The Glory-Beaming Banjo

More banjo duets have arrived. Mark Olitsky and Cary Moskovitz have released  Pretty Little Cats: Duets Two , available now to download via Bandcamp with CDs expected to ship by Feb. 20. As foreshadowed in November , the duo has returned with the follow-up to their much-loved 2017 album, Duets .  Like its predecessor, Pretty Little Cats features 17 tracks highlighting the interweaving harmonies of Olitsky's bassy clawhammer and Moskovitz's sparkling plectrum banjo playing. Once again, Olitsky is armed with his 13-inch homemade grain-measure five-string banjo, while Moskovitz plays rotating arsenal of 1920s four-string banjos.  Some of my favorite moments on the new album are when Olitsky and Moskovitz seem to leap out of the gates matching each other note for note on the melody, and then suddenly their playing veers off and dances around one another, weaving in and out as they each take turns leading, always driving forward. The interplay between their seemingly dispar...

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...

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...

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...

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...

When I pre-ordered my copy of the Allison De Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves self-titled debut album from Free Dirt Records, I also ordered the seven-inch single from Anna & Elizabeth featuring their take on the traditional songs “Hop High” and “Here in the Vineyard.”  The two tracks were released in 2017 and serve as a kind of proving ground for the experimental approach to traditional music the duo would present on the their 2018 full-length, The Invisible Comes to Us , released on Smithsonian Folkways. GBB reviewed that album in May last year .  With the help of producers Alec Spiegelman and Benjamin Lazar Davis (who are members of avant-pop outfit Cuddle Magic), Anna & Elizabeth re-imagine “Hop High” and “Here in the Vineyard” employing their ethereal aesthetics, with haunting and delicate harmonies surrounded by unexpected instruments like pump organ, woodwinds, strings and electronics, as well as banjo tunings that were reportedly inspired by the Indones...

The debut self-titled album by Allison De Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves is the most exciting new old-time album I’ve heard in years. The duo represents the modern generation of tradition bearers, but they don’t shy away from making the the music their own. In keeping with a modern outlook, they also overtly declare their aims to be more inclusive and recognize the contributions from minority populations to the old-time music community. In the liner notes, they include a mission statement of sorts: “As two musicians who have come from outside of the cultural and geographic communities this music originated in, we are so appreciative of those who have welcomed us and shared their musical and cultural knowledge. We would like to thank all of the musicians who came before us, especially those who never received the credit they deserved: the Indigenous, Black, Queer and female musicians who weren’t always visible but kept, and still keep the music moving forward.” As such, almost hal...

The next issue of The Old-Time Herald will be on its way soon. As you may recall, I recently  started writing reviews for the magazine. My latest effort features the Paul Brown CD/DVD set released by The Old-Time Tiki Parlour earlier this year. The set features Brown on banjo and fiddle, presenting 16 songs and tunes that were culled from a wide variety of sources and influences. Brown learned at the foot of the most revered masters of old-time music and has become a master in his own right. This set is similar to the Dan Gellert set I wrote about a few years ago. The DVD provides video of the tunes that appear on the CD, allowing you to see how Brown is getting the notes. The booklet provides source and tuning information. To get my full opinion on this set, make sure you subscribe to The Old-Time Herald . You can also get updates from the magazine on Twitter by following @OldTimeHerald . Meanwhile, The Old-Time Tiki Parlour has released another album that features B...

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...

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...

Listening to Ken Perlman fly through a set of dance tunes provides a masterclass on the melodic possibilities not often explored on the five-string banjo. Perlman is, of course, a pioneer in melodic clawhammer banjo playing. He has released dozens of albums and two classic instructional books. His latest album, Frails & Frolics , is a collection of fiddle tunes from Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and elsewhere. The album is Perlman’s first solo album since 2001, and his first devoted solely to the banjo. The 17 tracks present 46 tunes, mostly arranged as medleys or “sets.” The tunes showcase Perlman’s immaculate playing style. It’s truly a marvel how he can manage to sound all notes of a fiddle. His triplets and trills are masterful. The packaging isn’t flashy, but a simple eight-page booklet gives in-depth background about each tune and its source, as well as notes on Perlman’s arrangements. It’s clear from the liner notes that Perlman has done extensive research into the o...

Well, folks, the New Year is upon us. I hope you have enjoyed the holiday season. Thank you all for reading my blog throughout the year, despite my sometimes lackadaisical frequency. This is a hobby, and I appreciate all of your support. Keep in mind, we do have a Facebook page . Join us there to keep the conversation going. I look forward to what is to come in 2018. For your enjoyment, here are the Top 5 Glory-Beaming posts of 2017: The Year of Ward Jarvis : Learn how I decided to put together a project to learn the repertoire of the great Athens County, Ohio, fiddler. Review: Olitsky and Moskovitz Weave Beautiful Banjo Harmonies on "Duets" : A look at the banjo duets album, released earlier this year by two great players. New Additions to My Old-Time Record Collection : An overview of my budding old-time vinyl collection, including Tommy Jarrell, Ed Haley, Roscoe Holcomb and more. An Old-Time Smorgasbord in Peninsula : A preview of the wonderful Music on the Porche...

T his seems like an especially fertile time for new old-time music being released. In addition to the Mark Olitsky and Cary Moskovitz album we featured recently, here are a few other new or upcoming notable albums. Trevor Hammons & Benjamin Davis, "The West Virginia Way" I recently received a copy of this album as a prize for answering a trivia question on the Banjo Hangout. It's a stunner. Trevor Hammons is the great-grandson of legendary banjo player Lee Hammons. Benjamin Davis has been playing fiddle for five years and has studied under Pam Lund and Jake Krack. Both grew up in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. They're playing fits together so well that you might be shocked to learn that both Hammons and Davis were 15 years old when they were recorded for this album. Fifteen! If I had a time machine ... The 16 tunes include rousing renditions of "Juliann Johnson," "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps," "Last Chance" and "Falls ...

W hat's better than a banjo? Two banjos! That's the case with "Duets," the new album by Mark Olitsky and Cary Moskovitz . What makes this album soar is the very different playing styles of Olitsky and Moskovitz, as well as the distinct tonal properties of the banjos themselves. Olitsky is playing clawhammer on a low-tuned, minstrel-style banjo that he built himself. Moskovitz brings the brighter tones, playing with a flat pick on a trio of four-string plectrum banjos: a 1922 Bacon “Orchestra A,” a 1928 Trujo and 1920 Orpheum No. 3. Olitsky and Moskovitz got together at the 2016 Appalachian String Band Music Festival (aka Clifftop) to play some tunes. Olitsky had recently finished building his new banjo, and Moskovitz brought one of his plectrum banjos. "We found the combination of these instruments enchanting," Moskovitz says. "Our banjo styles, each quirky in its own way, fit together in a manner that was both natural and exciting. We playe...