Adam Hurt on Facebook and Zoom for Halloween

Old-time clawhammer banjo maestro Adam Hurt presents today the Gourd Banjo Salon, a concert+discussion on Zoom, where he will play tunes from his new album Back to the earth (scheduled for release on 13 Nov.) and his earlier album Earth tones. More details are on Bluegrass Today, where you can also see a newly released video of Adam and friends in the studio recording 'The raven's rock', a composition by Cillian Vallely, uillean piper with Lúnasa.

Halloween introduces the Haunted Banjo - coming early in 2021

Thanks to Jamie Latty for the news that Deering Banjos are launching an extremely limited edition (ten instruments) of the Kesinger Custom Deering® Haunted Banjo, in collaboration with artist Brian Kesinger and based on his 'Buster Bones' character (above). The Haunted Banjo features regular Deering quality construction, together with spooky-themed embellishments designed by Kesinger. This is part of a Kickstarter campaign, with a Banjo Revue - 'a live streaming haunted hootenanny' coming in February 2021.  Full details are available through the links shown above.

We Banjo 3's Halloween Live Scream, Sun. 1 Nov.

Galway's We Banjo 3, the originators of 'Celtgrass', will be holding their Halloween Live Scream this weekend: on Sunday 1 November at 9.00 p.m. Irish time (for US viewers, 2.00 p.m. PT, 4.00 p.m. CT, and 5.00 p.m.). It will be shown on the Stageit website, where tickets can be bought for the equivalent of $15.00. The band promise live music, new songs, 'We Banjo 3 craic and fun', and a big upcoming show announcement, plus: 

From our fireplace to yours, the concert comes from deep in East Clare, featuring a holographic Dave! Much merriment and fun is promised, you can dance around in your Halloween costume and eat all the candy!

See the band's website and their latest e-newsletter.

Great instruments speak again

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum held last night (28 Oct.) its 'Big Night' fundraising event (see the BIB for 16 Sept.), featuring instruments from the museum's 'Precious Jewels' collection, previously owned by legendary musicians of the past, and now played by a stellar cast of distinguished musicians of today. The event, hosted by Marty Stuart, can be seen in a ninety-four-minute video on the Hall of Fame's YouTube channel.

The specifically bluegrass part of the event comes at 33:30 to 44:30, with 'Heavy traffic ahead' played by Ricky Skaggs on Bill Monroe’s 1923 Gibson F-5 mandolin, Alison Brown on Earl Scruggs’s 1930 Gibson RB-Granada banjo, and Marty Stuart on Lester Flatt’s 1950 Martin D-28 guitar; but there are riveting performances throughout the show, and you can choose to see particular spots here. Viewers should definitely read Tristan Scroggins's article on the Bluegrass Situation website, 'Ricky Skaggs reunites with Bill Monroe's mandolin for Big Night event', which also includes a fifteen-minute video of the occasion when Bill Monroe and his mandolin were reunited after its restoration by Charlie Derrington.

If you enjoy the Big Night - and why wouldn't you? - donations can be made to the Country Music Hall of Fame's Coronavirus Relief Fund.

Celtic Connections 2021 to be an online event

The organising team of Glasgow's Celtic Connections announce that the 28th Festival will be held every night from 15 January to 2 February 2021 as an online virtual event, owing to the continuing pandemic:

We're very excited that more people than ever before will be able to experience Celtic Connections. The full lineup, along with details of shows and how to book, will be announced on Wednesday 2 December.

More detail is on the press release and the Festival website.

Graham Sharp on Deering Live TONIGHT

Deering Banjos announce that tonight (Thurs. 20 Oct.) Graham Sharp will be the featured artist interviewed on Deering Live at 6.00 p.m. EDT. Graham is a founder member of the Steep Canyon Rangers (USA), who visited Dublin (but not, unfortunately, Belfast) this March as part of a comedy show by Steve Martin, with whom they have been playing since 2009. He was interviewed by Ned Luberecki for Banjo News Letter in 2012.

Tonight he'll be talking about (and playing) banjo, and about the new Steeps album Arm in arm and playing with Steve Martin. You can send in questions for Graham by e-mail, and watch the interview here. Last week's feature with Kristin Scott Benson can also be watched on YouTube.

No Depression winter 2020 issue now available

'The journal of roots music', No Depression magazine, announces that its winter 2020 'All together now' issue 'highlights the multitude of ways that roots musicians collaborate, and why this music in particular thrives on community'. The many features include Courtney E. Smith's article 'Musical exchange' on Chris Thile (above) and Noah Berlatsky's article 'Preserving tradition' (below) on the Field Recorders Collective. The new issue is being sent out to subscribers, and those who subscribe now will get it. New this year: an annual digital subscription for $36.00.

More for mandolinists

The BIB mentioned on 1 Sept. that Tristan Scroggins (seen over here several times in his father's band Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, and most recently filling in on mandolin with Chris Jones & the Night Drivers in their 2019 tour) had made transcriptions of all the mandolin breaks on the classic 1979 Tony Rice album Manzanita available on an e-book via his Patreon page. Tristan announced yesterday on his Facebook:

Well, I’m still cooped up so I decided to transcribe another album. This time I chose the Lonesome River Band’s Carrying the tradition which features the mandolin playing of Dan Tyminski. I ~love~ Dan’s mandolin playing so this was an extremely fun project.

