The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Mike Seeger’s legacy in the banjo community is already secured. The late founding member of the influential New Lost City Ramblers was a tireless promoter of the five-string. Through his music, instructional videos and field recording projects, the banjo’s place in American folk music is secure. However, there is one project that remains unreleased. For now. Earlier this month, Tennessee-based banjo player Clifton Hicks pleaded that Banjo Hangout forum members and his YouTube followers write to Smithsonian Folkways to inquire about Mike Seeger’s final project for Smithsonian Folkways. As Hicks believed, the project was to be released as a documentary and music album.  “When he [Seeger] died, he left behind him an unfinished, masterpiece, maybe?” Hicks says in his YouTube video. “Unfinished piece of work, a film called, well, the working title was Mike Seeger’s Banjo Tales or Banjo Tales with Mike Seeger .” Hicks says he was recorded as part of the film in 2008, a...

Two banjoists took center stage Friday night at the historic G.A.R. Hall in Peninsula, Ohio. They were angled toward each other, although this was no dueling banjos, but rather DUETING banjos. Mark Olitsky and Cary Moskovitz presented music from their 2017 album, Duets , to a packed crowd, seated at tables inside the 167-year-old building . Olitsky & Moskovitz paired their seemingly disparate styles with equally contrasting instruments through dazzling interplay of melody, rhythm and harmony. Their playing intertwined and darted off in magical ways throughout the night. Moments when the sound of the two banjos landed upon unison notes, before twisting off again, were especially exciting. A handful of standouts for the evening were their presentation of “Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom,” “Falls of Richmond” and “Farewell Trion.” The G.A.R. Hall’s pristine acoustics were a perfect complement to the banjo duo.  Each appeared to be playing two banjos. Olitsky provided...

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 ...

Warning: The music on this album may take you by surprise. Don’t panic. Anna & Elizabeth will guide you on the journey. The Invisible Comes to Us opens with the duo of Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle singing “Jeano” unaccompanied in an echo chamber. As the song moves on, their voices are joined by synthesizers and the sound of chirping birds on a loop. You might think, maybe this is an aberration, as the electronic aural environment falls away and it’s just the voice and guitar of “Black Eyed Susan.” But once again, the plunges into a strange ethereal soundscape. By the time you get to the end of “Irish Patriot,” you’ve been led into a sonic maze built on layers of keyboards, Moog bass, vocoder, mellotron, pump organ and added sound samples from field recordings. Anna & Elizabeth built  their reputation on haunting harmonies and illustrating their music and stories with “ crankies ,” an old storytelling art form where drawings on long scrolls and spools...

The latest issue of The Old-Time Herald is out now, and my writing appears in the form of two reviews in the magazine. They are for the LP Clarence Ashley,  Live and In Person: Greenwich Village 1963  and for the book, Building New Banjos for an Old-Time World , by Richard Jones-Bamman. You may have noticed I've written more  reviews  on this site over the last year, and I wanted to expand my writing portfolio a bit more. Last fall, I answered a general Facebook request by editor Sarah Bryan to recruit new reviewers, and these are my first to appear in the quarterly magazine. The spring issue also includes the annual festival guide, so you can plan your summer. Clarence Ashley,  Live and In Person   was released by Jalopy Records in April 2017. This is a vinyl-only release, compiled from two concerts at Gerdes Folk City in Greenwich Village in October 1963. He is accompanied by Tex Isley on guitar and autoharp. The LP includes an essay on the backcov...