The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Everyone seems to be doing these "best of the decade" posts, so I might as well too. It seems like a good way to close out the year. This blog started in 2011, so there's not a full 10 years to choose from. Regardless, it was interesting to take a stroll through the archives and revisit these stories from the last eight years. Without further ado, here are the most visited Glory-Beaming Banjo stories of the 2010s. No. 10 Postcards: Vinyl Hunting Tour From July 8, 2016, this is the post that kicked off the " Vinyl Hunter " series. On that maiden voyage, I picked up Ed Haley, Parkersburg Landing , and the Galax Va. Old Fiddlers' Convention compilation from 1964. No. 9 The Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes From March 3, 2011, my review of this wonderful and large collection of tunes, compiled by Clare Milliner and Walt Koken. They released a second edition of this 888-page tome earlier this year. You can buy the book at the Mudthum...

During these waning days of 2019, I figured I'd give you one last look back at the year that was. The following are the five most viewed posts of 2019.  Review: Mike Seeger's Just Around the Bend . I'm cheating a bit with this one because this Smithsonian release occupied two of the most popular posts of the year. The actual top post by a couple hundred views was my post announcing that Seeger's final project would be released in August . My review of said CD/DVD/booklet set came in a few slots down the list. Remembering the Kent State Folk Festival . A love letter to a once-popular event for old-time musicians like Tommy Jarrell, Melvin Wine, the Highwoods String Band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and more. And it all happened in my hometown. Remember when I said I was going to write multiple posts on the festival? Me neither.  Review: Anna & Elizabeth, "Hop High"/"Here in the Vineyard." Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrel...

After a couple years focusing on the playing of Ward Jarvis and struggling with rhythm, this year's goals were aimed at righting the ship and learning some old chestnuts on fiddle. I also tried my hand at learning to sing while playing banjo, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to focus on songs for the entire year. For the final quarter of 2019, I was working on "Old Joe Clark" on fiddle and "Down in the Willow Garden" on banjo. As my main source for "Old Joe Clark," I used the playing of Brad Leftwich from his book, Old-Time Fiddle: Round Peak Style , which I got way back in 2014 . What I discovered is that his syncopated bowing style is beyond me, at least for right now. I tried to keep some of the elements I enjoyed from his playing, including some of the slides, but I have been working on playing it perhaps a bit more straight ahead. It's still a work in progress. Up until I found Iron Mountain String Band's Walkin' in the ...

Ordering my banjo felt like a back-alley deal. I had driven almost an hour to a travel plaza just off the interstate. I was looking for a guy in a minivan and a small arsenal of banjos. Were these some kind of contraband goods? All I knew is that I wanted one. I met Bill Van Horn in a gas station parking lot off I-76 in Lodi, Ohio, on a steamy summer day. We first corresponded through the Banjo Hangout, an online forum for players. He had compared the banjos he built to the Enoch Tradesman, only way cheaper and with a Dobson tone ring. His banjos felt solid in my hand, and I loved the sound. After the meeting, I devised a savings plan and placed my order in mid-September. The banjo would have a thin 12-inch maple rim, a Fiberskyn head, no-knot tail piece, 24.25-inch scale walnut neck with Chechen wood fingerboard, a frailing scoop and a paddle-shaped peg head. Van Horn said it would be ready by the New Year. Being unmarried and having relatively few financial responsibilities at...

Here are a couple vinyl pickups from October that I forgot to post. While digging through the stacks at my local shop, where I've been surprisingly lucky to find decent old-time records over the years , I was shocked to find these two albums. It's not like old-time records are a big seller at this shop, but every so often I find one or two LPs to add to the collection. I couldn't pass these up. The first was a record I've been searching for for a long time, featuring one of my early old-time gateways . Lo and behold! The Iron Mountain String Band, Walkin' in the Parlor , released in 1975 on Folkways Records. Their version of "Sugar Hill," which I first heard on the wonderful compilation Classic Old-Time Music from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings , put a charge in me that helped put me on the musical path I'm on today. This album also features "Down in the Willow Garden," which I've been learning to play and sing on banjo. This i...

