Stringsinger, it is worthy to note St Cyr played 6 string, however the article was saying Vappie, a tenor player, plays in a style reminiscent of St Cyr's style.

I have this album(cd), and I love it.

Otis has been using banjo in his recorded music for his entire career.

In an interview on XM radio when the album came out he explained why Taj Mahal isn't on it. He and the others were intimidated at the thought of asking the master to be a part of the project. They all hold him in very high esteem.

In another interview on XM, Taj, when told this, was honored that they felt this way, but also sounded a little disappointed, so we may be hearing him sometime in the future with some of these guys??(fingers crossed):)

Otis also talked about when he was growing up with banjo being his primary instrument. People kept saying "your good, you should go play at the festivals down south", which did not seem to him to be a good idea for a black man in the 60's. I can't say that I blame him on that one.

Most of the artists on this album have been playing banjo for years, but with few exceptions, haven't recorded much with it.

Banjo is an african instrument, that was heavily used by the pre-blues and some of the early blues musicians, but the racist aspects of minstrelsy in the south caused them to distance themselves from it.

This is the reason for the title of the album, and actually recapturing the banjo is something that Otis has been doing for some time.

I highly recommend this album, and would also note that in the liner notes Otis gives some listings of recommended cd's for additional listening that are very good. I just got another one of them a few days ago. Several of them are Folkways recordings and are relatively easy to get.

BHSC