Sam Stewart died in 1898, but instruments bearing his name continued to be made until World War 1. The high serial number and a few other details suggest this banjo was made circa 1900-1910.
"S.S. STEWART. PHILA. PA. THE AMATEUR GRADE 2" serial # 71548
Tunes played:
00:00 "Cluck Old Hen" [gDGCD]
06:30 "Wild Bill Jones" / ...
2020-10-10 19:08:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everybody! I just wanted to announce that we are officially THE fastest-growing traditional banjo community on the internet.
2020-10-08 14:13:09 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGCC. I learned "Swannanoa Tunnel" from several Library of Congress recordings of Reta Spradlin (The Pea Fowl), Roscoe Holcomb (Swanno Mountain), and Bascam Lunsford.
When you hear my pistol firing
Another man's gone, honey, another man's gone,
When you h...
2020-10-07 06:37:12 +0000 UTC View Post
John Sloan was an English-born machinist who built a number of unique banjos after emigrating to the United States after WW2. This example utilized two "tunnels" through the neck, allowing it to be played either right- or left-handed. Ambidextrous banjos are exceedingly rare. It's also an archtop, making it a very loud banjo.
John Sloan was an English-born machinist who built a number of unique banjos after emigrating to the United States after WW2. This example utilized two "tunnels" through the neck, allowing it to be played either right- or left-handed. Ambidextrous banjos are exceedingly rare.
This is my original arrangement of Cotton-Eyed Joe for both 2-finger and overhand style banjo. The tuning is f#DGAD.
I learned the words to Cotton-Eyed Joe from Jerron "Blindoy" Paxton. He sang it a capella, to the usual melody, so I composed this original banjo arrangement.
Hey everybody! This song has never been requested here, but one of my 13-year-old students asked me to do it, so here it is. I'll be putting up the lessons/tabs you've requested ASAP.
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I learned "C.C. Rider" (See See Rider, Easy Rider) from recordings of Big Bill Broonzy, Lead Belly, Ma Rainey, Mance Lipscomb, and Mississi...
2020-09-26 13:23:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a fine, lightweight intermediate banjo made sometime after Fairbanks & Cole dissolved their partnership in 1890. This "Companion Style C" banjo still has the original head, celluloid tuners, and tailpiece. We've set it up with nylon strings and an antique, European maple bridge. The fingerboard looks like true ebony, but the peghead overlay and heel cap are clearly a faux ebony. &nbs...
2020-09-21 14:28:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Going live TOMORROW at 2:00pm Eastern Standard Time! 🪕 🍺 ... 🍉?
2020-09-19 12:58:54 +0000 UTC View Post
I learned "Boat Up the River" from a recording of North Carolina banjoist, Ola Belle Reed. My 1888 Luscomb banjo (by Thompson & Odell) is tuned gCGCD relative, fB♭FB♭C actual.
"I learned "Boat's Up the River" from a recording of Ola Belle Reed. My 1888 Luscomb Banjo is tuned one octave below gCGCD. I'm using nylon strings and a handmade maple bridge by Joel Hooks, available here: https://www.banjothimble.com/
Boat's up the river
Won't come down,
Tell by the way t...
2020-09-16 16:30:26 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1872, Sam Stewart was a seventeen-year-old violin student and heir to a family fortune worth several million dollars. However, upon hearing banjo music for the first time (at a minstrel show in Philadelphia), Stewart became obsessed with the instrument, and had soon hired none other than George Dobson to teach him the secrets of the art. By 1878 he was performing regularly, and billing himse...
2020-09-12 02:22:45 +0000 UTC View Post
I learned "Swannanoa Tunnel" from a recording of Retta Spradlin titled "The Pea Fowl." Roscoe Holcomb, who learned his version directly from western Carolina railroad workers, recorded it as "Swanno Mountain." Several more recordings exist under the title "Swannanoa Town." While Bascam Lunsford's is probably the most well-known, the _oldest_ recording was made in 1939 by Will "Shorty" Love unde...
2020-09-04 22:42:13 +0000 UTC View Post
This Fairbanks "Electric" banjo (patented 1890) has an unusual 21-inch scale and 9-inch pot. My understanding is that these smaller banjos were advertised as women's instruments.
2020-08-25 19:28:35 +0000 UTC
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I learned Cotton-Eyed Joe from Jerron "Blindboy" Paxton of South-Central Los Angeles. He sang it a capella following the usual melody, so I composed this original banjo arrangement in f#DGAD. Be warned that although I've censored Paxton's lyrics, they are still quite disturbing:
I want to go a'courting but I could not go
Had to stay home with Cotton-Eyed Joe,
If it hadn't been for ...
Tuesday, August 18th (TOMORROW) at 2:00pm Eastern Standard Time...
