The Glory-Beaming Banjo

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...

If you like your old-time music served with lutefisk and sauerkraut, then do we have the album for you. Late last month, Mike Sawyer (aka "Clawhammer Mike"), the author of the blogs Clawhammer Tune of the Day and Minnesota Fiddle , released a CD that culminated from two years of brainstorming, research, tune collecting and recording, The Minnesota Fiddle Tunes Project . The album features 27 tunes played by modernday musicians, but influenced by an earlier generation of Minnesota's great fiddlers. The tunes collected here feature a heavy dose of Nordic and Swedish sounds, but that's Minnesota for you. The Minnesota Fiddle Tunes Project includes tunes from a number of the state's local musicians and bands, including Sawyer's group the Temporary Stringband and our friend Craig Evans' Eelpout Stringers, as well as some who have moved away from the state, such as Adam Hurt and Billy Matthews . Most of the musicians here play in a traditional old-t...

RIP Doc Watson We lost another one. Doc Watson, 89, died Tuesday in Winston-Salem, N.C., following abdominal surgery. Watson was born in Deep Gap, N.C., March 3, 1923, the sixth of nine children, who lived in a three-bedroom house. Although Watson was famous for his guitar playing, he also was an accomplished banjo player , learning to play the five-string as a boy. When he was 11, his father gave him a homemade banjo with the skin of a cat used for the head, according to NPR . GBB has been following the news of Watson's hospitalization after he fell at his home last week. Watson was always one of those musicians whose albums I never owned, but that I keep meaning to buy. His influence on the 1960s folk revival and later generations of musicians is evident in the work of today's bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, whom Watson is credited with discovering, and the Avett Brothers. Over the weekend, my wife wanted to listen to the Avett Brothers "Live, Vol. 2,...

Earl Scruggs, 88, the innovator of bluegrass banjo picking, has died. Back when I first picked up the banjo, in 2008, Scruggs was the only banjo player's name I really knew and when I heard the term "Scruggs style" I thought that this must be the way. I borrowed his banjo instruction book from the library and started picking out painfully slow notes. Thumb, index, middle: the forward roll. Middle, index, thumb: the backwards roll. And so on. After six months of trying, I was frustrated that nothing I played sounded anything close to how Scruggs did it, but nobody else sounded like him either. He at once invented a style of playing and broke the mold doing so. Listening to Flatt & Scruggs made me realize that I'd be better off learning clawhammer style banjo. But beyond being a singular talent on the banjo, he was also a great ambassador of the instrument, spreading its popularity far and wide. Legions of men and women owe their interest in the banjo t...

Photo: Down Home Radio Show Joe Thompson, 93, the last known black string band musician, died Monday night. He was born in 1918 in Orange County, in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and moved near Mebane in 1948, where he spent the rest of his life. Thompson learned to play the fiddle from his father, Walter Thompson, and played square dances with his brother Nate and cousin Odell Thompson for many years. He received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007 and the North Carolina Heritage Award in 1991. You can view his performance at the Kennedy Center website from the NEA ceremony in 2007. The Carolina Chocolate Drops credit Thompson as an inspiration and mentor for their music, and released a live album with the fiddler from a 2008 performance at Merlefest. The Dust Busters visited with Thompson in 2010 and recorded the meeting for an episode of the Down Home Radio Show (which is where we swiped the photo above). To...

After finishing my three-part series " Tracing the Banjo Addiction ," I decided to compile my musical listening timeline to show all my shifts in taste over my lifetime. These date ranges are as accurate as I can remember and include my favorite artists at the time. 1979 / I Am Born: Disco tops the charts, New Wave emerges, and Bob Seger pleads for that "Old Time Rock and Roll." 1979-1987 / The Early Years:  Memories of popular hits like the Police's "I'll Be Watching You" and Hall & Oates' "Private Eyes," going to my first Kent State Folk Festival , and my parents' influence of the Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, and the "folksingers" of the 1960s. 1986 / First Album: Bon Jovi, "Slippery When Wet," a Christmas gift from my uncle. 1986-1992 / Hair Bands:  Poison, Gun N' Roses, and Aerosmith. 1991 / First Concert:  Beach Boys at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, June 1, 1991. 1992-1993 / Blowing in...

