The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Travel interrupted my playing time in May, but at the same time it afforded me a chance to build on my collection of vintage old-time records. While out of town for my job, I located a nearby record store that turned out to be a bit of an old-time music honey hole. I actually had to put back a couple albums because my wallet wouldn't allow them to come home with me. But I was very happy to snag three awesome records that have been on my want list for a number of years.   Wilson Douglas, The Right Hand Fork of Rush's Creek (1975, Rounder Records): The first album I found in the folk/bluegrass section of Electric Fetus in Minneapolis was this excellent collection of fiddle tunes by Clay County, West Virginia, fiddler Wilson Douglas. He is accompanied by Roy Tolliver on banjo and Douglas Meade on guitar. Douglas came from a musical family, which also had ties to the Carpenter and Morris families in the region. This album is jam packed with 24 tracks, including some brilliant re...

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...