The transcriptions are available to anyone who subscribes to my Patreon page at the $20 level. Sign up at patreon.com/tristanscroggins to get access to transcriptions in tab and standard notation for all 12 tracks as well as all the previous transcriptions available to Patrons (which is now something like 60 tunes).

More details (including a a brief video of Tristan playing solos) are in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

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A tantalising forty-second clip of a galvanising mandolin duet by Sierra Hull and Justin Moses, part of a forthcoming album, can be heard on Bluegrass Today.

Gold Tone sponsor first ever World Virtual Bluegrass Banjo Contest (UPDATE)

Earlier this month the winners were announced of the 1st World Virtual Flatpicking Contest. Now the Gold Tone Music Group announce:

Gold Tone is proud to sponsor the first ever World Virtual Bluegrass Banjo Contest! Hosted by Marcy Marxer and Steve Kaufman, this contest is the first ever online search for the world's most talented bluegrass banjo player.

See the Gold Tone e-newsletter, where, for anyone wishing to register, there is a link to the contest web page on the Gold Tone website.

Update 2 Nov.: It is now announced that the World Virtual Bluegrass Banjo Contest will begin a week today, with the first round on 9-15 Nov. and a second round on 19-20 Nov. This is now part of a series entitled World Virtual Acoustic Contests. For more details, see Bluegrass Today.

'How deep is the lonesome' from Cedar Hill (USA)

Thanks to Roger Ryan of the Country Music Association of Ireland for a reminder of 'How deep is the lonesome', the new single by Cedar Hill, the hard-core traditional bluegrass band from the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas, and favourites in Ireland from their past performances at Omagh, Cork, and other venues. This is the band's first release since signing with Mountain Fever Records. More details appeared on the BIB a week ago. The instrumental work is specially worth a listen, not just on breaks but on backup; neat things are happening all the time, without at all distracting the listener from the lead voice. 

FOAOTMAD November workshops go online, 14-15 Nov. 2020

FOAOTMAD, the UK's national association for old-time music and dance, announce that as their normal November workshops have had to be cancelled due to COVID restrictions, a weekend of online workshops will be available free to FOAOTMAD members on 14-15 November.

Banjo, fiddle, and guitar will be taught by Graeme Parry, Dave Proctor, and Andy Quelch, all members of the Firecrackers old-time band, and dance by Kerry Fletcher. Each workshop will have a maximum of twenty places; any vacancies not filled by 7 Nov. will be open to non-members at £10 per workshop. Full details are shown on the poster image (above right) and on the FOAOTMAD news blog.

Michael J. Miles at the Cirkus TONIGHT

In his latest e-newsletter, Michael J. Miles (USA) - the man who showed that Bach could be beautifully played on the clawhammer banjo - sends a reminder that the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, in which he takes part, will be on open stage tonight (26 Oct.) for season 2 of its quarantine edition. It can be seen on YouTube and Facebook (links are provided on the newsletter).

Michael also offers two series of one-off workshops via Zoom - three workshops for fingerstyle guitar, three for banjo - each dealing with a single song. The newsletter includes a video (also on YouTube) of Michael playing one of the guitar pieces - Smokey Robinson's 'My girl'. Further instructional course are detailed here.

Something for the weekend

A couple of things, in fact, for anyone whose preference is for bluegrass as it was and still can be. Thanks to Wilson Pickins Promotions for the news that OMS Records have just released the latest video in their 'Country Store' COVID-19 series, featuring a re-creation of the Flatt & Scruggs classic from 1953, 'I’ll go stepping too' on YouTube. The musicians (photo above) playing on this video have multiple personal connections to the lineup of the F&S band that made the original recording, as detailed on YouTube and on the press release.

High Fidelity, an outstanding young traditional-bluegrass band who have just won the IBMA 2020 award for New Artist of the Year, have gone one better in the third single release from their latest album Banjo player's blues on Rebel Records. Not only do they re-create 'Tears of regret', the 1955 classic by Jim & Jesse McReynolds - they have Jesse McReynolds himself playing on the video, singing a verse, and taking a mandolin break. The video can be seen directly on YouTube or through a link on the Rebel press release.

'Bluegrass Ambassadors Field Trip' from the Henhouse Prowlers (USA)

Chicago's Henhouse Prowlers, bluegrass world-travellers under normal conditions, and previous visitors to Ireland, are fundraising for an ambitious new online educational project, 'Field Trip', as part of their ongoing 'Bluegrass Ambassadors' campaign. John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today describes it as:

a multi-genre virtual music program created for kindergarten through grade 2, including bluegrass of course, with supplemental videos and a passport workbook, highlighting music from around the world. They have also developed a one-hour presentation for middle and high school students, called Bluegrass 45.

The Field Trip is introduced in a concise YouTube video, well presented by Prowlers Ben Wright (banjo) and Jake Howard (mandolin), which can also be seen on Bluegrass Today and on their fundraising web page.

Bluegrass Situation interviews

The BIB editor writes:

You know you're getting old when a news medium with 'Bluegrass' in its title introduces one of its articles with the words: 'You may think you've never heard of Eric Weissberg or his banjo playing'. Yes, this is the Eric Weissberg who died in March this year, as reported by the BIB on 25 March. In addition to the links there, read 'Bluegrass memoirs: thanks to Eric Weissberg' by Neil V. Rosenberg in the online magazine The Bluegrass Situation (BGS). This is part of a series of memoirs on BGS by Rosenberg, the premier bluegrass historian, and well worth reading for that reason; it also includes several recordings from YouTube of Weissberg's early work.

