pastorharry - Posted - 02/15/2012:  19:13:40

Man, have you ever heard a better sounding bottlecap? These old boys don't only know how to play 'em,(2 finger style mostly), but they've got cheap banjo setup 101 mastered!

youtube.com/watch?v=lY0UZXo9LDA

Edited by - pastorharry on 02/15/2012 19:55:34

gailg64 - Posted - 02/15/2012:  20:18:09

Yes,...these guys (the Troxells & Virgil Anderson) were GREAT banjo players. Though they probably would have sounded terrific with any banjo they had, I've always thought their 2 finger stuff sounded especially lovely & poignant on these cheap resonator banjos with plastic heads.

quote:

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Originally posted by pastorharry

Man, have you ever heard a better sounding bottlecap? These old boys don't only know how to play 'em,(2 finger style mostly), but they've got cheap banjo setup 101 mastered!

youtube.com/watch?v=lY0UZXo9LDA

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Vapor - Posted - 02/15/2012:  20:18:51

That is the best way to enjoy music.

gailg64 - Posted - 02/15/2012:  20:20:33

Oh, and Clyde Davenport--can't believe I left him out. He sure is/was one of the best banjo players ever (& likes to say he has 6 styles!) but I'm not sure that's a cheap banjo he's playing in the film. G

quote:

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Originally posted by gailg64

Yes,...these guys (the Troxells & Virgil Anderson) were GREAT banjo players. Though they probably would have sounded terrific with any banjo they had, I've always thought their 2 finger stuff sounded especially lovely & poignant on these cheap resonator banjos with plastic heads.

 

quote:

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Originally posted by pastorharry

Man, have you ever heard a better sounding bottlecap? These old boys don't only know how to play 'em,(2 finger style mostly), but they've got cheap banjo setup 101 mastered!

youtube.com/watch?v=lY0UZXo9LDA

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XXXris - Posted - 02/15/2012:  20:25:28

Wish you hadn't posted that; now I want to see those videos.

Clyde Troxell sounds especially great.

All of them look like fun characters too...

whyteman - Posted - 02/16/2012:  06:42:10

I think there was a Clyde Troxell Lp or cassette on the defunct Merrimack label. Wish it would go back into circulation, but I've heard there are some problems that may prohibit the outside world from enjoying the music of the Merrimack label. A pity.

Don

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 02/16/2012:  09:24:00

Most of the "old-timers" I knew played cheap banjos- Kays, Harmonys, Silvertones, and the like.
Interestingly, if and when they had the money to spend, they'd usually go out and buy a BG-type banjo with all of the bells and whistles.

Most of us that started out in the '60's and before got going on those cheap instruments. My first banjo was a $40 pawn-shop Harmony. That was before we had all of these great makers around.

There were old vintage instruments, but I wouldn't have known where to have found one or to have gotten it put in playing condition. The internet has made all of that much more feasible.

erikforgod - Posted - 02/16/2012:  09:57:49

The beginning of the video made me think of my popaw in Kentucky....he chewed "Red Man" Pinkerton Chewing Tobacco" local grown Burley Baccer from western Kentucky. He would carry an old "Strohs" beer can or Pepsi bottle to spit in...



Anyways - It goes back to the player not the instrument, any great old-timer could make any cheap banjer sound good....gives me high hopes for me and my Goodtime. Then again look at Hunter Robertson he plays old harmony banjers. And of course Roscoe Holcomb...didnt he play Kay or harmony banjers as well? But with resonator right?

You know its says "Music Of Central Kentucky"...but without sounding annoying here or getting technical...Monticello Kentucky is not central Kentucky at all, its actually south/south-eastern Kentucky down on the Tennessee line. My family hailed from Lebanon Kentucky which is "deep in the heart of Kentucky.... central Kentucky....and I was bummed cause I always wondered if their was a heavy banjo tradition in the part of KY my family originally hailed from...id love to know if there is any historical account. central Ky in the Lebanon area had a high number of slave populations...like the Lexington area...so I imagine there was alot of banjo "going on" in that area..

sorry for the thread drift...

Edited by - erikforgod on 02/16/2012 10:03:31

RG - Posted - 02/16/2012:  10:49:13

Boy, I'm right there with you PH & Gail, have been on a Virgil Anderson, Clyde Troxell binge as far as playing this past year (and some of their tunings are ridiculous), have been playing almost nothing but Kentucky 2 finger on my old Taka Masterclone & RK-R25R Madison.  Gail, I also agree with you 100% about Clyde Davenport, his "Polecat's Den" has long been one of my all-time favorite banjo tunes, he's as good a banjo player as he is a fiddler (love playing his tunes on fiddle)...if this kind of playing rings your bell, I highly recommend the FRS 3 DVD set of Virgil, Clyde & the Troxell Brothers, best money I've ever spent...

