My friend Jamie and I are working together on two salad bowl banjos, one for each of us. Jamie started by turning the first bowl. It’s going to be a pretty big pot – about 12 inches. He’s also fashioned a nice tailpiece from antler.… Read More
This is me, practicing an Old Time standard known as Lost Indian. There are lots of different versions of this one, and even some very different tunes that use the same title. I’m playing my Bart Reiter Standard banjo in open G tuning, with a… Read More
I thought tonight I would feature Joe Newberry here on 27th Street. I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Newberry at the Midwest Banjo Camp. I took one of his classes, all about a maneuver called the Galax Lick, along with its applications. Joe… Read More
Here’s the group photo from Midwest Banjo Camp 2014. I’m in there somewhere. That is one big stringband. If you click on the photo, you’ll see it at a more reasonable size. Faculty are to the front. This was my first banjo camp experience and… Read More
My experience at the Mid-west Banjo camp kick-started my learning and since I returned home I’ve wanted to play and play and play. With that kind of immersion experience you get exposed to a lot of ideas, but most of them require plenty of practice… Read More
I’ve been writing a bit about banjo camp – let’s go back a bit. You see the Detroit skyline from the Windsor side – I took that shot Wednesday night. Thursday morning, I proceeded through the tunnel to America. Not so fast. First I had… Read More
Tuffy P took this shot of me this afternoon playing a little banjo on the front porch.
I don’t know who Bill Cheatham was, but the tune named after him has endured and has become a standard in both the old-time and bluegrass genres. I videotaped some banjo practice tonight. Here’s me, attempting the old-time Bill Cheatham on clawhammer banjo. By the… Read More
I was in a hardware store the other day, one of the old school small ones, not one of the giant warehouse stores that dominate the retail landscape today. We were standing at the cash when I noticed a bin full of these oddball metal… Read More
I’m playing my Nechville Altas banjo in DD tuning.
27th Street 