Hi Martin,

I, like you, love the sound of a banjo accompaniment to the voice. One of my favorites is Buell Kazee, a traditional banjo player who had a lovely tenor voice.

A agree that the Pete Seeger approach is wonderful for the following reasons:

1. You can pick bass lines (not unlike guitar) or counter lines with the vocal.
2. Pete adapted his style of playing to fit a variety of song material.
2. Pete used frailing, up-picking, three-fingerand "whamming" styles in his accompaniments.

You might want to check out early recordings of Erik Darling who in my view was one of the masters of banjo accompaniment. His album, True Religion by Vanguard is a classic.

I really like George Grove of the present Kingston Trio, as well.
He has adapted a style of playing suitable for singing.

I think that many of the revivalist old-timey players tend to overshadow their vocals with too much banjo. He has a neat instruction DVD on Homespun Tapes

I believe that the 5-string banjo accompaniment is quite versatile and not just limited to Appalachia or bluegrass. I applaud your choice and am doing this myself. I have a Gibson RB175 seeger model in which I've dropped a Rich and Taylor tonering made by someone whose name begins with K. (Krushner?) I forget. I am trying different tailpieces so that I can get a nice ring.

Playing and singing songs with banjo accompaniment is a very satisfying thing to do. I tend to like a guitar backup because of the solidity of a bass line but again, you can approximate that in the seeger style.

I find that children really respond to the sound of a 5-string banjo accompaniment. It gets their toes a-tapping and puts them in a happy mood.

I can't be sad or mad when I'm playing the banjo.

A friend of mine says, "The banjo sounds like laughing."

Good choice.

Frank Hamilton