i was just curious how many people are fans of the different styles of banjo playing by william elliot whitmore, scott avett, and dave c. from trampled by turtles. whitmore has a very bluesy style, dave c. plays like lightning with a flatpick and scott avett has a style all his own. these guys and there groups are doing pretty good in the music industry today and have crossed barriers into a more mainstream audience with there banjos.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  18:28:58        

I think their commercial success is more because of their physical appearance, strong vocal gifts, and song writing skills. The fact they all strum a banjo like a rhythm guitar is incidental to everything else.

I'm not really a fan.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  18:58:37          

I agree with D.W....I'm trying to bring a more "bluegrass" thing to the "indie" scene. Being a person that is heavily tattooed and in that scene I was to do more of a john hartford thing. We will see how it will be received once its all worked up.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  19:17:54    

kind of agree with D.W. as well. The people really breaking new ground to me are people like Noam Pikelny, Matt Menefee, Greg Liszt, Bela Fleck continues to be a driving force in new banjo music, and a few others who are bringing the banjo into different styles of music; not just playing it like a guitar. Not to suggest that the guys you mentioned are not talented, it just doesn't do it for me I guess. Music is really so subjective though. I'd like to say that playing one way is better than another, but that isn't really the case. While the guys I mentioned may be technically more proficient than most, I only call them "better" because that is what I look for and appreciate more than the styles of those other guys. To each his/her own right? When it comes down to it, I just really like banjo music. It's all good.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  19:20:45      

Might be a little off the original topic (my apologies), but I think folk and bluegrass music is on the comeback trail and I think its driven a lot from the popularity of both blues/roots music and bands like Dropkick Murphys etc. If we look at other genres of music they all reappear over time in cycles. Unfortunately we are also at a time where 80's music and fashion is back, which to be honest repulses me as i grew up in 80's/90's, the clothes and music was crap then and it still is now lol.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  19:43:43          

I have to admit to a guilty pleasure of enjoying the Avett brothers. I have never focused to heavily on Scott's banjo playing though... It seems to fit them.

For inspiration from realms outside of bluegrass (way outside of bluegrass) I like Ian "Boog" Patton.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  19:51:30            

not I.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  20:20:47          

Oh I like The avett bros and william eliiott whitemore...but I would call them "banjo" players. I mean they play a banjo I think to be a little different it seems. Kind of annoying actually. When I see someone with a banjo I expect them to know how to use it...know what I mean?

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  20:23:32          

Wouldn't is what I meant to say... I would NOT call them banjo players.

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  21:15:08    

i wouldnt say they just strum the banjo like a guitar. whitmore has a kind of old time style, scott avett wears fingerpicks and alternates picking and strumming, and dave carroll flatpicks very very fast. i wasnt refering to there bluegrass chops, only the different directions they've taken the instrument. ultimately the banjo is an instrument and i dont think should be confined to a certain style or type of music. i was refering to it being used oudside that realm and the players who are suceeding at taking it there. like bela's awesome interpretations of jazz and african styles, its nice to hear new sounds come from the ol' banger

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  21:49:18          

this is true. good point sir!

Posted - 11/18/2009 :  21:49:51          

I guess im just partial to old time and bluegrass playing.

Posted - 11/19/2009 :  03:56:23    

Fingerstyle tenor banjo is definitely the underdeveloped area.

Mirek

P.S. This post is kind of test whether the website address in my photo is readable.

Edited by - Mirek Patek on 11/19/2009 03:58:14

Posted - 11/22/2009 :  08:41:55        

All music needs a banjo!!! Pop, rock, classical, jazz, folk, idie, swing, BG, country, grunge, rockabilly and every other genre could use a banjo in the band. That's my take on the subject and I'm stickin' to it! There's no wrong or right. It all boils down to having fun playing music. If you are having fun it is just that.....havin' fun!! I don't care for some musical genres but that's what music is all about....one mans junk is another mans treasure. It's all good but it's even better with a good portion of banjo served on the side. No MSG, please.

Posted - 11/28/2009 :  06:37:12  

when EARL SCRUGGS came along his kind of playing was new and differnt. so keep trying new stuff and see what happens.

Posted - 11/28/2009 :  13:51:45        

I never really thought of Scott Avetts playing as that different, he just strums more then most banjo players. I haven't listened to much of Whitmore or Trampled by Turtles, which might have to change. Still, I don't think of it as groundbreaking. Blues has been played on the banjo before, and they've been played with a pick before. I just don't think its "out there" enough to be groundbreaking.

