last Chance" and "Falls ...

Mark Olitsky (left) and Cary Moskovitz in studio. ( Source ) O nce upon a time, I dubbed Mark Olitsky "the banjo wizard of Cleveland." Typically, he's the only banjo player in a group setting, so it might seem strange that he's joined forces with plectrum banjo player Cary Moskovitz on a new album , called "Duets," due out in April. Instead of a crowdfunding campaign, which seems to have become ubiquitous in the old-time music world, the banjo duo has set up a page online to gauge interest. You can visit the Olitsky & Moskovitz website ( https://olitskymoskovitz.wordpress.com/ ) to sign up for a pre-order. Although this is not a true pre-order in the sense that it asks you to pay the $15, plus $5 shipping and handling, for the album. Instead, it's a pledge that signs you for email updates about album and how to order when it's available. Basically, it lets the musicians know how many CDs to produce. According to their website, Olitsky ...

This week, the Floyd, Va.-based old-time group Old Sledge embarks on a Midwest tour to promote its new CD. Throughout April, the band will play shows in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, with a short detour to North Carolina for the Shakori Hills festival. This blogger is hoping to lure Chance McCoy and Sabra Guzman, the primary members of Old Sledge, to play a little farther north in Ohio, but so far the band is only slated to play in Cincinnati and nowhere within an hour's drive of Glory-Beaming Banjo headquarters. Old Sledge just released its new album, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," this week. For the time being, the CD is only available at their shows, but three tracks from the album are available for free download at the band's store website, where you can also buy the self-titled E P with Anna Roberts-Gevalt on banjo. Here's Old Sledge (with Jake Hopping on banjo) playing "Boats up the River" at the WTJU radi...

Due out tomorrow is the final recording of founding New Lost City Rambler Mike Seeger , who died from cancer in late summer 2009. "Fly Down Little Bird" was recorded with Seeger's sister, Peggy Seeger, and features 14 tracks of songs they learned as children from field recordings. From the Mike Seeger website : Not "children's songs," these have a wide range in sound and subject: the quirky fun of Fod, the Poor Little Turtle Dove's lovesick plaint, a ballad in unaccompanied octaves, social commentary in The Farmer Is The Man, the spooky religiosity of Blood-Stained Banders. The two singers play various combinations of banjo, guitar, fiddle, harmonica, mandolin, lap dulcimer, and piano. Included in the booklet are Peggy's vivid evocation of their early listening experience and several early photos. Track Listing: Old Bangum The Dodger Song Cindy Blood-Stained Banders Big Bee Suck the Pumpkin Stem Where Have You Been, My Good Old Man? Little...