your favourite banjo player

Subject: your favourite banjo player
From: number 6
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:26 PM

This is a post to express some accolades for your favourite banjo players.

My hat goes off to John Hartford!

sIx

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JedMarum
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:35 PM

Art Thieme!

Enough style and class to be a first rate player - enough simplicity and taste to be interesting and NOT flashy.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: number 6
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:38 PM

Jed ... I've never had the pleasure of hearing Art. What you expressed are the same reasons I like the late John Hartford. That is one problem with the banjo, too many players get wrapped up in the flashy, shredding in the playing.

sIx

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JedMarum
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:41 PM

I must admit, I love John Hartford too.

Art is a bit more earthy - and it suits his music beautifully.

John has the very refined gift of making the complex sound smooth.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:44 PM

I always loved Derrol Adams banjo style.
Giok

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: number 6
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:44 PM

"John has the very refined gift of making the complex sound smooth".

Exactly ... well said Jed!

thanks,
sIx

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:45 PM

Barney McKenna of the Dubliners.
That said, I love any banjo played well.

Allen

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: jimmyt
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:52 PM

coolhand tom! without a doubt, my favorite banjo player in Devon.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Leadfingers
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 02:59 PM

Being an old Jazz man , I am not really in to these bluegrassy/folkie banjos players so I will opt for Arie Ligthart ( Dutch Swing College) and Harper Goff ( Firehouse Five). Just wish I could play Jazz banjo properly !

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 03:02 PM

I have said this before. When Jed Marum plays his banjo (or guitar, for that matter) I feel as if I am intruding on a very private moment. He makes love to it. And the banjo responds lovingly.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: fat B****rd
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 03:03 PM

Being a rock'n'roller/jazzer/ rhythm'n'blueser I'm not that familiar with banjo pickers, but I thought the bloke who played on the Deliverance soundtrack was pretty good. David Weissberg ??

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Megan L
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 03:04 PM

my dad, to be honest he was probably a pretty rough player but kids are allowed to think thier dad was the greatest.

Hes gone now and after so long even the memories are bgining to fade but heck tune her up and one last tune.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 03:19 PM

I'd add Tommy Keenan, the great Paddy's late brother to the list.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Mooh
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 04:41 PM

That would be Bela Fleck. Pretty cool multiple genre 5 string player.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: thespionage
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 04:44 PM

Dave Sear.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Sam Pirt
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 04:51 PM

Bela Fleck, the guy is a genius!!!

Sam

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: pdq
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 04:55 PM

Bob Yellin from the Greenbriar Boys. He has not recorded much since 1966, but still sounds more advanced than most of the "progresive" banjo players.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 05:32 PM

Earl Scruggs. John McEuen. Two great musicians who also have some damned fine son musicians.

k

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Little Robyn
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 05:34 PM

Geoff Freed playing classical stuff on Black-tie Banjo, Paul Trenwith (Hamilton County Bluegrass Band) for Scuggs style but Tony Ellis for quiet, Appalachian tunes and songs. It depends on your mood at the time, I guess.
Robyn

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Mark Ross
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 06:15 PM

It was Eric Weissberg who recorded DUELING BANJOS for the movie Deliverance. Steve Wade gets my vote as my favorite Banjo player, although he's still alive(at least I talked to him the other day).
But my all time favorite is still Uncle Dave Macon.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 06:47 PM

For a real banjo treat, click HERE to read about and listen to Michael J. Miles, in Chicagoland.

He's a clawhammerer, not a Bluegrasser, but you wouldn't believe what he can do--not only with folk music, but with classical music like some of the most rarefied Bach, and his own "classical" compositions. You can listen--and I really recommend that you do--to his Live-Recorded Kennedy Center concert.

He blows me away whenever I return to listen to him.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 06:57 PM

Charlie Poole, thank you. You could set your watch by his timing.

Jerry

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Vega Gibson
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 07:15 PM

For bluegrass, I'd have to say J.D. Crowe is my fave. Bill Keith, Eric Weissberg and Bob Yellin are just about as good.

John Hartford was a great player but what I loved about him was the way his music was so quirky, whether he was playing banjo, guitar or fiddle.

From an all around technical standpoint, the best is probably Tony Trischka, the guy who taught Bela Fleck much of what he knows.

The banjo player I listen to more than anyone, though, is Pete Seeger. He's probably underrated when we think of who the best is, but he's probably influenced more people than anyone to play the banjo.

I learned how to play from his book, How To Play The 5-String Banjo. So, for that matter, did Tony Trischka.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 07:16 PM

For current banjo players, Cathy Barton of Boonville, Missourri has to be my favorite. She's a clean picker with nary a note too many.

