DEmery - Posted - 05/18/2013:  05:36:21

Dan that is some amazing investigative work. You would have made a great insurance adjustor. David E.

jbalch - Posted - 05/18/2013:  05:40:52

Dan : where is the hat and pipe? I can't get a real good perspective without them.

Edited by - jbalch on 05/18/2013 05:42:24

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/18/2013:  05:42:03

Paul,

I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier. With my pontificating I slipped up! Yes you are correct about the threaded rods that adjust the clamping feet. I'll try to remember and shoot you a photo.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/18/2013:  06:08:51

David,

Thanks, It just seamed odd to me because the banjo just felt right... but didn't look so.

John.

Maybe next time! Perhaps a brush through the hair would have been good too!

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 05/18/2013 06:10:05

CosmicMaskedAvenger - Posted - 05/18/2013:  09:09:54

I must disagree with Dan.

Although both pictures are grey scale, the man in the first picture has a pipe and a hat.  These are missing on the man in the second picture.   Also, the man in the second picture is wearing glasses, which makes him look like he might be a scientist or something, while the man in the first picture does not.

Finally, the wording in the background of the second picture looks funky.    I think it might be some kind of secret code like a spy would use, whereas if you did something like write it backwards and flipped the letters, it might make sense.

From this data, I believe we can safely deduce the man in the 2nd picture is not the same man as in the first picture - and extrapolate that the man in the 2nd picture is a spy scientist examining our banjos and sending secretly encoded messages back to his nefarious comrades wherever they may be hiding.   I even suspect he may be hiding a hole in the banjo head with his hand - a hole clearly the result of his dastardly evil probing.

Steven M - Posted - 05/18/2013:  09:50:30

Well done Dan, I suppose that the upside down nature of the neck could be explained by the player moving the neck to the other side of his body and then reversing the photo.

That's been bugging me all day!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/18/2013:  15:46:50

IMAGE STANDS CORRECTED

jbalch - Posted - 05/19/2013:  05:02:42

That is much, much better....Dan you should always wear a hat like that. It s a good look for you. But smoking so 20th century .... and  inconsiderate of the rest of  the band.....so maybe you should try those new electronic cigarettes instead of the pipe. It is water vapor you know .

Nice ink too. Did you do that yourself?

Edited by - jbalch on 05/19/2013 05:05:30

DEmery - Posted - 05/19/2013:  05:36:30

Dan the first photo was in fact confusing. The latest image drives the points of this banjo home. Nice tattoos. David E.

Kaelri - Posted - 05/19/2013:  06:07:28

Will this be on the cover of your next album?  If so, I'll look for it at the record store!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/19/2013:  06:40:34

As Elvis would have said, "Thank you...ah, Thank you very much."

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/19/2013:  07:17:47

5-19-2013

MOVIN' THE BOX

Saturday... ah yes Saturday... Our neighbors from across the street (that live in the ca. 1854 house) Have sold their home and are moving up north to Madison, Wisconsin.  They have family up there that they want to be near to. And so  they have sold this beautiful old mansion. Interestingly it has been sold to a fella that is a writer of paranormal novels. This should be interesting... I don' thank he real-izes dat hez movin' neir a pari neormalt banjer packer!

By now I'm sure that you are wonderin' where ole Dan is headin' with this. Well, they sold my wife and I a beautiful, heavily encrusted (with pearl), 1920-30 Japanese lacquer ware chifferobe. It is large 8' 6" long, about 7' tall and 26" deep. It is made in 5 keyed sections and was a job and a half to move. Fortunately I had great help because this felt almost like I was moving something big out from King Tut's tomb.

I forgot about the camera until we had gotten down to this last section. Here the crew is really showin' out! Starting from the left they are my grandson Chandan, me and my son Sam. This was one of the two small sections.

Off we go...

Here we are wonderin' just how we got into this and how we are going to get out of it!

The base and two sections await the third section and the cap.

In! this should give you an idea of the size of this thing... I'm 6 feet tall.

This work is so good. It will serve as a challenge to me to always improve as a pearl artist. What a fascinating piece.

The pearl is glued to the wood body and then black lacquer is flowed around it. Although it is not an inlayed piece, this cabinets pearl is very three dimensional and sculptural. It is cut carved and engraved. Different species are inlayed in to each other. The work is beautifully accurate and tight. A CNC would have a hard time besting this work. This bird is maybe 2 inches across.

Also this is not a veneer pearl piece. Most of this pear appears to be anywhere fro .030 to .100 in thickness.

More very soon.

DEmery - Posted - 05/19/2013:  07:50:22

I am seeing a bunch of pearl headed toward the banjo community soon. What a piece of furniture Dan. It could be Tuts tomb. Did you give it a good look inside to see if there is a little man wrapped in old cloth? David E.