As I continue my navel gazing, here's another installment of how I got addicted to the banjo ... Some time around 2006, I eschewed all music without a banjo. My collegiate and post-graduate years seemed to have pointed toward this path, from developing more eclectic tastes to delving into the alt-country scene, but then I reached my tipping point toward full banjo addiction. From 2006 on, I would be immersed in an in-depth exploration of banjo music and styles that would eventually lead to me buying my first banjo in 2008.  You could pretty much bet on hearing six albums that were on steady repeat on my CD player during this time. There was Old Crow Medicine Show's debut " O.C.M.S. " (released in 2004), Avett Bros.' " Mignonette " (2004), Carolina Chocolate Drops' " Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind " (2006), Chatham County Line's " Speed of the Whippoorwill " (2006), Great Lake Swimmers' " Ongiara " (2007), a...

Greetings, banjo enthusiasts. It seems we're on a monthly rotation here at the Glory-Beaming Banjo, but I plan to step it up a bit in 2012. Nothing says "bring on the New Year" like a good old fashioned resolution. With Christmas on our doorstep, I thought I'd share with you a little old-time gift ... In this video, you have the Striped Pig Stringband of Humboldt County, Calif., playing " Breaking Up Christmas ," a lively dance tune from Southern Appalachia. Not only is this a fine rendition of the tune with some fine banjo picking, the fiddler is Colin Vance , a fine banjo maker. So, have a listen to the video and then click the link to check out some of Vance's great banjos. Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading GBB during this inaugural year.

Squeezed tightly into the G.A.R. Hall in Peninsula, Ohio, on a Thursday evening, a crowd of more than 140 people sang and swayed along to the music of Jay Ungar and Molly Mason , backed by their family band of Ruthy Ungar Merenda and Mike Merenda (formerly of the Mammals ). The sold out event  on Sept. 29 was billed as "Music of the Civil War and Beyond," and featured a variety of fiddle tunes, stringband music, ballads, marches, folk songs and original music. The quartet kickstarted the evening with a rendition of "Fly Around My Little Miss," with Jay and Ruthy on fiddle, Molly and guitar, and Mike on banjo. The rollicking dance tune got the audience grooving in their seats. If it weren't for all the chairs, an impromptu square dance would have broken out for sure. Jay Ungar and Molly Mason (center), with Mike and Ruthy Merenda at the G.A.R. Hall in Peninsula, Ohio, Sept. 29. After the crowd broke out into song during Stephen Fosters "Hard Time...

This morning brought the sad news that Benton Flippen , the legendary fiddler from Mount Airy, N.C., died yesterday. Benton Flippen was a fixture at old-time fiddlers convention and was noted for his distinctive fingering style, which included many slides. In 1990, he won the North Carolina Heritage Award for his musical contributions. There are many recordings available of Mr. Flippen: Old Time, New Tunes An Evening at WPAQ, 1984 (with the Smokey Valley Boys) 270 Haystack Rd.  (with the Smokey Valley Boys) Fiddler's Dream  (with the Smokey Valley Boys) Beware of Dog  (with the Smokey Valley Boys) The Banjo Hangout has a nice little tribute to Mr. Flippen in the forums. His obituary is also available. Below, he plays his signature tune, "Benton's Dream." ***UPDATED June 30, 2011: The Mount Airy News pays tribute to Benton Flippen

Shortly before winning a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album , the Carolina Chocolate Drops announced a new lineup and the departure of fiddler Justin Robinson. The Drops added multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins and human beatboxer Adam Matta to replace Robinson, who provided much of the group's old-time vibe with his bowing and singing. Ever since, I'd been wondering how the new makeup of the Carolina Chocolate Drops would sound. Now, I no longer have to guess, as the group was featured on the 30-Minute Music Hour on Wisconsin Public Television. Watch the full episode . See more 30-Minute Music Hour. As you can see from the video, it appears Matta has taken over playing the jug--albeit without the jug--from Dom Flemons, who in the video concentrates on four-string banjo and sings. Rhiannon Giddens handles the fiddle duties and adds her solid vocals. Jenkins plays bones, guitar and mandolin and sings a song. On the program, the Drops' sound leans more toward ...

