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Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/182221
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paco_rumblefish - Posted - 07/08/2010: 09:01:04
I’m new to clawhammer and am fairly sure this question is too vague, but here it goes. Who should I be listening to? I don’t know where to start.
jazz-phil - Posted - 07/08/2010: 09:22:33
In no particular order for a range of contemporary players.
Adam Hurt, Ken Perlman, Michael J Miles , Mark Johnson, Walt Koken, John Balch and Dan Levenson are all great players with very different styles. At least four of them are also members of the hangout.
There are far more knowledgeable people on the forum to advise on vintage players so I'll leave that to others.
tomberghan - Posted - 07/08/2010: 09:26:49
1) Go to the Jukebox
2) Here is the web address: hangoutstorage.com/jukebox.asp...yer%2Easp
3) If you like a recording, download it, if you don't like it, press the "next" button.
4) There are LOTS of top drawer banjo players right here on the banjo hangout . . . lots of just-learning-banjoists too . . . but many, many great players. And if you really like a banjoist, you can send them a note and become friends with them. Welcome to the Banjo Hangout!
Bill Rogers - Posted - 07/08/2010: 09:30:09
Individual tastes vary, but this is a good list. Others will add to it. Google the players to find tunes. Easiest to start with is Donald Zepp, all on the internet. YouTube channel is Zeppmusic. His playing is excellent and he has some other excellent players listed. Others, in no particular order: Reed Martin, R.D. Lunceford, Cathy Fink, Walt Koken, Tommy Jarrell, Ken Perlman....The list could go on. Read about each one because their styles are different. Get the late Mike Seeger's CD (or DVDs) Southern Banjo Sounds; it has multiple styles, including several clawhammer approaches. The source that is often cited as triggering the clawhammer revival is the County 3-CD set (reissued and expanded from the old LPs) Clawhammer Banjo, with multiple traditional players, all long gone.
RatLer - Posted - 07/08/2010: 09:32:03
Welcome to the Hangout!! Start here on the BHO juke box "old-time styles". BHO members: Dan Levenson, Old Woodchuck and Zepp among others, have great training books and videos. Check out "u-tube" videos for Stringbean, Grandpa Jones, Ralph Stanley....You've come to the right place...
Bill Rogers - Posted - 07/08/2010: 09:38:55
I forgot, and no one else has mentioned, the videos of Tom Collins, "FretlessFury" on BHO and YouTube. Both playing and some excellent instructional videos, the latter some excellent ones on Round Peak style (q.v.) and the first of a planned series on the unique (and superb) playing of Walt Koken.
Bill Rogers - Posted - 07/08/2010: 11:58:05
Also forgot a player who's a must to listen to, though few if any can play as he does: Howie Bursen, the king of the triplets.
clawhammerjunction - Posted - 07/08/2010: 12:16:26
Let's not forget....Jim Panky...and check out Tim O'Brien.
un5trung - Posted - 07/08/2010: 12:41:59
- John Balch
- Riley Baugus
- Laura Boosinger
- Gaither Carleton
- Bob Carlin
- Fred Cockerham
- Chris Coole
- Mary Cox
- Kyle Creed
- Dwight Diller
- Dan Gellart
- Rhiannon Giddens
- Cathy Fink
- John Hartford
- Roscoe Holcombe
- David Holt
- Tommy Jarrell
- Walt Koken
- Brad Leftwich
- Dan Leveneson
- RD Lunceford
- Reed Martin
- Bruce Molsky
- Arnie Naiman
- New Lost City Ramblers
- Ken Perlman
- Mike Seeger
- Matoktie Slaughter
- Kirk Sutphin
- Uncle Earl
- Wade Ward
- Abigail Washburn
- Gillian Welch
- Linda Williams
- Oscar Wright
Some collections:
- Clawhammer Banjo (three volumes), the County Records collection that includes Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Oscar Wright, Matokie Slaughter, Gaither Carlton, Wade Ward, et alia.
