The Glory-Beaming Banjo

More than a decade ago, I stopped into a record store in Ravenna, Ohio, and bought a couple New Lost City Ramblers albums, one of which turned out to be signed by Mike Seeger. I wrote a little bit about that visit in a post titled " Vinyl Hunter: The Origins ."  What I didn't mention was a record that I passed up ... and it has haunted me ever since.  While flipping through the folk/country/bluegrass/misc. of that store, I came across a copy of The Watson Family , originally released on Folkways Records in 1963. The album features Doc Watson and various family members, including most notably his father-in-law Gaither Carlton, son Merle Watson, brother Arnold Watson and wife Rosalee Watson.  You might remember in 2020 that Smithsonian Folkways released a latter day companion album, Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton , featuring concert recordings from two Greenwich Village performances in 1962.  The Watson Family was compiled from field recordings made by Ralph Rinzler, ...

Things got busy. That's why you haven't heard from me. That's also why my banjo and fiddle have sat dormant for about two months. All of a sudden I feel the urge to get back into the musical habit as several local festivals are on the horizon.  Between family, work, kids activities, a vacation, a death in the family and just the general schedule glut of summertime, I haven't found the time to play music lately. But I'm itching to get back to it. Thankfully, the upcoming Music in the Valley festival provides some much-needed motivation to resharpen my skills.  Music in the Valley The first event on deck is the annual Music in the Valley festival July 8-9 at Hale Farm in Bath, Ohio. This has been an excellent opportunity to play old-time music with others from my region. However, this year is getting a boost with Cleveland-based fiddler Paul Kirk assisting the programs manager to add instrumental highlights for banjo, fiddle and mountain dulcimer, as well as a fiddl...

Highlights from my vinyl collection have been few and far between recently on this blog. My last entry in this series came back in February last year. Well, I have an exciting addition to share today.  You may recall I had a bit of an obsession a few years back with Ward Jarvis. I dubbed 2017 as The Year of Ward Jarvis . And in that initial declaration, I identified three records I was hoping to track down. I managed to acquire one of them, Visits , by the end of that year. That left two albums on my wish list.  Well, now only one remains. This week I received the long sought after Rats Won't Stay Where There's Music , released in 1979 by the Ohio Arts Council and featuring recordings of Ward Jarvis and his sons, collected by the late David Brose .  I was so happy to find a copy of this album. I was starting to lose hope after a series of near-misses and then seeing some copies being listed online for as high as $200. However, patience paid off. I had set an alert on eBay...

David Brose died in January. I didn't know the man personally, but he had a significant impact on my journey into learning old-time music. Through his work as a folklorist, Brose was responsible for the bulk of the available recordings of Ward Jarvis, a fiddler and banjo player who lived in Athens County, Ohio.  While I was introduced to Ward Jarvis through the Field Recorders' Collective , the world of his fiddling and banjo playing really opened up to me when I received a copy of Brose's field recordings made in the mid- to late 1970s. Brose went on to produce two albums released in 1979 that featured Jarvis for Ohio Folklife and the Ohio Arts Council, Rats Won't Stay Where There's Music with his sons and Traditional Music Music From Central Ohio with a variety of other musicians from the region.  Thanks to these recordings, I was able to learn tunes like "Icy Mountain," "Tomahawk," "Pretty Little Indian" and others as part of my Ye...

Let's play show and tell. If you've been reading me for any length of time, you know that the Glory-Beaming Banjo home office is in Northeast Ohio. As such, old-time music from the Buckeye State is of particular interest to this author. Without much to report on during these days of COVID-19, it seemed like a good time to show off my Ohio old-time music collection. Many of these items have appeared on this blog in the past, but I've never shown everything all in one place. Most of these albums are solely by artists from Ohio, with the exception of the two Young Fogies volumes and Visits , each of which feature only a couple of Ohio musicians. A couple of these musicians are not native Ohioans, such as Ward Jarvis, Rector Hicks, Cecil Plum and Dan Gellert, but they lived here for a significant period of time. Gellert apparently no longer lives in Ohio, but he did when his Old-Time Tiki Parlour album came out. The following is a rundown of the collection ... Bad D...

Thinking way back to when I started exploring the fiddling style of Ward Jarvis , among the first batch of tunes I learned was "Tomahawk."  Jarvis plays the tune in AEAE tuning, and the Milliner-Koken book includes notation for his version. While researching and learning how to play the tune, I discovered that this fairly recent composition had gone through a few noticeable permutations. To my ear, the so-called "folk process" has yielded five distinct variations of "Tomahawk." Folklorist David Brose recorded Jarvis playing "Tomahawk" in the 1970s, though the tune does not appear on either of the albums Brose produced for the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Folklife in 1979. The late Red Mules String Band fiddler Jeff Goehring also recorded Jarvis playing the tune in 1977, according to the liner notes of the resulting Field Recorders' Collective (FRC) release. Jarvis is on record saying he learned the tune from Tommy Jackson , a fiddl...