My head had a hole in it. I replaced it in July. Now, it has an even bigger hole in it. And it's nobody's fault but my own. I had replaced the Fiberskyn head that came with my banjo in the summer of 2011. I installed a thin goat skin from Mid-East Mfg. (now EnSoul Music ), which served me well for eight years. This time, I wanted to try calf skin to see if I noticed a difference. Let me tell you how I screwed up a new banjo head. There was a little spot on my old head where my thumb wore through to the tone ring. It still sounded good, so no big deal. The bigger problem was that the tension hoop had bottomed out, and I could tighten the head no further. I ordered a calf skin head from Elderly Instruments and let it sit around for a couple weeks. Finally, my six-year-old son urged me to get on with it, promising to help with the replacement. That lasted all of five minutes, and so I was left to finish the job on my own. I have to admit I wasn't in the mood to ...

During a fit of lunacy, I ordered a stack of albums from Jalopy Records , the in-house record label for the Jalopy Theatre and School of Music , located in Red Hook, New York. My first experience with the Jalopy catalog was last year when I reviewed Clarence Ashley, Live and In Person: Greenwich Village 1963 for The Old-Time Herald . Jalopy is one of the few labels today that is publishing old-time music on vinyl. They have a fairly robust catalog of new releases and reissues, as well as its  7 Inch Series that was originally available as subscription service.  The 7 Inch Series was pretty unique. Each month, Jalopy pressed a new record for subscribers. Performances were captured as live takes, mixed to a tape machine on location. The music was kept analog all the way through the process of making the vinyl record, and only at the last phase were they digitized for download. This series was produced in 2017 and funded through a Kickstarter campaign to aid in the ...

Prior to his death in August 2009, Mike Seeger had been working on a documentary project, recording banjo players throughout North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. He became ill before he could finish the project. Ten years later, Seeger's final work is at last seeing the light of day. Released in September by Smithsonian Folkways, Just Around the Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Sounds — Mike Seeger's Last Documentary includes a 110-minute DVD, two CDs and an 80-page booklet. The documentary was directed by Yasha Aginsky, who accompanied Seeger on the project. The CDs were compiled by Bob Carlin and include 19 banjo players that Seeger interviewed and recorded during the summer of 2009. Seeger sought to document different banjo styles, including variations of clawhammer and up-picking. He also chose players with a wide range of experience and age. Seeger also aimed to represent women and African American banjo players, th...

You know the book. Here's the vinyl edition! Not too long ago I spotted this gem in the “new arrivals” used bins at my local record shop for $8. I couldn't pass it up. The cover alone was worth it. Pete Seeger (1919-2014) self-published the first edition of How to Play the 5-String Banjo , the foundational banjo instructional book, in 1948. He recorded this complementary album for Folkways Records in 1954. The record comes with a foldout pamphlet, reprinting some of the information found in Seeger's book, plus a transcript of the album and musical notation. You can download the pamphlet for free at the Smithsonian Folkways website . ( Smithsonian purchased Folkways from founder Moses Asch in 1987.) On the album Seeger provides examples of basic tunings, strums and techniques such as hammer-ons and pull-offs and other aspects of playing. He also talks about various styles, such double-thumbing, frailing, three-finger picking, as well as playing blues, jazz, Spanis...

Steady as she goes. That was the name of the game these past three months. I maintained my pace toward my yearly playing goals on fiddle and banjo. I learned "Mississippi Sawyer" on fiddle and "Sloop John B." on banjo. I attended two local festivals and arranged a one-on-one jam session to keep up with my "playing with others" goal. I posted twice a month on this blog, which is at least consistent if not up to last year's standard-bearer. All in all, it was a steady third quarter. On the fiddle, I played 50 hours this quarter and feel pretty happy with "Mississippi Sawyer." I've worked out a couple variations, and I even tried it out in a jam at one of the festivals I attended this year. I've also continued to work on "Possum on a Rail." Next up is the good old chestnut, "Old Joe Clark." I also had written down "June Apple" in my notes. Depending on how well "Old Joe Clark" comes along, I ma...

This review has been a long time coming. Lew Stern contacted me in March regarding his latest book, Tommy Thompson: New-Timey String Band Musician . Some of you may recall Stern's biography of Dwight Diller , which we wrote about in 2016. His latest book brings a similar approach to Thompson's life and banjo playing. Published in March by McFarland, the 247-page biography provides an in-depth look at Thompson's life, his roll in establishing the old-time music scene in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the evolution of his banjo playing from starting on a Pete Seeger-style long-neck banjo to playing with the Hollow Rock String Band, Red Clay Ramblers and beyond. Stern conducted detailed research and consulted with a host of musicians who knew Thompson and played music with him, providing a thorough profile of Thompson and his peers from his school years until his untimely death in 2003. There is also a companion book of banjo tabs, titled "He Could Surely Make a...