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The same issue of the Bluegrass Situation's Weekly Dispatch includes Justin Hiltner's interview with Brennen Leigh, focused on her latest album Prairie love letter (see the BIB for 18 Sept.). In addition, Andy Hall, 'one of the fiercest slide guitarists we have around not just today, but probably ever', is interviewed by Thomas Cassell about his new solo album, 12 bluegrass classics for resophonic guitar.

Reminder: Tradition Now Marathon 2020 this weekend

A reminder that among all the other excitement of this weekend, the National Concert Hall (NCH) in Dublin will hold its Tradition Now Marathon 2020 on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, at 6.00 p.m. on both nights. Tickets (€10 for one concert, or €15 for a weekend ticket covering both) are only available via Dice.fm.

The lineup for Marathon #1 includes Cahalen Morrison (USA) and Nava, comprising Paddy Kiernan and Niall Hughes from the Dublin bluegrass scene, and Iranian-born brothers Shahab and Shayan Coohe. The lineup for Marathon #2 includes Elizabeth LaPrelle (USA), magnificent hard-core Appalachian ballad singer (and one of the stars of The mountain minor). More details are on the BIB post for 7 Oct..

Kristin Scott Benson on Deering Live, Thurs. 22 Oct. 2020

Deering Banjos announce that this week, Kristin Scott Benson will be the featured artist interviewed on Deering Live, tomorrow night (Thurs. 22 Oct.) at 6.00 p.m. EDT. She has won the IBMA's Bluegrass Banjo Player of the Year award four times and the 2018 Steve Martin Banjo Prize; received seven months ago a Folk Heritage Award from the Arts Commission of her home state of South Carolina; fronts Deering's 'Teachers Love Goodtimes' campaign; and as banjo player for the Grammy-nominated Grascals, has played before two previous US presidents.

You can send in questions for her by e-mail, and watch the interview here. Last week's feature with Nefesh Mountain can also be watched on YouTube.

A happy event

Thanks to John Lawless and Bluegrass Today for the news that Wayne Taylor, mentioned in a BIB post of a week ago as an alumnus of the US Navy Band's 'Country Current' group, married his childhood sweetheart, Pamela Abee, in a small ceremony on 10 Oct. at their home in Maiden, NC.

We're sure that all those who saw and heard Wayne and his band Appaloosa during their tour in Ireland a year ago will want to congratulate and send best wishes to the happy couple.

FOAOTMAD announce a plethora of good things

Old-time enthusiasts who seriously want to devote most of the next six days to the music can now do so, thanks to the news received from FOAOTMAD, the UK's national old-time organisation. Tonight, to get you in the mood before the Augusta programme starts (see our previous post), there's a concert by Evie Ladin and Keith Terry, streamed live from California and starting at 7.00 p.m.; then there's Augusta; then at the weekend you can pick and choose between turns at the Fall into Autumn Virtual Festival, presented by the UK's True North agency, and the Brooklyn Folk Festival. There's simply too much on offer between all of these for the BIB to itemise them, so please read the FOAOTMAD news blog and the event websites.

BIB editor's note: A major interview with Evie Ladin appears in Dave Berry's 'California report' series on Bluegrass Today.

Augusta Old Time Week virtual free events, and more!

Thanks to Ed Bowes of Virginia for news of the free virtual events offered by the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia, in lieu of their regular autumn Old Time Week, and starting tomorrow (Wed. 21 Oct.). As shown on the poster image, these comprise:

Wed. 21 Oct. (7.00 p.m. EDT) October Old-Time Round Robin! Listen to Old-Time master artists Rachel Eddy, Ben Townsend, Brad Kolodner, Erynn Marshall, and Carl Jones perform from home as they swap tunes and stories. Click for Zoom or Facebook Live.

Thurs. 22 Oct. (7.30 p.m. EDT) October Old-Time Open Jam with Rachel Eddy & Emily Hammond! Join Rachel and Emily in a virtual open jam! Click for Youtube or Facebook Live.

Fri. 23 Oct. (7.00 p.m. EDT) October Old-Time Song and Tune Swap! Old-time players the world over are invited to swap songs, tunes, stories, and memories in an interactive and informal house party. Click to join via Zoom.

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April Verch and her band send virtual hugs, messages of strength and comfort, and news of their many projects and collaborations. April's e-newsletter has enough links to one or another of them to keep anyone going for a long time, and the BIB specially recommends the audio player on her website - try 'Big eared mule', for instance, and see if you don't feel a lot better.

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Two weeks ago, the BIB reported that Cedar Hill (USA), the hard-core traditional bluegrass band from the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas, had signed with Mountain Fever Records, and that a new release by the band was to be expected soon. Well, their exciting new single, 'How deep is the lonesome' (written by Mark 'Brink' Brinkman and Kevin T. Hale), is now out and can be streamed or bought here. It can be heard in full on Bluegrass Today or YouTube. More details are on the Mountain Fever release.

