Celluloid finger boards with mother-of-pearl inlay like this are quite rare for an instrument this old. We have no idea who may have made this, the parts look like they came from LYn & Healy or JB Schall.
2019-11-05 22:07:09 +0000 UTC View Post
f# D F# A D (relative) aka "Reuben" tuning. In this video we'll discuss different versions of the song as well as demonstrate both beginner & advanced approaches to my arrangement.
f# D F# A D (relative). I learned this song from a recording of Buell Kazee of Magoffin County, Kentucky. Buell played it in standard tuning. The only other person I've watched play it up close was Matt Kinman who used gCGCD. After trying both tunings, I settled on my own arrangement in "Reuben" tuning.
Instrument is a 1999 George Wunderlich copy of an 1840s banjo by William ...
2019-10-31 01:15:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Dolceola Recordings https://www.dolceolarecordings.com/ is a field recording project out of Japan that's doing some really good work here in the southeastern United States. Here's George Gibson on the porch of his restored 1810s log barn, playing & singing "Southern Texas" (f#DGAD).
"Banjer Days" is a pretty important compilation album that's just become a lot easier to listen to. George Gibson has several interesting tracks on this album.
Speaking of George! He and I are in the early stages of putting together some kind of re-lease of his album "Last Possum Up the Tree" that'll include probably a second CD of music, updated liner notes &c.
2019-10-27 14:59:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Well, I accidentally started another live stream this morning & we wound up going for an hour. Thanks to the 200 people who participated! In the future, I will try to schedule live streams so more people can join in.
BIG thanks to Frank and Sheri who donated some $$ via 'superchat.'
2019-10-23 15:12:20 +0000 UTC View Post
f# D F# A D (actual pitch). Banjo is a 24" scale Fairbanks & Cole (1880s) with original celluloid tuners, antique walnut(?) bridge & contemporary mammoth bone tail piece.
2019-10-20 14:05:11 +0000 UTC View Post
f# D F# A D (aka "Reuben" or "Drop D" tuning).
2019-10-19 19:16:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everybody. I just tried a test of the "live" feature on Youtube and it turned into a nearly 2-hour Q&A session. In the future I'll try to announce live streams beforehand so more folks can join in. As it was we _still_ had over 400 people come in, so it got fairly lively! I also need to purchase a real webcam.
2019-10-17 15:06:25 +0000 UTC View PostI Ain't Got No Home," composed by Woody Guthrie.
Banjo is a short-scale, 1880s Fairbanks & Cole strung with fishing line (for sale). Guitar is an 1890s Bruno.
I ain't got no home, I'm just a-roamin' 'round,
Just a wandrin' worker, I go from town to town.
And the police make it hard wherever I may go
And I ain't go...
2019-10-15 16:41:44 +0000 UTC View Post
(f# D F# A D) Also know as "Shut Up in Coal Creek Mine" (Green Bailey, 1920s) or "Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek" (Brett Ratliff, 2017) I learned this song from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky who just calls it "Coal Creek."
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I boarded a train on Wednesday & to the mines did go
At ...
2019-10-10 23:13:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Banjo #20, black walnut neck (unstained), submerged cherry tuners, black walnut nut/bridge, ash tailpiece, hard shell gourd sound chamber, Jamaican goat hide from Jeff Menzies, iron tacks, nylon strings. The scale is pretty short, probably about 24". Doesn't sound anywhere near as nice as number 19 bu...
2019-10-02 23:36:50 +0000 UTC View Post
In this video I'll go over how to carve, attach & slot the nut for a 4-string early gourd banjo.
2019-09-26 23:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I learned this cante fable (literally "song story") from my dear friend & mentor George R. Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. George learned the piece from his father, banjo master Mal Gibson, who was born about 1900. Until very recently, the only printed version known to us here in the United States was found in a 1940s folklore journal out of (I believe) Indiana.
hus...
I climbed up to the barn on this 90° F September afternoon to try and film this lovely 1920s Vega "White Ladye" banjo. 11" pot & 1 38" at the nut.
2019-09-24 22:31:37 +0000 UTC
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This video covers the actual tacking-on & trimming of the hide after it's been stretched over the gourd sound chamber.
2019-09-19 00:17:03 +0000 UTC View Post
[gCGCD, relative. Would also sound great in f#DF#AD] This is my original arrangement of a song I learned from the recording of Henry Grady Terrell made at Athens, Georgia by Arthur S. Rosenbaum.
Though usually associated with the "John Henry" ballad, on the contrary, I find it shares more traits with the "Across the Blue Ridge Mountain" family of songs. Generally sung by Anglo banjo...
2019-09-17 18:58:56 +0000 UTC View Post
I learned "Cackling Hen" from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky who down-picked the tune when he played it. I'm tuned something like gGCE. To play this on a standard 5-string banjo use gCGCE as per Gibson.
2019-09-07 17:53:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Inspired by Hans Sloane's sketch of two "strum strumps" from Jamaica published 1701. The two gourd lutes drawn by Sloane are two-stringed instruments lacking the short thumb string necessary for me to consider them banjos. While each instrument is shown with a mysterious set of small dots on the fret board where thumb pegs might reside, the artist clearly differentiated these from the tuning pe...
2019-09-01 19:06:04 +0000 UTC View Post
00:58 How can I get a clearer sound when overhand picking?
04:22 How do you avoid using chords on the banjo?
It's I'm a going across that icy mountain (x2)
Little girl and I never expect to see you anymore.
Rock and feed my baby candy (x2)
Little girl I never expect to see it anymore.
It's I'm a going across that icy mountain (x2)
Little girl and I never expect to see you anymore.
Stop and...
2019-08-22 22:52:05 +0000 UTC View Post
It's two music CDs & a DVD of footage from the trip. Features George Gibson, Riley Baugus, Rhiannon Giddens, John Haywood, Brett Ratliff, Jesse Wells, Matt Kinman, Brien Fain, Debbie Grim, Tina Steffey, Marsha Bowman Todd, Jerry Adams, Peter Gott, Frank George, David Reed, Joe Ayers, Robert Montgomery, Leroy Troy & myself.
2019-08-15 16:38:00 +0000 UTC View PostFirst in a new series of short slideshows: "An Introduction to Early Banjo History."
------------------------Transcript------------------
In 1620 English trader, Richard Jobson, described a gourd instrument played by mixed-race Luso-Africans on the Gambia River in West Africa:
"They have little variety in instruments, that which is most common in use is made of a great gourd, ...
2019-08-12 21:31:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Banjo Roots and Branches (Winans et al.)
America's Instrument (Bollman & Gura)
African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia (Conway)
Sinful Tunes and Spirituals (Epstein)
Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (Combs)
2019-08-06 23:47:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Patrick asked for it--here it is! gCGCD, relative AKA "Double C," "Hook & Line" or "One-Finger C."
JM Mullins recording: https://youtu.be/Dfz0Z4cKn_A
My arrangement: https://youtu.be/Yk1WarqkEvc
2019-08-02 15:16:25 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGCD relative (fB♭FB♭C actual)
2019-07-26 18:26:53 +0000 UTC View Post