Dave1climber - Posted - 05/19/2013:  08:24:18

A work of art moves into your life.  A wonder!

Will1717 - Posted - 05/19/2013:  09:47:12

Dan:

Did you measure up your new place? Is it going to go through the doors etc.??

I remember years ago when a friend called me and asked if I could help in moving a billiards table over to his place. It was given to him. Totally free! When we arrived with several others we tried to lift it, and immediately assumed that it was bolted to the floor. After searching for the floor anchors and not finding any we  realized that it was just plain heavy, and wasn't bolted down at all. Well we started at 9:00 am in the morning and by 3:30 pm we'd gone through a 24 pack of beer and now had that table down to approx. 20 pieces. The top consisted of 3 pieces of slate that took 4 guys to lift each section. By the time we got it to its new home we realized that the floor was too light to safely support such a heavy structure, and abandoned the move, one helper at a time. To the best of my knowledge it never got reassembled! So much for a free billiards table. Later in life I purchased a home on the west coast of Canada, and the original owner tried to sell me their billiards table, which was installed on the lower level of the house. I turned down the offer and wasn't really surprised to find a free billiards table when we moved in. Hopefully when we sell the new owner wants a billiards table, and won't insist that we remove it from the property! I don't know why, but your new acquisition of this beautiful piece of furniture brought back those memories. Mind you, this piece is definitely 1000 times nicer than the billiards table! If by chance it doesn't fit or go through the door of your place, I'll drop by and pick it up. I've got the perfect spot for it.

Bill Rickard 

tendogman - Posted - 05/19/2013:  13:31:48

Dan, I like the picture of you with the old banjo. For some reason, I think I've seem that banjo before..... Love the POP tattoo.

tendogman - Posted - 05/19/2013:  14:22:06

Steve, Good eyes.... Maybe I can set the record straight and this is something that I never even noticed before. The photo that I provided is restored from the original photo that I have. The original photo is a negative photo. My Grandfather was left handed.

tendogman - Posted - 05/19/2013:  15:54:58

Other than I knew that he was left handed and never noticed the photo was backwards. There is one last piece of evidence that shows this was true. If you look closely at the original photo my Grandfather's shirt pocket is on the right hand side. It really should be on the left side. Thanks to Banjo Hangout, after almost a century I will correct this photo. Thanks................

Edited by - tendogman on 05/19/2013 15:56:03

jbalch - Posted - 05/19/2013:  16:42:02

I stand corrected - mystery solved: 

I guess your left-handed grandfather played a right-handed banjo with the 5th string on the bottom.  Jimi Hendrix style.

Edited by - jbalch on 05/19/2013 16:43:02

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/19/2013:  20:16:18

Bill,

What a tale! I'm sure that if Sam and I had worked on some beer instead of working on the cabinet I bet it would be at my neighbors house still!

Fortunately before we bought the thing I went and measured where it would go and all of the ways it might get there. Even though it did take a couple of hours (and a fair amount of brawn) it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. We were able to break it down to 5 pieces, the top, base and the three sections. This wasn't near as difficult as creating the best banjo tuners ever built! Or even creating one of the coolest banjo ukes I've ever seen!

Everybody,

I expect to have my new CD, LOOKING BACK in the shop tomorrow!

I know that I've been avoiding this next bit...

Yep, I'm gonna hafta do it...

As much as I don't wish too...

Bob,

I must admit that it never struck me that your grandad was left handed.... My wife is left handed! Of all people I should have noticed it.

Mi repitation's shot!

Will the banjer worlt evir fergiv mi?

Oh when will I do?

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 05/19/2013 20:22:12

tendogman - Posted - 05/19/2013:  20:53:55

Dan, of all people "and being the person with the photo", I should have noticed. What other things have I missed in life.????? Afraid to ask or even know , if you ask me....................

Ho C Ying - Posted - 05/19/2013:  23:54:09

Very beautiful chiffarobe!

Kaelri - Posted - 05/20/2013:  04:55:26

tendogman said, "Dan, of all people "and being the person with the photo", I should have noticed. What other things have I missed in life.????? Afraid to ask or even know , if you ask me.........."

Wow, this gets me to pondering of all of the unusual or everyday things all around us that we take for granted. Maybe we are missing the uniqueness of something special? Just thinking....... Now I will keep my eyes "more open" today.  

Ellen

(All of here at my house think the chifforobe is beautiful. Glad you included the story)

jswkingsfield - Posted - 05/20/2013:  08:57:44

Good gosh, Dan, that is quite a cabinet!  Downright inspirational, looking forward to seeing you next set of special inlays. 

And, what great, big strong helpers you have beget.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/20/2013:  20:37:58

Bob & Ellen,

How right y'all are!

C Ying,

Thank you, that means a lot coming from you.

Janice,

Thanks, they are big fellers aren't they!