More news from the Mother Country

Ken Perlman, master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo (not to mention fingerstyle guitar) continues his programme of online live instructional banjo workshops on Zoom this month, with a workshop on pull-offs, alternate-string pull-offs, and hammer-ons on Mon. 9 Nov. at 7.30-9.00 p.m. EDT, and one on playing jigs in 6/8 time on Sat. 21 Nov. at 1.00-2.30 p.m. EDT. Each costs $20.00 per computer.

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Chris Thile will present on Sun. 25 Oct. the first in a series of three masterclasses under the collective title 'Music is Life is Music'. A brief teaser for the course can be seen on his website and on YouTube. The three classes, on successive Sundays, will deal with 'Listening', 'Writing', and 'Performing', but Chris stresses that the course is for anyone who loves music. Individual classes are $20, or $50 for all three. More details, and a longer video, are on John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

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North Carolina's Nu-Blu, who toured Ireland in a trio configuration last autumn, have had a video released by Turnberry Records for their latest single, 'Horse thieves and moonshiners', which (making a success out of a crisis) was filmed while they were marooned in the Mojave Desert by COVID restrictions. The video can be seen on YouTube or on Bluegrass Today.

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Elderly Instruments, the Midwest emporium for new, used, and vintage fretted instruments, will feature the Kody Norris Show (below; we ought to have seen them at Westport back in June) in the Elderly Living Room Sessions series tomorrow night (Wed. 21 Oct.) at 7.00 p.m., or midnight in Ireland. You will be able to watch the Show live here.

'Country & COVID' from Roger Ryan

Thanks to Roger Ryan of the Country Music Association of Ireland (CMAI), whose latest newsletter reviews the ways in which many artists and presenters on the country music scene in Ireland are responding to the abnormal conditions of this year's pandemic. Roger's 'Country & COVID' can be read in full here, together with previous issues of the CMAI newsletter.

A crossroads? Part 4a: 'An English song'?

The BIB editor continues his comments on items in Tatiana Hargreaves's 'An introductory resource list for understanding race and racism in old-time music' (Old Time News, issue 103, autumn 2020):

Parts 3 and 4 of this series have focused on the online article by Kevin Kehrberg and Jeffrey A. Keith from which Tatiana Hargreaves highlighted the passage beginning:

Sharp claimed 'Swannanoa Town' (explicitly), 'Swannanoa Tunnel' (by extension), and 'John Henry' (for good measure) as English in origin. Such distorted conclusions resulted from Sharp's understanding of folk music that placed Europe in general and England in particular at its center. This warped logic led Sharp to claim English ownership of music that was 200 years and 5,000 miles removed from his homeland.

Taken as a whole, this is nonsense; but it's partly excusable. Sharp did not claim that all the songs he collected in Appalachia came from England, but this could have been stated much more clearly.

Both of the published compilations (1917, 1932) of songs collected in the mountains by Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles, and Olive Dame Campbell were indeed entitled English folk songs from the Southern Appalachians. All the texts in these compilations were in the English language. The ballads indisputably came from the English-speaking traditions of these islands. The songs had been collected from the same people - often the same individuals - who sang the ballads, and for most of the songs roots in Britain or Ireland could be identified. As can be seen from his notes on the songs, Sharp's use of the term 'English' did not exclude Scotland and Ireland. So though the title English folk songs might be misunderstood, choosing it was perhaps understandable.

Sharp did not mean, though, that all the songs were therefore from these islands. On p. ix of his 1917 introduction he drew the reader's attention to two that he knew were not: no. 87 ('John Hardy') and no. 99 ('Wild Bill Jones') - examples of modern texts that were assimilated into tradition. Moreover, he wrote (pp xiii-xiv): 'Some of the song-texts are quite new to me, and are not to be found, so far as I have been able to discover, in any of the standard English collections.' The dozen examples he gave included no. 91, 'Swannanoa [or 'Swananoah'] Town'. For all he knew, these songs might yet be found in England; they might have died out there; or they might have originated in America. Whatever origin 'Swannanoa Town' had, Sharp did not 'explicitly' claim it as English in origin. The allegation that he also claimed 'Swannanoa Tunnel' and 'John Henry' consequently collapses.

Kehrberg and Keith also assert that 'Sharp's version', as they call it, 'conceals a record of social injustice and tragedy' through 'poetic and sonic omission' - because it's in the wrong tempo for a work song, and the words don't mention railroading, a cave-in, or a tunnel. 'Sharp's version' is recorded as having been transcribed in September 1916 at Black Mountain, NC, from the singing of Mrs Sarah Buckner and Mrs Ford, and there is no reason to believe that this is not how they sang it. For all anyone knows, they may have originally learned it in that form; in 1916 the 'folk process' in North Carolina had had twenty-five years to make changes in whatever the tunnel labour gangs had left behind them.

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(A personal note: the first version I ever heard of the song was Art Rosenbaum's 'Swannanoa Tunnel' on the 1962 compilation album Folk banjo styles (Elektra EKL-217), and - though not a work song - it's still my favourite. This recording, unfortunately, is not yet on YouTube. A similar sparse, intense treatment from Kentucky is 'Swanno Mountain' (sic) by Roscoe Holcomb.)

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English folk songs from the southern Appalachians: comprising 122 songs and ballads, and 323 tunes. Collected by Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp. With an introduction and notes. G.P Putnam's Sons, New York and London: The Knickerbocker Press. 1917.
This can be read online here.