Posted - 11/29/2009 :  19:36:33      

I like listening to what other banjo players are doing both in and outside of the bluegrass and old time genres. It seems to me that almost every other country song being played today has a banjo in it, and they aren't always playing it in a bluegrass style. You can hear banjos now in every genre out there. Alot of alternative groups like Feist, Brown Bird, the Avett Bros. as mentioned above, and so many more, use them. Sometimes it's just used as a sort of melodic background filler, sometimes as a rhythmic accompaniment and sometimes as a main instrument. Seems you can pretty much do what you want with it, pick it, pluck it, strum it, in whatever way will add something to the song being played. I haven't heard of Whitmore or Trampled by Turtles, but I'll go check them out now.

Posted - 12/01/2009 :  00:44:39  

I wanted to learn to play without fingerpicks so I took off the fifth string on my old Harmony and have been playing it like that for a couple of months now. It has caused to me play with an entirely different style and you get a complete different sound out of it. I've now gotten so good at it I think I actually prefer to play without the picks. Now the trick is teaching myself to play with no picks and the fifth string.

Posted - 12/01/2009 :  01:06:07          

"One man gathers what another man spills." - Good Ol' Grateful Dead.

It's all good, but not everybody has to like it. There's no accounting for taste. Likewise, there's no accounting for other people's bad taste. Nobody has all the tunes, but everybody has a piece of the tradition.

};^D>

Tom

Posted - 12/01/2009 :  13:55:01  

Saw an interesting band last Saturday. Railroad Earth. All acoustic instruments, all use amps, plus a drummer. Banjo player also plays mandolin, sax, dobro, flatpicked guitar, and some kind of flute thing. Very talented guys. Great fiddle player. Definitely not your average bluegrass band.

Here's a link to the show: http://www.archive.org/details/rre2009-11-28.m210

Check out songs 5 thru 7 in the first set. No banjo til about 3:45 in song 5 because he was playing that flute type thing.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but we had a great time at the show...

Posted - 12/02/2009 :  13:38:21    

railroad earth is awesome. ive also been listening to some modest mouse with banjo.

Posted - 12/05/2009 :  05:35:32        

5440 or fight.

Many people in bands end up playing guitar on the banjo, flatpicks and such.

I don't demean this, I call it cargo banjo, it fits the airplane it is riding in.

Posted - 12/05/2009 :  07:50:31      

When I first started with the band I would play banjo on banjo songs, and then play guitar on guitar songs. Oh my what a hassle. I got cool comments on the banjo, but never any on guitar. Everybody plays guitar like wearing socks. I ditched the guitar for full time banjo, making it a point to not to play it like guitar, but make it fit all the songs we play in a banjo sort of way. It's quite a challange, but it's sure fun. The payback is that we get comments that our band it different than the many guitar bands, and we have a unique sound. As only a trio (RIP Tim, we miss you) since our bass player died, I get to carry a lot more rhythm, hooks, and play very precussively at times and fill more empty spaces. I couldn't think of any more suitable instrument for the job.

Posted - 12/09/2009 :  12:32:53    

I love bluegrass, tradition and E. Scruggs but I get so bummed to hear myself along with the 3 other banjoist at a jam (or on a CD) string together 9 memorized Scruggy licks (love them too) and call it a banjo break. It's a copycat session-it's time to rethink it all, make it more musical-and I'm as guilty as anyone.

Posted - 12/11/2009 :  05:43:26  

Just thought a shout out to Pete Seeger was relevant to this discussion. Pete was playing all styles of music on the banjo decades ago. Pretty cool then, still cool today.

Posted - 12/22/2009 :  20:27:38      

Well, here is my take after watching countless hours of video footage on the Indigo Girls-particularly Emily Saliers who is pretty darn good with a banjo in a variety of picking styles. She 3 fingers (bluegrass style) when needed, she also strums it "guitar style" when needed and uses a different sort of picking-sort of a half strum and half up picking style when needed. Yes she is normally thought of as a virtuoso guitarist, who has done fill in guitar work on many other peoples albums as well as toured the world for 25 plus years as 1/2 "IG" (Amy Ray also plays some banjo and mandolin and is the other half of IG) I am still trying to figure all of Emily's style on the banjo. perhaps is comes from classical guitar as well as slide guitar, perhaps it is just knowing the instrument and what sounds are needed from it to add spice to a given tune. What ever it is, I as a fan am thrilled.