On Feb. 25, a new resource for old-time enthusiasts was released. The Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes , transcribed and annotated by Clare Milliner and Walt Koken, is an 888-page book that contains 1,404 tunes in musical engravings, arranged alphabetically. The book also includes a main index of the tunes arranged by title, with references to source recordings and cross references to similar tunes and title; a tuning index arranged by fiddle tunings; a key index; and an artist index arranged by fiddler, showing the tunes included by that artist. Additionally, the book features an artist profiles section with brief biographies of the 347 fiddlers and bands represented in the collection. A majority of the fiddlers were born before 1900. Finally, a comments section contains further information about the tunes and fiddlers. The Milliner-Koken Collection is oversize format and cloth hardbound, which lies flat for easy reading. The ...

When I was first getting into clawhammer there was one resource that really inspired me to experiment with the banjo. Cathy Moore's blog, Banjo Meets World , provides a wealth of information about playing the banjo in old-time music, as well as other folk traditions. Sadly, the website has been dormant since November 2009. Last I knew, Moore was based in Bloomington, Ind., which I hear has a decent old-time scene . I know that she didn't disappear into the Australian Outback because she has recent posts at her professional blog  about e-learning tools. Despite Moore's absence from the site in more than a year, Banjo Meets World is still worth a visit to review the already existent content. I keep a link to her blog on the "Fellow Fogies" list to the right in hopes that she might post something new. Two series on Banjo Meets World have been particularly influential to my own playing: " Beyond bum-ditty " and " Getting drive with Liza Jane ....

Read part 1, " The Banjo Wizard of Cleveland " * * * A small part of Mark Olitsky’s distinct sound comes from how he sets up his banjos. He says he likes a deep, bassy sound from a banjo, and he uses heavier strings, a relatively loose head, a low tension tailpiece, and “things to keep as much towards the low end as possible.” You might notice some duct tape if you look at his banjos closely. Olitsky usually plays one of two banjos. His “jamming” banjo is a Vega Little Wonder with an 11 13/16-inch diameter pot, Fiberskyn head, and a partially fretless neck he says was made at Goose Acres by Bob Smakula and Kevin Enoch . “At the time that I was buying this banjo, I couldn't afford to buy two banjos and I wanted to try playing a fretless,” Olitsky says. “A fretless plate was put over the fret slots already put in the new neck. My plan was to try my new banjo out as a fretless for a month or two, and then when I was ready, have the plate removed and frets put ...

My first exposure to the dance-groove rhythm of Mark Olitsky’s banjo was in a brief YouTube clip of him playing at the Tazewell County (Va.) Fiddler’s Convention . Just over half a minute was enough to leave me craving more. Thankfully, Olitsky lives in Cleveland, just half an hour north of my home. For the past two years, I’ve attended a workshop with Olitsky at the Kent State University annual Folk Festival , where I’ve tried to gain just a tiny insight to his playing style. Last week, he explained his approach to the banjo and old-time music. “I don’t know how I would describe my style,” he says. “When I first started playing, I tried to put in a lot of melody notes, not really a melodic banjo style — I wasn’t proficient enough for that — but something that I thought might sound like an intricate take on the melody, with as much drop thumb as possible.” However, that all changed after Olitsky attended his first music festival in the South, where he saw banjo players who playe...

The popularity of Old-Time music follows a cyclical trend. When the record industry was created in the 1920s, it was this traditional music that topped the charts. When Bill Munroe created Bluegrass, his repertoire was based in this earlier style. During the 1950s, when Pete Seeger was freaking out Joe McCarthy, Old-Time revivalists were forming the basis of the Folk Boom of the '60s. Nearly every decade has had some form of resurgence in American Folk music. The past few years seem to be showing another up-tick in this raucous music. So, just what the heck is Old-Time? That seems to stump many people. To the layman, Old-Time gets lumped in with Bluegrass as one in the same. In fact, I didn't know the difference between the two styles until I was about a year into playing the banjo. The late Mike Seeger tried to explain it in an essay from 1997, appropriately called " What Is Old-Time Music? " I like to think of the difference between Old-Time and Bluegrass as my ...