Plenty of tool marks and heavy use-wear on this outstanding example of early 20th-century Southern folk art! This handmade banjo's only known provenance is a note from the former owner asserting that it was "found in Virginia." Hard pine neck, steam-bent white oak pot, hand-carved walnut friction tuners, and original skin hea...
2020-07-12 16:14:17 +0000 UTC View Post
"Cahouet, coachman, age 24 or 26, height 5 feet, stocky and hunched, great player of the bansa, singer, and engoleur* of the blacks,always at the dances on the plantations. Thosewho have knowledge give notice to M. Linas of Le Cap, to whom he belongs..." - Les AffichesAméricaines, 15 December 1784, ...
2020-07-01 19:07:04 +0000 UTC View Post
f#DF#AD relative (aka "Reuben Tuning") I learned this song from Josh Hayes of Watauga County, North Carolina.
I'll be live with banjos and dogs this evening at 7:00 pm EST: https://youtu.be/MWpwQjUjzQQ
2020-06-22 15:58:36 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGBD relative. I learned this song from George R. Gibson of Knott County Kentucky who learned it from his neighbor Orgis "Grandpa" Hudson (d. 2005). Orgis, who was called "Granpa" or "Gran" by all who knew him, was a prolific banjo songster and dancer. George told me that he never heard Gran play an instrumental piece--he al...
2020-06-17 23:49:10 +0000 UTC View Post
f#DF#AD I learned this song from Watauga County, North Carolina banjo player, Josh Hayes, who can expertly perform any song Frank Proffitt recorded. Hayes actually lived on Beaver Dam Road when I learned this piece from him. My version is closer to his than to Proffitt's:
"Beaver Dam Road"
I've worke...
2020-06-16 02:10:26 +0000 UTC View Post
1880s Lyon & Healy 5-string banjo made in Chicago, Illinois. This example has a 12" pot, 28" scale, original tuners, and most of the original ball-end tension nuts. Ball-end nuts, marketed to "lady" banjoists who advertisers claimed were concerned about clothing snags, seem to have declined quickly in popularity after abo...
2020-06-12 18:58:23 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGBD relative (~fCFAC actual). The subject matter of this song involves repeated trips to 'the whipping post,' something we today rightly associate with the African American experience in this country. I think it's equally important to remember that working-class whites in the Antebellum South were also brutally oppres...
2020-06-05 14:31:53 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGBD relative (fCFAC actual). This song was first printed in 1896 as "I Don't Love Nobody," however, I learned it from a recording of Woody Guthrie titled "I Ain't Got Nobody."
See Elizabeth Cotten and Grandpa Jones for other examples of this piece.
Thanks to Jerron Paxton and Evan Collins for...
2020-06-04 16:51:20 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGBD relative (fCFAC actual). I first learned this song from a recording of Woody Guthrie titled "I Ain't Got Nobody." My late mother (1946-2012) loved Guthrie's music. Whenever I hear his dusty guitar, I think of her side of the family (who were largely sharecroppers/migrant workers from places like Cullman, Alabama and Leb...
2020-05-31 17:12:26 +0000 UTC View Post
In response to numerous requests, here is an addendum to our old "Darling Cora" lesson from a couple of years ago. Back then, I wasn't arranging tableture for lessons and I left out some important details...
(Please let me know what you think in the comments, here or on Youtube.)
2020-05-21 20:53:19 +0000 UTC
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I've long believed that traditional songs are best conveyed by firelight in the outdoors. Looking forward to a time when we might sit around the campfire again, passing the banjo between friends. fCFB♭C A=432 (actual), gDGCD (relative).
Also, I should note that this is a "new banjo!" Months ago, I sh...
2020-05-13 02:52:53 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGCE relative (f# B F# B D# actual) I learned this archaic traditional dance tune from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky who learned it from his father. My instrument is an 1888 Luscomb banjo with Remo frosted, nylgut strings and homemade maple bridge. Look up Rufus Crisp for more on the "double shuffle" techniqu...
2020-05-05 20:38:06 +0000 UTC View Post
f# B F# B D# (A=432 Hz) I learned this tune from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. When George was learning to play banjo in early 1950s, one old timer told him, "There's more music in the first string than in any other string on the banjo." That's certainly true of this archaic version of "Cackling Hen" and many...
