America has managed to make the Banjo an instrument of high art in its traditional music - it even works as an ACCOMPANYING INSTRUMENT to singing
Unfortunately, in Irish music it has become a menace - fine in a noisy session when nobody is really listening, but where you get a group good melody instrumentalists creating together, it's 'short duration' quality destroys the individuality of the playing and turns it into muzak and turns a listening audience into a noisy one - people just stop listening
I say that from a town that thrives on good playing and has produced some of the finest (often described as 'the home of Irish traditional music)
I love the banjo in context (though I can't think of one for the bodhran other than when you run out of turf for the fire!!)
Jim Carroll