Join the conversation here 👉 https://youtu.be/zWu5SRhia0w
2020-08-17 12:10:37 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGBD relative (eBEG#B actual) I learned the early folk ballad "Hiram Hubbard" from Jake Book of Gallatin County, Kentucky. Jake learned it from a recording of Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson (Folkways Records, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Library of Congress).
Come all you ...
2020-08-15 12:02:00 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGBD relative (eBEG#B actual) I learned the early folk ballad "Hiram Hubbard" from Jake Book of Gallatin County, Kentucky. Jake learned it from a recording of Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson (Folkways Records, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Library of Congress).
Come all you friends and neighbors a story I will tell (x2)
Concerning Hiram Hubbard and how it was he fell.
...
2020-08-15 12:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
"... the Luscomb banjo, named after John F. Luscomb, a highly regarded banjo soloist and composer who over the next decade designed several models. His first, patented in the late summer of 1888 but advertised by Thompson and Odell half a year earlier, offered a rim composed of two metal bands (inside and outside) with a third, of wood, sandwiched between them with its lip extending upward so t...
2020-08-13 16:50:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the easiest way to install nylon or gut strings on your banjo. I demonstrate using Aquila Nylgut "Classic Banjo" strings and an original 1888 Luscomb banjo; however, the process is basically the same on any banjo whether you're using gut, nylgut, nylon, fluorocarbon, or fishing line.
If you have a modern instrument like the Deering "Goodtime," a Pisgah banjo, Recording...
2020-08-10 01:44:32 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGBD relative (fB♭FAC actual) known as "Two-Finger C tuning." I learned this song from the Library of Congress recording of Dock Boggs, who composed it around 1928. In this video I'll discuss the history behind the piece, and demonstrate how to perform it using three different traditional banjo techniques: overhand "clawhammer," two-finger, and up-picking. The attached tableture covers both ...
2020-08-04 12:44:44 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGBD relative (fB♭FAC actual) known as "Two-Finger C tuning."
"Dock put this song together about 1928 after an incident in which an overbearing lawman broke into his home and caught him enjoying music and liquor with some friends during prohibition times. Dock ejected the officer, and left Virginia within hours for Kentucky to avoid arrest. He stayed there working in the mines until a...
gDGCD relative (fCFB♭C actual):
Coffee grows on white oak trees
River flows with brandy,
I've got a gal who's mighty fine
Sweet as sugar candy
CHORUS
Swing and turn Jubilee,
Live and learn Jubilee
If I had no gal at all
You could find me crawling,
Up and down these soggy roads
Looking for my darling...
Saddle ...
2020-07-30 01:12:29 +0000 UTC View PostWe played a lot of music, answered a lot of questions, and told a few stories! Topics & time stamps in the Youtube player description.
2020-07-24 05:01:04 +0000 UTC View PostI sometimes feel compelled to show my friends here a little slice of what my life is like outside of banjos. Yesterday evening. when the light was perfect, I went outside with my camera and just filmed wildflowers, fruit trees, and vegetable patches. I also took a short walk through the mature forest that grows behind our home.
Again, I won't make a habit of sharing these nature vid...
2020-07-23 15:21:58 +0000 UTC View Post
In this video I walk you through the steps for producing my original arrangement of John Jackson's "Going Up North" (Can't Get No Letter From My Home). Jackson said he learned the song from his father. In this instance, my version (though in the same tuning as Jackson's) does not strictly adhere to his style and picking pattern. Instead, I've taken my own approach to three traditional styles (o...
2020-07-21 12:50:52 +0000 UTC View Post
I learned this song from the recording of John Jackson on the album, "Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia" (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings). Jackson said he learned it from his father, and offered the alternate title, "Can't Get No Letter From My Home." It is likely that his version represents two songs which were combined into one.
The traditional banjo style ...
f#DF#AD (Reuben tuning). I first learned to sing "In the Pines" (Where Did You Sleep Last Night) from a 1930s Library of Congress recording of Huddie William Ledbetter (better known as LEADBELLY). Later, when I was 14 or 15, I learned to play it on the banjo from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. Most of my lyrics come from Gibson.
If I had wings like Noah's dove
<... 2020-07-16 12:36:06 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGAD relative (eAEF#B actual) aka "Omie Wise tuning." I learned this song from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. Though most of us learned the piece as "Oma Wise" or "Omie Wise," she is called Naomi Wise in actual historical documents. She was murdered by John Lewis, the son of a wealthy North Carolina slaveholder, in 1808. Gibson refers to it as "Omie Wise tuning," and he usually plays...
2020-07-15 13:00:31 +0000 UTC View Post
My banjo is tuned gCGAD relative ( ≈ eAEF#B actual). I learned this song from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. Though most of us learned the piece as "Oma Wise" or "Omie Wise," she is called Naomi Wise in actual historical documents. She was murdered by John Lewis, the son of a wealthy North Carolina slaveholder, in 1808. Gibson refers to it as "Omie Wise tuning," and he usually...
2020-07-14 10:28:03 +0000 UTC View Post