Jerry

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Mappa Mundi
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 07:16 PM

The BIG Banjo player from;- "Bluegrass etc", Stunning!!!! (Ironbridge 1996 vid)(get/borrow it if you can) their guitarist has 21 fingers on his left hand - well, it SOUNDS as though he does!

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 07:48 PM

I always liked Pete Seeger. Very versatile and intelligent

I used to wonder why more of the techniques he used you didn't hear many other people use.

That 6/8 thing he used to do the Irish Washerwoman with - you never actually hear an Irish band use that although it sounds very good.

That version of Blue Skies on the Goofing Off Suite - you don't hear many people do that.

Finally I loved his understanding of accompaniment - all that fretless slidey stuff.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Mooh
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 07:58 PM

More lately I've enjoyed clawhammer, Ken Perlman, Chris Coole, Arnie Naiman. I love bluegrass, but bluegrass banjo doesn't turn me on as much as clawhammer.

Hugely maligned instrument in my opinion.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Frankham
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 08:01 PM

There are so many. Some who have not been mentioned yet:

Reed Martin.
A great innovative and creative clawhammer player from Cabin John Maryland.

Perry Bechtel
was a great plectrum player from Georgia.

Buddy Wachter
Accomplished plectrum and tenor banjo virtuoso.

Cynthia Sayer
Plectrum banjo player from New York City

Elmer Snowden
A great jazz banjo player who lead the original Washingtonians before they were taken over by Duke Ellington

Don Vappie
A great jazz banjo revivalist.

Erik Darling
True Religion on Vanguard records

Laura Boosinger
A great revivalist OT player

Barney McKenna has been mentioned but there is
Gerry O'Connor for Irish.

Johnny St. Cyr
Jazz banjoist with the Hot Five and Louis Armstrong

Lawrence Moreiro
Trad jazz banjoist with Bunk Johnson

Billy Faier
A legend among banjo players

Bill Keith
Innovative bluegrass player who adatped a "conjunct melody" style of playing.

David Holt
Traditional revivalist for OT

Taj Mahal
A great traditional revivalist with a unique sound.
Check out the score for the movie "Sounder".

George Grove
Tasteful player with the new Kingston Trio.

Dave Guard
Was innovative with the Kingston Trio

Fleming Brown
Traditional revivalist from Chicago and the mentor for
Stephen Wade

Frank Lee
Traditional revivalist with the Freight Hoppers

Barry Hall from Canada

Mike Pinagtore
Tenor banjoist with Paul Whiteman Orchestra

Harry Reser
Tenor solist with the Cliquot Eskimos

Van Eps and Ossman
A great duo from the early nineteen hundreds who
did Ragtime pieces finger-style.

Tim Allan from Canada
Tenor banjo solist

Mike Seeger and Tom Paley
with the New Lost City Ramblers

Narvin Campbell
Jazz trad with Preservation Hall Jazz Band


Tommy Jarrell, Kyle Creed, Fred Cockerham
Round Peak style players

Trad players:
1. Wade Ward
2. Pete Steele
3. Obray Ramsay
4. Roscoe Holcomb
5. Cousin Emmy
6. Lily Mae Ledford (of the Coon Creek Girls)
7. Stringbean

And here's a couple that you've never heard of but they are damned fine banjo pickers.

Arkansas Red from Eureka Springs, Arkansas

And

My friend and mentor Bill Rutan who I think is one of the finest tenor banjo players in the country.

And this is just the tip of the proverbial banjo iceberg.

From a guy who loves the banjo,

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Severn
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 08:08 PM

I always enjoyed hearing Don Stover. He could fit in playing with any band or with strangers on short notice and bring taste and understated professionalism into any situation and rescue things if they started to go bad.

Macon, Poole, Dock Boggs, Mike Seeger and Tommy Thompson for old timey stuff

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JedMarum
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 09:06 PM

oh, yeah Chris Coole! I love Chris Coole ... this is an elegant player, if you can use that word for old time styles ... real nice touch ...

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 10:35 PM

Ralph Stanley.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 11:07 PM

Uncle Dave Macon, Stringbean, and Buckmiller Shannon for those who have passed on. Currently, Cathy Barton. There are a number of other really good pickers mentioned above. My tastes run to the clawhammer style, so that's the way this list reads.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: number 6
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 11:22 PM

No mention of Doug Dillard. I'll put the plug in for him.

sIx

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 02:55 AM

Le Scaramouche, it's the late Johnny Keenan who was Paddy's brother,
incidently the whole family were great musicians.

What about Leroy Troy, he can do things with a banjo that haven't been invented yet.

eric

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Ernest
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 03:25 AM

Everyone I really like has been mentioned before: Barney McKenna for tenor, Dock Boggs, Derroll Adams, Pete Seeger for 5-string.
Apologies to those I can`t mention because I haven`t heard them yet.
Best
Ernest

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Stu
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 03:49 AM

Sully, (Tony Sullivan).

