The Glory-Beaming Banjo

You may have voted with your pageviews which posts you liked best over the past year, but a few of my favorites didn't make the cut. Since we looked back at your favorite posts of 2018 last week, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my pet projects this week. The following are five of my favorite posts to write in 2018:  1. Sounds of Summer: Beach Boys and the Banjo — My Beach Boys obsession seeped into my banjo addiction with this post. At first I found five songs where they used a banjo, but  I have since added two others I discovered after writing this post in July. From 1968 to 1973, the Beach Boys included the banjo on five of six albums. Al Jardine appears to be the only band member to actually play banjo. 2. Mike Seeger's Final Smithsonian Folkways Project  — In May, at the behest of Tennessee-based banjo player Clifton Hicks, I wrote to Smithsonian Folkways regarding an uncompleted documentary that Mike Seeger was working on prior to...

I have good news for those of you who didn't get a copy of Dance All Night — The Highwoods Stringband Story . The new documentary on the band is available again for a limited time. As I mentioned in my recent review , the DVD sold out quickly, and there were some challenges to producing additional copies. However, it looks like those challenges were overcome. Here's a message I got from Walt Koken this morning: Folks, Due to popular demand, we have re-negotiated to produce another run of the Highwoods documentary in time for the holiday season. A great gift idea, we have set it up to go out via first class mail, as the media mail option was extremely slow. We've had a lot of positive comments and excitement about this production. Larry has done a wonderful job of capturing the flavor of the times, over forty years ago, when Highwoods was barnstorming three continents. Approximately 80 minutes long. Visit the Mudthumper Music website for more details about orderi...

This has been quite the year at The Glory-Beaming Banjo. Although things may have slowed down a bit in the last three months, 2018 marks a new high in terms of the number of posts published in a year. That last time we had more than 30 posts was our first year, in 2011 . This one puts us at 40! Aside from the quantity of posts here, I'd like to think there was some quality too. Judging by the views, it seems at least a few items caught your attention this year. That said, here are the Top 5 posts for 2018: 1. Getting Blitzed with Tom Collins : Not just a top post for 2018, but this interview now ranks among our top posts of all time. Collins had just completed his Banjo Blitz series on YouTube. This year he launched Banjo Quest, an even more ambitious instructional video project that is well worth your attention. Check out his YouTube page . 2. Clawhammer Picks and You : A review of five different options for those in need of a pick for downstroke banjo playing. Whether...

Can you believe 2018 is drawing to a close? That means it's time for a heavy dose of navelgazing to see what's built up, what needs work and perhaps what needs to be cleaned out. Back in January, I dubbed this " A Second Year of Ward Jarvis ," building on the previous year's progress . My goals were to learn four Ward Jarvis tunes on fiddle, log 186 hours of practice and play my banjo more often. The tunes on this year's list were culled from my list of common Ohio tunes , as well as one carryover from 2017. Here are the tunes: Three Forks of Reedy Leather Britches Forked Deer Grey Eagle Fourth Quarter Highlights The Good:   "Grey Eagle," while still a work in progress, has come along nicely. I had the opportunity to play with some folks recently, and I gave my newest tune a try for the first time in a group setting. It didn't go half bad. There are still three and a half weeks to go this year, and I think by then it'll be do...

The Highwoods Stringband have been revived in a brilliant new documentary film produced by Larry Edelman. Featuring narration from Paul Brown, extensive interviews and plenty of archival footage of the Highwoods in action, Dance All Night — The Highwoods Stringband Story gives a straightforward account of the band's history and their influence on the old-time scene then and now. In addition to interviews with bandmembers Walt Koken, Bob Potts, Mac Benford, Jenny Cleland and Doug Dorchug, the film includes commentary from a number of other notable musicians, such as John Cohen, Richie Stearns, Sammy Lind and others. The film chronicles how the Highwoods got together, their extensive festival performances, their discography and diverts into amusing tales from the road, such as the time one member hitched a ride with the New Jersey State Highway Police after being left behind at a rest stop. Produced by Piggysnout Productions and Mudthumper Music , the idea for the documentary ...