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Boyd1 - Posted - 09/17/2009: 10:42:38
Yeah RG, sure. You can have as many as you like thanks to the story about Rufus Crisp getting his banjo handed to him by Uncle Dave. I'd never heard that. But then I get to pick George Landers. Why? I like that old man stuff too. And his playing is psychedelic.
Oh, and I might as well pick Pete Steele while I'm at it. Why? Shoot. If you gotta ask, you'll never know.
Who is Gene Conley? I must have missed that day in school.
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Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
RG - Posted - 09/17/2009: 14:02:22
Boyd...no fair playing the George Landers card...psychedelic is right, I challenge anyone to pick out a tune using his timing and controlled chaos and even get close. I already picked Pete, but heck, you can too, could listen to his version of "Last Payday at Coal Creek" over & over.
Gene Conley is an Ozark banjo player whose dad was Bye Conley...heard him (Gene) from some tapes my uncle made in the late 70's I think when he (my uncle) was living in Thayer Missouri or thereabouts...pretty cool stuff. Bet RD has some stories about Bye & Gene...
And how could I miss Hobart Smith!!!! Ashamed about that...
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A banjo picker walks into a restaurant after a jam and realizes that he forgot to lock the car doors with his banjo in the back...he runs out to the parking lot and back into the restaurant 1 minute later sobbing hysterically...the waitress asks "Did someone steal your banjo?"...to which the banjo picker replies..."It's even worse than that…now there are 2 banjos in the back seat!"...
Steve Donnelly - Posted - 09/17/2009: 14:35:30
This month, I'd say Paul Brown.
smd
Boyd1 - Posted - 09/17/2009: 14:39:59
Whoops. I overlooked and stepped on your Steele pick. Ok, therefore I'll go Ernest Thompson. Why? Whistlin' Rufus. And.., Johnny St. Cyr...
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Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
Edited by - Boyd1 on 09/18/2009 00:18:09
RG - Posted - 09/18/2009: 12:35:20
Boyd...OK, you got me...Johnny St. Cyr...a master! Who else is there...oh wait, Gus Cannon & Fred Van Eps!!! This is like a can of pringles, I can't just pick one!!!
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A banjo picker walks into a restaurant after a jam and realizes that he forgot to lock the car doors with his banjo in the back...he runs out to the parking lot and back into the restaurant 1 minute later sobbing hysterically...the waitress asks "Did someone steal your banjo?"...to which the banjo picker replies..."It's even worse than that…now there are 2 banjos in the back seat!"...
black flag - Posted - 09/18/2009: 15:17:39
Live people--John Herrmann
Jami108 - Posted - 09/18/2009: 19:01:38
Well, you had to know I would say George Landers. And, yes, "psychedelic" definitely gets it. The recordings of him do this thing where they sound different every single time you listen to them.
Jami
"When you want genuine music—music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whiskey…ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose—when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!" - Mark Twain
Boyd1 - Posted - 09/19/2009: 16:26:22
Ikey Robinson
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Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
brokenstrings - Posted - 09/19/2009: 18:54:45
Not a single woman player?
Well, my favorite is Dock Boggs, but that doesn't necessarily make him my hero.
Jessy
Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!
handsup8 - Posted - 09/19/2009: 21:02:23
Nathan Frazier
Handsup8
RG - Posted - 09/19/2009: 23:10:42
Live people Dan Gellert...because he plays like an old guy...
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"Mark it a zero Dude!"
mainejohn - Posted - 09/20/2009: 06:41:39
Three pages of heroes and no Earl Scruggs? (unless I missed something). Perhaps it's because he's such an obvious candidate.
As for me, I have several, and they all play longneck Vegas.
Cheers,
John Coleman
Scarborough, Maine
riverstein - Posted - 09/20/2009: 14:34:32
Dock Boggs and Banjo Bill Cornett for their originality and intensity. Mike Seeger and John Cohen for documenting them --and for their own great contributions as musicians.
Jami108 - Posted - 09/20/2009: 16:57:25
New one for the day: Fred Cockerham. I took one of those "conscious naps" this afternoon while listening to the Field Recorders Collective Fred Cockerham CD. I think it rearranged my molecules.