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 03:50 AM

Bloke at our local session... Terry Parnell. I like him because he gave up banjo for the fiddle!! *BG*

LTS

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Sooz
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 04:06 AM

Tom Napper

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 04:50 AM

Earl Scruggs, without a doubt, and the guy (whose name I've forgotten) who used to duo with him.

All the technique, and flash, without every sounding flashy. He was the one that made the banjo SING.

Don T.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 04:51 AM

Something just went "click" in my head.

Wasn't that ELMER Scruggs?

Don T.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: freda underhill
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 05:05 AM

Del McCoury ..

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JennyO
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 05:42 AM

Don, that was Lester Flatt who used to play with Earl Scruggs, wasn't it?

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 06:19 AM

Earl Scruugs brother was called Junie, he too was a superb banjoist.

eric

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 06:54 AM

Oops, you are quite right, Paddy's brother is Johnny.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: number 6
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 08:11 AM

Del McCoury ?????

Thanks for the posts ... there are many names that have been posted that I am unaware of and will certainly look them up. I'm also interested in knowing some names of the great New Orleans tenor banjo players.

much appreciated everyone!

sIx

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Severn
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 08:47 AM

When Scruggs used to do a duet number spotlight every set in the old days, it was with Paul Warren, The Foggy Mountain Boys' great breakdown fiddler.



Severn

Subject: To Freda Underhill
From: GUEST,Rob McCoury
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 11:28 AM

To Freda Underhill:

Del McCoury is my dad. He's a guitar player. I play the banjo in his band.

Rob McCoury

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: breezy
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 11:55 AM

Must admit to not having had much banjo at our club though Moses has impressed us with her attempts and could go further

That Del Mc version of R T's Vincent is very comunicative.I like it and it was on Folk on 2 recently

I heard Ralph Stanley and was most impressed

Locally I admire Derek Brimstone who is most entertaining and charming

leadfingers ,you are right, we all wish you could play

The word frayling has not emerged, is that what you guys call clawhammer? cos it aint that for me.

Pete Seeger did it good

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Big Mick
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 11:57 AM

I'm with Jed on this one. Chris Coole is an absolute wonder. Listen to him on Rick Fielding's version of "High On A Mountain". He demonstrates the real mark of a master, that is he takes a simple riff and fills it with perfect yet simple adornment. The result ..... a stunning performance, elegant yet simple. And don't worry, when it's time to go like hell, he can do that too.

And Jed is no slouch either. How the hell did a hack like me get so lucky as to know these people? Oh   ......   Yeah ..... it was the Mudcat.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: akenaton
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 12:30 PM

Although Martin Simpson is better known for his virtuoso guitar , I've heard him play dance music on the banjo and it was great.
"Shoot the turkey buzzard" was one of the tunes, cant remember the names of the others....Ake

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: number 6
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 02:57 PM

Thanks Rob for straightening that out with Freda.

BTW ... say hi to your dad for me!

sIx

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 03:04 PM

Del McCoury was a banjo player. He was hired by Bill Monroe to play banjo, but then Bill found Bill Keith (or vice-versa) and Del swtiched to Guitar.

J.D. Crowe is an absolute master of Back up Bluegrass banjo.

Kenny Ingram is another of my favourites.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Tradsinger
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 04:09 PM

For old timey style, Reed Martin gets my vote. Dwight Diller and Sheila Kay Adams should get honourable mentions.

For English style, I've heard no-one better than Rod Murch.

Gwilym

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 04:40 PM

It's a long time ago, Jenny-O, but I believe you're right.

They were absolutely magic together.

Don T.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Lutz Eikelmann
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 04:57 PM

1. Peter"Banjo"Meyer, Germany
2. Lonnie Donegan, UK
3. Udo Jägers, Germany
4. Sean Moyses, UK
5. Manfred Möhl, Germany
6. Emanuel Sayles, USA
7. Johnny St.Cyr, USA
8. Harry Reser, USA

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 05:32 PM

Breezy said:

The word frayling has not emerged, is that what you guys call clawhammer? cos it aint that for me.

Pete Seeger did it good

I'm not QUITE sure what you mean by the above, but I'll say that Pete Seeger did/does not normally do either frailing or clawhammer. He did/does a three-finger up-pick, which he calls "the basic strum".

I agree, however, "Pete did it good", whatever "it" is. Wonderful stylistic judgment, as well as facility.

