#bluegrass banjo

[rocketbirdie]

🎵bow wow wow, bow wow wow, he's a good boy who never stops~🎵

[thatbanjobusiness]

What piece of bluegrass do you think best fits the description of "banjo music plays menacingly in the distance"?

After months sitting here being like, "I need to think of a better answer..." I suddenly remembered.

Oh duh.

Banjo Odyssey, The Dead South.

Not prototypical bluegrass but people can eat my Scruggs rolls, this is a fantastic answer.

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

6 SONG SOUNDTRACK (PART 3 - BLUEGRASS)

Rules: If you're tagged, make a new post with links to music and/or lyrics describing the following: 1. An event that defines your character's past 2. How your character sees themselves 3. How others view them 4. Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic) 5. A major fight scene 6. End Credits song

This is a very special mixtape. Today would've been my dad's 69th birthday (nice, pops) and in honor of him, this playlist comes from his personal record collection. I cannot stress enough that this man was a deeply closeted bisexual from Chicago who rode a horse exactly once and hated it the entire time. He was the farthest thing from a cowboy you could possibly get, excepting, of course, the loads of pot he smoked (and dealt), but god damn did he love him some country music. So here's to you, Mongo. This is the soundtrack for the gayass cowboy stoner action comedy epic you'd insist you only like for the soundtrack … kinda like how the Mapplethorpe flower print in your living room was 'just because you liked the flower.' <3

Spotify || Youtube music ||Part 1 - Disco ||Part 2 - Post-Punk GothRock

1 THE DOOBIE BROTHERS - Steamer Lane Breakdown [instrumental]

It's always about the leaving with Zell - running away from 'home' in Ustalav was the first huge decision he made for himself. He looks back on leaving with fondness, it was a moment of true joy, a wild and boundless freedom he hadn't felt in a long time.

2 EMMYLOU HARRIS - Born To Run

Well, I take the chances, sometimes I made mistakes But you don't get nothing unless you take the breaks Living is dangerous as dynamite Sure it makes you feel nervous, but it makes you feel alright Makes you feel alright

He's ambitious, but not so much competing with anyone else as competing with himself; finding out who he really is. He's impatient to find out what living really feels like.

3 GREGG ALLMAN - Midnight Rider

And I don't own the clothes I'm wearing And the road goes on forever And I've got one more silver dollar But I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no Not gonna let 'em catch the midnight rider

Zell's stories of being a wanderer travel as far as the rest of his more imposing reputation; the idea that he's a criminal on the run (not… 100% untrue), a vagabond and roving lover (also not 100% untrue he just didn't believe anyone else was as serious about him as he could have been about them) are romantic ideas that really catch on among the general public. He doesn't disabuse people of this, because he digs how cool it makes him sound and not like. A kinda pathetic loser who's terrified of commitment.

4 THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND - Heard It In A Love Song

I'm the kind of man who likes to get away Like to start dreaming 'bout tomorrow today Never said that I love you even though it's so Where's that duffel bag of mine, it's time to go

I've always interpreted this song in a playful tone, like the singer has no intention of actually leaving. He's teasing the idea, but knows he's already so far gone that there's no way he's finding anything better down the road; after a certain point, Zell gets the same way. It takes the right kind of person to keep him off the road.

5 NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND - Foggy Mountain Breakdown [Instrumental]

Zell can't count how many bar fights he's gotten in when this exact song was playing on the jukebox but it's enough that he has something of a Pavlovian reaction to it now.

6 WILLIE NELSON - Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die* (Feat. Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Jonson)

When I'd go, I'll have been here long enough So sing and tell more jokes and dance and stuff Just keep the music playing, that'll be a good goodbye Roll me up and smoke me when I die

One of the most exciting things about finding yourself and falling in love with life is accepting the end will come, and making sure it'll be a damn good party when it does.