Pastorharry...it just goes to show you that it's what I've always said in regards to playing (and I stole this from my Grandpa)...it's the Indian and not the arrow!

BobTheGambler - Posted - 02/16/2012:  11:29:05

quote:

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Originally posted by erikforgod

 

You know its says "Music Of Central Kentucky"...but without sounding annoying here or getting technical...Monticello Kentucky is not central Kentucky at all, its actually south/south-eastern Kentucky down on the Tennessee line.

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Where does it say that? I'm not seeing the 'central' part you're quoting anywhere.

It seems like a lot of attempts to document these guys have pointed out their proximity to the state borders. For example Virgil Anderson's great LP on County Records was called "On the Tennessee Line."

Edit: I see now that you were referring to the titling in the video trailer on youtube. That must have been added as an afterthought or by someone else, because the FRC doesn't refer to the DVDs that way on their own site or on the packaging.

Edited by - BobTheGambler on 02/16/2012 11:33:58

Ron Ortegel - Posted - 02/16/2012:  11:34:05

Yes, " on the Tennessee line" was the name of it.

And the FRC did a great dvd of Clyde Davenport and didn't it have some Vigil Anderson on it?

It's a great video. I don't know if it's still available.

Great stuff.

Ron Ortegel - Posted - 02/16/2012:  11:35:03

Yes, " on the Tennessee line" was the name of it.

And the FRC did a great dvd of Clyde Davenport and didn't it have some Vigil Anderson on it?

It's a great video. I don't know if it's still available.

Great stuff.

erikforgod - Posted - 02/16/2012:  15:45:10

Yeah its amazing how these guys play on these ole banjos. They seem to have more of a "strum" style to alot of what they are plaing..didnt see or hear mich frailing...these Kentucky musicians were very different from the playing of say George R Gibson, Roscoe Holcombe, Lee Sexton, Banjo "Bill Cornett" all Knott, Perry, Harlan, county banjo players...
In "true" central Kentucky where my family settled after leaving southern Maryland in the early 1800s is a very agricultural area and was very famous in the 1800s for Tobacco and "Hemp" and also Corn and Sorghum farming...Mostly broad heavily farmed bottoms and valleys seperated by small ranges of high forested hills called "knobs" and from what I remember my uncle telling me had some of the highest african-american population in the whole state. Having said that you would think the central part of the state would have a richer banjo history than the eastern appalachian region of the state.

gailg64 - Posted - 02/16/2012:  16:56:27

Not to get into thread drift, but you can hear Clyde in his banjo glory on his Davis Unlimited/ now SpringFed recordings with fiddler H. L. Gregory. Clyde is wonderful on several styles of banjo (I don't think I count SIX styles) but he does play- Charlie Poole 3 finger on 2/4 time tunes, 2-finger, his own brand of  driving clawhammer & an early bluegrass style. Mr. Gregory also had an interesting 2-finger banjo style I like very much & the recording includes several solo tunes of his own composition. Highly recommended for anyone really interested in the wonderful variety of old-time banjo. Go to the Springfed website & look for Gregory & Davenport. 

​G

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Originally posted by RG

Boy, I'm right there with you PH & Gail, have been on a Virgil Anderson, Clyde Troxell binge as far as playing this past year (and some of their tunings are ridiculous), have been playing almost nothing but Kentucky 2 finger on my old Taka Masterclone & RK-R25R Madison.  Gail, I also agree with you 100% about Clyde Davenport, his "Polecat's Den" has long been one of my all-time favorite banjo tunes, he's as good a banjo player as he is a fiddler (love playing his tunes on fiddle)...if this kind of playing rings your bell, I highly recommend the FRS 3 DVD set of Virgil, Clyde & the Troxell Brothers, best money I've ever spent...

Pastorharry...it just goes to show you that it's what I've always said in regards to playing (and I stole this from my Grandpa)...it's the Indian and not the arrow!

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RG - Posted - 02/16/2012:  17:30:20

Gail I have those H.L. Gregory recordings and they are great!

niko penttinen - Posted - 02/17/2012:  06:41:48

cumberland plateu is older comp that features troxell and davenport. really nifty stuff.

also playing on it was a guy I had never come across,Dee Hicks. anybody heard of him? plays banjo and sings without accompaniment. lincoln was a union man is such a good song. he had a similar playing style as the clydes.