The difference between frailing and clawhammer (for those who will admit there is ANY difference) is that clawhammer tends to make a lot more use of double-thumbing, drop-thumbing, hammer-ons, and pull-offs, with less reliance on the continual sounding of the thumb-string.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Enderby
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 08:21 PM

Barney Mc Kenna

The ultimate version of 'The Mason's Apron' on any instrument.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 08:26 PM

Brian Taheny, who plays anything with strings and frets but is a particular genius on the tenor banjo.

Bela Fleck, a flat-out musical genius who has taken the banjo sound into so many imaginative directions.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: kendall
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 08:30 PM

Too many to name, including Jed Marum, Art Thieme, Cathy Barton, Frank Shaw, Pete Seeger, and probably my all time favorite, Granpa Jones.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 10:06 PM

I think one of my favorites was/is the late wild man named PAT DUNFORD. His was an old-timey frailed mountain style mostly. Pure taste--with a great love for the traditions.

Art Rosenbaum is a great artist with a banjo I've always felt. His "Texas Rangers" picked mt. style is just about perfect.

Obray Ramsey too. He blended Scruggs and old-timey.

Bascon Lamar Lunsford--in his very own unique way.

Pete Seeger has always been an ispiration and a mentor for me.

And hanging out with John Hartford on the Mississippi River for ten years drove home for me what a true musical genius he was. The garlic and the dental floss etc. etc. aside, John could've blown his audiences away playing his banjo faster and with more notes than anyone ever had or did before in every set he ever did. But he usually CHOSE not to do that! He adopted the simpler way, because he could convey and transmit his love of things river-related better by being subtle.

And Grandpa Jones will always be in my list of favorites. He took an hour or two out before one of his shows to correct some of what he could easily hear I was doing wrong when, as a 24 year old Chicago kid, I wasn't rapping/knocking/frailing the banjo right.

Thanks for some of your kind words here. My style, though, was backup---for my singing--on banjo and guitar. I was usually telling a musical tale of sorts--so I wanted the words to get pushed forward by my banjo playing. I did what I could; put bits and pieces I picked up from unknowns and also several of those mentioned in this thread, and hanging here at Mudcat. I put it together in a way that definitely wasn't copying anyone exactly---because I wasn't able (talented enough) to do that. Limited to what I could do, and spurred on by what I wanted to do and say, I wound up inventing my own cliches. That gave me a pretty basic, even somewhat recognizable STYLE of my own. (What is a personal style other than inventing and using your own cliches in your own way---either by musical design, or because of various and sundry musical limitations and/or talents?)

I loved the banjo equal to the guitar. It always calmed me to pick it up and fool with it. I say that even though it wasn't as versatile as the guitar. (You could learn 3 or 4 chords on a guitar and backup anything. OR you could study it your whole life, like Segovia or Tal Farlow, and end up not having learned the half of it.) But what an advanture it was/is!

Now you know some of why I wrote on my banjo head, "This Machine Kills Time!!"---------- That's exactly what I did with it.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 10:52 PM

For Irish Tenor - Mick Moloney, Barney McKenna, Martin Murray.
For 5 -String - Chris Grotewohl.

Seamus

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Susan A-R
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 10:58 PM

I'm pretty partial to Bela's playing, he's taken the instrument way beyond the usual, and usually I like it a lot. I've also just come off a week of listening to the beautiful, clean playing of Ken Perlman. Nice clawhammer style, and also great finger style guitar and banjo. Heard him in a late night jam playing melody lines with Sandy MacIntyre on Cape Breton tunes. Sandy's not a slow player and Ken made it sound simple and didn't give it a frenetic feel. I was awe-struck.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 06:28 AM

How come everybody forgot ol' Louis Marshall (Grandpa) Jones?
Pete Stanley, too.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 07:04 AM

Too many to mention, but ...

Great players from the US have to include for me Bela Fleck, Bill Keith, Tony Trischka, Bobby Thompson, Butch Robbins, Pat Cloud, Tony Furtado.

In the UK I love to hear Garry Finlayson (shooglenifty) and the man who plays very tastefully on a number of Rory MacLeod's albums (whose names totally escapes for the moment - help!).

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Songsmith
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 07:43 AM

How about young Mr. Podolak of the Duhks...

Jim

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 07:55 AM

Guest Greycap, I didn't forget Granpa Jones.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Arnie
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 08:25 AM

Some of the Living: Walt Koken, Michael Cooney, Mike Seeger, Bertram Levy, Bob Carlin and my buddies Chris Coole, Chris Quinn, Brian Taheny
Some of the dead: Charlie Poole, Dave Macon, Dock Boggs, Fred Cockerham, John Hartford
Arnie

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: woodsie
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 08:33 AM

Jerry Garcia was pretty good although famous as a guitarist, he started out on bamjo.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JennyO
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 09:56 AM

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs performed "The Ballad of Jed Clampett on "The Beverly Hillbillies", and sometimes appeared in the show doing the occasional guest spot.