2020-04-27 14:46:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Good lefty banjo, possibly by C. Bruno & Sons. It's set up correctly and has no fret buzz. There is 1 or 2 degrees of neck angle--that and the fresh-looking fingerboard tell me this instrument's been restored by a luthier.
Hope everybody's well. More lessons, tabs &c. coming SOON!
2020-04-19 12:46:24 +0000 UTC
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This lower-end English banjo, probably made in the 1890s, exhibits an interesting mix of Old and New World style craftsmanship. It's also surprisingly bright, loud and punchy-sounding! The spun-over bent ash rim probably contributes a lot to its sound. Restored by me with contemporary rosewood tuners, antique maple bridge and...
2020-04-15 18:21:49 +0000 UTC View Post
fA#FA#D actual (gCGCE relative) aka "Open C" or "No-Finger C." I learned this piece from watching George Gibson and listening to a recording of Coy Morton (both banjoists of Knott County, Kentucky). Note that Morton was one of Gibson's many mentors.
2020-04-07 18:06:37 +0000 UTC
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Just finished the latest build today: black walnut neck, red oak pot, deer bone nut, cherry pegs & tailpiece, fiberskyn head, nylon strings courtesy of Bean Sprout Musical Instruments 2020-04-03 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
This is my process for cutting and filing nut slots in any stringed instrument: banjo, guitar, violin, &c. I use a set of StewMac nut saws and a cheap triangular needle file.
2020-04-01 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post
This one went over an hour and we had over 400 people participate! Many thanks to everyone who donated a few bucks (or a few quid) via Youtube's "superchat" payments. I'm sorry that I don't seem able to schedule these things--I never know when I'll have the time & inclination to sit for one.
FYI: I tried to avoid ta...
2020-03-30 02:24:57 +0000 UTC View PostNext post should be the lesson & tab for "Ida Red." In the mean time, a surprise visit from neighbor Bo Wilkey yielded this (timely?) performance of "Tribulations" by E.C. Ball of Rugby, Virginia. Let me know if you'd like a lesson/tab on this one in the future.
Banjo is tuned fA#FA#C (actual), gCGCD (rel...
2020-03-28 22:47:54 +0000 UTC View Post
"Ida Red" (gCGCE relative, f A# F A# D actual) also known as "Down the Road" and sometimes confused with "Cripple Creek." I mostly learned this song from George Gibson (of Knott County, Kentucky) and a recording of Coy Morton (also of Knott County, Kentucky).
Ida red Ida black
Wish I ...
2020-03-24 20:03:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Before we begin, I must note that this is _not_ the most common attachment method that I have observed in antique Kentucky-made mountain banjos. The folk banjos of this region are often "full spike," i.e. the neck runs the entire length of the instrument, terminating at or a little beyond the rim, as seen in early gourd banjo...
2020-03-22 01:16:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a quick time-lapse of how I am carving the backside of banjo necks these days.
On a side note, I do hope everyone is coping with the Corona virus situation. Where we live in the rural Southeast it's pretty quiet.
2020-03-18 19:49:42 +0000 UTC View Post
https://www.boldlife.com/open-tuning/
George Gibso...
Here's the lesson, close-up & tab for "Run Jimmie Run." Please comment here and/or YouTube with any thoughts. Thanks - Clif.
gCGCE relative, f# B F# B E♭ actual. I learned this song from the recording of Florie Stewart on "The Pine Breeze Recordings" (Jubilee Records, Ron Williams et al.). Other sources are Doc Watson & Tom Ashley's "Run Jimmy Run" (https://youtu.be/AaCjGOVmce...
2020-03-03 17:43:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's one way to construct a Kentucky style mountain banjo pot. Note that the two octagon pieces were usually "ripped" (i.e. sawn in profile) by hand, creating two boards from one). The sides of these instruments were usually constructed of 8, 6 or 4 boards mitered and joined together with nails, screws, pegs, or sometimes o...
2020-03-01 21:16:10 +0000 UTC View Post
The photos below offer a glimpse of the most impressive folk and early banjo collection that I have ever seen (and at this point I've seen a few). Please don't ask me its location and please don't share these photos publicly.
<...
2020-02-17 01:59:57 +0000 UTC View Post
