[pharewellphish]

Does anybody know: is a resonator something which is removable from a banjo, or is it a different instrument from an open back banjo?

ive seen banjos with removable resonators too. i think deering makes one. it snaps on and off pretty easily

[vwjodyme]

stupid deal of the day on musiciansfriend is a hard shell banjo case for 29.99

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid

[Pete B.]

Pete, you should bring your banjo to the 3rd-Thursday-of-the-month unplugged bar floor jam at Biddy McGraw's...( oh crap I just realized my next gig is 3rd Thurs of next month ).

I'll have to check it out... I see that the 3rd Thurs of Feb is the 17th.

Pete, I would love to hear you play "Looks Like Rain" (or anything Dead) on the banjo.

I've yet to make a banjo vid. My vid hobby has been on the blink lately... I'll have to get back into it.

stupid deal of the day on musiciansfriend is a hard shell banjo case for 29.99
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid

'Wish I woulda got one of those... I bought one like that for $45 last fall.

[tigerstrat]

Pete, you should bring your banjo to the 3rd-Thursday-of-the-month unplugged bar floor jam at Biddy McGraw's...( oh crap I just realized my next gig is 3rd Thurs of next month ).

I'll have to check it out... I see that the 3rd Thurs of Feb is the 17th.

My mistake, my Cats gig is actually "Last Thurs" Feb 24th at Mt. Tabor. (Yea, yea, yea I did hear about "some other band" having "dibs"on Last Thurs, but I never signed off on that! Actually accepting that date was kind of a mistake too... We'll be missing a % of our core fans, but we'll also make some new ones out of fans of the other bands on our bill, TBA)

But the good part of that is that Josh and I will still be able to co-host the Biddy's acoustic thang next month. Hope you can make it.

[mijknahs]

I started playing banjo in 1997 and I have a custom clone of a Gibson RB-3. It has a JLS tonering that sounds pretty sweet. Sounds actually better than the Huber tonering I had in there before.

I mostly concentrate on Scruggs-style playing. Traditional bluegrass. Love JD Crowe.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of bluegrass players where I live (a few though) and I haven't found a good group to start a band yet.

Jim

[tcsned]

I started playing banjo in 1997 and I have a custom clone of a Gibson RB-3. It has a JLS tonering that sounds pretty sweet. Sounds actually better than the Huber tonering I had in there before.

I mostly concentrate on Scruggs-style playing. Traditional bluegrass. Love JD Crowe.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of bluegrass players where I live (a few though) and I haven't found a good group to start a band yet.

Jim

Cool! You should move to this area, can't swing a dead cat without hitting a bluegrass player.

JD is the real deal, I did sound for him a couple of years ago in a high school auditorium and got a reasonable recording. He was super nice and had a great band. Our banjoist played a couple of tunes with him.

[beyond further]

Been playing 5string since 1980 .Here is my band the Bondville Boys enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYthGJFmroM

[Pete B.]

Since the Banjo is more of an 'open D" instrument (no open low A-string, or open low E-string) I move any song in E, like Looks Like Rain, or Mellissa, to open D. If I were to play with a band in E I would have to capo up a full step.

Here's LLR in D for anyone wanting to play through it on banjo:

Looks Like Rain - D

D---------------G--B7-------------------- Em
I woke today,----felt your side of the bed
D------------------------A--------------------------Bm----Em--D
The covers were still warm where you’d been layin'.
-----------Bm--------Am---G---B7---------------------Em
You were gone, oh gone, my heart was filled with dread;
D--------------------A--------------Bm-----Em--D
You might not be sleeping here again.

Gsus4----G-------------Gsus4----G
But it's alright cause I love you,
Em------------------------C---G----D
And that's not going to change.
Em--------------------------------A----------------D-------F#sus4--F#
Run me around and make me hurt again and again.
Bm--A-----------------G
But I'll still sing you love songs,
D--------E7-----A------F#7------Bm----Em
Written in the letters of your name.
D----C---------------------G
And brave the storm to come,
--------Em---------------D-----Gsus4--G--Em--D
For it surely looks like rain

Jam at end:
D--C--G--Em

[mijknahs]

This is exactly the kind of stuff I really like:

[JonnyBoy]

you need to move where I live, up to our ears with it, but yes very cool and extremely technical banjo playing. At the Mississippi state fair every year they have trio's and quartets playing all day in the bluegrass tent. From the young hippy kids to the old school country picker guys just like the video above (which are always the best ,imo) The new stuff seems to lack the technical intricacies especially in the banjo playing and guitar. You would be in hog heaven Jim, you could sit there all day every day for two weeks until you puke up your corn dogs and salt water taffy.

[tcsned]

There's a lot of this kind of thing around here - Friday nights at the Floyd General Store, the legendary Crooked Road, Galax Fiddler's Convention, lots of backyard BBQs.

Here's another one of my favorites from this area, Wayne Henderson from Rugby, a small town just south of me. He's also a master luthier and is playing one of his guitars.
Alabama Jubilee:

[tcsned]

We've got a few more bluegrass legends int he area, this one is Butch Robbins from Radford (about 15 minutes away) - he played in Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in the late 70s early 80s. Playing with Winfield Flatpicking champ Scott Fore (I have played with him in his gypsy jazz band), and Tom Ohmson who owns a recording studio in Roanoke where Dave Matthews did his first record. That Bourgeois acoustic Scott is playing might be the nicest sounding acoustic guitar I've ever played.

[mijknahs]

I guess what I was trying to say was that I'm not much into the "melodic" or "chromatic" banjo stuff. I like the old school "Scruggs" style pickin better (like in the above vids I posted and anything JD Crowe does).

Yes, it's hard to find live bluegrass in my neighborhood and harder to find a band to play with.

Jim

[tcsned]

I guess what I was trying to say was that I'm not much into the "melodic" or "chromatic" banjo stuff. I like the old school "Scruggs" style pickin better (like in the above vids I posted and anything JD Crowe does).

Yes, it's hard to find live bluegrass in my neighborhood and harder to find a band to play with.

Jim

There's some talented guys out there that might be able to play circles around Earl even in his prime, but no one did it better. I like a lot of the more "modern" players but IMHO the old school guys are my favorites. Those guys in your vids are great, the name is familiar, are the East Coasters? They certainly don't get cheated at dinner time

The Floyd General Store Friday night jams have a lot of guys that good who just play for fun and because it's in their blood. A lot of 'em have more strings on their banjos than teeth

I'll see if I can find the JD Crowe show I recorded and post a few tunes

[Pete B.]

O.K.
I actually took m' "JamBo" out to a new jam (in my neighborhood no less) last night!
This place is pretty cool. I was actually able to sit on a couch in front of a fire-place and jam, or move up front to the main circle.

'Heard about it on Craigslist:
Every TUESDAY night we (Twisted Whistle) are hosting a Bluegrass Jam at Macadam's Bar and Grill, 5833 SW Macadam Ave. Portland, Oregon 97239. The fun starts at 9 p.m. and we will pick until midnight. Intermediate-professional level, but don't be afraid to come lead a song or just play along! We will have a dry erase board available to jot down changes so that everyone can hang in there! There is no cover charge, invite your friends!! Any instruments welcome! 21+