The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Ward Jarvis at his home in Athens County, Ohio, c. 1977. (Photo by Kerry  Blech. Source: Slippery-Hill ) A s mentioned last time around , my new focus for old-time music is the Ohio River Valley, primarily Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Musicians such as Ed Haley, John Salyer, Burl Hammons and many others. As an Ohio boy, born and raised, my natural inclination is to start with some Ohio fiddlers, like Lonnie Seymour, Arnold Sharp, Jimmy Wheeler and Jeff Goehring. But first up is Ward Jarvis. Jarvis was born in West Virginia in 1894 and is said to have been influenced by Ed Haley . Jarvis then moved to Ohio for work in the 1940s, settling in Athens County. He was recorded by a few different people, including Jeff Goehring, Davis Brose and Ray Alden. His music appears on a release of Goehring's tapes by Field Recorders' Collective ( FRC402 ), two LPs produced by Brose, "Traditional Music From Central Ohio" and "Rats Won't Stay Where There's Mus...

Your scribe (second from right) with some friends at the 2017 Raccoon County Music Festival. (Source: Chagrin Valley Times) Well, it's been a minute, hasn't it? The last year has been difficult on many fronts. Playing music was no exclusion. The amount of time I spent playing banjo and fiddle suffered the most. I didn't blog much either, which you already knew. But it wasn't all bad. Here's a look back at last year and a look ahead to my goals for the year ahead. 2016 Notes I have now been playing banjo for eight years and fiddle for four years. My focus remains on the fiddle, as I try to learn general technique and tunes. Time spent playing banjo was mostly to keep up with a handful of tunes I like most. Playing Time: Due to increased work travel and other factors, my playing time was dramatically reduced in 2016. As mentioned before , I log my practice time in the quest to reach that fabled 10,000-hour mark. This last year was my lowest (by far) amount o...