Topic: Midland Banjo Fest

[SteveMcBill]

I know this is really a blues forum guys and that most of it is guitar based but I also know there are at least a few banjo players here - so, for those jo'ists who live in the UK or who can make it over here is a note about the Midland Banjo Fest which is held this month (October 2008) near Burton on Trent in the Midlands in the UK:

http://www.midlandbanjofest.com/

Cheers

Steve

[blueshome]

So many banjoes in one place at one time, now there's an opportuniity 

[Parlor Picker]

So many banjoes in one place at one time, now there's an opportuniity 

You bring the petrol and dynamite - I'll bring the matches.... 

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Banjos need a little bit of defending here.  I'd rather hear a banjo, especially with a skin head, than a metal-bodied guitar any day.
all best,
Johnm

[blueshome]

John,

Why try to defend the indefensible?
Plus, a well-played metal guitar CAN sound good, but a banjo - it's still a banjo!

[Mr.OMuck]

This speaks directly to the issue of how'd you come to the Blues? People like JohnM & myself got our entr?e through the Folk music movement of the 1960s and so are probably more amenable to the sound of the Banjo than people who came to country Blues via Chicago Blues, Rock n' Roll, British efforts, or The Allman Brothers.

[banjochris]

Although, oddly, I came to the banjo through British efforts, rock, Chicago blues and then country blues. But I liked Uncle Dave and Dock Boggs the first time I heard them.

[uncle bud]

As someone who covets an open-back skin-head banjo (why be good at one thing when you can be mediocre at so many is my ruling philosophy), I have to agree with JohnM, gotta love the sound of a banjo. Wish I could play like Chris, too (or play at all). But I think the point is moot, as wouldn't the accumulated drool from the assembled banjo pickers offset any attempts at arson?

Happy banjo fest, UK weenies!

[Mr.OMuck]

Although, oddly, I came to the banjo through British efforts, rock, Chicago blues and then country blues. But I liked Uncle Dave and Dock Boggs the first time I heard them.

That sounds like quite an interesting trajectory. Mind elaborating a bit?

[Parlor Picker]

Well, Mr. Blueshome - you started it!! 

[blueshome]

That was the idea PP!

I came to the blues via jazz, R&R and folk. My reading then led me directly into country blues and among my first purchases on LP  were Lightnin Hopkins & Big Joe Williams. Electric came over my horizon a little later. However, from the start I could never get on with the sound of the banjo, perhaps it was the British & Irish players around at the time, as well as the "trad" jazz strummers.

I will confess that I can enjoy any music played well (whatever that means! certainly it's not just about technique) on ANY instrument including the dreaded b****.

[Parlor Picker]

Everything has its place (which might be the dustbin in the case of the b****).

I just think certain instruments don't belong in downhome blues - e.g. saxophone (and b****!!).

I reckon we've gone on enough and should declare this thread closed (at least in terms of b****-knocking).

[uncle bud]

The other night on the radio they interviewed a young lady who plays jazz on the alp horn. 

Banjo is as downhome as it gets!

[lindy]

Once again, it's time for my broken record response to a lot of threads that touch on country blues origins: they are African. The scales we hear in the genre are African. The rhythmic sensibilities are African. And when slaves were brought to North America, they didn't bring knowledge of how to build guitar-like instruments, but how to build banjo-like instruments. And they brought knowledge of how to make all kinds of subtle and beautiful sounds on them.

Highly recommended CD: From Mali to America, featuring Cheick Hamala Diabate (who taught at PT 2006) and Bob Carlin (a frequent teacher at Centrum's Fiddle Tunes workshop). It is sure to give you a new perspective on banjo and banjo-like instruments.

Banjo duet recording that I wish I had: John Miller and Michael Jerome Browne together playing "Pay Day" up in the Juke at PT the year that John took possession of his Jere Canote-built six-string banjo. Made the few hairs I have left on the back of my head stand right up.

One major exception to JohnM's comments of druther hearing a banjo, especially with a skin head, than a metal-bodied guitar any day: when the metal-bodied guitar is in the hands of Mike Dowling.

Lindy

[jeffdelfield]

Another great (and immediate) source of banjo blues can be found here: 

http://www.greatsmokymountains.tv/Frank%20Lee.html

Clawhammer master, Frank Lee, plays - among others - a great slide version of "Dough Roller Blues" on a gourd banjo about 1/3 of the way in.

Enjoy,

Jeff