Matt Kinman | "One Morning in May"
Added 2018-10-10 23:16:02 +0000 UTCI try not to flood this space with every scrap of interesting material that comes my way, but could not resist sharing this clip.
"One Morning in May" is a song that Kinman and I both learned from master banjoist George R. Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. When I first met Kinman he and I played the song together occasionally.
It's also worth noting that the hard-driving "up-stroke" style he uses here deeply informed my own up-stroke picking. While I'd begun up-picking a few songs shortly before I met Kinman, it wasn't until I actually saw him do it (and he introduced me to recordings of Roan Mountain, TN banjoist Creed Birchfield) that I was able to develop an effective approach of my own.
This is a wonderful, archaic method of picking the banjo which comes more naturally to some musicians than downpicking (aka overhand, frailing, clawhammer &c).
Comments
Matt Kinman is a legend. I love his version of 'Cold Icy Mountain' too. Oh yeah and I agree with Kurosh--keep flooding this space. And one more Luke Kelly fan here.
Micheál Mac Labhrás
2018-10-11 15:57:59 +0000 UTCThanks for you insight, Bob, I love reading this type of stuff. I may have to work up my own version of Dirty Old Town now to see if I have similar findings as you did. I also happen to be a Luke Kelly fan boy, having grown up like many Americans with The Dubliners' music in my house. Does anybody know more about his playing style(s)? In old film and photos it's sometimes hard to tell if he's playing a 4- or 5-string but, after a certain period, he seemed to always play long-necks. I have seen many people (mostly street buskers) here in the U.S. who use a 5-string banjo with no 5th string--playing it like a 4-string plectrum banjo
Clifton Hicks
2018-10-11 14:10:04 +0000 UTCI find playing up-stroke a more flexible way than downstroke. It seems to suit a wider variety of music. When I started playing, I intended to be able to play more than just "banjo music" and I found that trying to play songs overhand didn't really work. That constant downward drive didn't suit a lot of non-banjo songs and I actually find it quite irritating to hear too much of it. For example, playing Dirty Old Town overhand just sounds so wrong. I started finger picking it and that sounded much better but I still couldn't get it to sound anything but basic. I watched Luke Kelly playing it with his strummy way and started up-stroking it with some strumming and it sounds much better now. Still working on it though, I think the banjo is well suited to Dirty Old Town and it's not hard to get the melody in standard tuning.
Bobby Banks
2018-10-11 07:27:48 +0000 UTCLove this. He first caught my attention years ago when I saw his version of Cold Icey Mountain. It sounded like that train on his banjo case was chugging down the tracks. I was hooked. Couldn't figure out how he was getting that sound till you started posting the up stroke videos. And of course watching his performances a hundred times after that. By all means, keep flooding this space.
Kurosh Ghodshowghi
2018-10-11 01:14:37 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing this Clifton. This gentleman can really play! Great style. He can play a hell of a fiddle too. I just watched a couple more You Tube videos of him.
John Welborn
2018-10-10 23:49:07 +0000 UTCExcellent. That sound is my idea of perfect.
John Herd
2018-10-10 23:20:05 +0000 UTC
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