I also remember seeing Maybelle Carter playing autoharp on the show too, but that's probably material for another thread.

Jenny

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GLoux
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 10:13 AM

Arnie's list is a great start on my list of favorites, except he's on it, too. I was hoping someone would mention Walt Koken.

I have to add Pete Peterson (for channelling Charlie Poole), Joe Newberry, Ray Alden, Paul Sidlick, Richie Stearns, Nancy Sluys, Diane Jones, Reed Martin, Marvin Gaster, Paul Brown, and there are still more, but I'll stop here.

-Greg

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 10:19 AM

Oh, not my favorite but very close to it, is Billy Connolly.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JedMarum
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 10:25 AM

Yes - Mick Moloney for Irish Tenor - a very fine, very precise player.

Seamus were you with me at the North Texas Irish Festival when Mick was playing? I think you and Ed and I were there as the show was about to begin - but the poor, unskilled bastard at the console was struggling with continuous squeels and screetches of feed-back. Mick and his large entourage were sitting, cross armed, and fed up with this nonesense - and after 15 minutes of grief, finally the accordian player spoke up to the man at the console - and said over his microphone for all the world to hear, "so when did you go deaf?"

I wanted to crawl on the floor for the poor sound man - but I'm afraid he deserved it. He had no business running the console for a show like that.

... anayway - sorry for the thread creep.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 11:04 AM

Burt Reynolds

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JedMarum
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 11:06 AM

steve martin

;-)

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 12:20 PM

Wade Ward. But I can't list a favorite banjo player without acknowledging Pete Seeger, too.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Gern
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 12:50 PM

I can't resist a thread like this. One of the best I ever heard was Jens Kruger of the Kruger Brothers. This is a blugrass-ish act from Switzerland that has found enthusiastic audiences in America. Jens can give you fast and crisp bluegrass banjo, very fluent clawhammer and bursts of classical music thrown in with a sense of humor. Don't miss him if you get the chance. Otherwise, depnding on the type of banjo I'm in the mood for, I especially like Grandpa Jones, J. D. Crowe, Uncle Dave Macon, Frank Lee (formerly of the Freight Hoppers), Leroy Troy and Tommy Jarrell. Although I don't usually follow what he's up to, I know no more dextrous banjo player than Bela Fleck.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Arnie
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:16 PM

Oh ya more- Living: Dan Gellert, Molly Tennenbaum, Kathy Fink

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:19 PM

Kathy Fink has a nice touch. Met her at Jacob's Ladder about 10 years ago. Didn't she learn from the Seegers?

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve-o
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:29 PM

Gene Parsons of the "Stringbender" device for guitars is a very tasteful banjo player.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: 12string growler
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:37 PM

My fave banjo pluckeris none other than Mudact's own Banjo Flower.
Arthritic fingers, but he does his best. You should see the amazing artwork on his banjo, it's a joy to behold, and it's even signed by the artist. M Gott 1988.

Chris

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:53 PM

Guy Wolff and Geoff the Duck

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,bodhran bliss
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 05:25 PM

Mickey Maguire from Crumlin in N.Ireland. A one man aggressive session on the tenor.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Scoville
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 11:05 PM

my friend Amber

and Tommy Thompson (Red Clay Ramblers)

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 12:46 AM

Yeah, Jed I was there with you for that fiasco. However, Chris Newman and Maire Ni Chasathaigh more than made up for it.
That's also where I met Chris Grotewohl. He fingerpicks Irish tunes on a 5-string, standard G tuning, and you'd swear it was a tenor. Amazing!

Seamus

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: JudyB
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 10:29 AM

I must confess that my favorite banjo player is Charlie Ipcar (better known around these parts as Charley Noble). Of course, he's my favorite in a lot of categories!

Doing the type of intense listening that's required when we recorded and mastered his CD made me aware of the many different ways of playing he has and led me to see that playing a banjo well is a lot more complicated than I had realized.

    JudyB

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 10:49 AM

Dave Landreth from here in Illinois does wonderful old -timey banjo, but on a fretless banjo. There is a fine CD out that highlights his music.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 10:53 AM

Fretless banjo sounds fascinating, is it a bit like Eastern European instruments?

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: MissouriMud
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 12:15 PM

Landreth plays great with frets too - very fast and accurate frailing. We have a lot of top notch old time banjo players in the St Louis area including Dave, Jeff Miller and Andy Gribble. Not much national market for the cd's so unless you go to major Appalachian or Ozark music festivals you dont hear of them much out of the area.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 05:14 PM

Mike Seeger was mentioned once (by Frank Hamilton, how are ya Frank?) but for me, and who am I, right? I feel closest to Uncle Dave Macon, The Dixie Dewdrop.

