Chris Pandolfi on Deering Live TONIGHT (18 July)

The Deering Banjo Company announce that Chris Pandolfi, banjo-player with the Infamous Stringdusters, will be interviewed on episode 91 of Deering Live today, and can be watched there or on YouTube at 11.00 p.m. Irish time. He will be talking about (among other things) the influence of Earl Scruggs's banjo playing and the 'general vibe' of Flatt & Scruggs.

Deering also draw attention to ProPik Heritage fingerpicks, endorsed by Chris Pandolfi and replicating picks used by Earl Scruggs; and to their Golden Series of banjos, designed to reproduce the qualities of the 'golden era' of Gibson instruments.

© Richard Hawkins

For banjo devotees

Thanks to Conor Daly, banjoist and set-up master, who writes:

I received my Purcell bridges a few weeks ago from Tim Purcell in North Carolina. He sources both new and old woods to craft a very fine line of banjo bridges. I ordered two, one called 'Old Shop Maple Nr 1' and another called 'Old Gym Floor Maple'; of those, the second one seemed to bring out the best of my Prucha Pioneer, which I received late last year.

The stock bridge was doing a super job but I felt that the instrument had more to offer, so I took the plunge and after reading the descriptions of all the products on offer on his website, I narrowed it down to those two. It's really got everything a player is looking for: great responsiveness, volume to spare, and just the right balance of note separation and sustain. Here's a short clip of it on my Prucha [above]. If you're in the market for a bridge upgrade, you could do worse than checking out the website http://www.purcell-banjo-bridges.com/

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On the Deering Banjo Company blog, David Bandrowski interviews US banjo maestro Hank Smith of Hank, Pattie & the Current and Billie Feather, the Current's guitarist (both of whom took part in the first Dublin Bluegrass Collective jam session of 2023 - see the BIB for 3 Jan.). David Bandrowski writes that they:

... worked together to arrange the traditional fiddle tune 'Blackberry blossom' using classical arrangement techniques. This arrangement was originally made for 5-string banjo and classical guitar but here guitarist Billie Feather is using a Deering Solana Six 6-string banjo.* We asked the pair questions on how they went about arranging this tune in this style. Read the interview and get some ideas for your playing!

* Or 'banjo-guitar', as it was once called. A four-minute video of them playing the arrangement is on YouTube. The Solana is strung with classical guitar strings; on another video (three minutes), they play a similar arrangement with Billie on a regular classical guitar.

© Richard Hawkins

Tuners: more banjo stuff

The Gold Tone Music Group announce the addition to their range of a limited stock of Cheat-A-Keys D-tuners (right) at $199.99 a set. These can be fitted to a banjo without any prior modification to the instrument. See the Gold Tone website for full specifications, plus their press release. Bela Fleck contributes a 20-second promotional video, while Jim Pankey has a 16-minute video demonstrating D tuning and showing Cheat-A-Keys as well as Keith tuners. Cheat-A-Keys are also available from (e.g.) Banjo Ben Clark's store at a similar price.

© Richard Hawkins

New banjo damper from Gold Tone

Not an inverted chocolate marshmallow, but the latest accessory for open-back banjos: the Gold Tone FitsAll Banjo Damper ($49.99), which not only does away with the need for hand towels, t-shirts, and other objects stuffed inside the instrument to modify tone and volume - it controls overtones, is easily fitted or removed, and can be adjusted to fit between the dowel stick/ perchpole or inner coordinating rod.

It comes with two extension adapters, allowing a variety of heights between one inch and two-and-a-half inches, and a handy container. Clawhammer player Rebekah Weiler, using one of the new Gold Tone High Moon banjos, demonstrates the FitsAll damper in a video on the Gold Tone web page (also on YouTube).