The old-time music community lost one of its great champions yesterday. John Cohen died at the age of 87. He was a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers, singing and playing guitar and banjo. Cohen was also a photographer, filmmaker and musicologist. From 1972 to 1997, he was a professor of visual arts at SUNY Purchase College in Harrison, New York. In addition to his notable work as a musician, Cohen was instrumental in documenting old-time musicians through his photography and films. He is credited with "discovering" Roscoe Holcomb and featured him in his 1962 documentary, The High Lonesome Sound . He co-produced the influential album High Atmosphere in 1975, which included Cohen's field recordings of Dillard Chandler, Wade Ward, Gaither Carlton, Frank Proffitt, Fred Cockerham, Estil Ball and others. His photography has been published in numerous books over the years, including one just released on Sept. 10, called Speed Bumps on a Dirt Road: When Old Time...

In my never ending quest to learn more about Ohio's old-time music heritage, I recently came across an article from the Ironton Tribune about Jess Large. His name has been referenced in Field Recorders' Collective releases for Arnold Sharp and Jimmy Wheeler , but I never knew anything about Large or his legacy.  Born Jesse James Large in 1905, he lived in Ironton, Ohio, a small city at the southernmost tip of the state, along the Ohio River. Ironton is the county seat of Lawrence County, with a population of more than 10,500. Large was most active in the 1930s and '40s, fiddling for barn dances and radio programs in the tri-state region of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. Large took his own life in 1961 after a brain tumor robbed him of his ability to play the fiddle.  In addition to Sharp and Wheeler, Large was reportedly an influence on other fiddlers in the region, including Asa Neal, Forrest Pick and J.P. Fraley, according to the article Mark Shaffer of th...

Mike Seeger's final project for Smithsonian Folkways will be released Sept. 20. The two-CD and DVD set, titled Just Around the Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Sound s, features field recordings and documentary footage that Seeger collected in January, May and June of 2009, shortly before his death on Aug. 7 that year. Just Around the Bend is now available for pre-order on the Smithsonian Folkways website for $35.98. In addition to the CDs and DVD, the package includes an 80-page booklet with extensive notes on Seeger's field recording project. The 110-minute DVD was directed, edited and produced by by Yasha Aginsky, a filmmaker who accompanied Seeger on these final field recording sessions and who produced an hourlong video titled Banjo Tales in 2012. I was told this will be a different film. Compiled by Bob Carlin, the CDs feature performances by 19 "virtuosic banjo players," including Riley Baugus , Frank George, Rhiannon Giddens , George Gi...

Five years ago Mumford & Sons was probably the biggest name in banjo music. They appeared on stage with Bob Dylan . They had a bunch of catchy songs that were all over the radio. They won a couple of Grammys . The head guy was in a really good Coen Brothers movie . And people were excited because they played acoustic instruments, particularly the banjo. Then, they decided to get moody. They took a hiatus after their worldwide tour in 2013, and two years later they released an album that ditched their signature sound . They went ... electric . Maybe they thought they could emulate Dylan's career path. It seemed to me like a manufactured publicity stunt. During the band's hiatus, banjo player Winston Marshall gave an interview where he said Mumford & Sons were done for good. And then, he dropped some serious shade on the banjo. When asked if Mumford & Sons had "killed" the banjo, Marshall told Vulture , "I think 'killed' is an under...

These past three months have been a bit of a roller coaster when it comes to my world of fiddle, banjo and blogging. Work and family duties, as well as a general sense of ennui, led me to get way behind my goal progress. However, I managed to catch up at the last possible moment. As for blogging, this is only my fourth post since my First Quarter 2019 report . As has become customary , here is a review of my old-time music activities for the Second Quarter 2019, warts and all. My blogger version of a corporate earnings report shows I logged 52.5 hours on fiddle, 11.5 hours on banjo and attended two old-times sessions. I did not attend any festivals this quarter. However, I did turn 40. One of my main goals for the year was to try to get out and play more with others. In that respect, I did OK by attending two local jams, one in May and the other in June. At the most recent session, I attempted to lead "Leather Britches"  on fiddle, which I learned from the playing of...