- Old Time Banjo Festival -- with Laura Boosinger, Bob Carlin, Cathy Fink, Dan Gellert, David Holt, Adam Hurt, Reed Martin, Bruce Molsky, Arnie Naiman, Mike Seeger, Bob Smakula, et alia.
- Banjo Gathering -- Scott Ainslie, Steve Baughman, John Cohen, Alice Gerrard, Gordy Hinners, Brad Leftwich, John McCutcheon, Rafe Stefani, Bob Thornburg et alia.
- The Old Time Mountain Banjo -- Frank Jenkins, Charlie Poole, Clarence Ashley, Bascom Lamar Lumsford, Buell Kazee, Coon Creek Girls et alia.
- Close to Home: Old Time Music from Mike Seeger's Collection, 1952-1967
Plus:
- Stay all night . . . and Don't Go Home (Jarrell/Cockerham/Wright)
- Down to the Cider Mill (Jarrell/Cockerham/Wright)
- The High Lonesome Sound (Roscoe Holcomb)
- An Untamed Sense of Control (Roscoe Holcomb)
- Down to the Cider Mill (Jarrell)
- Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways
mojo_monk - Posted - 07/08/2010: 13:19:22
quote:
Originally posted by un5trung
- Clawhammer Banjo (three volumes), the County Records collection that includes Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Oscar Wright, Matokie Slaughter, Gaither Carlton, Wade Ward, et alia.
un5trung - Posted - 07/08/2010: 16:44:24
quote:
Hey! . . . Don't forget Bo Bo Crossroads!
tomberghan - Posted - 07/08/2010: 17:03:11
quote:
Originally posted by un5trungquote:
Hey! . . . Don't forget Bo Bo Crossroads!
I'll bite -- who is Bo Bo Crossroads?
dlc - Posted - 07/08/2010: 17:29:13
Don (Donnie) Herron is an up-and-coming clawhammer player. He's mostly known for his fiddle and steel work with BR549 and Bob Dylan, but he's getting more and more studio calls for frailing sessions in Nashville and movie soundtracks in LA. He's good!
Edited by - dlc on 07/08/2010 18:05:02
un5trung - Posted - 07/08/2010: 17:47:38
quote:
Sorry . . . I got carried away in all the excitement!
I made him up.
Edited by - un5trung on 07/08/2010 17:50:25
Coonskin - Posted - 07/08/2010: 20:10:03
The living tops in my book: Dan Gellert, Reed Martin, Al Hart & John Herrmann. Not only are they excellent players, but they sound like what they're supposed to sound like.
Some of the the legends: Fred Cockerham(more tunings than one man should have), Tommy Jarrell(a shockingly great banjo player if you see him mainly as a fiddler), Uncle Dave Macon(his clawhammer was sick), Roscoe Holcomb(yourube his BLACKEYED SUSIE), Walter Williams, and countless others.
witty banjo related username - Posted - 07/08/2010: 22:17:35
Rufus Kasey, Dink Roberts, Thaddeus Willingham, Fiddlin' Uncle Jimmy Banjowski, Uncle Dave Macon needs to mentioned at least twice, J.P. Nestor, and Mr. C. O. Thers.
Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 07/08/2010: 22:45:47
quote:Man that Bo Bo! Met him once...sold his soul to the Devil just to learn that clawhammerin' technique! What an artiste!
Originally posted by tomberghan
Hey! . . . Don't forget Bo Bo Crossroads!
Coonskin - Posted - 07/09/2010: 00:27:56
Bo is truly awesome, but I think the question wasn't "can you please name all the banjo players that ever existed?"!!! Hahaha... :)
The Bo video that I liked best was "Chilly Winds"...how he got that Bb min7 chord in between the E#dim and the Fb maj is way beyond me!!!
Other than that, the Field Recorder's collective Fred Cockerham is the bee's knees...