Jami
"When you want genuine music—music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whiskey…ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose—when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!" - Mark Twain
dgill - Posted - 09/20/2009: 17:03:20
Jim Reed because of his timing, style, and his great prewar banjo and also because I feel he is a real family man.
LEUllman - Posted - 09/20/2009: 22:35:42
Heck, and here I thought they had finally come out with a new version of Guitar Hero for the PS3 and XBox, this time with a plastic banjo controller -- your choice of Vega openback or Gibson resonator. Play along with hits from Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, Flatt & Scruggs, The Camp Creek Boys, the Skillet Lickers, and many others.
Hey, it could happen!
“The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -- Mark Twain
Edited by - LEUllman on 09/20/2009 22:37:57
Mainechowder - Posted - 09/21/2009: 02:49:33
quote:
Originally posted by janolov
Uncle Dave Macon
.
Jan-Olov
I would have to second this nomination. Not because Uncle Dave is "the best" banjo player ever, but he represents everything I consider " Banjo". In my opinion, it's all about having fun and making people smile, and no one does that like Uncle Dave. I can truely respect all the outstanding players out there that make your jaw drop, but they don't make me feel happy like Uncle Dave.  Don
Edited by - Mainechowder on 09/21/2009 02:52:58
Kentucky5 - Posted - 09/21/2009: 06:00:53
Ralph Stanley
"You can see the fields of bluegrass where I roam"
Banjo75 - Posted - 09/21/2009: 10:44:30
Pete Seeger. His banjo playing helped me through a nervous breakdown and inspired me to also play the banjo. His America's Favorite Ballads are the first thing on my MP3 player.
............................................................
I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody. - Pete Seeger
banjoike - Posted - 09/21/2009: 12:07:46
Here's one vote for Dave Guard of "The Kingston Trio.
ChuckS - Posted - 09/21/2009: 19:22:11
Pete Seeger is my hero in ALOT of ways.
robmac07 - Posted - 09/28/2009: 22:06:27
The late Mike Seeger.
He was one of my first inspirations in the early 60s, played such a variety of old time styles and his passion for old time music is beyond question.
Rob McCarthy
Boyd1 - Posted - 09/28/2009: 23:54:07
Whoa! I hadn't heard that Mike Seeger died. I was on vacation.
R.I.P. Mike Seeger BANJO HERO. Thanks for all the help.
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Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
witty banjo related username - Posted - 09/28/2009: 23:55:40
quote:
Originally posted by brokenstrings
Not a single woman player?
Matokie Slaughter - So awesome that she was immortalised on the freight trains of America by Margaret Kilgallen Lily Mae Ledford - How could you possibly question that? I would probably include Retta Spradlin (If you haven't heard her, do! Her banjo playing can only be accurately described using the phrase "friggin' awesome"), if I could only tolerate her singing If you ain't right, get right.
witty banjo related username - Posted - 09/28/2009: 23:58:20
Virgil Anderson, Vess Ossman, Dink Roberts - The more I think, the more there are.
If you ain't right, get right.
Jami108 - Posted - 09/29/2009: 04:16:40
But Retta Spradlin is one of my favorite vocalists, WBRUN!
Jami
"When you want genuine music—music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whiskey…ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose—when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!" - Mark Twain
uncledaveh - Posted - 09/29/2009: 07:10:16
Uncle Dave Macon - for pure entertainment value!!
Hot dog!!
David "Uncle Dave" Holbrook
The Rockdale Ridgerunners
"Now good people, we're going to play this next tune with more heterogeneous constipolicy, double flavor and unknown quality than usual! Make it light on yourself."
whyteman - Posted - 09/29/2009: 08:31:11
I would like recognize Allen Hart of Seattle. Plays in a variety of styles and this is impotant to me, he is equally captivating to listen to as a soloist or in the stringband setting, usually with Kerry Blech. I wish he didn't live so far away from me.
Of the honored deceased, Pete Steele is spellbinding.
Sometimes my reason for getting up in the morning is to hear Paul Brown read the news. I guess that counts.
Don.
(surprised nobody has picked Hartford)
Haul off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve.
fiddler57 - Posted - 09/29/2009: 12:01:07
Reed Martin
Alan Hill - Posted - 10/01/2009: 00:41:28
Kathy Fink is also one of my favorites a great entertainer and Cathy more also great ladies and players !
alan
Steve Donnelly - Posted - 10/01/2009: 18:54:19
quote:
Originally posted by brokenstrings
Not a single woman player?