Kaelri - Posted - 05/20/2013:  20:54:20

How will those of us here be able to purchase your new CD?

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/20/2013:  20:57:27

5-20-2013

THEY'RE HERE!

There was an expectant air about the morning. Expectant aire or air, do ya ever think about the poetry in our common language. Sometimes I don't listen to the words, I just enjoy the sound, It's so much like singing. It seams even more so when it is a language that I don't understand... 

This morning I worked on this old Gibson guitar. The bridge needed re-gluing. It was a mess. someone had stuck some polyurethane glue under the bridge. Not a good hold and what a mess to clean up.

I promised a photo of this clamp, here tiz...

The bridge got glued on and I went to other things... like opening this box from the CD pressing plant...

There it is , the new CD (I almost wrote record, you can tell my era.

Boy am I a happy camper, they made it just in time for Christmas and my next trip!

By the way if you would like a copy of this CD drop me a email with your name, address and a promise to send $11 and I'll send you one.

Tonight we had band practice. The fellas are going out for part of this trip and we needed to work up a couple of new tunes.

More soon! Again....

Dave1climber - Posted - 05/21/2013:  04:46:10

Dan

Email sent.

What happened in the photo of the boys in the band, there are some vertical mismatch lines?

tendogman - Posted - 05/21/2013:  05:17:29

Dan,

Good morning.....

A CD of your music sounds interesting. Send away my friend.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/22/2013:  04:22:33

Dave,

I had fun with that one. It is about three photos stuck together. Your CD is on the way along with Ellen's, Bob's, Marks and....

Davidprat - Posted - 05/22/2013:  04:36:16

Dan will you be able to ship one of your CD to Spain?!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/22/2013:  04:56:34

Dave,

I'd be proud to, just email me with your info.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/22/2013:  05:26:22

5-21-2013

TEACHING & ...

Whither you like weather or not we had it today!  Loads of clouds that called for tornado watching. Fortunately for us none were to be seen. What was seen today were lots of folks. Among the the many was Debbie Reagan and her granddaughter. Here they are with her new Knowles Mini-Banjo!

I promised Debbie that she'd have the first CD that came out of the box. Here it is, signed and everything.

Several BanjoHangout members requested CD's. Here I'm getting them ready to send off with the postman...

Soon it was on to teaching. Here Dallas gets his guitar workout...

BanjoHangout member Bob Tyler wanted to learn that left handed mirrored image kind of playing. 1st. step was learn left handed...

Not all my students are ugly ole guys... Here Regina gets her banjo lesson. I'm using my Woojo to teach with.

Well it's back to the river on Wednesday so tonight or tomorrow I'll see y'all from the Mighty Mississippi!

tendogman - Posted - 05/22/2013:  05:57:47

With all the rain lately, it'll probably be the Mighty Muddy Mississippi. I hope the waters not too high......

tendogman - Posted - 05/22/2013:  06:08:52

P.S.



A mini banjo, now that's cool......... What an idea for my Grandson.

Edited by - tendogman on 05/22/2013 06:09:24

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/22/2013:  18:40:38

Bob,

The Ole' Mississippi is about 2 or three feet up here in Vicksburg. It will be interesting to see how the river looks at this stage as we head up to Memphis.

tendogman - Posted - 05/22/2013:  20:05:23

Dan,
Let's hope it doesn't get too high. Up here on the Ohio River. It looks pretty good. Not much rain in the forecast. That's good since the Ohio flows into the Mississippi.......

tendogman - Posted - 05/23/2013:  12:19:09

Dan,

I was down on the Ohio river earlier today. It was up some but not too much and flowing pretty fast and rough. Of course it was really muddy.

Well, I'm off to my banjo lessons.. :) Every Thursday at 4...

Nuts - Posted - 05/23/2013:  14:20:15

quote:

---

Originally posted by DanKnowles



 

I promised a photo of this clamp, here tiz...

Thanks for posting the image Dan and congrats for getting your CD done, it's a lot of effort to get one pulled together!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/23/2013:  16:34:07

Nuts,

Thanks, it is a lot of work getting one of those little plastic things together, but I find it worth the trouble.

Everyone...

I have found a small amount of internet here on the Queen, it is funny hw it goes in and out. So I'm posting this quick. Last night I uploaded traveling photos but I haven't been able to get a post together for them. Perhaps I'll be able to tonight or tomorrow when I'm in Memphis...

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/23/2013:  22:56:53

5-22-2013

TRAVILIN'

Well now, I guess I can post from Wed. It was a travilin' day down to Vicksbrg, MS. I traveled by myself this time. Eddie was off with Bawn in the Mash burning up the West Virginia roads. Here is my pack of instruments that are going with me this trip. 4 banjoes (1 minstrel, 1 classical & 2 steel strings) and two guitars.