RatLer - Posted - 07/09/2010: 04:45:41
Coonskin wrote: "Uncle Dave Macon(his clawhammer was sick), "
My clawhammer may be sick but I don't think Uncle Dave's was....OK, well, maybe if he spent too much time with the "Red Liquir"....
banjoak - Posted - 07/09/2010: 05:52:21
Great list. But a few things to consider:
Listening to solo banjo recordings versus banjo played with fiddle or in a band. The solo stuff is great, but different.
Especially in modern recordings, the playing is often much more unique and complicated. And the list includes much of the best it can be from players that have been at it for a long time. Simpler versions just rarely make it to CDs.
Many of those unique versions might be hard for even an intermediate player to pull off at a jam.
So for a beginner, those are great to listen to for how good it can be, a long term goal, but you might also want to listen to some more straight forward playing on recordings where the banjo isn't doing anything so genius, but has a genius in how it in a simple way supports the overall sound very well. IMO that ability is what gives the foundation that leads to great playing.
My question would be who to listen to for that plays simple but solid.
mojo_monk - Posted - 07/09/2010: 07:07:08
quote:
Originally posted by banjoak
Great list. But a few things to consider:
Listening to solo banjo recordings versus banjo played with fiddle or in a band. The solo stuff is great, but different.
Especially in modern recordings, the playing is often much more unique and complicated. And the list includes much of the best it can be from players that have been at it for a long time. Simpler versions just rarely make it to CDs.
Many of those unique versions might be hard for even an intermediate player to pull off at a jam.
So for a beginner, those are great to listen to for how good it can be, a long term goal, but you might also want to listen to some more straight forward playing on recordings where the banjo isn't doing anything so genius, but has a genius in how it in a simple way supports the overall sound very well. IMO that ability is what gives the foundation that leads to great playing.
My question would be who to listen to for that plays simple but solid.
un5trung - Posted - 07/09/2010: 08:36:31
I hear you -- as it were. If I'm enjoying music bands and jams are great. But if I'm studying clawhammer (or really any other instrument) I prefer to hear it isolated from other instruments.
I really do understand the counter argument -- that one can understand the role of the banjo by listening to the Boiled Buzzards that one can by listening to Dan Levenson "barenaked," to paraphrase a title from one of his solo albums. It is a sensible argument and I can't find fault with it.
But for the sake of learning my personal preference is to listen to the banjo on it's own.
Here's an analogy: The painter wants to draw a likeness of Sister Sue. The artist doesn't have access to the person herself so s/he can choose either to use family photographs or portraits of the subject. To get understanding of Sister Sue in context the family photos are useful. But to see get Sister Sue up close and personal the portraits are the best tools.
Of course there is a third argument: using both the family photos and portraits (bands and solo works) really brings out the best in Sister Sue.
stigandr5 - Posted - 07/09/2010: 13:39:48
And I think Sister Sue deserves to have her best brought out.
un5trung - Posted - 07/09/2010: 14:25:41
quote:
And I think Sister Sue deserves to have her best brought out.
Bill Rogers - Posted - 07/11/2010: 22:21:06
We all forgot to ask Paco just what he has in mind to play--fiddle tunes, vocal accompaniment or both. You'd want to listen to different players for each. I think you should listen to the solo stuff for ideas of the possible and ensemble material for context. Once you have basic techniques down, though, I'd listen to fiddlers to get the tunes (assuming fiddle tunes are what you want to play).
Alan Hill - Posted - 07/11/2010: 23:49:02
Chris Coole , Frank Lee , Kathy Fink , Clawgrass, so many good ones and most on thge hangout !
