The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Tradition states that I provide a summary of my banjo and fiddle playing over the past year. Give you a glimpse at how I did regarding my goals . What I learned. The things I did. The places I went. You know, the normal stuff.  In a year that saw the worst global pandemic in more than a century, there's not much to say about the places I went. My goals went out the window. I changed course on what I had planned to learn . Nothing was normal.  This year has been a rollercoaster. My motivation has risen and fallen on a week to week basis. Mostly, my aim has been to keep my daily streak going and just get to the end of the year. Goals be damned.  Fourth Quarter Review While I'm recapping 2020, this post also serves as my final quarterly report. Here are my previous 2020 quarterly reports:  First Quarter Second Quarter Third Quarter The fourth quarter was highlighted by a virtual fiddle lesson with Michael Ismerio (not to be confused with the workshop I attended earlier...

If you're a subscriber to The Old-Time Herald -- and if you read this blog, you should be -- you may have been wondering where your magazine has been these last nine months. The quarterly magazine published it's last issue in January 2020. The next issue would have been the annual Festival & Camp Guide in March, but then the COVID-19 pandemic dashed those plans.  Ad revenue dried up. Production came to a halt. In the meantime, however, the publication team redirected funds and efforts to revamp the OTH website. Unveiled this month, the new oldtimeherald.org has undergone a major makeover, replete with a new digital edition of the magazine, robust content and access to PDF downloads of past issues.  Editor Sarah Bryan sent a message to current subscribers on Dec. 7 explaining the delay in printing and unveiling the revamped website. But most of all, she wanted to let readers know that the magazine is still in business.  "When the pandemic struck early this year, we had...

This has been a low production year. I can't see myself putting together a post that will top any of the posts that have already been published here in 2020. I'm always thankful for those of you who continue to visit this site and read my ramblings about banjo, fiddle and my adventures in old-time music.  I'm all ready to reflect on what can be reflected upon and move on to 2021. The following are the top viewed posts of 2020.  Sustainable Banjos: An Interview with Pisgah Banjos Founder Patrick Sawyer By far the most popular post this year, this interview was published the week after I started working from home for what I thought would be a short-term period. I think Pisgah Banjos is making some of the best banjos available today. Patrick was a very interesting interview, and here's a belated congratulations, as he and his wife welcomed their son in August.  5 Years, 5 Questions: Talking to Laura Lewis About the Lake Erie Folk Festival Here we have an interview and prev...

On Nov. 8, 2019, I returned from a work trip and began a new playing streak. Until then, my longest streak was 100 days . Now, partly thanks to the global COVID-19 pandemic canceling any travel I normally would have had this year, my new streak has surpassed the year mark.  Having played every day for 368 days and counting, I wish I could say my playing has advanced by leaps and bounds in that time. However, I'm not sure I can sure I can say that. There have been days where I only played a 5-10 minutes. A lot of times, my practice time comes at the very end of the day, and I just don't feel like logging a long session of banjo and fiddle playing.  The pandemic has made for a strange year in all aspects of life, and my attempts at musicking are no different. As I mentioned earlier this year , I felt stagnant and lost my motivation to practice. Despite those mental hurdles, I'm proud to have been able to keep playing every day, no matter how brief.  Since the end of July, I...

Thirty-seven years ago, before the pandemic, the September 2018 issue of The Old-Time Herald (Vol. 14, No. 10) featured an illustrated story about Dick Justice by Taylor W. Rushing . That led me to follow him and his illustration company Not Bad Illustration on Instagram.  Rushing shares his various art projects, such as wood carvings and drawings, as well as items for sale, such as tote bags, T-shirts and stickers. As Rushing is also involved in the old-time music community, some of his art reflects this interest. He recently posted about a new fiddle-related sticker available through his online store .  I couldn't resist. For $4, including shipping and handling, I quickly received this awesome "Old-Time Fiddling" sticker. This is a perfect case sticker.  The quality is superb, as the sticker is thick and adheres well. If you're in the market for a new case sticker, I highly recommend Rushing's offerings. He has a number of other designs you might be interested...

This year has already been pretty  extra , but the stakeholders behind the Steve Martin Banjo Prize just said, "Hold my beer." According to a No Depression article today , five banjo players have won the 2020 award. You may recall that after the 2019 award was announced, there was some uncertainty as to whether the prize would continue. In August, which according to the calendar I have here was only two months ago, the non-profit FreshGrass Foundation signed on to continue awarding the prize into its second decade.  In the past, there was only one winner per year, with a cash prize of $50,000. With FreshGrass taking the reins, the organization announced that the prize would an annual award of $25,000 to one or more banjo players across the stylistic spectrum including both five- and four-string banjo masters.  "However, in light of the tremendous need in the musical community this year, the 2020 prize will be $50,000 split equally between five banjo players," accor...