Can you believe 2018 is drawing to a close? That means it's time for a heavy dose of navelgazing to see what's built up, what needs work and perhaps what needs to be cleaned out. Back in January, I dubbed this " A Second Year of Ward Jarvis ," building on the previous year's progress . My goals were to learn four Ward Jarvis tunes on fiddle, log 186 hours of practice and play my banjo more often. The tunes on this year's list were culled from my list of common Ohio tunes , as well as one carryover from 2017. Here are the tunes: Three Forks of Reedy Leather Britches Forked Deer Grey Eagle Fourth Quarter Highlights The Good:   "Grey Eagle," while still a work in progress, has come along nicely. I had the opportunity to play with some folks recently, and I gave my newest tune a try for the first time in a group setting. It didn't go half bad. There are still three and a half weeks to go this year, and I think by then it'll be do...

Back in July, I went to Music in the Valley, an annual festival at Hale Farm, in Bath, Ohio. It was my first opportunity to play Ward Jarvis tunes with other people who also knew some of the same tunes. There was only one problem: It turns out I learned one tune the wrong way. When I joined the jam circle at the festival , a longtime friend introduced me to local fiddler Paul Kirk and mentioned that I'd been learning Ward Jarvis tunes . I suggested "Icy Mountain" and "Head of the Creek," as I felt most comfortable with those two in particular, and because they were already playing in Cross-A (AEAE). Paul kicked off "Icy Mountain," and I was pleased to find that we were pretty much in sync with our playing. Afterward, he turned to me to start "Head of the Creek," and it was a mess. Everyone seemed confused, and soon I was playing to a baffled audience. At first, I chalked it up to my inexperience and discomfort in leading tunes. But t...

As the third quarter of the year comes to a close, it's time to move on to the next tune on my list for this Second Year of Ward Jarvis . But first, let's reflect on the progress made over the last three months. This quarter included a month off for a family vacation . While I was gone, I missed three great local festivals . And of course, I have fallen a bit behind the pace for my fiddle playing time goal for the year. However, I got to see some traditional Greek folk music at a village festival on the Island of Rhodes. It was difficult to knock off the rust that accumulated in my absence, but I'm back to my routine and making up for lost time. General Highlights Vacation ended my daily playing streak at 89 days on fiddle and 86 days on banjo. As soon as I returned, I launched a new streak that now stands at 27 days on both instruments. I've got my sights set on 100. It was nice to get another opportunity to write another review for the forthcoming issue o...

Since the beginning of my journey into old-time music, I have sought to find a connection to my home state. After studying the recorded repertoire of a dozen old-time fiddlers who spent a majority of their lives in Ohio, I have compiled a master list of more than 300 tunes. By cross-referencing this list, there were 12 tunes that I identified as “common,” based on their appearance in the repertoire of at least three fiddlers. The results of my findings follow. This is far from a scientific method or academic study. I do not claim to be a musicologist or folklore scholar. I welcome any feedback. Common Tunes: Arkansas Traveler  Birdie Cumberland Gap Durang’s Hornpipe Forked Deer Grey Eagle June Apple Leather Britches Mississippi Sawyer Raggedy Ann Turkey in the Straw Wild Horse At some point I would like to put together a list of tunes that are unique to Ohio or have a particular connection to an Ohio locale, such as Lonnie Seymour’s “Chillicothe Two-Step” or ...

Considering my goal was to learn four more Ward Jarvis tunes this year, a quarterly update on my progress seems like a good idea. However, if that were the case, this post should have appeared a month ago. Apologies for the tardiness of something you didn't know was coming. I'll strive to do better next time. For this Second Year of Ward Jarvis , I started with "Three Forks of Reedy," which was a holdover from last year's overzealous attempt to learn six tunes. I actually started working on it in November, but got stuck . Since then I've noodled with how I play it several times. I think I've finally gotten close, but feel like I'm still missing something. In the attempt to figure out my shortcoming, I consulted The Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes . "Three Forks of Reedy" is not included, but I had read on the Fiddle Hangout that Jarvis' tune had come from Ed Haley's "Three Forks of Sandy," which is ...

