I thought I'd go ahead and offer some other titles that relate to the subject here. All of Otis Taylors albums contain banjo, and are good in my opinion. "Below the Fold", and "Definition of a circle" being a couple of the best. Guy Davis, who is on this album, has a very good album titled "skunkmello", which has a few banjo tracks on it. He is a very accomplished clawhammer player. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a very good newer string band who have a couple of albums out. The most recent I believe is "Dona got a ramblin mind". "Black banjo songsters of North Carolina and Virginia" is a Smithsonian Folkways recorded between 1974 and 1997. 32 tracks from some real old time players, some of whom were originally recorded decades ago. This is a good one for banjo players but may not be for everyone. I believe the Folkways website has sound clips. "The North Carolina Banjo Collection" Rounder Records, has a few of the same players from the songsters cd above doing different tunes, but is a collection of a wide variety of players, both black and white. Some of the more notable names are Etta baker, Elizabeth Cotten, John Snipes, Doc Watson, Snuffy Jenkins,Frank Proffitt, Fred Cockerham, and Olla Belle Reed. 42 tracks on 2 cds. All of these should be available thru Barnes, Borders, Amazon, etc. Some Youtubes and links of interest. Otis Taylor website Otis Taylor-Recapturing the Banjo Guy Davis Carolina Chocolate Drops Hope this is helpful :) BHSC
|