© Richard Hawkins

Detached notes

Dailey & Vincent, who headlined the 2011 Omagh bluegrass festival in 2011, when they were in full award-winning mode with their outstanding vocals, now announce their latest album, Let's sing some country!, which is due for release on 16 Sept. 2022. More details, together with links to pre-ordering facilities and to audio and video tracks, are on their press release. See also John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

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The BIB has previously mentioned the presentations on banjo history by Bill Evans, and it is now announced that his The banjo in America, a 65-minute DVD/CD set from the Old-Time Tiki Parlour (featuring nineteen songs and medleys played on ten different instruments, and showing developments in banjo construction, music, and playing styles over the last two-and-a-half centuries or more) can be bought for $19.99 from the Old-Time Tiki Parlour or autographed from Bill's website for $24.95.

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The Deering Banjo Company announce a new limited edition of instruments: their Goodtime Bronze Banjos, consisting of the Goodtime Openback (11" head), Goodtime Americana (openback, 12" head), and Goodtime Two (resonator), all with a gold-rubbed bronze powder finish on the hardware - extremely durable and low-maintenance, and also 100% hypoallergenic - and a special inlay pattern. This collection (featured on Bluegrass Today last Friday, 15 July) will only be available to the end of the summer.

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The ProPik® company, associated with Deering, announce their new ProPik® Heritage Fingerpicks, based on a set of Nationals that Earl Scruggs used to record 'Pike County breakdown' in 1950. The history of these iconic picks, and full details of the new issues (priced at $14.00 per pick) is on the lProPik® website.

These picks are of course aimed at fingerpickers with a sense of history. Flatpickers who look to the future will welcome ToneSlabs, plectrums made of a new and specially developed material. Three shapes of flatpick are now on offer; a thumbpick is being developed. See John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

Update 20 July: Much more detail on the new ProPik® range is given by John Curtis Goad on Bluegrass Today.

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In 'No Depression’s best roots music albums of 2022 (so far)', bluegrass-related music is represented by Crooked tree from Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and Good and green again from Jake Xerxes Fussell (who played this year's Kilkenny Roots festival and other gigs). No Depression also carries Henry Carrigan's review of Bob Black's book Mandolin man: the bluegrass life of Roland White, published by the University of Illinois Press.

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Just under a year ago the BIB recommended Dave Berry's major two-part interview of Kathy Kallick on Bluegrass Today because it was such a good picture of the musical life and experiences of an important figure in our music. Similarly worth reading is Claire Levine's interview on the Bluegrass Situation, 'Kathy Kallick honors her mother's legacy while establishing her own'. The interview includes five audio tracks from Kallick's album of songs she learned from her mother, with stellar guest artists, plus a YouTube recording of 'I can't stand to ramble' from the Good Ol' Persons.

© Richard Hawkins

Detached notes

On the Deering Banjos blog, David Bandrowski introduces a video (also on YouTube since January) of Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi performing 'I shall not be moved', a song that became an anthem of the civil rights movement in the USA during the 1960s. She links the song with her experience of learning from the African-American fiddler Joe Thompson, and both of these to the principles of purpose, service, and community.

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Ken Perlman (USA), master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo, announces that the next two online live instructional banjo workshops in his 'Clawhammer Clinic' series will be 'Playing Celtic reels with taste and authority, clawhammer style' on Mon. 21 Mar., and 'Playing in the key of D from open G tuning (gDGBD)' on Mon. 11 Apr., together with a reminder of the last chance to register for the Suwannee Banjo Camp this coming weekend (12-13 Mar.).

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For upright bass players faced with the lasting difficulty of lugging the thing around, have a look at Bluegrass Today where John Curtis Goad draws attention to the R.C. Williams Company, designers of music accessories, and two of their recent products. The dbl Bass Buggie™ is a pair of wheels with handle and harness to fit any bass from 1/10 to 4/4 size. The Amazing Bass Stand doubles as a comfortable chair to use while practising, and can take a load of up to 500 lb. Similar stand/chair items are also made for guitar, banjo, and fiddle, and we imagine that dobros, mandolins, and their players would probably find that these suited them as well.