And for real live players Mike Seeger cannot be beat (though Cathy Barton comes close) I have been following Mike's music since the first New Lost City Ramblers and His recent CD, Southern Banjo Sounds, demonstrates that he has only improved with age. He can play any of the styles associated with the Five (or six or seven or nine) string banjo and knows the music better than anyone I have ever met.

Bela Fleck is "interesting" but I don't feel a connection to either him or his music as I do with Macon or Mike S.

For sweet, simple old timey claw hammer, listen, also, to Gail Fratar from out in California.

When I play, these people, even Bela Fleck, are listening over my shoulder and I try to play in a fashion that is worthy of them.

But the banjoist who truly influenced me the most is Peter Stampfel. In a very direct way. When ever I'd get a chance to hear him, in various Milwaukee coffee houses and once or twice in the 'village', I'd realize that playing the banjo is quite a lot of FUN! as well as musically entertaining. Thanks Pete. My daughter has your book now.

And last, but not least, my old friend Ken Haferman who played a real nice fretless.

TJM

coyote breath without his cookie

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 05:25 PM

Cookie back!!

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 07:39 PM

Tom, I knew you were back. I can recognize the fetid aroma of coyote breath from a long way off.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Fozzie.
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 08:30 PM

Kermit The Frog.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 09:13 PM

A lot of the people mentioned can be seen performing here.

Woodsongs Archives

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 10:16 PM

All respect to the many banjoo players I have never heard; but my own favorite is our own Banjoest, a.k.a Hugh. He's effortless and amazing and sensitive as hell.

A

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 11:19 PM

Amos,

Yeah, sensitive is the first word that leapt into my mind. LOL.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST, Banjoest
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 02:06 AM

Hey, I'm sensitive! LOL

Thank you Amos, with your guitar playing and your voice, I can't help but play well. I'm lookng to a park jam real soon. I kinda got the wind knocked out of me with the death of Bobby Thompson. Friday my niece and nephew's grandmother (On their fathers side) passed away and we layed her to rest today. Then today Bobby's wife asked me to help her with a script for Bobby's head stone and it made my heart ache. It's been a bad two months but I'm ready to pick!

My favourite banjoist are and not in any order,

Earl Scruggs, John McEuen, Bobby Thompson, Ralph Stanly, Bobby Thompson and Steve Latimer, whom I've never heard play...I just like the guy.

H.W.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 05:05 AM

Merion Wood who plays with Kickin' Alice our local appalachian steppers.

Nuff said.

Sal

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 05:37 AM

Kermit? Isn't ukelele his thing?

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 06:02 AM

Interesting that the much maligned banjo should get to so many posts so quickly !

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 06:03 AM

Like `100`

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 06:06 AM

You're up early for a banjo player!

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 06:48 AM

The problem with many banjo players is, they are constantly tuning. And there are some who wait until they are on stage before they even START to tune. Makes me want to leave.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 06:48 AM

Hey Hugh,

There's a reason that you've never heard me play. It would shatter all allusions that I'm a banjo player. Sorry to hear of your troubles of late. Man, a headstone for Bobby. I hope she has a big piece of Granite, there is so much you could say.

I have heard Hugh play and he is a Banjoist.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 07:32 AM

There is an excellent CD called "The Banjo Special" that features three of the gentelmen mentioned here, Arnie Naiman and Chris Coole playing Clawhammer, Brian Taheny playing Irish on a tenor plus Chris Quinn playing Bluegrass. Chris Quinn hasn't been mentioned yet, but he is the best Bluegrass player that I have seen perform. He was one of Rick Fielding's favourites. This is a very, very good CD and shows just how versatile a drum on a stick can be.

The Banjo Special

I forgot to mention Taj Mahal as another one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 08:59 AM

Somebody gotta speak up for the oldtimers.

Dock Boggs for a wonderfully loopy, loose 2-finger style. Also Charlie Poole's "baseball finger" style, which was 3 fingers but sounded like two.

Best ensemble: Charlie Poole.

Banjo duet: can there be anything more beautiful than Da Costa Woltz and Frank Jenkins on "Sweet Sunny South?"

Songster: Uncle Dave Macon, hands down.

Black banjo picker: jury's out on this. Dink Roberts? John Snipes? My personal favorite is Clarence Frost.

3-finger pre-Scruggs: Charlie Parker of North Carolina's Parker & Woolbright, circa 1928, too rarely heard.

Frailing: tough to beat Tom Ashley on "Coo Coo Bird" and Walter Williams of Salyersville, Ky (Lib. Congress original on Rounder and Pete Seeger's source) on "East Virginia."

Check out Morgan Sexton too for some good sounds.

