Scott Didlake on Banjo Origins
Added 2018-05-22 04:12:50 +0000 UTC"This is a very rare video of the late Scott Didlake, 1948-1994, pioneer gourd banjo builder and the lost origin of the banjo researcher. He his talking at a Gourd banjo workshop during the Tennessee Banjo Institute event 1992 together with Mike Seeger and Clark Buehling." - Ulf Jagfors
Comments
Thanks for posting this. I’m gonna play my banjo today in memory of them sad dancers and banjo players on those slave ships... such a sad part of banjo history. Good to know people like Pete Seeger took an instrument with such a dark past and played songs of freedom and protest with it. Learning all this history really gets me excited to play. Thanks again
Justin R Hlavaty
2018-06-12 16:24:08 +0000 UTCThanks for posting this btw, very interesting indeed!
Alan
2018-05-24 03:35:37 +0000 UTCI planted them last year. Started out great but work got busy and weeds got them. Need to check but probably to late to get them in this year. All I got in is rhubarb to make some pie. Lol
Alan
2018-05-24 03:34:57 +0000 UTCCool, everyone here should plant some hardshell gourd seed. I grow them every year and save seed every year and they just keep getting weirder and weirder. Started with birdhouse gourd seed and, several years later, they've crossbred into some wild, sygoggled hybrid that never produces anything very round and seldom very thick. Didlake in another video mentions that "the true art of gourd banjo making lies in growing the gourds." I think that may be an overstatement (he was a very enthusiastic fellow) but damn is it hard to grow a good banjo gourd.
Clifton Hicks
2018-05-22 22:48:07 +0000 UTCI have a couple plants started this year, if they come of anything I’ll gladly donate to whoever wants its
Patrick Campbell
2018-05-22 22:25:18 +0000 UTCThat's certainly on my list. I have experimented with a few gourds but it's actually very difficult to grow them large and thick enough to build a durable instrument. I guess I need to buy gourds.
Clifton Hicks
2018-05-22 13:16:02 +0000 UTCThere is a "canon of saints" in the banjo community and Scott Didlake, in my view, has an honored place among them. In searching for information with which to introduce him to yall I stumbled across this video. He learned about slavers seeking out and kidnapping musicians for their voyages by reading Dana Epstein's (another banjo saint) "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War" (1977)--a book which will come up often here.
Clifton Hicks
2018-05-22 11:40:54 +0000 UTCLots of fascinating information here. I could listen to this all day. Thanks for sharing.
Sean Gares
2018-05-22 09:57:08 +0000 UTCI look forward to seeing the Clifton Gourd Banjer!
Bobby Banks
2018-05-22 07:11:47 +0000 UTCWhere do you find this stuff? His story about intentionally going after musicians was fascinating! Makes sense when you think about it. I learned something new today! Mahalo, Clifton!
Mike Rebitzke
2018-05-22 06:42:00 +0000 UTC
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