The last two months signaled a turnaround in progress and mood. After a rough second quarter , I hit rock bottom in July with playing music. I lost focus on my goals for the year and barely played fiddle at all. I played the bare minimum to keep my daily streak going and that's about it.  Staying hydrated and working on rhythm. However, at the end of July, I decided to look into an online fiddle course to see if that might reignite my enthusiasm . Lo and behold my playing time skyrocketed over August and September to help me get back on track.  Although I may not be able to catch up to my fiddle playing time goal for 2020, I'm right on target for my banjo playing time goal that I set back in January. Embarking on this online fiddle course means that I've changed what tunes I'm learning this year. Sometimes plans change. I mean, no one planned on a global pandemic this year, did they?  Another bright spot this quarter was actually getting to play music with others. I att...

Earlier this year, the Field Recorders' Collective released a new album by Teodar Jackson , an old-time fiddler from Texas who was recorded in the mid-1960s. Yesterday, the FRC announced four more albums to round out their 2020 offerings.  The Field Recorders' Collective is a non-profit organization established by the late Ray Alden that is dedicated to preserving and distributing non-commercial recordings of American traditional music that would be otherwise unavailable to the general public. Each year, the FRC releases a handful of a albums from a variety of musicians that are available on CD or as a digital download via Bandcamp. Not only does the group provide excellent music, but it's a cause well worth supporting.  This year's releases represent musicians from Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, Kentucky and Ohio, including a reissue of a long out of print Rounder recording. The following is a quick summary of the 2020 FRC albums. For now, only the the Teodar Jackso...

It's been five months. That was when my son's school decided to transition to online learning for the remainder of the school year. That was when I started working from home full time. That was when the quarantine began.  I'm not telling you anything new. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything for everyone. Wearing masks, social distancing, staying home. Every day feels the same, like we're stuck in the movie Groundhog Day . Wake up. Find my son on the couch watching videos. Log in for work. Make coffee. Answer emails. Sit in on video conference calls. Complete tasks. Log out. Endure.  Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  My wife is unable to work from home. After being furloughed for about a month, she has returned to work. She wears a mask all day, but she also gets to interact with people face to face. I never thought I'd be jealous of being able to socialize at work.  I never truly knew the meaning of "ennui" until now. In fact, I didn't even know how to pr...

You remember how I botched that calf skin head installation last year? Well, I finally replaced it. Because I currently lack the funds and patience to install another natural hide head, I decided to reinstall the Fiberskyn head that came with my banjo way back when.  It's been a good decade since I've had a synthetic head on my banjo. There was a part of me that just couldn't deal with the bland look of the Fiberskyn, so I decided to try staining it with coffee to give it an aged and mottled aesthetic.  I took a small glass of water and mixed in two giant spoonfuls of Maxwell instant coffee and applied two coats with a paintbrush, allowing the head to dry between applications. If you want a more scientific measurement, I'd guess it was four ounces of water and three heaping tablespoons of coffee.  I'd recommend applying a minimum of two coats. I was considering a third coat, but I liked how it looked with two. Keep in mind, the coffee smell stays pretty strong for...

This is not a new book, but I finally read it during this pandemic. Originally published in 2010 by the University of Illinois Press , Ray Allen's Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers & The Folk Music Revival is a biography that looks at the history of the band and its impact on the folk revival period and continuing legacy through an academic lens. Allen paints a portrait of a band that rode the wave of the commercial folk revival of the 1950s and '60s and weathered the storms of scant financial gains, public perception and personal conflicts to leave a lasting legacy that has influenced legions of old-time musicians since their inception in 1958. John Cohen, Tom Paley and Mike Seeger — the original lineup of the band — first played together on a radio show in Washington, D.C., in May 1958. After that performance, Cohen took the initiative and spoke to Folkways Records founder Moe Asch about making a recording and then to Izzy Young of the Folklore Center...

Things have really gone downhill this quarter. My progress over the first three months was strong. In the last three months, however, my playing time has slowly dwindled to the point that after June was over, I was 10 hours behind on my goal progress on fiddle and one hour behind on banjo. I'm still playing every day, but only the bare minimum to keep my streak going. Although, I am excited to have reached 200 days in a row . Otherwise, my motivation and enthusiasm is lacking, and I'm just not excited about the music. With jams and festivals cancelled, there's nothing to pull me out of this malaise. As I reported back in May, I attended a couple of workshops and a virtual jam, but otherwise I'm feeling very disconnected from my old-time community. My to-learn list hasn't inspired much joy, and I'm just not sure what to do about my current state of affairs. I've thought about taking some lessons, but I find it difficult to follow along through video ...

