JED MARUM & BIG MICK & GUEST fRANK of Toledo.

First Frank, "Saturday Night in Toledo Ohio" sounds to me that John Denver bombed in toledo and wrote that song for the same reason that Aesop's fox said, "Those grapes were sour, anyway". Sort of like a batter ridiculing the Pitcher who struck him out. (translation, for Britts and Aussies) Like a batsman ridiculing the bowler who just took the wicket.

JED AND MICK:
There's a young folksinger-guitarist named Michael Troy who's from Fall River, Mass. His guitar playing is really good, and he's a captivating singer. All his stuff is original. One of the songs on his CD is about (guess who)Fall River's Lizzie Borden. I'll ask him if it's alright to copy his CD and I'll send you both one. There's some good stuff on it. The CD is named "Whispers in the Wind"
I've done a couple of gigs at "Common Fence Point" and lately at Rennaisance Gallery, which was in an ld mill building. The mill was bought and they were thrown out but they moved their "stuff" and clientelle to another old mill which is near the Battleship, USS Massachusetts.

This banjo is so good sounding (Fred Bacon knew his stuff) that I've quit using my Gibson Mastertone. In fact, I lent it to someone who wants to learn banjo/ The "pot" on Todd's Banjo, the wooden inside, that is, is made from a SINGLE 1/2 " PIECE OF HONDURAS MAHOGONY, HEAT BENT INTO A PERFECT CIRCLE. yOU HAVE TO USE A MAGNIFYING GLASS TO FIND THE SCARF JOINT WHERE IT'S GLUED TOGETHER.
I used to have a bacon banjo that he made when he still lived in Harford. Inide it says "F.J. Bacon Hartford Conn, 168" Well to make a short story longer, I found a "B and D (Bacon and Day) Silver Bell", supposed to be the finest banjo's ever made, in Holyoke Mass when I was Chief Air Traffic Controller at Westover AFB, in 1954, for $75.00. It was a tennor banjo, so I wrote to the "Vega" company which makes an excellent banjo called "Little Wonder" It has pretty much the same wooden center dowel center that attaches the neck to the Pot, and, asked if they wwould make me a 5 string neck to fit the silver bell. They replied, "of course we will" and they did. It fit perfectly. So, I sold the old #168" to an Air Force friend who was being transferred to California. Lo and behold, a few years ago, I ran into a woman here in Newport who'd just moved here from Riverside, Cal. and she showed me "This wonderful banjo I found in a hock shop in Los Angeles. INSIDE, ON THE DOWEL, IT SAID "F.J. BACON, HARTFORD, CON. #168" sMALL WORLD, hUH??

A few years ago, having temporarily fallen on hard times, I pawned my" Silver Bell" in Providence, and when I went back to redeam it, not knowing that in Rhode Island a Pawn Broker only has to keep a pawned object 4 months (instead of the usual 6 in the rest of the country) it was 5 months later, and he'd just sold it. Oh Well. This was just about the time that Plastic banjo and drum heads came onto the market, and, I often wondered what a Bacon banjo would sound like with a plastic head (big improvement over calfskin) Now I know, Todd had replaced the calfskin head with a "Weather King" and it sounds fantastic. For th ose of you who are wondering how something "plastic" can be superior to somethiong "natural", here's how. Calfskin banjo and drum heads were unbelievably expensive if you wanted a good one. The Rogers 3 Star head (which was very difficult to find) was made from a calf that had gotten all scarred up wandering through the bushes, and as scarred skin is much stronger than clean, smooth skin, it could be shaved down to be considerably thinner than the Rogers "Superba" In todays marketplace, with prices adjusted to the rate of inflation, A 3 Star head woiuld cost about $250.00 and the Superba head about $150.00. The weather king which is a more even thickness throughout, and not affected by weather, costs about $20.00. We used to spend about half the time on stage re-tuning the banjos with the old calfskin heads, and if it was raining, FORGET IT, The calfskin heads became like a piece of rubber, and if you tried to stretch it tighter, to compensate, when it dried out, it split, and you were out another $150.00 to $250.00.

Donna just told me that Todd had "Macular Degeneration" not detached retinas. which is much worse.

I'm going to call Todd as soon as I hang up here. Oh, yes, He was a policeman on Prudence Island for about 25 years. Nowadays, there are more White Tailed Deer on Patience and Prudence than there are people and almost everyone knows someone who has Lyme disease. I don't think Todd has.

Anyway, to answer you're other question, I'm still living in Newport.
My newest CD has 20 tracks on it, it's antitled, "Spanning the Decades" and includes all my old singles from the '50's and early 60's(TETRA in 1957 and Parlophone, produced by George Martin just before the Beatles in 1959 and 1960) (Parlophone's USA affiliate is Capitol) The CD costs $16,50, (shipping in N. America included) (not $14,99 + $2.99 for shipping and handling) From, ROSE ISLAND MUSIC, 36 Charles St. Newport, RI 02840. No credit cards, please.

(that's funny, this is my adress also)

Jody Gibson.