I pulled of in Glaconda,MS and saw this house.

This obilisk is in Jackson, MS. I have no idea what it is there for... but there it is.

I made it just in time for dinner. Ellen borrowed my glasses..

Here is this trips home away from home...

Night time in Vicksburg...

More soon!

Dave1climber - Posted - 05/24/2013:  05:25:12

Dan

It looks like your "digs" are some what better than last trip.  Another working vacation, what a life!  

Edited by - Dave1climber on 05/24/2013 05:25:49

casinojack - Posted - 05/24/2013:  05:41:38

Dan

The obelisk was built to cover up a communications tower. It's near the Nissan plant in Canton, the city of Madison made them do it.

You seem to like old houses. If you ever have time get off at the Canton exit and go to the square. (not far from the Interstate)

Canton is full of great restored old southern buildings. They filmed the movie A Time To Kill in Canton with the Courthouse as the backdrop.

If you follow some of the side streets off the square you will see some beautiful old southern homes that have been restored.

Jack

Safe travels !

tendogman - Posted - 05/24/2013:  09:58:18

Dan



Your CD arrived this morning. I have to say it's awesome... Nice - real nice.!!

Edited by - tendogman on 05/24/2013 09:59:12

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/27/2013:  18:10:44

Dave,

Tiz a good life, I won't complain!

Jack,

Thanks for the information about the tower and Canton. I've stopped in Canton last fall during one of my Vicksburg trips. I figured that it was the mystical Clanton of John Grisham fame. I think it must be because his descriptions were so much like the town. I think I may have even posted some photos in a early page of this forum.

Bob,

Thank you. I'm glad you are enjoying the CD. I've sent these things as far and wide as Japan and Spain.

I arrived back from Vicksburg this morning, I'll start playing catchup tomorrow!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/28/2013:  08:16:29

5-29-2013

HOME AT LAST!

My mother made it in from California early this morning, 3:30 AM. She came in via THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. Remember that train,... seams that there might be a song in that one. So now it's almost 10 AM and I'm just getting going. A cup of Java sitting next to me on the table.

Although I finally got home yesterday from my wanderings, my computer is equipped with a BOATLOAD of photos from this last Vicksburg- Memphis- Vicksburg trip. So even though I'll be making shots of my days here at home (and in the shop) I will intersperse them (after this post is complete that is) with some from the trip.

This was a very good trip! I met and performed for a whole bunch of good folks. And interesting folks they were: a US State Department Diplomat, The retired head engineer from the Golden Gate Bridge & his wife (who were married years ago on the top of the bridges North Tower), A retired NASA engineer, Engineers from Texas Instruments & Hughes Aircraft, a musician who had performed on the Avalon steamboat years ago, a retired country player from Southern California who remembered Maddox Brothers & Rose, a performing arts theater manager and many, many more.

I performed, using the Knowles Pharaoh banjo, Thursday afternoon for the Queens "Taste of the Mississippi" get together. Where they served up all kinds of local treats. If you will notice my right hand... is this really a clawhammer player?

And  folks flew kites! This is one thing that the often do on the Queen trips & I get the biggest kick out of it! This time there were around 20 kites up. Way too many to get in one photo.

The Mississippi was up too! When I got onboard she was cresting (the water reaching its highest point, properly called height at the Vicksburg gage) and although high the river was falling all the way to Memphis. Here the water is backed way up into the trees on the shore.

From the Thursday night show, I flog the "Old Cremona"! Grinning it musta been a Tom Briggs or Peter Boettcher tune.

The REAL STAR of these river cruses... the river and the people who make their livings on it. This was an Ingram Barge Co. tow (I think)

Both Thursday and Friday I taught banjo using the Mini Banjos. Here it's Friday and we are on the Texas deck for the second lesson. These were PRIZE students! They got down a regular frailing lick, a drop-thumb lick, several chords and "Boil the Cabbage Down"!

In downtown Memphis this photo was made as I was riding a hundred year old trolley car.

Memphis Friday night sunset.

Saturday morning, just past sunrise. This river has dropped! Last week only the top layer of the walkway was exposed. That is a good 20 feet!

Downtown sunrise.

More soon...

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 05/28/2013 08:21:28

DEmery - Posted - 05/28/2013:  08:30:00

Dan it looks like a busy but productive time on the river. Hey...using pickes on Pharoh probably sounds good. Just didn't know you did that anymore. David E.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 05/28/2013:  08:35:40

David,

I do it occasionally, mostly when someone requests Dueling Banjo, Ballad of Jed Clampet or FMB.

PS. I just noticed we've passed 43,000 reads!

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 05/28/2013 08:37:40

tendogman - Posted - 05/28/2013:  09:14:14

Dan,

Glad you made it back home ok and ahead of the holiday traffic, I hope. What a beautiful sunset.......