Regular visitors to this joint know I’ve been trying to learn clawhammer banjo on my home-made oilcan banjos. Well, in a moment of madness I recently purchased an honest to god store-bought banjo. I bought it at the 12th Fret here in Toronto. I was like a kid in a candy store in that place. Grant MacNeill,  the owner and resident banjo expert, generously spent loads of time with me, talking about banjos and tone rings and sound qualities and set-up, patiently answering all my questions. I knew I wanted to buy a banjo at some point, but I wasn’t really quite sure what I wanted, and my plan was for this to be a scouting mission. However, as we all know the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

I played quite a few banjos in the store, and really I loved all of them. I can see how the dreaded BAS develops among banjo freaks (that’s banjo aquisition syndrome) In particular, I loved the Nechville Atlas banjo I played. It has a 12 inch pot, and a wood tone ring, and a wonderful warm sound. I found it impossible to leave the shop without it.

I’m no natural banjo picker, but I have been working pretty hard at it and I think my playing has been slowly improving. Here’s a video of me playing a tune called Susananna Gal on the new banjo. This song goes by a few names. Often it is called Susanna Gal, but singers seem to almost always sing Susananna or even Susianna. I was learning a tune called Fortune and I started to play this one just to take a break from Fortune and play something else, but once I got Susanannah Gal stuck in my brain, I couldn’t keep away from it.

This is in Double C tuning. If I were playing with a fiddle player, I would capo up to Double D, but since I’m playing on my own, I thought I’d enjoy the nice lows Double C offers. So here it is, with all its (my) rough edges. I’ll keep working on this one.