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'Little Roy' Lewis had his eightieth birthday two weeks ago (see the BIB for 24 Feb.), and is very much alive. Much more about him and his foster-daughter Lizzy Long (photo below) is in the Mountain Home Music Company press release for Welcome to the show, the new album by the Little Roy and Lizzy Show, which is due out on 29 Apr. and can be pre-ordered.
PS: Their new single can be heard on Bluegrass Today and YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

Picking and sliding from Black Mountain

Thanks to the Bluegrass Standard online/ print magazine for an advertisement feature from the Black Mountain company, famous for their innovative thumb-pick design. The Black Mountain pick, usable both for flatpicking and fingerpicking, was the first to incorporate a hinge and a spring. The inventor, Cole McBride, has now brought out the steel Black Mountain® Slide Ring, which also incorporates a spring, making it possible to play slide guitar while retaining the use of all the fretting fingers. Prices are on the Black Mountain website; the Bluegrass Standard remains, as always, free.

© Richard Hawkins

US news - mainly about past visitors (update)

The Steep Canyon Rangers, who were the very last US bluegrass band to visit these shores before the disruption of transatlantic tours, announce that their Winter Camp will be held on 22-24 Feb. 2022 at the Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard, NC (the town where Béla Fleck's Blue Ridge Banjo Camp will be held six months later; see the BIB for 6 Jan.) for three nights of limited-capacity, intimate outdoor shows. Tickets can be bought here. More details are on the band's latest e-newsletter and a press release from Mountain Song Productions.

Update 12 Jan.: Following a rapid take-up of tickets, the Steeps have added Monday 21 Feb. to their Camp; see this e-newsletter.

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Lindsay Lou and her band the Flatbellys from Michigan toured in Northern Ireland with great success in 2015 and 2016. The band no longer exists, but their former mandolinist, singer, and songwriter Joshua Rilko, now based in Nashville, has just released a double EP, combining Lost soul, with five bluegrass songs, and Rock and roll, with six. The lively 'Homeward bound', the last track on Lost soul, can be heard on Bluegrass Today and on YouTube.

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Ken Perlman, godfather of 'melodic clawhammer banjo', announces that he will be the featured artist interviewed this week on Deering Live. As with all such interviews, this is the opportunity of the internet audience to send in questions for Ken about clawhammer banjo technique, the banjo scene, running banjo camps, touring with fiddling great Alan Jabbour, collecting tunes and oral histories from traditional fiddlers on Prince Edward Island, life on the road, or anything else.

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For the discriminating user of flatpicks, Nik Monnin's Apollo Picks are made in many different shapes and sizes and in three different materials: the organic-based casein and two plastics, polyetherimide (PEI) and polyetherether ketone (PEEK), all with their own characteristics. Reviews (including videos) and FAQs are on the Apollo website, where Monnin writes about his PEI picks: 'if you have been feeling guilty about using tortoiseshell, then here is a guilt-free alternative.' See also John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today for endorsements by bluegrass masters.

© Richard Hawkins

Banjo-related news (addendum)

The board of directors of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and the IBMA Trust Fund board of trustees voted unanimously on 8 December 2021 to pass a joint resolution recognising Sonny Osborne (above) for his work as a founding member of the IBMA and IBMA Trust Fund and his great contributions to bluegrass music. The full text of the resolution is on the IBMA press release.

The BIB recommends (again) the documentary video 'A Kentucky treasure: the Osborne Brothers story', and - for a special focus on Sonny - the two-and-a-half-hour video interview with him by Tom Riggs in 2009 as part of the International Bluegrass Music Museum's Oral History project. Sonny's face is always worth watching.

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Nearly ten years ago (28 Feb. 2012) the BIB drew attention to two YouTube videos of stage performances by J.D. Crowe and the New South, which (especially the second) gave clear views of J.D.'s hands while playing. Anyone who liked these should also visit this video on the Bluegrass Music Channel - fifty minutes of J.D. bringing out the tone of three different banjos at a private session in the late 1980s, videoed in close-up.

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A special 'Happy holidays' greeting from the Deering family and the Deering Banjo Company can be seen here.

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Ken Perlman announces that the complete programme schedule for the next Suwanee Banjo Camp (10-13 Mar. 2022) is now online.

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Tom Nechville announces that a number of Nechville Musical Products' elegant and innovative banjos have recently been shipped to dealers and may still be available. The list of dealers, with photos of the varied banjo models concerned, can be seen here.