Well, my favorite is Dock Boggs, but that doesn't necessarily make him my hero.
Jessy
Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!
Ok, Cathy Moore, Rebekah Weiler, Bailey Cooke smd
Edited by - Steve Donnelly on 10/01/2009 18:57:59
MitchellB - Posted - 10/01/2009: 19:43:47
Hard to pick a favorite, but Fred Cockerhan, Tommy Jarrell, Kyle Creed and David Holt would have to rate at the top, but I got to give Ralph Stanley, Charlie Poole, Dave Akeman and Lewis Marshall honorable mention.
Mitchell
INFP47 - Posted - 10/02/2009: 14:45:53
Pete Seeger. In the late 30's through the early 50's the 5-string banjo was not widely known outside the south. Pete brought the banjo to the rest of the US and in the late 30's and early 40's was,arguably, the best professional 5-string player in the country. Pete Seeger and the Weavers were nationally renowned before most of the US even heard bluegrass. So many of us old-time players were inspired by Pete or by someone else who was inspired by Pete.
Tim
"I never met a banjo I didn't like."
"It's a snare drum on a stick" - Riley Baugus
jbalch - Posted - 10/03/2009: 20:30:28
Great responses on this thread! Like lots of you, I have so many "heros". It is not possible to mention everyone who has influenced my love of this music and informed my playing.
But one name near the very top of the list is John McEwen. John is special to me because of a 1973 NGDB concert performance of Mountain Whipporwill and his recording of Soldiers Joy (with Earl Scruggs on the "Circle" album). Those introduced me to clawhammer...and gave me the irresitable urge to to play.
PS: Mary Z. Cox...thank you for the incredibly kind words. I know you love the music just like I do. That is evident in your records and performances. I really appreciate the way you spread the old-time banjo gospel! You are a very big influence on many...many players today! Keep up the great work!
www.johnbalchmusic.com
www.myspace.com/johnbalch
Isaac Enloe - Posted - 10/04/2009: 22:03:37
Wade Ward!
"There's more to think of than y'all's thought of, ain't it?"
-Paul Sutphin
Ronnie - Posted - 10/05/2009: 16:00:29
The reason Earl Scruggs and/or Bobby Thompson weren't mentioned is-This is the claw hammer/OT section!
www.bobbythompsonbanjo.com
Jay Close - Posted - 10/06/2009: 09:37:11
DEE-wight Diller: for the power and passion of his playing; for the depth of his teaching; for his admonition to find your own music within.
pernicketylad - Posted - 10/10/2009: 15:00:53
Stumbled on this thread late.
My vote is for Dan Gellert.
There are three types of people in the world.....those who can count and those who can't!
panthersquall - Posted - 10/10/2009: 18:55:53
For me, it's a tie between Dirk Powell and Richie Stearns. Dirk, because of "Near and Far", "Rueben" and "Pretty Polly" - Richie because he's like the Jimi Hendrix of banjo.
"F# is the new G."
willwhite - Posted - 10/14/2009: 05:52:28
Dwight Diller
Julian44_4 - Posted - 10/14/2009: 08:39:21
Peggy Seeger, Derroll Adams, Tom Paley, Sara Grey.
Fishrrman - Posted - 10/14/2009: 18:11:40
I'd have to say Pete Seeger, as well.
Two men essentially saved the five-string banjo from extinction in American music.
Pete was one of them. And everyone here knows who the other one was.
- John
P.S. Another [almost unknown] hero of the old-time: Uncle John Scruggs!
BanjarBilly - Posted - 10/15/2009: 19:43:47
Mike Seeger he made me aware of some many styles and was so diverse. Amazing to see he play.
moz1527 - Posted - 10/18/2009: 19:38:56
Dwight Diller
Bob
Easy Come Easy Go
Uncle Sinner - Posted - 10/20/2009: 11:25:15
Frank Lee, for the sheer glory of his funkiness.
RedZinger - Posted - 10/24/2009: 01:54:01
Here's another vote for Dan Gellert. He's got unique sound, super interesting rhythm and dynamics, and tons of soul.
Rob
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