Tom Hanway: Pickin' across the sea

Stan Jay, owner of Mandolin Bros, with Denise and Tom Hanway and the SwallowTail

Tom and Denise Hanway (Longford) recently visited Stanley Jay at Mandolin Bros on Staten Island, New York City, to pick up Tom's second Tom Hanway SwallowTail Banjo, which he co-designed with Geoff Stelling (1998). Tom now plays both the Deluxe and Standard models, one for each side of the Atlantic.

During the Easter holiday, Tom has been asked to appear at some classic honky tonks in New York City and at a concert in New England. With his American all-star pickin’ band, 'Hanway, Kosek, Whitney and Collins', Tom kicks out the jams on 11 April at the Rodeo Bar, 10 p.m. Hanway (banjo/guitar) and ace-fiddler-raconteur Kenny Kosek appeared in the off-Broadway bluegrass musical 'Feast here tonight' at the Vineyard Theatre, NYC (1989). Tom will play music from his three Joyous Gard recordings, also featuring songs he recorded with Vassar Clements for The Badbelly project: Hesitation Blues.

Special guests at the Rodeo Bar include New York’s bluegrass sweetheart, singer-guitarist Jen Larson, recently featured on Garrison Keillor’s 'A Prairie Home Companion' (America’s favourite radio variety show), and Trip Henderson, New York’s 'Merry Monarch of the Mouth Harp'.

On 13 April, Tom has been invited to play rock banjo with the Brooklyn’s longest-running jam-rock band, the Electrix at the Knitting Factory, for the 'After Jammy Awards Show'. Tom and deeply missed pickin’ pal Vassar performed together with the Electrix and the Zen Tricksters at Vassar’s 72nd birthday bash in Brooklyn (2000). Tom winds up his U.S. sojourn on 15 April, trekking to Amherst, Massachusetts, for a concert commemorating the retirement of legal scholar Lester J. Mazor, Tom’s Hampshire College law and philosophy professor, mentor, and dear friend. Mazor clerked for Warren E. Burger, chief justice of the US supreme court. Tom will sing anthems by Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Steve Goodman and original pieces on banjo and guitar. Tom is sitting in at sessions all over Manhattan, including two that he started in the nineties at Paddy Reilly’s Music Bar and the Baggot Inn. Denise Hanway is documenting all the shows on camera and video.