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Much interest has been aroused among banjo players by the advent of Rickard Cyclone 10:1 tuning pegs with their unique gearing system. A comprehensive review of this product by John Lawless on Bluegrass Today makes clear why, in his concluding words, 'We have to rate these tuners as first rate, excellent in every way.'

The review begins by stressing that at between $205 and $225 for a set of five tuners, the Rickards are a premium product. To put this in context, the Beacon Banjo Company, founded by the late Bill Keith, sells its highly regarded standard tuners at $130 a pair in stainless steel; its D-tuners (the celebrated 'Keith pegs') are $260 a pair.

Addendum: Rickard Cyclone 10:1 tuners are also fitted to the high-quality guitars which the company is now producing.

© Richard Hawkins

More news from past visitors

Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers announce that their merchandise now includes some new items: a 'Joe Cool' T-shirt pattern, the Country faith bluegrass compilation album by A-list artists, plus a free hand sanitiser with every purchase. Plus, you can book to ride in the same bus with the band on a five-day tour from Nashville to Branson, MO, in early April 2022. Full details are in their latest e-newsletter.

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Becky Buller, who toured Ireland earlier this century as a member of Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, released The Christmas 45 last Friday (26 Nov.), comprising two new holiday tracks: 'The box' (which she co-wrote with April Verch) and 'Mary rocked her baby', featuring the Fairfield Four. More details, and photos, are on the Dark Shadow Recording press release.

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Things she couldn't get over, the latest album by Dale Ann Bradley, is reviewed highly favourably by John Curtis Goad on Bluegrass Today. All ten tracks can be heard on Apple Music, and 30-second samples of all of them are in a playlist at the end of the review.

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Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver played their final show at the Station Inn, Nashville, on Saturday night, where David Harvey of Gibson Mandolins (and himself a fine mandolinist) presented the maestro with a new Bill Monroe Hall of Fame Gibson F5 mandolin, worth about $25,000. John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today includes four photos, a video of the presentation, and two performance videos from the evening.

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(Also on the subject of expensive kit, Bluegrass Today features the new Paige Pro capo with Enhanced Tone Innovation. The first into production are for acoustic 6-string guitar, expected to be ready early next year at $230; they can be pre-ordered now for $200. Models for banjo and 12-string guitar will follow. The price reflects a great deal of thought in design, materials, and manufacturing processes.)

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Fred Kosak of the Stillhouse Junkies, who should have toured Ireland eighteen months ago (see the BIB for 20 Nov.), has had a custom Yamaha FG guitar built for him. An interview, in which he gives his detailed requirements for an instrument, can be read here. A video of the Colorado trio in action, with the new guitar, is on YouTube. Thanks to the Bluegrass Situation online magazine for the news.

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Darin and Brooke Aldridge, recent headliners at Omagh, have a new single on Billy Blue Records: 'He's getting me ready', featuring the Oak Ridge Boys gospel quartet. A video of the single (which is on their latest album, This life we're livin') can be seen on Bluegrass Today and YouTube. Powerful singing and picking.

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The '2021 No Depression Guide to Holiday Music That Doesn’t Suck' (sic) includes the albums On this Christmas day by April Verch and Joe Newberry (see the BIB for 3 Nov.) and We Banjo 3's A winter wonderful.

© Richard Hawkins

Get a neck like Béla's! (and other banjo stuff)

The BIB doesn't really regard the tenor as a banjo; but this is Ireland after all, and the player above is Tristan Scroggins, who last played in Ireland as mandolinist with Chris Jones & the Night Drivers two years ago, after several previous tours with his father's band Jeff Scroggins & Colorado. Since then he has devoted himself to instruction, to writing (receiving the 2021 IBMA Writer of the Year award), and to playing the tenor banjo, a vintage Paramount.

The results can be heard on his new eight-track solo album One-ring circus, which the BIB warmly recommends - don't miss reading the notes on Bandcamp. The only fault in this recording is that Tristan's 'Angeline the baker' ends after just under two minutes, and there really is no good reason to stop playing 'Angeline', especially when it sounds as good as this. The album (and much more) is discussed on a Fretboard Journal podcast.

