Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST,Sharon McCabe
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 08:52 PM

Not sure why but I decided to google Merlin banjo. My dad made them - Lennard (not Leonard) back in Chicago when I was young. I think I still have one.

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 11:56 PM

Wasn't there a McCabes Music Store in Chicago for a long time??

Art

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST,Sharon McCabe
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 12:23 AM

I do not remember a McCabe's music store back in the day. Wasn't connected to my family

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: Mark Ross
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 02:05 AM

McCabes is in Santa Monica California Art.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST,Ron L
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 04:33 PM

I worked at the Merlin factory on Clark St one summer while I was in high school. I have a long neck with a prototype sliding 5th string capo.

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 08:50 PM

I only played banjo once (played slide on one tuned to DGDG, but I am a musician and historian and am fascinated by the banjo community and the many scenes you folks flowed in and out of...I'm interested in how mixed blues bands started playing to mixed audiences here in Chicago...the integrated Blue Note (closed in 1960) brought mixed couples to the Loop...black and whites were seated at separate tables at Chez Paree at that time...mixed folk groups and Dizieland Bands are part of this too...New York's famous jazz scene was real Jim Crow for years...I'll be talking to Earl P and his partner Chris about their years at the Old Town Gate (1529 Wells I think next to Chances R sez Earl)"Dixieland 8 Nights a week" the billboards said!It sure seems like Mike Bloomfield was not part of this banjo clique, he started on acoustic because his wife Susan was a fol;kie...like Dylan Mike started on electric and then went acoustic! I'm also real interested in The Fret Shop in Hyde Park.

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 08:04 PM

Refreshing, for yesterday's GUEST.

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: wordfella
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 12:25 PM

Refreshing, because the thread deserves it.

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST,Scott Newell
Date: 10 Mar 12 - 12:43 PM

Bill Malloy, one of the inventors of the Merlin banjo and a member of the New Wine Singers, died February 3, 2012, near Cleveland, OH.

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 06:27 PM

Hello Art, really enjoy your posts, especially those dealing with the New Wine Singers, of which I was a founding member. Stay well, Bob Connelly

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 13 - 10:49 PM

Does anyone remember seeing Tommy Makem at the Quiet Knight in about 1972? He was alone without the Clancy Brothers.
O

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST,Adam Cochran
Date: 12 Jun 13 - 12:53 AM

I found this site by accident, and remember so many of the people mentioned. John Brown, John Carbo, Guy Guilbert, Art Theime, and after working at Mother Blues with the Eastgate Singers (5-string banjo and guitar) I worked at the Merlin Banjo Company stamping parts and assemling banjos before starting at the Red Garter and working there on 4-string for many years before finishing law school. I am now Associate General Counsel at Caltech in Pasadena. I miss those days in Old Town.

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo (and the Chicago Folk Scene)
From: GUEST,Tim
Date: 24 Aug 22 - 10:59 AM

Got a Merlin Banjo -- what's the chance it was Bill Malloy's.. It shows sign that a pro owned it.

https://reverb.com/item/49611811-merlin-folk-style-banjo-1963-bronze-rosewood