Bluegrass: Not a very original choice, but it's hard to get around the originals, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley.

modern: Pete Seeger, basing his style on Bascom Lamar Lunsford and branching out from there, did some terrific things. His Darling Corey is still a model of good clean sweet playing. He can still be one of our best traditional-revival pickers when he feels like it. Sister Peggy and brother Mike, of course, are masters of the older styles when not doing other things, but I can't pick out any one standout piece.

And, finally, Vess Ossman for the best, most fun classical banjo pickin ever.

All this off the top o me head. Heaven forbid I should start clocking my way through my record collection!

In general, a good many more contemporary banjo players miss, I think, the lilt and the construction of sound in space, a talent the older players had before lightning speed and sheer technique turned the banjo into a showpiece instrument.

Bob

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 09:44 AM

Clarence Ashley did a beautiful House Carpenter.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Arnie
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 02:20 PM

B.F. Shelton did a nice Darlin Cora

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 03:13 PM

Tommy Mcmanamon. Pogue turned Pope.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,DannyC
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 09:09 AM

Oyrish Tenor - Peter Fitzgerald

'Murikun - Raymond McLain & Mike Munford

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,DannyC
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 09:10 AM

one more 'Murikun - Walter Hensley

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 09:12 AM

What, no furrners?

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,DannyC
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 09:21 AM

Fitzgerald's from Navan, Co Meath

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: ard mhacha
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 02:00 PM

For Bluegrass, Greengrass or kiss me ass in Scarva, the one and only Barney McKenna.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 05:48 PM

Some greats already mentioned. There are others. Look up Roger Sprung and listen to him. He's pretty darn good. Also a fella (last)name of Barnes, used to be in Austin, Tx., then moved to Seattle. Did soooo terrific on old-timey; did the music for a movie about some robbers in Texas (who only stole out-of-state) and were related. I hear he moved more into jazz after going to Seattle. Also a guy who used to work around Austin in a group called the LOST AUSTIN BAND, name of John Clay. They did some records. Barnes worked with a group called BARNBURNERS and they have some recordings. Sprung's group (name escapes me right now) also did some recordings.      Tw

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 06:37 PM

Tannywheeler,

Is that Danny Barnes that you are referring to? Used to be in the Bad Livers.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 07:14 PM

The very one. But he also did a group for a while called the Barnburners. I think some of the same personnel. It kinda blows the mind--someone's better than perfect, if he keeps playing he just keeps getting better, but HOW can you get better than...??????? Tw

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 07:55 PM

Tannywheeler,

He was featured in Banjo Newsletter recently. I still have not heard him play, but I know people who rave about him. The Bad Livers played here quite some time ago (Mid-Nineties?). I had read about the stuff that they played. I wanted to go, but had something else already booked. What I will say is that they are all better than me, but I'm off to practice now.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Franz S.
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 11:45 PM

Mel Lyman was probably not a great banjo player, but he got me started. taught me a lot of stuff, and introduced me to Obray Ramsey and Bascom Lamar Lunsford. How can you beat that?

Forty-some years ago I was 3,000 miles from home and getting ready to climb aboard a westbound, but I decided to give it one more chance. I walked into the student union at Bowdoin College with my banjo and vowed to play untl someone came along and said howdy. That someone was Charlie Ipcar (Noble), and I will always be grateful.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Jun 05 - 12:59 AM

I spent several minutes yesterday typing up a post explaining why I like Mark Johnson's "clawgrass" style so much. It must have fallen into a post-hole. Well, I'm not typing the whole thing up again.

Mark Johnson. I like him.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,BANJOMAN
Date: 24 Jun 05 - 06:20 AM

Me

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 24 Jun 05 - 06:27 AM

Ken Perlman!

God dont tell anyone I said that I like Banjo players!

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 26 Jun 05 - 06:38 AM

Tenor: Barney McKenna. Five-string: Bob Yellin. (Barney for bluegrass ard? Still, it saves me from having to agree with you 100 per cent!)

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,DannyC
Date: 26 Jun 05 - 10:15 AM

'Nudder Oyrish - very precise and respectful style

tidy as a tick - she's a new'un on my list

the young and beautiful Angelina Carberry

(kept me awake out of the dashboard for the latter portion of my two hour return trip from a solo croon last night)

shoulda mentioned her right away

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Nellie Clatt
Date: 26 Jun 05 - 10:26 AM

Barney McKenna is your man on the tenor banjo, some bugger from America is best on the five string.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Mrs Miggins
Date: 26 Jun 05 - 10:27 AM

I've never heard a banjo player that I didn't like.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,DannyC
Date: 26 Jun 05 - 02:23 PM

Private note for Mrs. Miggins:

ok, the bridge
or someplace later

with discretion - yours,

danny

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Mrs Miggins
Date: 27 Jun 05 - 12:32 AM

Ooh you cheeky monkey, what would my old man say ?