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Speaking of vintage tenors, John Lawless reported two days ago on Bluegrass Today on an auction coming next week in Germany of fine tenor banjos from the 1930s, with illustrations which, in his words, are 'pure banjo porn'.

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As a by-product of their meticulous development of the Mastertone™ 'Bluegrass Heart' Béla Fleck signature model 5-string banjo (see the BIB for 10 Sept. and 17 Oct.), which is scheduled for release early next year, the Gold Tone Music Group announce that mahogany banjo necks identical with those on the new model are now available. Among the features are a wider, radiused ebony fingerboard, ZeroGlide nut, jumbo frets, and Béla's custom inlay pattern. Prospective buyers should note that no hole has been drilled in the neck for a fifth-string tuner, and the heel needs to be cut to fit the pot of the buyer's banjo, which can be done at the factory for an extra charge.

The price of the new neck is $749.99. Gold Tone state: 'This neck will enhance the low and midrange frequencies of any Mastertone-style pot and can help you achieve a fuller and more expressive tonal palette.' A heart-shaped clip-on tuner is also available, designed (like the banjo) to meet Béla Fleck's requirements.

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The next two Zoom lessons in the new season of banjo 'clinics' by Ken Perlman, godfather of 'melodic clawhammer banjo', are on melodic fingering shapes in open G-tuning, up to the ninth fret (15 Nov.), and 'Techniques of the great 20th century roots clawhammer banjoists' (6 Dec.). The latter ties in with the talk Ken will be giving tomorrow (6 Nov.) at the 24th Annual Banjo Gathering in Williamsburg, VA. The talk is entitled 'Banjo rappers: comparing & contrasting styles of some well-known pre-"revival" 20th-century downpickers', a category that includes Tom Ashley, Fred Cockerham, Kyle Creed, Rufus Crisp, Hobart Smith, and Wade Ward. All Ken's previous lessons are available as videos at $25 each from his Encore Collection.

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The 52nd weekly newsletter from Bluegrass Unlimited magazine includes (among other good things) a focus on the late Bill Emerson, with a 37-track Spotify playlist selected from recordings over his long career. There is also the first in a special series of web-based articles on Bill Emerson; BU judged that 'With a career in bluegrass that lasted over sixty years, we feel that a single article in the print magazine would not be sufficient to address all of Bill’s influence and accomplishments.' The first article consists of tributes and memories from many prominent banjo-players who knew him, and is immensely informative.

© Richard Hawkins

B.B. Bowness on Deering Live Shorts

Last month the award-winning New Zealand-born banjo-player Catherine 'BB' Bowness, who has toured Ireland several times as a member of the award-winning Mile Twelve (thanks to John Nyhan) was featured and interviewed on Deering Live. The Deering Banjo Company announce that four themed excerpts from the interview can be watched on Deering Live Shorts or on YouTube.

Deeting also send a reminder that they supply banjo parts for replacements or upgrading, including wooden armrests, tailpieces, tuners, and bridges.

© Richard Hawkins

Tony Trischka on Deering Live TONIGHT (29 July)

The Deering Banjo Company announce that the featured artist on Deering Live tonight will be Tony Trischka, outstanding as banjo performer, composer, mentor, and communicator, as well as being a Deering artist. Deering announce (links added by BIB): 'In this episode, we delve deep into Tony's current album, Shall we hope. We will also talk about the ArtistWorks platform and how it can help you become a better banjo player.' The interview can be watched live on YouTube at 11.00 p.m. Irish time.

Shall we hope was reviewed on Bluegrass Today last month by Tabitha Agnew Benedict (see the BIB for 9 June).

Deering also feature their range of banjo heads, which now includes a Skin Tone head in 11" size, giving a sound intermediate between Fiberskyn and Renaissance, at $50.

© Richard Hawkins

For the 21st-century fiddler

More info from FOAOTMAD today: Sue Taniguchi of Taniguchi Violins in Brixham, Devon, south-west England, is now selling Incredibows, made of carbon fibre, in an assortment of colours (right) at £125 each. She also re-hairs traditional wooden bows with Incredihair, a polymer filament that, by report, never wears out.

