The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Earlier this month, I was in New England for work. As has become my custom, I scoped out a couple record stores to seek out some vinyl for my collection . I visited two stores in Portland, Maine: Strange Maine and Moody Lords . I walked away with two albums from each store. Strange Maine had a huge inventory and fairly cheap pricing, mostly specializing in rock, punk and metal. This is your typical crate digger's paradise, with albums crammed tightly into dozens of bins around the store. I picked up two post-"Pet Sounds" Beach Boys albums. But you probably don't care about that. Moody Lords had a much smaller selection, but it was well-curated and very clean in terms of decor and vinyl condition. The shop also doubles as a vintage clothing store. There, I stumbled upon two nice old-time compilations: " Echoes in the Ozarks, Volume 1: Arkansas String Bands 1927-1930 " (1970) and " More Clawhammer Banjo Songs & Tunes from the Mountains "...

Rhiannon Giddens has been on a roll this past year. In 2016, she was awarded the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass . In February, her third solo album, "Freedom Highway," was released on Nonesuch Records. On Sept. 26, she was selected as the keynote speaker at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) conference. And today, she was named among the recipients of the MacArthur Foundation fellowships , the so-called "Genius Grants." Of course, like many of you, I first became aware of Giddens' work with the wonderful Carolina Chocolate Drops , a group that studied under the late, great fiddler Joe Thompson and sought to reclaim the African American tradition of Appalachian string band music. Along with founding bandmates Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons, Giddens won a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album with "Genuine Negro Jig." The Chocolate Drops were among the earliest influences that sparked my ...