English folk songs from the southern Appalachians, collected by Cecil J. Sharp; comprising two hundred and seventy-four songs and ballads with nine hundred and sixty-eight tunes, including thirty-nine tunes contributed by Olive Dame Campbell. Edited by Maud Karpeles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932.


© Richard Hawkins

The Mountain Minor October news

Following upon our post of 30 Sept., Dale Farmer, head of The Mountain Minor team, announces that due to Covid delays with the distributor, the hard-copy soundtrack CD is only available at present by ordering from the film's web page, but it should be available on Amazon and most major online catalogues in a couple of weeks. Digital copies can be ordered through iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify.

The CD release celebration will be held at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame on 6 Nov. (see poster image above) and will be open to the public with COVID safety measures, plus live music from some of the cast. The e-newsletter presents a video (also on YouTube) of Dan Gellert (fiddle) and Ma Crow (guitar) playing 'Cripple Creek' right through, as distinct from the clips heard in the film; don't miss it. Finally, Dale thanks reviewers, who overall have been 'overwhelmingly positive'.

Nefesh Mountain on Deering Live TONIGHT

Nefesh Mountain, the husband-and-wife duo of Eric Lindberg (banjo) and Doni Zasloff (guitar) are appearing on Deering Live tonight (actually live as this post is being written). Deering promise that in this episode, 'we will talk everything from banjo style, songwriting, touring with your spouse, and the unlikely pairing of bluegrass music with their Jewish heritage.' As the BIB mentioned two-and-a-half years ago (16 Apr. 2018), this pairing of genres was anticipated back in the 1960s when Bill Monroe, moved by the sound of Jewish religious music, composed 'Lonesome moonlight waltz'.

You can also see on Deering Live (or on YouTube) a 38-minute video of Ashley Campbell (daughter of Glen), talking about her life with the banjo.

Patrick McAvinue joins the US Navy

Patrick McAvinue (right) came to Ireland first about fifteen or sixteen years ago in his mid teens with Tom Mindte's Patuxent Partners, went on to fiddle for Audie Blaylock & Redline, Charm City Junction, and Dailey & Vincent, and won the IBMA's Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year Award in 2015 and its Fiddle Player of the Year Award two years later.

He has now joined the US Navy, and will be serving as a member of the US Navy Band's 'Country Current' division, devoted to playing country and bluegrass music. This is a career path that was pioneered by Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Bill Emerson (who was chiefly responsible for building up the band's bluegrass capability) and followed by Wayne Taylor, who toured Ireland with his band Appaloosa in autumn 2019. See also John Lawless's news item on Bluegrass Today.

A crossroads? Part 4: 'Swannanoa Tunnel'

The BIB editor continues his comments on items in Tatiana Hargreaves's 'An introductory resource list for understanding race and racism in old-time music' (Old Time News, issue 103, autumn 2020):

Rhiannon Giddens in her 2017 IBMA keynote address emphasised how much - despite many negative factors - the traditions of black and white music from the southern USA held in common:

It is important to what is going on RIGHT NOW to stress the musical brother- and sisterhood we have had for hundreds of years; for every act of cultural appropriation, of financial imbalance, of the erasure of names and faces, of the outside attempt to create artificial division and sow hatred, simply to keep us down so that the powers-that-be can continue to enjoy the fruits of our labour, there are generous acts of working-class cultural exchange taking place in the background.

Kevin Kehrberg and Jeffrey A. Keith, in their article ‘Somebody died, babe: a musical cover-up of racism, violence, & greed’ for the Bitter Southerner online magazine, present a darker picture from the past, based on eight years of research into the song 'Swannanoa Tunnel'. The tunnel itself was the last and longest in a series driven through the Blue Ridge to allow the railroad to link east and west North Carolina. Work on this link (1875-91) was borne primarily by black convict labourers, of whom several hundred died from harsh conditions, harsh treatment, and disease. None received any credit; and as a further indignity, their work song 'Swannanoa Tunnel' has been appropriated by white collectors and performers, undergoing radical and misleading change. The sole recording of the song by a black singer that Kehrberg and Keith found was a 1939 field recording, 'Asheville Junction' sung by James William Love, a Duke University employee whose own life epitomised the pressures that black workers had to bear. The recording is reproduced in their article.

In Hargreaves's words, the song 'went from a Black American work song depicting brutal convict worker conditions to a supposed English ballad collected by Cecil Sharp'. Both these two assertions - 'depicting brutal convict worker conditions' and 'a supposed English ballad collected by Cecil Sharp' - are misleading. The first follows Kehrberg and Keith, who write: 'in song, the tunnel is a site of bone-crushing tragedy'; hammer songs of this type 'became running commentaries on the trials and tribulations of forced labour under cruel conditions, an expression of lament, and a form of creative resistance'. But though Love sang 'Asheville Junction' unmistakably as a work song, the words he sang hardly convey these kinds of message any more clearly than the words Sharp took down from Buckner and Ford in 1916, though Love's do include the verses 'Asheville Junction, Swannanoa Tunnel, All caved in, babe, all caved in' and 'Hammer falling from my shoulder, All day long, babe, all day long.'*

Kehrberg and Keith write that their researches taught them that 'there’s a gulf between white perceptions and Black realities'. Whether for this reason or for others, the song 'Swannanoa Tunnel' has been performed and recorded in traditional, folk-revival, pop, old-timey, country, and bluegrass styles by white performers, many of whom clearly had little or no idea of the song's background and no desire to learn more. Part of ‘Somebody died, babe' is devoted to an overview of a number of these widely varying recordings, with an accompanying audio playlist culminating in thirty seconds of Bryan Sutton, playing it basically as an alternative 'Nine pound hammer'.

