The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Before I fell in the love with the banjo, I was a book lover. I mean, I still am. But when I was in college, I took so many literature classes for fun that I amassed enough credits to earn a dual degree in English, along with my bachelor's in journalism.  I was raised in a house of reader parents. My mom is the kind of woman who checks out a stack of books at a time from the library. My dad also reads constantly, usually history or mystery, but at a much slower rate. My love of books developed slowly. My appetite for reading was sparked when I began collecting comic books in the early 1990s, then graduated to graphic novels, then my love for Star Wars led me to the Expanded Universe novels, and finally I began to read the almighty ...  LITERATURE!   From high school onward, I have never not been in the middle of some book. Naturally, when I became interested in the banjo, I not only began amassing a large collection of associated music, but I also started compiling a stac...

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...

Music Along the River, Aug. 12-13, in Harpersfield, Ohio, proved to be a fun time. However, it turned out to be my only opportunity to play old-time music with others this month. Parking challenges canceled out one event and a scheduling conflict eliminated another.  As I mentioned in my previous post , August was a busy month. There was the aforementioned Music Along the River, the Raccoon County Music Festival in Burton, Ohio, as well as a new jam in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood that offered ample opportunities to play banjo and fiddle with other likeminded folks.  On Saturday, Aug. 13, I drove north to the site of the Harpersfield Covered Bridge , which has been removed and will be rehabilitated as part of a construction project approved earlier this year that is estimated to cost more than $6 million and be completed by Dec. 31, 2023.  In past years, Music Along the River (or MATR, as it's affectionately referred to by festivalgoers) spans both sides of the Gra...

Summer brings festival season. Clifftop and Galax are just around the corner, but there are a slew of events coming up that are closer to home where there will be plenty of old-time jamming to enjoy. Meanwhile, I'm still struggling to find time to play music amid other summertime activities.  July and August are especially busy for Northeast Ohio's old-time music community, with a full slate of events packed into a tight window. I'm sad to say I missed Music in the Valley earlier this month, but there are two more festivals to look forward to next month. Following the disruptions to events the last two years from the COVID-19 pandemic, this seems like especially challenging time for organizers. It was such a welcome experience to return to the Lake Erie Folk Festival in April. I hope the rest of the local events experience plenty of success to bolster them for the future.  This is a good reminder to show support for the things you enjoy, or they might not be around muc...

Summer brings warm weather and music festivals, but also a bevy of activities to eat up my time. It's been a struggle to make space for playing banjo and fiddle the past two months.  As some readers might recall, I used to run a lot. In fact, this blog grew out of my now-defunct running blog . In my B.C. life (i.e., before child), I ran a handful of marathons, several half marathons and dozens of other races.  However, that all came to a screeching halt when my son arrived in 2013. I ran sparingly over the next several years as parenthood took centerstage. Last year, my friends coaxed me into running a race for the first time in nine years. That resulted in running my highest mileage since 2012, plus a sprained foot after running my second race.  As of this month, I've already surpassed last year's total mileage, as those same friends recruited me to run a leg of the Burning River 100  for part of an eight-member relay team.  Between running five days a week, ya...