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 05:45 AM

The name I couldn't remember in my earlier post is Paul Rodden - it's been bugging me for a week, but I finally remembered.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Chip Arnold
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 11:11 AM

Will Keys http://www.willkeys.com/index.html
for Old Time 2-finger style. Has nobody heard him? Check his site and listen to him.
Tom Sauber, Laura Boosinger, Bob Buckingham, Brad Leftwich, Dan Levenson, many more.

Chip

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,BexMcK
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 04:08 PM

My uncle Ray Frank ain't a bad old timey banjer picker... I love his version of The Cuckoo Bird.

Bela, of course, for sheer banjo cheekiness-- 'Overgrown Waltz' from The Bluegrass Sessions is the only banjo tune that has ever actually made me weep.

And on tenor, it would have to be Gerry O'Connor.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Skipy
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 04:19 PM

Leadfingers -------------- but without the banjo & just because I like the bloke!
Skipy

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 09:54 PM

The banjo pickers I listened to most closely were Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Obray Ramsey and Billy Frair. I was never terribly interested in bluegrass picking but then I was never terribly good at that style of picking. Pete in his GOOFING OFF SUITE impreseed me with the many different styles of banjo playing one could do, and it was the same with Billy Frair. I still play several of their more exotic tunes. Peggy and Obray were more traditional old time style and I eventually decided I was more comfortable playing those tunes.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 10:14 PM

I was glad to see someone finaly said Clarence Tom Ashley .
For me Clarence is at the top of my list . His power is unforgetable..i love Liily May Ledford's drive in her playing . Banjo Ray woke me up to Tommy Jerrel ; amazing . Unc Dave Macon is on a plain of his own as well . Frank Proffit is on the same level as everyone above.!! .

Buegrass I like Mr Stanley and Billy Keath and my old frienf Gordon Titcomb who is touring with Arlo Guthrie at the moment.. I always liked how clean Don Reno's playing was as well ( he had the cleanest white boots I ever saw on stage to boot) ( sorry)

All the best , Guy

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 10:18 PM

Oh and thanks Mrs Duck !! Quack . Your friend Guy

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Jimmy C
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 11:21 PM

4 string tenor - Barney McKenna

5 string - Steve Martin and a host of others.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: DonMeixner
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 11:48 PM

Barney McKenna on the tenor, probably the best in the world.

On the 5 is tough: Steve Martin is excellent, Rick Fielding was the best I ever sat across a table from while my own banjo was played before my envying eyes. Art Thieme has the style I wish I had. But my favorite is Howard Bursen, with out a doubt.

Don

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: harpgirl
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 11:52 PM

Art Thime and Frank Lindamood

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: woodsie
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 12:18 AM

Ban jovi?

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,kaw0703
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:59 PM

Hands down, Don Vappie. Excellent, excellent player and performer. I have yet to meet anyone that isn't awestruck by his performance. Won't pass up the opportunity to see him play, anywhere, anytime.
That and he's a nice guy too.

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:12 PM

I should also mention Charlie Gary of Aurbon, Maine, who I ran into about 1963 when I was following the trail of antique banjos. Someone at a pawnshop in downtown Lewiston suggested there was this retired electrician across the Androscoggin River who had some nice old banjos. I carefully wrote down the directions and motored over to check him out. Charlie happened to be home and we spent a happy afternoon going over old clippings of the banjo bands he'd played in during the 1920's, but he was a 4-string banjo player. The two banjos he still had were highly ornate Bacon models, total mother of pearl fingerboards and sunburst resonators. Even 50 years ago they would have sold for over $1000! But no 5-string banjos.

As I was leaving Charlie mentioned that one of his pals had a 5-string Stewart banjo that he's been playing as a 4-string and he might want to sell it if I were interested. I had seen a Stewart banjo that Mel Lyman had been playing in a visit to North Carolina the spring before and allowed that I might be interested. He said he'd give me a call.

About a week later Charlie called and said the banjo was at his house to check out and I said I'd drive right over. Sure enough it was a S. S. Stewart, the most elaborate one I've ever run across in the wild. It was a Thoroughbred Model 3 which would now be worth about $2500. Gary said the seller wanted $55 and the deal was made.

I gave it to my brother as a birthday present; he had taught me banjo and gave me my first one, a nice little Fairbanks & Cole 5-string. However, when my brother went into the Army he left his Stewart behind and I didn't return it to him until the 1970's when I had finally found a suitable replacement, my current Stewart Orchestra Model 2; I paid more than $55 for that one to Elderly Instruments.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: your favourite banjo player
From: GUEST,Celeste
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:29 PM

Let's hear it for John Herrmann.