One paragraph from Kehrberg and Keith might be seen as capable of putting our views of old-time and bluegrass music into a different perspective from the hopeful 'Yes, we can' message of Rhiannon Giddens, quoted above. Writing of Bascom Lamar Lunsford (North Carolina folklorist, performer, and festival organiser, who did much to make the song 'Swannanoa Tunnel' widely known), they cite his commentary on a 1935 recording he made of the song:

Lunsford mentions 'Negroes' as the 'construction men' who built the tunnel and brought the song, but then emphasises that it 'has been influenced a great deal by mountain sentiment', explaining that 'where music is brought in, the mountaineer works it over and uses it to his own taste.' That is to say, Lunsford was defending the song’s shift in perspective from an incarcerated laborer in an unfamiliar place to a local wage worker or guard, a process that dramatically transformed it from a Black work song to a Southern Apartheid-era white, working-class anthem.

To me, this appears to imply clearly that this was a deplorable outcome. How is the average old-time music enthusiast, though, to react to the fact that practically all those we regard as Old Masters of old-time come within this regrettable category of 'Southern Apartheid-era white, working-class'?

One last point: Kehrberg and Keith write that in Lunsford's notes on 'Swannanoa Tunnel' for his 1953 Folkways album Smoky Mountain ballads, he 'specifically cites Sharp’s claim that "it is a variant of an old English song"', as if he had endorsed the claim. All Lunsford does, in fact, is say that that is what Sharp said (though in fact Sharp did not say that). In the comments he made about the song in 1949 for the Archive of American Folk Song, Lunsford had written: 'It’s been mentioned in some of the books that it is a variant of an old English song, but it’s definitely a work song.'

For those who can stand it, more on this point will follow in another instalment of 'A crossroads?'

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Liner notes to Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Ballads, banjo tunes, and sacred songs of western North Carolina, Smithsonian Folkways SFW40082

Ken Bigger, 'Swannanoa Tunnel', Sing Out!, 23 July 2012, 25 July 2012, 28 July 2012 (with another selection of different recorded versions)

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*I have not seen the text of 'Swannanoa Town' that Sharp took down in autumn 1918 from Mrs Julie Boone in North Carolina (it's presumably in the 1932 edition of his Appalachian collections), but if the words are the same as those sung by Jeff Davis and Brian Peters in the presentation 'Sharp's Appalachian harvest' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65aG9uJvcps, at 1h.13m), they give a stronger hint of killingly hard, prolonged labour than the words of 'Asheville Junction' do.


© Richard Hawkins

Free online banjo instruction from David Cavage - again!

Thanks to Bill 'The Moose Herder' Hartley for good news, especially for anyone in need of banjo instruction: over 200 video lessons, first published by David Cavage (left) on the Music Moose website, are now once again available, free, at https://www.freebanjolessons.org.

David was banjo-player of Hickory Project (USA), a powerhouse of a band who played several times in Ireland, chiefly at successive Dunmore East Bluegrass Festivals, and in Europe as headliners at the big La Roche Bluegrass Festival. His video lessons began appearing online in 2006, and when Music Moose closed (see the BIB for 24 May 2009) they were reorganised in a blog for the greater convenience of users. Thanks to Bill, they are now presented in a new blog, which carries a personal message from David:

I'd like to give a big THANKS to my friend Bill for creating this blog with all the old Moose banjo lessons! I thought they were gone for good, but Bill managed to download them at the time, and I'm very happy he did! All I ask of anyone, is that if they feel they have learned anything on our behalf, and feel inclined, is to donate a dollar or two to St Jude's Children's Research Hospital - https://www.stjude.org/ - here in the US, or a Children's Charity in your part of the world.

This is a comprehensive scheme of lessons, including tablatures, technical tips, miniseries on specific tunes and styles, and all aspects of playing. Bill's own introduction to the new blog is well worth reading.

Jeff Parker joins Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers

East Public Relations announce a change in the lineup of Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers (USA), who fans here saw at Omagh a year ago. Founder member Mike Terry is leaving to return to the construction business and spend more time with his family. Replacing him on mandolin will be Jeff Parker (second from left, above), highly regarded as picker, singer, and entertainer from his time with the Lonesome River Band and his twelve years as a vital part of the Dailey & Vincent band, with whom he played at Omagh in 2011. Read more on the East Public Relations press release, and John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

Update 15 Oct.: East Public Relations send this illustrated report of the 'new' band playing a house concert in Indiana. Contact details are included.

Oldtime Central Fall Oldtime Gathering, 13-15 Nov. 2020

The editors (who are also the complete staff) of Oldtime Central (OTC) announce in their latest e-newsletter that after the success of their online festival during the summer, they are presenting their Fall Oldtime Gathering a month from now (13-15 Nov.):

We have put together a staff of some of our personal favorite oldtime musicians, just like last time, but we're hoping to make this weekend in November more than JUST a weekend of workshops on your screen - we have added opportunities for jams, meet-and-greets with the staff, spaces to socialize, and an Alexander Technique workshop for musicians. Trying to replicate the community aspect of an in-person weekend in a virtual space isn't easy, but we're up to the challenge!