*Our outsider track of the list - it came out a few days after Dad passed. This one's close to my heart for that reason especially. We did in fact smoke out and play this at his memorial, it was a wonderful goodbye. I'm getting high as hell at this very moment, in his honor.

[folk-enjoyer]

Suggested Song

"900 Miles" Terry Callier, 1968

origins under the cut

the origins of this song are a bit unclear. No one knows who first wrote it or some specifics with its origins. 900 miles is related to the traditional southern song, "Reuben's train," written sometime after 1860, based on the Reuben Wells Locomotive.

the earliest example of the song in print (that i could find anyway) was in 1913, from the journal of American folklore. somewhat similar to the song that Terry Callier covers. I've seen some references to the song being dated to the very early 1900s and late 1800s, so this song is older than 1913.

the first recording of the song (that i could find) was in 1924 by Fiddlin' John Carson "I'm Nine Hundred miles from home"

and in 1927 by Henry Whitter and G. B. Grayson "train No.45"

a common title for this song is Train No. 45 (which is usually just the instrumental version for the reuben train song), which is confusing because the reuben wells is actually referred to as no. 35, but maybe they changed it in the 20s because that was when the California Western Railroad No. 45 was built. I'm not really sure.

Many of the folk artists who covered this song and the music anthologists who collected have credited to hearing it from black singers originally like woody guthrie and Alan Lomax (p.245). Alan Lomax talks about its different versions in different southern states and its history as a labor song for Sharecroppers and convicts who were both white and black.

and Folklorist Norm Cohen talks about its use and connections to black folklife here (p. 502-518).

and it's featured here in the album, "Before The Blues Vol. 2 (The Early American Black Music Scene) 2016"

based on Alan Lomax's account, it seems that the 900 mile version was popularized because of Woody Guthrie's version in 1944

This song is incredibly famous and has been covered by many other traditional and revival folk artists, including: Cisco Houston (1950-1953), Odetta (1963), Barbara Dane (1961), Richie Havens (late 1960s?) and Bob Dylan (1967).

one of the most popular versions of the song "500 miles" was written in 1961 by Hedy west and is a much newer adaptation of the traditional song, it also has a much more cheery melody and fast tempo compared to the somewhat sullen "900 miles". it has been covered many times by country and folk revival artists like: the journeymen (1961), The Kingston Trio (1962), Peter Paul, and Mary (1962), and the Brothers four (1963).

the version by Terry Callier was recorded in 1965, but his folk album wasn't released until 3 years later in 1968. when he released his first album, "The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier." 900 miles was the first song on the tracklist and the album combined elements of traditional folk/blues as well as jazz. he takes traditional songs and re-imagines them with a fresh pair of eyes that makes this folk album stand out from the multitude of others at the time. While it's considered a cult classic today, it seems like it may have not performed very well monetarily considering how long it took to release and how every other Terry Callier release is completely different.

still, even though this was only his first album, and his genre and style diverged pretty heavily from this first album, it remains to me, one of the best things to come out of the folk revival scene, and 900 miles by Terry Callier will remain the best cover of the traditional labor song.

for user @paulkleefishmagic

[no-0ne-0f-consequence]

After reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I just want to say how happy I am to know that after the apocalypse we will still have bluegrass music. When all other traces of our lives have been washed away in the violent fall of civilization, the fiddle and the banjo will not be defeated yes I know there is no banjo in the book. Our societies may be temporary but bluegrass is eternal.

[dustedmagazine]

Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, Cleek Schrey — Beehive Cathedral (Dear Life)

Three Appalachian traditionalists infuse old songs (and one new one) with a sprightly freshness in this joyful outing. The fiddles wail, the banjo stings, the pump organ drones in a dense mesh of music that lives and breathes as if it was just dreamed up, though of course, it wasn’t.

The three are Joseph Decosimo, a champion banjo player and a blue-ribbon winning fiddler and a devoted interpreter of Tennessean musical lore, whose While You Were Slumbering Dusted reviewed in 2023. “Decosimo’s arrangements are spare and rich at the same time, paring songsdown to the bone then cushioning them with subtle harmonies, breathy drones of pump organ and fiddle,” I wrote then, and it’s even more true now, given the addition of Luke Richardson and Cleek Schey, two like-minded music foragers.