An independent assessment of the Incredibow can be seen on YouTube. Full details are on the Incredibow website. Sue Taniguchi can be contacted by 'phone (+44 01803 858739) or e-mail. Does any BIB reader know of an Incredibow supplier in Ireland?

© Richard Hawkins

Banjo setup tips from Nechville

Tom Nechville of Nechville Musical Products (also on Facebook) sends advice on adjusting the truss rod on a banjo to correct action that has become either too low or too high because of changes in atmospheric humidity, causing problems in playability or intonation.

For any banjo players wishing to adjust the action on their instruments, Tom provides the flow chart above (click to enlarge), plus a detailed twelve-minute video on the setup page of the Nechville website, where there are seven other videos dealing with technical issues, as well as other advice.

© Richard Hawkins

Microphone placement for banjos - 7.00 p.m. TODAY

Deering Banjos announce that today (Thurs. 18 Mar.) they will host online a conversation with John Jennings (vice-president of Royer Labs, specialists in ribbon mikes) and Matt Coles (studio engineer at Compass Sound Studio) to discuss all aspects of getting the sound of a banjo through a microphone and out the other end, if possible sounding even better. Questions can also be put to both panelists. The discussion can be watched here.

A banjo pretty comprehensively refurbished

On Saturday (27 Feb.) the Deering Banjo Company sent out an e-newsletter with the lead article entitled 'Watch us refurbish Hank Smith's banjo in 4 minutes!' You can read the article (by Jamie Latty) on the Deering blog and watch the video there or on YouTube - and yes, the process takes four minutes, with Hank expressing his appreciation in the remaining minute of the video.

It fits into that time thanks to time-lapse photography, of course, because the refurbishment of Hank's Maple Blossom was a transformational process. In addition to the usual dissassembly, overhaul, thorough cleaning, reassembly, new strings and setup, the banjo was given a new head and a customised wooden arm-rest; was refretted with stainless steel frets; and, most of all, had its Deering 06 tone-ring replaced with the Jens Kruger tone-ring, cast in a Swiss bell foundry. Its owner was more than satisfied.

© Richard Hawkins

'More light!' (Goethe)

The BIB editor writes:

Thanks to the European Bluegrass Music Association Facebook for drawing attention to Light Up Your Banjo, a Dutch company that designs and builds lighting systems to fit inside or around a banjo pot. A player can control the display during performance, using a switch attached to the banjo sling.

The system was demonstrated in 2012 at the Banjo Camp Munich (see this YouTube demo). The website shows fifteen other videos of different light patterns that can be chosen to fit particular songs.

Before plastic banjo heads were invented, some players would instal an electric bulb inside the pot to warm and tighten the skin head before a performance, but Light Up Your Banjo have raised this utilitarian concept into an art form. I once contemplated putting a flash unit inside my banjo, to mark the end of a set, but never thought out a reloading system. No doubt Light Up Your Banjo could do this, if they haven't already.

Gold Tone 2020 gift guide

The Gold Tone Music Group have issued their 2020 holiday gift guide, conveniently arranged in groups of items under $25, $50, $100, $200, and $500. Banjoists should note the new Gold Tone curly maple armrests (right), which are claimed to fit banjos with 11" or 12" rim and 16, 18, or 24 brackets. At $39.99 they are (as far as we know) the lowest-priced wood armrests on the market. However, Gold Tone are selling direct during the pandemic, so ordering direct from the US will add the cost of postage.

Gold Tone also announce some interesting new products coming in 2021, including a 'FitsAll Universal Instrument Stand', and a High Moon open-back 12" banjo with Dobson tone ring.

Tray Wellington on Deering Live TONIGHT

Deering Banjos announce that tonight (Thurs. 12 Nov.) the young award-winning banjo player Tray Wellington will be featured on Deering Live at 6.00 p.m. EDT.

You can send in questions by e-mail, and watch the interview here. Last week's feature with John Kavanaugh of Kavanjo Pickups - discussing different types of banjo pickups, how they work, how they are made, and how to use them to the best advantage - can also be watched on YouTube.