The Glory-Beaming Banjo

When you think of the banjo, you probably don't think of the Beach Boys. However, we're smack dab in the middle of summer, and I can think of precious few things that sound better during the sunny season than the banjo and the Beach Boys. My love for the Beach Boys has snuck in at times on this blog before. In fact, my love for music pretty much started with the Beach Boys. Their songs are among the earliest I can remember falling in love with, as my parents played their records in the house as I was growing up. I remember being excited to get the Cocktail soundtrack in 1988 so I could play " Kokomo " non-stop. It was the only Beach Boys song that became popular in my lifetime. The Beach Boys were also my first concert in 1991, after a baseball game. As grunge music exploded in the early 1990s, and as I started to get into punk and my local music scene  during high school, my Beach Boys fandom lay dormant. However, they slowly started to worm their way back i...

"You can learn a lot about America through folk music. It is not the music of any one group. You don't have to be a farmer or mountaineer to play it or like it." — John Burke In the world of clawhammer banjo instructional books, there are a few that have reached the level of collectors' item. There's the first edition of Pete Seeger's How to Play the 5-String Banjo and Art Rosenbaum's original Old-Time Mountain Banjo , but none are quite as sought after as the one written by John Burke. First published in 1968 by Amsco Music Publishing Co., John Burke's Book of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo has become something of a legend among old-time pickers. It was one of the first banjo instructional books to focus on the styles of specific players, in particular Wade Ward, Hobart Smith and Kyle Creed. Burke wrote the book while still in college. Banjo tablature had not yet become standardized. The notation is handwritten and leans toward the melodic ...

Last night I reached a new milestone in my attempt to play banjo and fiddle everyday. When I took my banjo out at a jam, I marked 70 days straight of playing it. I achieved the same feat on the fiddle a couple days ago. My daily habit dates back to May 7 on fiddle and May 10 for banjo. Most of my banjo playing over the past two months has been in short bursts, a few minutes here and a half hour there. All of that has been solo, either on the couch or on my porch. Yesterday bucked both trends. My extended playing session was the longest of the year, while also the first time I've played banjo in a group setting in I don't know how long. Probably a couple years at least. I've been so focused on learning the fiddle that anytime I went to a jam, my banjo stayed home. It was a measure to prevent myself from taking the easy road and playing what was more familiar. For whatever reason, I decided to bring the five-string along last night. I'm glad I did. It was a s...

Earlier this year, Archeophone Records released what may be the earliest known banjo recordings in existence. The archival specialty music label restored four songs by minstrel-era musician Charles A. Asbury, who was originally recorded in the 1890s on wax cylinders. The result is a 45-rpm, 7-inch vinyl record, titled 4 Banjo Songs, 1891-1897 . The songs presented are "Haul the Woodpile Down," "Never Done Anything Since," "New Coon in Town" and "Keep in de Middle ob de Road." Judging by those last two track titles, it may already be apparent that there are some racially offensive lyrics on this album. These were typical of blackface minstrelsy, which began in about the 1830s and rose to international fame. Asbury is an interesting case, as his race is somewhat disputed. The Archeophone release highlights this mystery in the 16-page color booklet included with the album. The packaging is especially handsome, worthy of the historical significan...

Banjos and beer are a fine pairing. However, it has come to my attention that there's a whole company dedicated to the idea of beer and banjos in the form of Bangin' Banjo Brewing Co. , based in Pompano Beach, Florida. I stumbled upon the brewery as I was at a loss for what to write today. The words "banjo" and "beer" collided in my mind and I typed into the Google search bar. Lo and behold, the first result was Bangin' Banjo, named in honor of the brewers' friend, Kevin Seltzer , a banjo player from the Gainesville area. The foundation for the company began in 2009 when lifelong friends Adam Feingold and Matthew Giani took their shared love of craft beer and began homebrewing. It was during this time that they coined the name that would eventually become their company name. Bangin' Banjo Black IPA was a concocted as a birthday present for Seltzer, who had joined Feingold and Giani during their Sunday brewing sessions. A few years l...