Luke Richardson is a master of clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo, a teacher and performer (alongside Decosimo) with the string band known as the Bucking Mules. Cleek Schrey, who plays the deep-toned hardanger d’amore here, teaches music at Princeton and sometimes explores the more experimental side of his stringed instrument in collaborations with David Behrman and Alvin Lucier. On this occasion, however, he sticks mostly to the old ways, looping velvety dark swathes of fiddle over dancing pizzicato and laying a meditative aura of pump organ over “Rockingham.”

Decosimo pays tribute to Clyde Davenport in opener “Betty Baker,” a gleeful barn dance whose two fiddles move in and out of the music like square dancers stepping lightly without colliding. There’s a lilt and a joy to it, as the regular cadence of banjo marks out time amid lush, sustained strings. The song is one of many that Davenport taught Decosimo before he died in 2020; he’s learned many of them from his father, born in 1868.

Richardson brought in “Can’t Jump Josie,” a sunny ramble of banjo that he first heard on old field recording set to tape in Alabama, just over the line from Tennessee. These songs, in general, predate modernity (and electricity), but the trio gives them lively, organic relevance, without changing them much, if at all.

There is one new song in “Chimes,” which Richardson wrote while experimenting with a custom-built six-string banjo he inherited from the late Thomas Jackson. It’s a short piece, all banjo, and indeed, a good deal more modern sounding than anything else on the disc. It leads directly into “Cluck Old Hen,” however, another jumping, heel-kicking interval of rural pre-war celebration. Which is, maybe the point, that there’s joy and life in these old songs.  You may not have a hen or a barn or a pig in your life, but when the fiddles start up, your toe still starts to twitch.

Jennifer Kelly

[gratefulfrog]

Happy Birthday, Dr. Ralph Stanley (February 25, 1927 - June 23, 2016)!

[banjofilia]

Don Reno

[anarcho-karlachism]

I made a mixtape for when i'm playing 76.

[thefreaklovesmusic]

Appalachian Anarchy - Banjo Bloodbath

[kenobihater]

acquired a new parasocial nemesis: winston marshall. he's a far-right shithead, he was the banjoist for the worst popular folk band i've ever heard (mumford & sons), AND he's english. pick a fucking struggle bitch. anyone saying he "made banjo respectable" is clearly confusing "respectable" with "soulless yet slightly more mainstream". he's also quoted as saying jazz is the lowest form of art on his wikipedia page so he can fuck off <3

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Béla Fleck - “Unidentified Piece for Banjo”

The Library of Congress found it and Béla Fleck got the first crack at George Gershwin’s “Unidentified Piece for Banjo.”

A solo piece, it finds Fleck demonstrating his peerless playing style - three distinct parts are audible from this one guy - while allow the composer’s personality and environment to shine through the decades-old music.

It’s out to announce Fleck’s Rhapsody in Blue, which arrives Feb. 12, 2024, the 100th anniversary of the title piece premiering in New York City. It contains three versions, “Rhapsody in Blue(grass),” recorded with My Bluegrass Heart; “Rhapsody in Blue(s)” with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Victor Wooten; and a traditional performance with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Fleck handling the piano parts on banjo.

“I had never heard anything like it – it was love at first listen,” Fleck says of his first exposure to “Rhapsody.”

Fans might feel the same way about “Unidentified Piece for Banjo,” which rounds out the LP alongside “Rialto Ripples.”

Grade card: Béla Fleck - “Unidentified Piece for Banjo” - A

12/15/23

[uttotheegg]

maturing is finally appreciating the “ugly” or “cheezy” instruments for the wonderfully crafted works of art they are and the skilled artists that compose for and play them.

[muirneach]

moshpit at the tradfolk concert