This post is dedicated to all the banjo enthousiasts, including myself, who love the instrument and want to explore and study the old-time styles of playing. This recordings, taken from the library of congress huge collection, were recorded between 1937 and 1946 and represent all kinds of pre-Scruggs picking styles, from down-picking (clawhammer is the term more employed) to various two and three finger-pickings. The sound on most of the tracks is very raw but i'm sure you'll enjoy this important historic collection. I've put pictures of the booklet in the zip file as it brings historical notes, banjo tunings and great pictures of the performers...
8 comments:
Very nice. Do you have a any banjo soloes by Harry Reser? I heard him on "Broke Down Engine" but the band just get in his way, if you know what I mean.
I think i had a nice compilation issued by Yazoo records but i think i lost it. Anyway it's a very different kind of banjo style and i'm more oriented toward old-time, appalachian banjo...
I think it is only in the 1930s that banjoes became exclusively a folk instrument untill then it was also common in popular music.
What other "pop" musicians played banjo in the 1920s?
Hey, thanks so much for posting this!
Your Blog is Phenomenal. Please Please Please keep up the good work.
Wow, thanks! I'd been searching around for this for several weeks, and now here it is. Very nice.
the most famous 4-string banjo player (the pop-jazz version of the instrument) was Eddie Peabody:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Peabody
i prefer the old funky modal rural styles myself, though. and a few of the guys you can find on grown-so-ugly.blogspot.com are really fantastic. and of course don reno, bill keith, tony trischka, and bela fleck for the bluegrass meets jazz, pop, classical, world, and whatever-else-have-you...
thanks by the way
Thank you very much for sharing this great music!
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