CLAWHAMMER BANJO

this sunday I’ll be DJing near Dublin, with Mouse on Mars, Neill Landstrumm, and others, at the Sliabh An Iarainn (SAI ) festival.

Kaboogiewoogie explains: “its situated in a beautiful part of the country on an obliging mentaloid farmers’s land. His name is Pious and is a bit of a legend in the area.” Bog alchemists welcome. DJ Q-Bert & a bunch of cool electronica acts saturday nite.

ok.

old. time. music. now!

http://www.rounder.com/images/album/ROUN/ROUN0584_Cover.jpg

[Image: Rounder CD album cover]

While i listen to a some old old time music, i hadn’t paid much attention to new (or at least contemporary) old time music, and so when i heard the opening track of the Old Time Banjo Festival CD i thought, ungenerously, this is gonna be one of those comps with the best tune first. But then i listened to rest and its all as good, or better. ((if you like banjos))

I will give my Moroccan banjoist friends a copy of this. Who doesn’t like banjos? Even Clayton Bigsby likes banjos.

Out of all these players, Chris Coole lept out. witness his clawhammer style!!

Chris Coole – Hail on the Barndoor

clawhammer/frailing is the picking style which came, along with the banjo itself, from Africa. a bit more on that .

Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia

[Image: Black Banjo Songsters album art]

two short jams from the above album, Black Banjo Songsters .

John Tyree – Fox Chase

Leonard Bowles – Shortnin’ Bread

that’s all the Appalachia for now – off to Ireland.



6 comments

  1. strange:

    Nothing to do with banjo:

    Just heard the Shadetek remix of the Sizzla track from your radio show last week. Hypnotizing.

    Where oh where can I find it?

  2. Ephraim McDowell:

    Hey now,

    You are spreading the good word of the Banjo…
    Theres a lot more out there – thicker, fatter & funky-er

    But, the Afro/Appalachian “Black Banjo Songsters is the place to start…

    I’d be glad to spread the Clawhammer grooves your way – cause your doing some fine work…

    peace, Eph

  3. curm:

    I just read elsewhere about the Carolina Chocolate Drops -a young African-American old-timey string band but I have not heard them yet (or seen them, they’re doing some US East Coast shows this month)

  4. ripley:

    ah the appalachian connection.. nice..

  5. scruss:

    Chris Coole’s pretty good. He’s a friend of mine. Here’s a live set from last year:
    http://scruss.com/music/chris_coole-the_local-20081207/

  6. Amadou Sangare dit Barry l’Histoire de Moussa Tchefari Pere de Sabally « awesometapes.com:

    [...] skills any justice here. The ngoni is said to be an ancestor of the banjo. Go figure. (link via rupture, but to be fair at least two professors told me something similar in college so this is like a [...]

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