The full programme of events can be seen here. All workshops will be recorded, so those taking part can access the videos from any workshop they’ve signed up for, and go back later to dig deeper into the material at their own speed and convenience. You can register for the Gathering here.

As in-person interviews have been impossible this year, the editors have been interviewing their favourite old-time musicians live on Facebook. Videos of the interviews (with tunes) are now on the OTC website and YouTube channel and can be reached via links on the e-newsletter.

New fiddle-tune book for banjo by Lluís Gómez

Lluís Gómez and his Barcelona Bluegrass Band became firm favourites with audiences at the much-missed Johnny Keenan Banjo Festivals. Since those days Lluís, the band, and the Barcelona scene have lost none of their momentum (see, for instance, the BIB for 24 Aug. on his recent duet album with Jean Marie Redon).

His latest production is Banjo picking tunes: fun solos to play, published by Mel Bay as a book with online audio, and comprising forty-seven tunes (many of them Irish in origin), all arranged for 5-string banjo in standard G tuning. The full list can be seen on the Mel Bay web page and on Bluegrass Today. The price is $15.99 for a hard copy book, or $10.99 for an e-book.

More banjo honours

This is Hall of Fame Week at the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City. As the COVID-19 crisis prevents the Museum from having a regular induction ceremony and celebration this year, every day this week one of the new Hall of Fame members is being interviewed by Johnny Baier, the Museum's executive director, starting today (Mon. 12 Oct.), and rounding off (Fri. 16 Oct.) with a coast-to-coast road trip of the USA, visiting each of the inductees and presenting their induction ceremony from their hometowns. Four of the five new members belong to the bluegrass world.

The programme will include special guest appearances by Dolly Parton, Tony Trischka, John McEuen, Jason Skinner, Bill Dendle, Shelley Burns, and many others. It and the daily interviews will be watchable on the American Banjo Museum's YouTube channel, where an eighteen-minute interview with Geoff Stelling of Stelling Banjos is already up. The full list of inductees for 2020 is:

Gary 'Biscuit' Davis: 5-string performance
Ed 'Fast Eddie' Erickson: 4-string performance
Don Reno: Historical
Geoff Stelling: Design and manufacture
Roger Sprung: Instruction and education

Short bios, prepared by the Museum, are in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today. Fans in Ireland will remember Gary 'Biscuit' Davis from when he came over here as banjo-player with the Nation and Blackwell Bluegrass Band in 2014. The BIB shows (above right) the cover of Roger Sprung's 1963 LP Progressive bluegrass; he had an incalculable influence as one of the earliest and most enduring bluegrass banjo players in the New York region, and as a link between the bluegrass world and the urban folk revival.

Steve Martin Banjo Prize: five winners in 2020

On 20 August the BIB reported on the new organisation and new title of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, which from now on will not be confined to bluegrass, old-time, or the 5-string banjo. This year, in view of the unprecedented circumstances, the $50,000 prize money is divided among five recipients.

Thanks to Rolling Stone for the news that an official presentation will be made on the FreshGrass Festival’s virtual #FreshStreams event, which starts at 8.00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The five honorees are:

• Jake Blount
• Catherine 'B.B.' Bowness
• Matthew Davis
• Gerry O’Connor
• Buddy Wachter

Thanks to Devon Leger of Hearth Music for a very informative press release on Jake Blount, including two performance videos, and a third video focused on his custom-built six-string banjo.

PS: More information, including photos of all the recipients, is now in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today. A feature by Stacy Chandler is also on No Depression.

World Virtual Flatpicking Contest winners

Following the BIB post of 21 Sept., Steve Kaufman (USA) sends the results of the first World Virtual Flatpicking Contest, held under the auspices of the Institute of Musical Traditions (IMT). The forty entrants included pickers from Canada, Italy, England, Sweden, and Australia. The winners were:

1st: Brennan Ernst - $500
2nd: Aubrey King - $400
3rd: Daisy Kerr - $300
4th: Eric Wiggs - $200
5th: Adam Miller - $100

Finalists and raffle winners can be seen here - one of the latter is Kathy Barwick, award-winning Californian multi-instrumentalist, who has toured several times in Ireland. Dates and details will soon be announced for the first World Virtual Bluegrass Banjo Contest, to be held next month. Much more information on online flatpicking instruction is on Steve Kaufman's website.

Sacred Harp Singers of Dublin: forward with safety

Following on from their announcement a week ago, Sacred Harp Singers of Dublin (SHSoD) met on 9 Oct. to discuss how to organise continuing singings, in accordance with the government's 'Resilience and recovery 2020-2021: Plan for living with COVID-19'. (A recording of the meeting is available from SHSoD.)

In addition to the COVID-19 attendance form, which should be downloaded and completed by anyone intending to attend a singing session, SHSoD have added a 'Singing safely checklist' to their website, listing procedures that will be carried out before, during, and after singings. They announce:

Our future singings will be run in line with these documents. The health and safety of our singers is extremely important to us, and we thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Bunratty Castle on Bluegrass Today

As a reminder of the great days of live shows, here's a photo of Seth Mulder & Midnight Run (USA) playing to the packed audience in the Main Guard of Bunratty Castle on Saturday 18 January this year, when they were headlining the bluegrass section of the 21st Shannonside Winter Music Festival. Your editor is somewhere near the far door.

