We are told to our faces often that though our quartet is one of the best that has been heard up here, they would like us better if we would "play the Nigger" - their own words - more... every day we are made to understand that if there was less refinement about us and more fool, we would do better... When I have about three persons ask for the [spirituals] and about four score ask that we dance and sing songs which tell of Negroes stealing chickens, I make no pretensions to try to please - Tuskegee Quartet member Isaac Fisher, in a letter to Dr. Booker T. Washington, c. 1900
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:
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
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.
Logged
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)
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.
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!
« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 06:54:54 PM by uncle bud »
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?
Logged
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)
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****.
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.
Must admit I didn't realise I would be stirring up such polarisation with this thread. Glad I did !
I understand wholeheartedly the antipathy to banjo strummers - especially the type you do get in the UK which either accompany jazz bands or are in fact the band themselves - phalanxes of strumming banjos looking set to take over the world with their cacophony and grinning.
BUT, I came into guitar playing from a combination of an interest in ragtime piano and a girlfriend who strummed guitar and sang. From there I moved to playing Country Blues and blues oriented rags (Piedmont style) on guitar followed by arranging some classic piano rags for the instrument.
In banjo terms I have recently (actually for the last 20 years) been intrigued by ragtime fingerpicked on banjo and would point Weenie's at the Classic (not classical) Banjo website at:
Now d'you reckon infamous Big Ben Banjo Band would be an equal to the equally infamous Black and White Monsters both of BBC fame back in the dark ages on the 60's onwards?
Personally I don't mind a banjo especially when played by the likes of Ike Robinson. My introduction to it came via jazz and genuine early type jazz is fine... however, the very British manufactured phenomemememememeum of "Trad Jazz" all but masacred the poor instrument and did damn all for the musac when a guitar would have sounded so much better.
All that said, I am not cancelling my weekly copy of "Banjoey's Monthly" quite yet
« Last Edit: October 09, 2008, 07:45:05 AM by Richard »
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?
Listened to a lot of swing and Andrews Sisters-type stuff as a kid (my grandmother had a bunch of that stuff). Discovered the Beatles in high school, then Cream, Hendrix and Dylan and started working my way back through Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf to Robert Johnson and Son House (and then many others) and liked the older stuff a lot better. From country blues to old-time seemed like a natural progression, so now I play both. Chris