Subject: RE: Merlin Banjo
From:
GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 01:22 AM
There was a time these things were said to be the coming thing in banjos around the Chicago folk scene. We tried to sell a couple of them at the store I was asst. manager of in '65-'66 and 67.(The Old Town Folklore Center---343 W. North Ave.) They were the most unbalanced banjos I've ever tried to hold up. Just plain heavey---on the neck side. The company gave one to Tommy Makem as I recall---hoping his playing it would bring more to try it. This was a time when long-neck banjos were extremely popular--and Merlin's main banjo was a long-neck model. Of course, it was Pete Seeger's influence that popularized the ong-neck Vega. If you were in a folk group, you had to have a long-neck banjo.
BILL MALLOY was a member of a pretty fine folk group called THE NEW WINE SINGERS. And Bill was a big part of the Merlin Banjo Company. This group owned, operated, and were the house act at a GREAT folk bar nightclub called THE RISING MOON. (1305 N. Wells Street--Old Town) The rest of that group were Arnie Lanza, Malcolm Hale and Gusty Herve. Gusty was replaced by Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane about '65. The Rising Moon burnt up one night around 65 or 66. A friend sent me a framed photo of the balcony at that club -- complete with the huge moose head -- AFTER the big fire. The huge burnt-to-a-crisp moose is too depressing to look at---so I never put it up. I'm thinking of donating it to the Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago.
Back to Merlin banjo's:
We always had one behind the counter at the Folklore Center to pick on. I always preferred to pick up Johnny Carbo's Gibson Mastertone if I had my choice. But when John had a gig, I had to use the Merlin. That's how I learned to play banjo. In '66 Grandpa Jones was doing a concert upstairs of the store at the Old Town School and he blew into town too early so he stopped into the shop. I was playing that Merlin banjo. He saw pretty quick I wasn't very good so he gave me a lesson that lasted about an hour and a half. That got me over a huge plateau I was stuck on where frailing was concerned. I've always been grateful to Grandpa Jones for doing that---for sure.
Nobody ever wanted that Merlin so I was allowed to buy it---for forty dollars if I remember right. Eventually I sold it---for my rent I think---one month when cash was tight.
By the way: After the Rising Moon burnt, another club went into that same renovated space on Wells St. This was MOTHER BLUES. It lasted quite a while and was grand place to hear music and hang out. Freddy Holstein had his apartment upstairs of the club and one night it was Fred and Malcolm Hale, George Carlin and myself---maybe Patty Talac too... But that's another story!
Fun memories!!
Art Thieme
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