This post began six years ago. After writing about my 10-year banjoversary , I discovered an unfinished draft from 2012. Started as a follow-up to a reflection on my  music listening journey , the post was an attempt to trace my personal banjo playing history. It's about time I finished it. 1994 / Prelude to a Picker:  A high school friend who played bass was convinced I had perfect hands to be a guitarist. My long fingers being perfectly suited for intricate fretting. I got an acoustic guitar for Christmas and began taking lessons. However, I lost interest because I wanted it all now, and I quit after a couple years because I had no patience to learn. 2007 / The Tipping Point:  After becoming obsessed with banjo music, I started researching how to play one and what instrument to buy. March 2008 / Give Me the Banjo: With my tax return, I bought a Recording King "Songster"  and began my journey. I started with Scruggs three-finger style, but started to l...

Over the past couple weeks I have been reflecting on my fiddle and banjo playing in 2017 and trying to determine what my path will be this year. So, I hope you're not tired of Ward Jarvis. Considering I made it through only four of the six tunes I planned to tackle last year, my first  Year of Ward Jarvis project seemed incomplete. I didn't want to just leave those tunes hanging. However, I also feel my repertoire is lacking in the more common tunes played in old-time circles, so I want to work on some old chestnuts. My focus will be on common tunes I've found among influential Ohio fiddlers from the mid-20th century. I've compiled a list of fiddlers and their repertoires, and determined "common" tunes to be those played by three or more people. I then looked to see which of those tunes I have recordings of by Ward Jarvis. This year's tune list is: "Three Forks of Reedy" "Leather Britches" "Forked Deer" "Gre...

Happy New Year, banjo friends! Welcome to 2018. I hope the holiday season was kind to you, and you had ample opportunity to play that five-string, or at least hear some good banjo music. Each new year brings the promise of rebirth. We all create goals or make resolutions to help start off the year right. I'm no different. For me, though, Jan. 1 also marks an anniversary. It was on that date five years ago that I started playing the fiddle . I bought my fiddle from my friend, Guy, who was also a big help over the years with numerous pointers. I got a decent carbon-fiber bow and started sawing my way through various instructional books and videos, including from Brad Leftwich , Bruce Molsky and Erynn Marshall . Last year, as you know, I broke away from the instruction materials to learn tunes from the repertoire of Ward Jarvis . That project has gone a long way toward developing my abilities. However, I know I have a lot of work yet ahead of me. As Dwight Diller once said, ...

Well, folks, the New Year is upon us. I hope you have enjoyed the holiday season. Thank you all for reading my blog throughout the year, despite my sometimes lackadaisical frequency. This is a hobby, and I appreciate all of your support. Keep in mind, we do have a Facebook page . Join us there to keep the conversation going. I look forward to what is to come in 2018. For your enjoyment, here are the Top 5 Glory-Beaming posts of 2017: The Year of Ward Jarvis : Learn how I decided to put together a project to learn the repertoire of the great Athens County, Ohio, fiddler. Review: Olitsky and Moskovitz Weave Beautiful Banjo Harmonies on "Duets" : A look at the banjo duets album, released earlier this year by two great players. New Additions to My Old-Time Record Collection : An overview of my budding old-time vinyl collection, including Tommy Jarrell, Ed Haley, Roscoe Holcomb and more. An Old-Time Smorgasbord in Peninsula : A preview of the wonderful Music on the Porche...

For whatever reason I forgot to write about one of my vinyl purchases earlier this year. As you know, I've been working on building my collection of old-time music on LP. Back in July, I learned that Mike Seeger's record collection was being auctioned off on eBay. As you can imagine, there were quite a few albums that I coveted, including a copy of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music . However, the prices on some of the more collectible items skyrocketed beyond my checking account. But there was one record that I kept a close eye on.  The album I managed to buy was Visits ,  a compilation put together by Ray Alden and released on Heritage Records in 1982. The double album is split between "The Old Timers" and "The Young Musicians." It features the likes of J.P. Fraley, Fred Cockerham, Doc Roberts, Esker Hutchins, Mose Coffman, Burl Hammons, Buddy Thomas, Melvin Wine and Ward Jarvis.  Alden was the founder of the Field Recorders...

In January I dubbed this the "Year of Ward Jarvis." My intention was to start learning the repertoire of what I've come to call the Ohio River Valley Fiddlers, primarily those old-time musicians who lived in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Starting with the repertoire of Jarvis, an Athens County, Ohio-based fiddler, I identified six of his tunes to learn from the field recordings by Jeff Goehring and David Brose. Those tunes were: "Head of the Creek" "Icy Mountain"   "Tomahawk" "Pretty Little Indian" "Three Forks of Reedy" "Cattle in the Cane" Goehring's recordings of Jarvis are available via the Field Recorders Collective. Brose produced two LPs that included Jarvis and his family in the 1979, Rats Won't Stay Where There's Music and Traditional Music from Central Ohio , both of which are now out of print. I received digital copies of these recordings through generous members of the Fid...