This is now the cover photo of the band's Facebook, and it's also the photo at the head of John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today, where you can see a video of them playing a fine original song by Seth. This was among the material submitted to IBMA as part of their application to showcase at this year's World of Bluegrass.

News from Gold Tone

The Gold Tone Music Group announce that this month's giveaway is a GT-500 Banjitar - what used to be called a banjo-guitar, and what the Deering company now call a '6-string banjo'. At least one 5-string banjo player has already painlessly 'converted' an instrument of this type into a real 6-string banjo, simply by putting a banjo 5th string in the 6th-string position, with a railroad spike at the 5th fret; and tuning the 5th (guitar) string down to G from A and the 1st string down to d from e, thus creating a 5-string with an extra G an octave below the 3rd. Custom-made necks for this tuning have been experimented with by Sonny Osborne and J.D. Crowe.*

Gold Tone also offer a curly maple armrest in gloss or satin finish, suitable for all 11" or 12" rims with 16, 18, or 24 brackets, at $39.99, a good deal less than other wood armrests on the market. See more on this Gold Tone release.

*Update 12 Oct.: Check out this video, where Jake Blount conducts a guided tour of his custom 6-string banjo, and says he finds the extra string 'incredibly useful' and wishes he had it on all his instruments.

Virtual Red Hat Club meeting TONIGHT

Paul and Anne McEvoy, organisers of the Red Hat Acoustic Music Club, announced yesterday:

Hi, all. Red Hat tomorrow [i.e. today] Friday 9th. Hopefully we will hear some songs. Looking forward to the night. Take care and keep safe. We will have to look after one another.

This will be another virtual meeting of the Club, In normal times the Red Hat meets on the second Friday of every month at the Harbour Hotel, Naas, Co. Kildare. Music starts around 8.30 p.m.; a donation of €3.00 covers coffee/ tea and sandwiches at the interval.

Roscommon County Line now in limited-edition CD

Following upon the news that appeared on the BIB on 28 August, Bandcamp announce that Roscommon County Line, the latest album from Dublin's Mules & Men, first released as a digital album at €10 or more, is now available as a limited-edition CD (87 copies), in a Digipack with full artwork (see front cover image, right), at €12 or more. This includes unlimited streaming of the album via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Orders are shipped out within two days. Both the digital album and the CD+digital package can be sent as gifts.

'Bill Monroe's ol' mandolin' celebrated TONIGHT on Facebook

Lorraine Jordan of North Carolina, leader of her band Carolina Road, visited Ireland three years ago and played at the 2017 Ardara Bluegrass Festival and other venues with the Garrett Newton Band. She is known as one of the most business-focused people in bluegrass - clearly shown in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today last Monday, which includes a music video of the song 'At Lorraine's', about her musical coffee house in Garner, NC.

Earlier this year Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road released their latest album, Bill Monroe's ol' mandolin. The title track is now #1 on the Bluegrass Unlimited National Bluegrass Survey for October, and the band is celebrating with a special concert tonight (Fri. 9 Oct.), which will also be streamed live on the Coffee House's Facebook. More detail is on this Pinecastle Records press release. The BIB strongly recommends this YouTube video of the song.

Our venues need support

Everyone's favourite venues are closed and facing difficulties at present, doing their best to keep going and put together programmes for future enjoyment. Displayed above and below are images from just three of the venues that have been good friends in the past to bluegrass and old-time music by putting on visiting bands and artists - the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre in Naul, Co. Dublin; the Hawk's Well Theatre in Sligo town; and St John's Theatre & Arts Centre, Listowel, Co. Kerry. Your own local music venue, wherever it is, deserves support.

Live streams from Leixlip continue!

Thanks to Pat Burgess of Leixlip's Rye River Band, who sent word on 11 May of the Rye River Band Acoustic Live Stream gigs which he and his son Matt had begun hosting. Pat now reports:

Just to let you know that the Saturday Live Streams are continuing from our home in Leixlip. We are playing acoustic versions of Rye River Band songs along with my own compositions, and my son Matt contributes songs also. We have been trying to improve the presentation overall. So I'm including a Youtube link from our latest stream - an acoustic version of Tom Petty's 'Free fallin''.

The Live Stream Collection can be viewed from this link: https://www.facebook.com/ryeriverband. I'm sure, like yourself, we are missing live performances. Stay safe and kind regards.

The same to yourself, Pat!

Dobro™ lessons online from Jerry Douglas

Modern Music Masters Inc. announce a new course in their programme of online instrument tuition: 'The resophonic guitar with Jerry Douglas: a guided tour towards learning and mastering the Dobro™. The master (right) says in his introduction:

I created this course for three different reasons:

• To give beginner reso players a solid start by teaching foundational skills
• To share insights with experienced players that can fix any bad habits they may have acquired
• To offer fans of reso guitars an inside look at how it’s made and how it’s played

'The Resophonic Guitar' serves as a stand-alone tutorial, and a perfect introduction to The Jerry Douglas method, my upcoming comprehensive course.

There's a 2:45-minute introductory video on the website, and a list of fourteen sections, each with its constituent lessons, some of which can be previewed free of charge. The regular price is $249, but for a limited period there's a special 10% discounted price, $224 (Tennessee residents pay a little more on both prices). See also John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.