Jake Blount's Spider Tales has come at the perfect time. Exploring historical black string band music and its antecedents and performed by mostly queer musicians, Blount's latest full-length album on Free Dirt Records is an expression of the zeitgeist amid the mass protests in response to George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police, systemic racism and aggression toward the LGBTQ+ community, and the continued fight for equal rights in the United States. As a gay black man playing traditional banjo and fiddle music, Blount uses his music and voice to bring recognition to the role of people of color, queer people and other marginalized communities in American roots music. In the liner notes to Spider Tales , Blount explains that the album title stems from "Anansesem," the stories of Anansi the Spider, a figure in the folklore and religion of the Akan people of West Africa, who was known for "his wit and wisdom — and his aptitude for weaponizing them a...

After providing some of the best custom banjos on the market for the past 15 years, Greg Galbreath of Buckeye Banjos has developed a new lineup of standard models that he has begun offering. In a recent newsletter update, Galbreath shared that he was finishing up the prototypes for the three models, dubbed B100, C100 and S100 (pictured from left to right). He has also revamped the Buckeye Banjos website , which provides all the details you need to know about the standard models, ordering information, news and a robust FAQ page for all your other questions. Amid these announcements, Galbreath agreed to answer a few questions to provide insight into why he decided to develop these banjos, about whether he'll begin offering custom banjos again and other plans for the future. What follows is a transcript of our correspondence. What was your motivation for developing this line of standard models? Galbreath: I’d say my main motivation for developing the standard models was my...

Three "Vinyl Hunter" posts in a row, are you tired of these yet? I hope not. I've had a good stretch of picking up some excellent old-time albums on vinyl, and I'm expecting another one soon. For today, however, I received this package from a certain old-time master that contained the 1986 album by Robert Sykes and the Surry County Boys, Black-Eyed Susan .  Released on Heritage Records, the record was still in the shrink wrap. Despite a bit of wear on the corners, the vinyl is in pristine condition. I always find it exciting to break the seal on records that have been sitting around unopened for years. As I mentioned above, this record came from a a well-known old-time musician who has been mentioned on this blog before . I was watching a live broadcast of Paul Brown and Terri McMurray on Facebook  awhile back, and he mentioned having copies of the Sykes LP available. So, after the broadcast, I messaged him and inquired how I could get one. A quick PayPal trans...

We're back again with another vinyl acquisition. After sharing my Ohio old-time collection last week, a friend asked on Facebook why I didn't have any Hotmud Family. He also suggested I check out Van Kidwell. When I said they were on my want list and joked that my birthday was coming up, he decided to send me this album as an early present. Today is HIS birthday, so this is a tribute to my friend, Russ Harbaugh. But first, let's talk about this record. Here we have  Midnight Ride , by Fiddlin' Van Kidwell with the Hotmud Family, released in 1975 on Vetco Records, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kidwell lived in the Cincinnati/Dayton area, but was originally from Kentucky. He recorded two albums with the Hotmud Family in the mid-1970s, this being the second. There's also a Field Recorders' Collective release available on CD and digital download. I first heard of Kidwell through Doug Dorschug of the Highwoods Stringband in a post on the Fiddle Hangout , when I...

While I haven't been inside a record store in I don't know how long now, I haven't let the coronavirus pandemic stop me from getting new records. On May 29, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released a new album of previously unreleased live recordings of Doc Watson and his father-in-law Gaither Carlton ( SFW40235 ). The track list was compiled from two of Watson's earliest concerts in New York City's Greenwich Village in 1962. The album is available in LP, CD and digital formats. I had pre-ordered the vinyl in April, and it arrived on June 1. This is the second time I've pre-ordered something from Smithsonian Folkways, and I've been pleased with how quickly the item arrives. The audio quality on the album is excellent. Watson was in his prime, and Carlton adds understated and exquisite accompaniment. On this album, we get a taste of Watson's banjo playing and autoharp, in addition to his legendary guitar picking and singing. Carlton also plays ba...

Let's play show and tell. If you've been reading me for any length of time, you know that the Glory-Beaming Banjo home office is in Northeast Ohio. As such, old-time music from the Buckeye State is of particular interest to this author. Without much to report on during these days of COVID-19, it seemed like a good time to show off my Ohio old-time music collection. Many of these items have appeared on this blog in the past, but I've never shown everything all in one place. Most of these albums are solely by artists from Ohio, with the exception of the two Young Fogies volumes and Visits , each of which feature only a couple of Ohio musicians. A couple of these musicians are not native Ohioans, such as Ward Jarvis, Rector Hicks, Cecil Plum and Dan Gellert, but they lived here for a significant period of time. Gellert apparently no longer lives in Ohio, but he did when his Old-Time Tiki Parlour album came out. The following is a rundown of the collection ... Bad D...