ZEPP - Posted - 07/12/2010: 04:01:39
quote:
Originally posted by Joe Newberry
No one has mentioned Paul Brown, so I will.
notserp89m - Posted - 07/12/2010: 22:03:45
High Atmosphere. It's a CD. Purchase it now. It's not all claw but that doesn't matter.
un5trung - Posted - 07/13/2010: 09:27:06
This link has a roster of the tracks and artists on High Atmosphere:
cduniverse.com/search/xx/music...Tunes.htm
Chris Dean - Posted - 07/13/2010: 23:57:15
Here are some WV clawhammers to check out:
Tim Bing
Dave O'dell
Andrew Dunlap
Jimmy Costa
Ben Townsend
Jim Mullins
John Morris
Bob Smakula
Franklin George
Jenes Cottrell
Sylvia O'Brian
Doc White
Kim Johnson
Gerry Milnes
John Blisard
Ron Mulleneux
Dave Bing
~Chris
Jim Yates - Posted - 07/14/2010: 07:47:07
When I find a musician on the Hangout whose music I like, I always check out the Favourite Bands/Musicians section of their home page. If Cathy Fink or Chris Coole... likes him/her, then I'd better give a listen.
Many of my favourite musicians were discovered from reading the liner notes on another musician's album. I bought a Norman Blake album after hearing him on John Hartford and Kris Kristpherson albums.
Edited by - Jim Yates on 07/14/2010 07:47:33
Sallygoodin - Posted - 07/15/2010: 20:28:53
quote:
Originally posted by clawhammerjunction
Let's not forget....Jim Panky...and check out Tim O'Brien.
The BellyCaster - Posted - 07/16/2010: 07:23:18
Go to Mike Iverson's clawhammer page. bluesageband.com/Tabs.html
Lots of solo recordings. Tab also.
Mike is a truly amazing banjo player.
Bruce
handsup8 - Posted - 07/17/2010: 22:57:03
Jason Romero's pretty darn good, and I don't think that I see his name. The Haints recent cd is great. He make's a mighty fine banjo too!
I'm a fan of JP Harris, from Brattleboro Vermont, who made a great record with the "Flat Iron String Band" and they've got YouTubes up.
Seth Folsom plays a mean banjo, including all the fine work on The Crooked Jades "Shining Darkness." He's a BHO member and banjo builder as well.
Paula Bradley is an awesome banjo player, having played with the Rhythym Rats (on guitar and vocals), with the new Uncle Earl on banjo, and with partner Bill Dillof and the amazing Vermont fiddler Jim Burns as "Run Mountain" on banjo, banjo uke and feet.
MandolZinn - Posted - 07/18/2010: 00:45:58
dan gellert's fiddle playing, fred cockerham's fiddling, tommy jarrell's fiddling, bruce molsky's fiddling, dirk powell's fiddling...
none of their banjo playing's half bad, either...
I'm a pretty firm believer, though, in listening to fiddlers more than banjo players to learn.
My favorites (banjo-wise) to listen to, though: dan gellert, frank lee, kyle creed, fred cockerham, john hermann, mark olitsky, richie stearns and dirk powell... and then non-banjo favorites: hoyt ming, carter brothers and son, leake county revelers, roane county ramblers, the kessinger brothers and kilby snow.
{ ª }
Couchie - Posted - 07/19/2010: 11:59:34
I don't know if anyone as mentioned them but: Lilly May Ledford, Rufus Crisp, Pete Steel, Sydna Myers, Cousin Emmy, Mac Benford, Cathy Moore, John Cohen, Michael Cooney.....
Big Doug Nez - Posted - 07/19/2010: 15:14:03
Chris Berry who is on the hangout as banjochris is one of my favorites. Here is a link youtube.com/watch?v=lStFkj1U0F...e=channel
un5trung - Posted - 07/20/2010: 06:46:07
quote:
I didn't see anyone list bho's Mary Cox.
Joven - Posted - 07/20/2010: 11:29:01
And of course,
Please don't leave out these great banjo players, clawhammer of course:
STEVE MARTIN
DAVID HOLT (davidholt.com)
TOM CHAPIN (tomchapin.com)
JOHN MCCUTCHEON (folkmusic.com)
MIKE IVERSON (bluesageband.com)
and of course me,
IVAN CAMACHO
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